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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
1996. - 2003.
D - Large family car
sedan, 4 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
1997. - 2003.
D - Large family car
sedan, 4 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4378 mm
1741 mm
1420 mm
430 liters
430 liters
63 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4430 mm
1745 mm
1415 mm
378 liters
378 liters
63 liters
1996 FIAT Marea
1997 Alfa Romeo 156

Engine

Petrol
5 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1998 cc
155 hp
186 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Alfa Romeo
2.0 Twin Spark
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1970 cc
155 hp
187 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
1230 kg
8.8 s
210 km/h
14.2 l/100km
7.3 l/100km
9.8 l/100km
234 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1260 kg
8.8 s
214 km/h
12.3 l/100km
6.6 l/100km
8.7 l/100km
g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 5 gears
1260 kg
8.8 s
214 km/h
12.3 l/100km
6.6 l/100km
8.7 l/100km
g/km

Expenses

600 EUR
Price from
600 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

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 4-door sedan body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a FIAT-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 5-cylinder, 20-valves 155hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 155hp engine designed by Alfa Romeo.

Safety

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. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. 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. On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, 156 offers a marginal difference of 2% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that FIAT is significantly less fault-prone, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of FIAT with an average rating of 4.3, and models under the Alfa Romeo badge with 4.2 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Marea as average reliability-wise, and 156 is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as Marea rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.5 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Both of the cars accelerate exactly the same, so we couldn't put one above the other. Car No. 2 is faster though, reaching top speed of 214 kilometers per hour, 4km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be 156, averaging around 8.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (32 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 13% difference compared to Marea.


Verdict

FIAT appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. 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 slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. When it comes to performance, both vehicles provide similar experience, so I wouldn't point any of them out. 156 , on the other hand, consumps significantly less fuel, and that's a big plus. All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Alfa Romeo. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. 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, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.

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