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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
wagon, 5 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
1997. - 2003.
D - Large family car
wagon, 5 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4484 mm
1741 mm
1500 mm
500 liters
1550 liters
63 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4430 mm
1745 mm
1420 mm
360 liters
1180 liters
63 liters
1996 FIAT Marea Weekend
1997 Alfa Romeo 156 Sport Wagon

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
1290 kg
9.5 s
208 km/h
14.3 l/100km
7.4 l/100km
9.9 l/100km
236 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1300 kg
9.0 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
1300 kg
9.0 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 5-door wagon 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. 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 it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, 156 offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that FIAT is significantly less fault-prone, at least on all of the models level. These are the results of an independent reasearch, 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. The same official information place 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

Alfa Romeo is a bit more agile, reaching 100km/h in 0.5 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 214 kilometers per hour, 6km/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 14% 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. It all continues in the same direction, with Alfa Romeo offering somewhat better performance, just enough to call it quicker. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! 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. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.

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