2009 Alfa Romeo 149 spied
January 15, 2009 by George Skentzos
The new-generation Alfa Romeo 149 has been spied prowling the streets of Italy, and is due to arrive in showrooms overseas in the next few months.
The successor to the current 147 will go head to head with its main rival, the Volkswagen Golf, boasting the usual level of Alfa Romeo flair and style.
These latest spy shots reveal a face similar to the recently revealed MiTo small hatch and 8C sports coupe, bringing the 149 in line with the new style direction of the brand.
At 4.30metres long, it comes very close to the former Alfa 156 in size, but is actually based on the platform of the current Fiat Bravo.
The new 149 will be available in five-door guise only, using a series of turbocharged petrol engines ranging between 89kW and 198kW with a V6-powered GTA flagship model.
Like the Junior, the new 149 will receive a six-speed manual gearbox with an automatic being available as an option for some engines.
Print it: 
It is just a testing mule? Because that looks exactly the same as a Ritmo from its side profile.
Myke, do you mean Ritmo or Bravo?
Yes, it does look just like a Bravo with an Alfa front mask, but isn’t that exactly what it will be? No money for genuine brand differentiation these days, let’s just do the old BMC-style badge engineering.
haha, i completely agree Myke, was just about to say that!!!
from the front doors back (inc. the rear) looks like a Ritmo.
this is still gonna be a stunning car
Captain Mainwaring, the Bravo is called Ritmo in Australia because Mazda has rights to the Bravo name.
a better execution of utilising the Bravo/Ritmo platform for the basic foudnation of the alfa 149 would be to at follow VAG’s method of VW Golf and Audi A3….complete reskin, change interior ect.
Fiat may not have the finances at the moment to do this but in the long run i think it would have made more sense seeming the Alfa will surely cost more to purchase than the Fiat version…and at least differences would dignify the price increase
How’s the reliability of Alfas these days?
i have a 147 and I’m glad to see they’ve replaced the selespeed with a conventional auto. When the selespeed is good it’s great, but when it’s bad it’s horrible. It constantly locks in gears or neutral, randomly clicks out of city and can have a horrible low speed ride.
The 149 looks alot like the Bravo/Ritmo from the rear but i’d still buy the Alfa over the Fiat. There’s something special about driving an Alfa that i havn’t felt in any other car and apart from the occasional transmition issue i havn’t had any build quality problems.
The one thing i don’t understand is why they arn’t sticking with the naturaly aspirated 2.0L Twin Spark, it has plenty of power, is fun, energetic and as a P-Plater I can drive it. Unless the 149 has gained substantial wieght over its predecessor (which may be the case due to its 156 like size) i don’t see a turbo bieng a nessesity
A whole gaggle of Japers have copied the 156 styling including current Lancer and current and previous Accord Euro.Previous Euro so close u could nearly swap panels.
The last iteration of the 156 is classic alfa IMO.
Imagine if Alfa got this reliability monkey off their back even if it isn’t the case anymore.
U wouldn’t buy anything else!
They need to do away with their propensity for FWD vehicles. If they want to differentiate, make a RWD for the same price, otherwise it will be same old same old. Hopefully the performance of the vehicles will be worthwhile. Just for a change.
Agree 10,000% Alfa RWD would be the way to go!
Wonder how long till Mazda or other Japanese cars will copy those breaklights?
Nick, why on earth did you buy the selespeed? They are awful to drive and the manual is one of the easiest and enjoyable manuals I’ve ever driven. You’re missing out mate!
i own a 159 ti and she is an absolute beauty as good as the compettion.
as for fwd the 159 tucks corners brilliantly and handling in the wet is way better than the competition.
build quality? brilliant.
reliability? brilliant.
value for money? way better than the competition.
and the looks department? just look at the bloody thing, sensational.
Don’t get fooled by the look of a very row test mule.
Alfa 149 (project 940) uses a platform that is an evolution (deeply changed) of the one of the Ritmo/Bravo.
But the analogy stops there.
On this mule, the only exterior part coming from 149 is the front bumper. The rest of the body is one of the Ritmo/Bravo, but only for secrecy purpouse.
The whole design, will be different, both in the interior and the exterior, so will be the suspensions and even many of the engines.
We must wait 4-5 months more to see the real design. ;)
Aaaw here we go again RWD diehards attempts to get the FWD manufacturers to go RWD!! It’ll never happen.
The new 149 is a car made to cheat the Alfisti. As a matter of fact Fiat did not yet learn how to handle “multibrand” marketing strategy as the VW group does. As FIAT guys are from Torino their natural aim is to kill the Alfa Romeo brand with horrible models. So they will try to sell a BRAVO/RITMO with some body panles as an Alfa Romeo: god save us ! Maurizio From Italy
Actually Cupid, there have been rumours about Alfa making the switch back to RWD and the first car to do it is the 166 replacement, the 169. It will apparently be built on the Jag XF platform.
I believe that the Alfa Romeo Schigera [concept] was RWD.
Mind you it would have to be to deal with all that power and performance.
For quality, when questioning Italian cars many are stuck in the 70’s, now italian cars use Bosch eletronics and have a german from BMW for quality control.
The 14? brand was always a car that shared parts with Fiat.
It was never around before Fiat acquired them.
The 15? and 16? models SHOULD not share Fiat parts.. Sadly the 166 did..
Q4 systems use Torsen which is similar to Audi etc. Good system.
Sorry Myke, but I find it a little hard to believe the 169 will be based off the new Jag XF. Jag was owned by Ford and is now owned by Tata, never under the Fiat group; and I’d expect the XF and 169 to go more or less head-to-head in the marketplace – so why would Jag sell their platform to a competitor?
You only really see platform-sharing between companies under the one umbrella, e.g. VW Golf and Audi A3, Holden Commodore and Chev Camaro etc. Fiat and GM used to be in bed together, so perhaps at one stage they might have looked to using a Caddy RWD platform for the 169, but then GM and Fiat had a pretty nasty divorce so I don’t think that idea would have survived. Best bet for RWD 169 is a chopped-down version of Maserati’s Quattroporte platform, but seeing how much more expensive Maser is than Fiat that seems a pretty long stretch as well…
If only Mitsu Australia had tried to slip an old C-class chassis under the 380 back when Mercedes was paying Mitsu’s bills. They’d prolly still be building them in Adelaide today if they were RWD… because RWD is awesome, of course. 6.3L AMG V8 in a 380, anyone?
Look up the Alfa Romeo 169 in Google and a few sites suggest it will be built on the Jag XF platform. TATA and Fiat had an agreement a while back to build cars in India and the owner of TATA was a member on the Fiat board. There was a rumour way back, that Alfa would use GM RWD platforms or a cut down Quattroporte, but obviously it didn’t work out.
Ahh… I wasn’t aware of the tata-fiat tie-up. Learn something new every day :-)
Cheers.
Phillip, the original selespeed i test drove was excelent. It was smooth, free flowing and made sence for city driving. However i ended up buying a different 147 and despite several computer upgrades this selespeed just hasnt been the same. I regret choosing the selespeed, but not buying an Alfa. They are amazing cars and i still smile every time I jump behind the wheel.
[”Your comment is awaiting moderation.”....I THINK NOT!!]
NO!
This is NOT a golf fighter, this is infact the cloned Audi [aka AutoUnion] A3 fighter.
golf fighter is FIAT’s job.
Cheers,
F-0
It will always make sense for a low volume manufacturer to offer or share the basic platform with another company (Porsche / VW anyone?) as it reduces the overall cost and increases the profit margin so why not?
With engine, suspension body styling etc two platforms can be completely different on the end product. If it means Alfa can make a rear wheel drive mainstream car again, I’m all for it, I still have very fond memories of my old 2 ltr Alfa GTV, rusty old unreliable shytebox that it was, no car since has put a bigger smile on my dial!
If the 159 replacement takes styling cues from the miTo and 8c, and returns to RWD I’ll buy it.