Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the large family car segment and utilize the same 5-door wagon body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific diesel engine choice they offer. Both the engines are FIAT-engineered . The first one has a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 140hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 8-valves 110hp one.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the large family car segment, which is generally a good thing safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, 156 offers a considerable difference of 12% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that FIAT is significantly less fault-prone, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Alfa Romeo with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the FIAT badge with 4.3 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed 156 as average reliability-wise, and Marea is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as 156 rank it on average as 3.8, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.8 out of 5.

Alfa Romeo is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.3 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 203 kilometers per hour, 20km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Marea, averaging around 5.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (50 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 19% difference compared to 156.

FIAT is apparently more reliable, not too much, but just enough. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, 156 offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Alfa Romeo being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the FIAT. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.