Sadly, the Alfa Romeo 156, while being one of the most beautiful compact saloons - natch, cars - ever designed, was not based on the strongest platform. Terrific fun, yes; safe...hmmm...
However, its 2005 successor, the 159, achieved the full five NCAP stars. Alfa claims the 159 is so safe, that it could easily score six stars if they had been available.
Oh...and by some miracle, the 159 is even sexier to look at than the 156.
Sadly, the Alfa Romeo 156, while being one of the most beautiful compact saloons - natch, cars - ever designed, was not based on the strongest platform. Terrific fun, yes; safe...hmmm...
However, its 2005 successor, the 159, achieved the full five NCAP stars. Alfa claims the 159 is so safe, that it could easily score six stars if they had been available.
Oh...and by some miracle, the 159 is even sexier to look at than the 156.
We still don't get Alfas here in the US, at least not yet....
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S.
2006 ML350 white/ash
2008 C300 Sport mars red/black
2004 986S seal gray metallic/black/black
Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sentra, these are all OUTSTANDING cars that make a lot of sense today. Anything that can carry four adults in relative comfort and get 35MPG while doing it represents some amazing engineering and just plain makes sense in this day of $4+ per gallon gasoline. Even my wife's 2007 4-cylinder Camry (28 MPG highway) seems wasteful and inefficient every time we fill the tank.
I consistently get 33 MPG highway in my new (to me) 2005 C230 Kompressor. Yes, its a much nicer car than any Corolla or Civic, but it is also (hopefully not) less reliable and more expensive to maintain.
I choose to drive the Mercedes because it is fuel efficient enough to not feel guilty and has the looks, feel and performance I want. I was originally only looking at new cars, and if so limited would be driving a Corolla today instead of the new C300.
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"China, which we call Red China, just exploded a nuclear bomb, which we called a device"
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