Alfa Romeo's distinctive and sporty estate

published 8 June 2011

"The Alfa Romeo 159 could be launched today and I'd wager you and I would be slavering over it," says Tim Pollard in Car. It's now a six-year-old design, but it still looks "shapely" in the form of the new 159 Sportwagon estate. It's feeling its age: the dashboard looks old, the plastics cheap, and the multimedia screen and sat nav a "little too Halfords for our liking". But at the same time the "dash top has a pleasingly soft squidge to it, the driving position is reassuringly good" and the drive and handling, though far from perfect, grows on you as you get used to it, with "pretty pointy and quick-witted" steering. In short, "it's a gorgeous-looking thing, a compact exec with some real brio about it in a sea of same-again Germans".

It's the "only estate that'll make you double-take and for all the right reasons", says Top Gear. It feels "sporty and intimate in the cabin" and "accurate steering coupled to a lively chassis make the 159 feel faster than it is". But if you want performance, then you'll have to go for the 185bhp 2.2-litre engine, the 260bhp 3.2-litre V6 or the "brilliant" diesels (the 2.4-litre JTDM five-pot diesel with 200bhp if money is no object). It's practical too: "one of the most acceptable practicars' for petrolheads". It is "a very attractive car", agrees What Car, with a large, comfortable cabin for passengers and plenty of equipment for prices that undercut the usual German suspects. It is a "distinctive and unusual alternative to the rest of the pack".

Price: from £23,750.