After many, many years of running a Coupe as my daily driver, I've decided to call it a day and I've decided to reduce the Moonie to the role of weekend fun car.

I calculated that with fuel, insurance, tyres, brakes etc, my daily 90-mile commute in the Coupe was costing at least £25 a DAY and that was before I broke anything

So, I decided it was time for a diesel hack to do the miles, keeping the Coupe for best

I looked at all sorts of stuff, ranging from £1k Golf / Bora (the latter of which my son has - amazingly good car for the money), right the way up to my current favourite, a Merc CLS

However, when it came down to it, I had just three main requirements:-

1) Target of double the MPG of the Coupe
2) Must look good
3) Must be (relatively) comfortable, quiet, refined and basically a nice place to be

Despite the obvious and sensible choices being German, I couldn't bring myself to be THAT unfaithful to the Coupe, so today, I've gone and splashed out on a relatively rare, four-seater FWD Italian Coupe, with Marmite looks

Will I ever learn? - Clicky

2008 Alfa GT Blackline, with the Bose upgrade - by no means perfect condition, but just what I need to prevent me wearing out the 20VT

HUGE thanks to Paul from Motormech who drove me the 200 mile round trip to go and look at it, and then found a few niggles that helped drive the price down

More piccies to follow after it's had a proper clean & polish

You will have to change
One for go, one for show, another to saving dough

I spent nearly 6 months looking at the same car 4 years ago to use as a daily car. I wanted the black spec like you've bought but it was stretching my budget. The week I was going to take the plunge the guy working in a unit next door to me turned up in one! Gutted!
Think the extra detail on the blackline makes a big difference on the eye, good choice

Signature will be changing soon - I live in a modest three bed semi, with the front garden given over to driveway. However, I already have two cars, son has two and Wifey one - I just couldn't find the space for three cars, so the 16v is going

Would that I could... but we've already got four cars and two of those have to live on the road outside...

Good choice Nigel. I keep looking at these myself as a daily driver, with the right colour/spec they are absolutely beautiful.

I just have this niggling feeling that it would break a lot and negate any cost savings I've made on fuel (like all my previous Alfas then!)

What type of commute do you have? Is it mainly motorway?

I love the GT's and love the Blackline's - excellent choice

Nice looking car for a daily runner Nigel.
Hope it proves to be a good one and counters their reliability reputation. I still fancy swapping my Saab Sportwagen for a 159....

Oh
Sorry to the fccuk watching public but I've been doing this for years.
So I'm unfaithful too for driving an S60 D5 daily.
60mpg,heated seats for my arthritic joints and cruise control for those times when you just need a sleep when behind the wheel.

I will leave the keys to my car and my house in the members area due to my infidelity.

Hope that was not my fault Nigel.

You know that it makes a lot of sense with the mileage you do a year.....I'd love one of those as a daily, but not enough doors or boot space.

Do let me now how you get on with it.

Massively underrated car the S60 D5. Had one from new in 2003 through to 2005 a did 76k in it without it missing a beat.
Fantastic seats, leather and heated, plus biggest turning circle this side of a 20VT!
Oh and 45-50mpg....

I love it
Nearly 190,000 miles.
Original battery,exhaust,clutch,flywheel,turbo.
In fact all you need to do is add fuel.

As a mechanic you really don't have the time for your own cars and the pre ford Volvo diesels are brilliant.After 2006 all you get is a ford shell with a peugeot engine slapped with a Volvo badge.
There's nothing on the market with reliability,economy performance and equipment like it.
I like the GT JTD but they were out of my price range.
Also considered the Audi A4 140bhp s line but done way too many oil pumps engines gearboxes and turbos to consider them to be the car they used to be.
Shame as there a stunning looking saloon.

Very mixed - out of the 45 miles each way, I reckon there's:-

10 miles of urban
18 miles of A road
10 miles of DC
7 miles of motorway

I reckon I get about 25-26mpg out of the Coupe, so its using nearly four gallons a day - a tank rarely lasts four days

I may struggle to get double the Coupe's mpg out of the GT, but it won't be far off - I got 49mpg on the way back down the M6 cruising at 70mph - I'll expect 40mpg on the commute, with maybe 45mpg after an economy-based remap

I really have to resist the temptation to increase the performance - apparently a good remap will see them at 190bhp and over 300lb-ft, but right now, I'd be happier with a much more modest increase and a 5+ mpg hike

I've been unfaithful, been about 2 years now ,other cars will come and go but the coupe seems to stay.

I also would like a cls, been close to buying one.

Good luck with the new car Nigel

Cls?
There everywhere .
Everywhere you look

Nice looking car Nigel. As far as I'm aware the gt had the bose speakers across the range though. I was disappointed to discover the stereo is actually a blaupunkt, and the tweeters with the bose branding in the front doors are actually dummy - there's nothing behind the covers.

Now, off to Alfatune with you

And I thought I was mad doing 58 mile a day going to Leek and back! Although the A520 on a winters day is close to suicidal!

I may be doing the same myself soon, just with a much smaller budget. A Stilo appeals as I like the design and its a Fiat!

Oh dear.... I will soon be the only one plugging along with the big miles on a coupe!
But i do give the coupe the odd day off and use the bike.
I bought a plus from Kenny nearly a year ago and have managed to put 30,000 miles on it.

You should have got a caterham Nigel.... they do that to the gallon, although the music system would have to be headphones.

Will Paul be doing the tuning?

Don't worry Roy, I'm still doing 70-75 miles a day in mine.

That's big enough miles for me.

Nice car Nigel.

nice choice nigel kudos to you mate!
another volvo fan not long sold my s60 t5 which had everything a person needs!! replaced with my coupe for nostalgia!!!

Quick update....

I bought the GT on 25 May and filled it up on the way home from Manchester - last week I used it for three full days commuting and this week, its done two, plus a bit of local trundling around. That's 410 miles so far and it still has just over a third of a tank showing on the gauge - average mpg according to the computer is 45, with a best so far of 51mpg on the way to work (seems to like the cool morning air more than the warm evening temperatures)

Its quiet, refined, VERY comfortable - exactly what I need from a commuting hack

The only downside is the power - how on earth do people live with only 150bhp? Its plenty quick enough to keep up with everyday traffic, but on a couple of occasions, I've had the opportunity to plant the throttle and not very much happens - it just gets a bit noisier, the mpg reading drops and the speedo needle moves a bit.

The Coupe is going to feel utterly ballistic when I get it back...

Having said all that, I've found that my journey time is completely unaffected by driving a slower car AND I've saved around £60 already compared with what the Coupe's fuel bill would have been (3.5 - 4 days per tank) Its also refreshing to know that the cost of the consumables I'm wearing out on the GT will be a fraction of the cost of the Coupe's, AND they will last longer

I was worried that the Coupe would feel horrible and that the civilised nature of the GT would be the first step to me being Coupe-less for the first time in a decade. However, I took the Coupe to work last Thursday (for a new windscreen to be fitted) and it was immense fun. Maybe this is just what I need to begin to appreciate the Coupe a bit more....

http://www.alfatunemotorsport.co.uk/

Remap (and new clutch) highly recommended

I can a lot of time in the company cars, mainly BMW's & Mercedes diesels.
Nice cars but do lack that spark the coop has.

Still relieved to get back into the coop, just feels like home.

Yep, enjoy getting back in the coupe.....and it will feel very quick again.

Guys on the Alfa forum have been trying to talk me into the GT as a 166 replacement but I wasn't too keen, until I saw your new one.

That looks rather nice

Remap was always on the cards, but purely for some low down smoothness and predominantly for extra economy. I'm not interested in trying to get it to 200bhp, as I know I'll break the diff

It had a new clutch 2000 miles ago, so I'm safe for a while

Thanks - I have been very impressed with it. I'm starting to explore the handling a bit now (as well as you can with budget tyres) - seems very solid and predictable.

I'm also hugely impressed with the practicality - with the rear seats down, the boot floor is exactly five feet long - no more having to borrow Wifey's Punto for trips to B&Q....

Is the boot a decent size with the back seats up - wondering if I could get away with a 2 door car now that the little one is a bit bigger?

Si - yes, its huge (for a Coupe)