With the replacement Giulia now delayed until at least the second half of 2013, Alfa Romeo has built up stock of the 159 to see it through until then, but production at the Naples factory has now been halted so that the plant can tool up for the new Fiat Panda which debuts next month. As a result, orders are no longer being taken for the 159, with buyers only able to choose from stock, comprised of a drastically slimmed-down range – only two standard and two optional extra colours and and one engine, the 2.0 MultiJet (with a base starting price of 27,000 euros on the Italian market for the 136 CV sedan).

The 159 and its estate spin-off, the 159 Sportwagon, were cars that promised much but in the end never quite delivered. The 159 succeeded the 156, giving it a very tough act to follow; the 156 had been one of Alfa Romeo’s biggest hits in decades. Developed in the midst of the ill-fated Fiat-GM joint venture, the 159 had a troubled gestation, beginning life on the American carmaker’s Epsilon platform before being shifted, relatively late in development, to the more sophisticated but expensive Premium platform. This was done by Alfa Romeo in an attempt to salvage the cost sunk in Premium, since the projected 166 replacement to be built off the platform was merely wishful thinking, and General Motors – itself concerned about the cost of the platform – had steadily jettisoned its own projected Premium models, including those earmarked for Cadillac, Buick and Saab. However, this late transition to what was fundamentally designed as an E-segment platform left the 159 compromised, and along with its coupe and convertible sisters the Brera and Spider, saddled with excessive weight when it hit the market.

Also on the debit side were the new car’s engines. Replacing Alfa Romeo’s much-admired ‘Arese’ V6 engine, which was coming to the end of its useable life, with a much less sparkling GM-sourced 3.2 V6, failed to impress Alfisti, as did the 159’s four-cylinder petrol engines, also sourced from the American alliance. The lacklustre petrol efforts made the diesels, including the ubiquitous 1.9-litre four-cylinder MultiJet and powerful and sonorous (albeit heavy) 2.4-litre five-pot, the pick of the range. Launching models with the wrong engines has been a continual problem for Alfa Romeo, and the addition of two strong engines that Alfisti would expect to find under the bonnet (including the petrol 1750 TBi two years ago), came too late in the day to make a sales impact.

Building on the success of the 156 (of which more than 600,000 were built), the design brief for the 159, enacted by Giorgetto Giugiaro in association with Alfa Romeo Centro Stile, was for evolution rather than revolution. But although Giugiaro noted the 159 at the time received the highest-ever score in customer clinics in the history of Italdesign, the delays in the car’s development meant the car launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005, just as automotive styling was fundamentally moving towards more organic forms. Importantly, it also grew significantly in size – adding some 225mm over its predecessor – which helped disassociate itself from the huge collective of 156 buyers who were looking to trade in their cars for a replacement model. Just as crucially, however, Alfa’s senior management as ever misread the brand’s positioning in the eyes of customers and made the fundamental error of trying to pitch the 159 squarely at BMW, Mercedes and Audi owners.

Despite this, the 159 was not without plenty of attributes, chief among which were its striking and elegant aesthetics. First impressions from the media when it debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005 were highly positive. The front was dominated by a large, vertical Alfa Romeo ‘family’ grille, flanked on each side by three small lights, a very characteristic design first seen on the Brera concept. (Unfortunately, this design’s poor aerodynamic characteristics have seen Alfa move towards less distinctive front ends in subsequent designs.) Swages running the full length of the sides combined with the large C-pillars and slender A-pillars to give the car a robust appearance, in an effort to finally combat perceptions of Alfas being ‘fragile’. The overt use of all four door handles (as opposed to the concealed rear handles on the 156) likewise reinforced the size of the car. These features were designed in particular with the American market in mind, and the 159 was developed to U.S. homologation standards, although a comeback by the brand to this market, as ever, was postponed. The rear echoed the styling of the rest of the car, with small round inserts in the light clusters and a horizontal theme echoed by the swaging, closely referencing the 156. More powerful versions received exhaust systems with twin tailpipes.

Because the Alfa 159 was a much larger car than its predecessor, it provided a more comfortable interior, as well as a more engaging driving position than the 156. With all the controls and instruments well positioned around the driver, the Alfa 159 offered a considerably more driver-biased interior than most of its rivals, the turbo boost (or oil temperature for petrol engines) gauge being just one example. Much higher quality materials that on the 156 were used, blending the sporty feel of aluminium with leather.

With the 159 project, Alfa Romeo also aimed to reach new levels of passive safety. The robust Premium floorpan was developed with this in mind, and adopted high performance materials, multiple layers of sheet metal and the use of laser welding. Traditional methods such as boxed sections, increased welding in structural areas and longitudinal members all helped make the car exceptionally safe in the case of an incident. They also produced a very torsionally rigid bodyshell – one of the most rigid on the market – which helped benefit ride and handling, at the expense of kerb weight. In terms of active safety, the Alfa 159 was well equipped with up to eight airbags (including driver and passenger knee airbags), innovative restraint systems, and front seats with an ‘anti-whiplash’ device, which moved the head restraint nearer to the occupants’ necks in the event of a rear impact.

At launch, there were three new ‘JTS’ (direct injection) petrol engines, all with continuous dual variable valve timing on both inlet and exhaust valves. Available were the aforementioned GM-sourced 3.2-litre 24-valve V6 delivering 260 bhp, featuring cylinder heads reworked by Alfa Romeo’s engineers for its more performance-focused application, a 2.2 16V generating 185 bhp, and a 1.9 16V (160 bhp). Arriving later was a non-direct-injection 1.8 to lower the price point of the 159. Developing 140bhp, it was shared with a variety of GM models, as well as the Fiat Croma.

In terms of diesel options, there were another three units, a 2.4 JTDm 5-cylinder 20V engine (200 bhp) and two 1.9 JTDm engines – one with 16 valves and delivering 150 bhp at 4000 rpm, the other with 8 valves and 120 bhp. All these used the latest MultiJet development of the JTD common-rail injection system as well as variable geometry turbochargers and intercoolers. All the engines met Euro 4 standards, whilst the diesels featured particulate traps (DPF) with a ‘for life’ system. These six launch engines were mated up to various transmissions, all with six speeds. Both conventional manual and robotised Selespeed units were offered, with conventional automatic boxes, known as Q-Tronic, optional on some of the engines. The latter could be operated as a conventional automatic or in sequential mode. The Alfa 159 employed ‘high’ double wishbones at the front, and a multilink setup at the rear. The 159 was also equipped with a full array of electronic aids, including ABS, ASR, HBS, EBD, MSR and VDC.

On the 260bhp V6 version, the power was transmitted to all four wheels through a permanent 4-wheel drive system with three differentials (including a Torsen C self-locking central differential) developed from that on the 159 Crosswagon Q4. This system split the torque constantly and dynamically between the four wheels, the Torsen-C self-locking central differential sending about 57% of the engine’s output to the rear wheels and 43% to the front.

As is now the norm for such a class of car, numerous devices and systems were fitted (or optional) to make life on board as comfortable as possible, including cruise control, rain, dusk and parking sensors (front and rear), a satellite navigation system, voice controls, a built-in GSM hands-free telephone, automatic climate control with dual or triple-zone temperatures, a radio-CD-MP3 player with 10-disc autochanger, a Bose Hi-Fi Sound System, seats with electrical adjustment, folding rear seats, and a push-button ignition switch on the console.

The estate version, known as the Sportwagon, emerged one year after the saloon. Retaining the frontal styling of the saloon but adding a true load-lugging rear end, it managed to look purposeful and aggressive, even with its practical inclinations. Apart from the rear bodywork, the Sportwagon was identical to the saloon, including the same wheelbase and overall length.

In 2007 the 2.4 MultiJet diesel engine saw its power grow from 200bhp to 210bhp, except when the Q-Tronic automatic transmission was specified, in which case output remained at 200bhp. More changes came in 2008, when a series of minor tweaks were made to the product and range. A new system called ‘Electronic Q2’ was introduced, which provides a similar functionality to a limited-slip differential by using differential braking. A series of changes to the interior included new fabrics, styles, dashboard, instruments and materials. The 3.2 V6 became available with front-wheel-drive (previously only available with AWD), while in a related attempt to lose the kilos, a weight reduction programme was enacted, which saw the 159 lose around 45kg from the kerb weight.

The Geneva Show of 2009 saw a revised range launched, the most significant development being the addition of two new engines. The first was an all-new, high-performance turbocharged 1750 unit with 200bhp and direct injection, twin variable camshafts and unique scavenging technology. The second was a 170bhp 2.0 JTDm turbocharged diesel unit. An ECO version of the latter engine was later added, which used different tyres and gear ratios to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions. The arrival of these two highly capable units soon led to the 159 abandoning its cluster of GM-sourced engines; the Fiat-GM joint venture was long since history by this point. Unfortunately, however they came too late to change perceptions of the model amongst the general public. They were the right engines - but at the wrong time; while the lack of a meaningful mid-life facelift didn't help the model’s cause.