Alfa Romeo is a sublimely fascinating Marque, a legend packed with promise of performance. And for Giorgetto Giugiaro a commitment to this legendary Marque since 1960, when he created his first Alfa, the 2000 and 2600 Sprint.

The master agreement, entered into formally in Bologna by Italdesign Giugiaro and Alfa Romeo in December 2002, crowned this long-lasting relationship giving breath to the 939 model project.

The Alfa Romeo 159 – Distinctive style

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Alfa Romeo 159 -cheer-leader for the new family of success and worthy successor to the Alfa 156 - is set to be the new flagship and genuine world beater within its market segment: a luxury, high-performance sports sedan that brings together stunningly refined Italian styling and the elegant sporting feel for which the Alfa Romeo carmaker is rightly famous.

The Alfa Romeo 159 steps sleekly and elegantly into the limelight, strong in its capability to put together a combination of generous size and compactness so typical to Alfa Romeo sports cars thanks to a mixture of balanced proportions and volumetric ratios.

The Alfa Romeo 159 flaunts strongly characterized distinctive traits, starting from the front, powerful and essential, dominated by an Alfa Romeo family feeling proudly displayed by the evocative “three digits” crowned by an exuberantly-sized badge. From here, ideally, the car develops as a whole intermeshing mildly “aggressive” styling and spearheading elegance of form: an impression also heightened by the light units, precious objects of design.

The trapezoidal front view form emphasizes the sense of enduring strength pushed through by the car, as compounded by the square-shouldered bodyshell, which, flowing around the beltline, broadens out notably at the height of the wide back riser.

The latter is two-fold in styling function: it blends to the rear window curvature, exactly in correspondence to the wheel axis (also a clear aesthetic trait of strength, sturdiness and dynamism) and embraces, to the side, the interior shell thanks to shrewd styling of the classic Alfa Romeo “throw”.

Furthermore, besides rendering the bodyshell even more compact aesthetically and placing in evidence the curving line, the backward-slung back riser confers to the car a forward-pushing stance enhancing the presence of a powerful booster.

Forward-pushing stance and enduring strength crowned by sturdiness and dynamism: attributes so far apart from one another that only a great sense of styling can put together. Bearing witness thereto is the “muscular” fender, which, allied to the generous wheels, represents the widest point of the car giving, unmistakably, the idea an automobile “firmly gripped to the road”.
 

And lastly, although flaunting spacious capacity, the third cabin – splendid in form and equilibrium – mates perfectly with the front cabin exalting a unique personality, which, other than being characterized by prominent horizontality, is yet again emphasized by the chrome exhaust’s dual terminal in the more powerful versions.

Topping all this is a small spoiler that puts together style and functionality, below which dominates, in pole position, the bootlid badge and the tail lights which, tapered and standing apart from the bootcut, include cylindrical forms, derived stylistically from the past.

A functional and spacious bodyshell worthy of a great sporting sedan

Like the exterior, the inside of the Alfa Romeo 159 also represents the zenith of that stunning elegance and sportiveness for which the Carmaker is rightly famous, translated here into tone-on-tone chromatic refinement, luxurious fabrics, “first grain” fine leather and precious materials (as demonstrated by the aluminum design features).

Compared with the Alfa 156, the brand-new Alfa Romeo 159 offers a more graceful interior ambience ensuring greater comfort aboard, a strongpoint also confirmed by its generosity in size: 4660mm long, 1828mm wide and 1417mm high with 2700mm wheelbase.

Without doubt, the starting point was the driving position that enables the driver to mastermind his car: perfectly tuned distance between the pedals, seat, steering wheel and gearbox works towards raising the bar of driving pleasure, motoring comfort and performance.

Wrap-around dashboard and compartment in which are set all driving instruments within easy reach of the driver. In particular, the speedometer, the rev counter and the other indicators, all of which are analogic-face with illumination from behind, are clearly legible and refined. Accentuating the “shelled” shape of the more significant instruments is the dashboard dome confirming the characteristic look of the Alfa Romeo design, technologically innovative, class leading and stepped in tradition.

A keen eye has been steered towards dashboard/compartment functional continuity vis-à-vis console formal continuity: rising upward towards the dashboard, the compartment features a sporting speed change lever gear, rapid and precise in movement, and a comfortable armrest fitted with ample air-conditioned storage space.

Available in three levels of trim, all graced by a “natural look” interior. All of this stems from the sophisticated slush molding technology adopted when creating the dashboard to ensure a refined matt finish and a gentle soft touch. The materials chosen to grace the tapered, wrap-around seats are mirror-matched by skilled artisans.