The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Avant

This combination is what Steve Cropley in last week's Autocar said would be 'the best in the world': the thought came to him after a trip in a Hyundai i20 which he found to be competent but very ordinary.

Any ideas from Backroomers as to any cars that combine Alfa soul with Hyundai quality and logic? If we get some good ideas I could pass them on to Steve C.

Clearly there are supercars that can do it - most Porsches and the Audi R8 to start with, But the debate will be more interesting if it's about more reasonably-priced models.

I think my vote would go to the VW Golf GTI. Any other thoughts?

Edited by Avant on 17/04/2015 at 00:02

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Auristocrat

Didn't Hyundai get near to this with the Coupe Slll (2002-2009) and the Veloster (2012-2015).

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Happy Blue!

Subarus are that combination. They have an independent philosophy of engineering matched with peerless Japanese reliability.

Driving any one of their cars (certainly from the late 1990s and early 2000s), you could feel the thought gone into a comfortbale car yet with excellent handling and lovely performance. The three our family had (and I drove them all for at least 5 and a bit years) are sorely missed.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Paul Robinson

I read Steve's comment and it made me think too - I wonder how he would have felt if he'd done the same journey in a Ford Fiesta EcoBoost. I do think Ford are about the only brand that can do ordinary and all the positives that come with that plus driving pleasure too.

I don't work for Ford and I don't drive a Ford, perhaps I should...

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - oldroverboy.

Perhaps a Mazda MX5? selling a house and then can investigate something a bit more "fun"...

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - craig-pd130

I read Steve's comment and it made me think too - I wonder how he would have felt if he'd done the same journey in a Ford Fiesta EcoBoost. I do think Ford are about the only brand that can do ordinary and all the positives that come with that plus driving pleasure too.

I don't work for Ford and I don't drive a Ford, perhaps I should...

It's a good point. I had one of the new Fiestas as a courtesy car a couple of months back - a 1.2 naturally-aspirated petrol with the clutched autobox (whatever Ford call their variant).

It was FUN to drive. Nice responsive steering, tidy handling, surprisingly nippy in urban traffic (excellent step-off from traffic lights) and more than capable of holding its own on motorways.

The controls were all light and easy to modulate, but had feedback - unlike our family's Corsa D 1.2 petrol which has all the tactile feedback of an 80s arcade game and is a slug, despite having the higher-output engine.

Does anyone remember the Nissan Cherry Europe / Alfa Arna? The engine and drivetrain of an Alfasud in a Cherry body? That was an attempt to put the soul of an Alfa in an Oriental quality shell. Unfortunately, it ended up the wrong way round ...

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Trilogy

An Alfa made in Korea could be the answer. Otherwise the new Fiat 124.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Talking Hoarse

Intrigued as to what the perception is of Hyundai quality -(Avants 1st post). My i30 is approaching 5 years old and has a woeful list of component failures - suggesting poor quality.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - daveyjp
I would also not put Hyundai anywhere in a list of cars to represent quality. They are what they are a run of the mill mass produced vehicle aimed at buyers who have a wide choice to choose from.

I still see many more Fiestas than i20s.
The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - concrete

Last week I read somewhere(Telegraph I think) that Porsche and Bentley came way the list for reliabilty, according to Warranty Direct. I once had a 911(before marriage) and it was not entirely trouble free, although a delight to drive. Sorry Avant.

I also once had a Mini Cooper S that was well tuned. I think that is the closest to the Hyundai/Alfa combo. Never broke down or suffered other problems and just the best fun to drive. Where I lived at the time there are lots of country roads with lots of bends. Not much could stay with me in the Mini on those roads. A friend, who rallied cars, had a Cooper S but he put a 'blueprint' engine into it. It was like a rocket! He gave many a sports car and GT saloon a huge surprise at the traffic lights. Happy days of mis-spent youth.

Cheers Concrete

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - brum

Its rumoured that there is a place, a tunnel somewhere in Switzerland, where scientistics hope soon to create and prove such a holy grail actually exists. The secret tunnel is a fanatastically expensive, gigantic underground circular track fitted with cutting edge technology. The original plan was to take 2 cars, an alfa and an omega, but as the omega has now proven not to exist anymore, korean scientists suggested an alternative be used - a hiunder.

They plan to drive both cars remotely in opposite directions gradually increasing the speed and energy of each until they reach a critical point (>88 mph iirc) and then cross the lanes and allow them to smash head on. Several specially developed speed cameras and radar detectors will be used to analyse the debris from this massively energetic collision. Theory suggested by Albert Feinstein in the 1970's states that new cars would be produced, albeit briefly before they rapidly break down and rust away. One car would be the legendry alfundai, and an opposite and less equal car should be briefly seen driving in the opposite direction, called a Hyulfa. It is hoped that several subcomponents, never before seen could also be glimpsed. Suggestions include a motorola radio with push button selector, a contactless ignition system, and even an incredible square steering wheel.

A few scientists are warning against this experiment and predicting a doomsday scenario of uncontrolled worldwide explosion of randomly changing speed limits bringing chaos to daily commutes as a result. However this was dismissed by the director of the centre as just scaremongering and a feeble attempt to divert funding to "poor science" projects such as global warming.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - 72 dudes

Brum, what have you been smoking? (:>)

@craig pd, I was going bring up the Alfa Romeo Arna, the b****** love child of Datsun and Alfa! Horrible car and widely panned by the motoring press at the time IIRC.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - 72 dudes

P.S.

Avant's suggestion of the Golf GTi is probably as close as it gets.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - slkfanboy

>I would also not put Hyundai anywhere in a list of cars to represent quality.

Totally agree he didn't set his bar very high. The warranty makes Hyundai attactive it's reliabality less then middling afterwards.


The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - expat

Intrigued as to what the perception is of Hyundai quality -(Avants 1st post). My i30 is approaching 5 years old and has a woeful list of component failures - suggesting poor quality.

We have the opposite experience. We have a 6 year old i30 and it has been perfect. No problems at all. My son also has had one for the last 2 years and it has been fine too.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Avant

I think Brum's being having a go on the Hardon (sic) Collider.....

Steve C's comments were in his weekly diary, and he'd just been driving the i20. He could perhaps have substituted 'Toyota quality and logic'.

Most testers seem to rank Toyotas (GT86 excepted) as ordinary, although every time I've driven one it hasn't been nearly as boring as the testers imply. A Yaris 1.3 for example, is nippy and lively in town and perfectly OK on a motorway.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - daveyK_UK

I agree with an earlier post, Suburu is the perfect mix.

Sadly IM group have done little to help establish the Suburu brand in the UK.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Bianconeri
FIAT are already getting there with theirs and Alfa's to be honest. I drove a newish Guillietta petrol the other day and it was very good to drive and exceptionally well screwed together. I love our Abarth to bits and absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it

A latter day Alfasud without the rust would go down well be honest.
The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Razzy

A Mazda? In petrol guise of course.

Mazda make some of the best handling cars and are just as 'reliable' as Hyundai.

Plus......their cars look much better, IMO

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Engineer Andy

A Mazda? In petrol guise of course.

Mazda make some of the best handling cars and are just as 'reliable' as Hyundai.

Plus......their cars look much better, IMO

Indeed - Mazda appear to be 'on a roll' at the moment, producing good looking, handling and reliable cars across the entire range at the moment. For those wanting a bit more 'soul', perhaps (though I'm not convinced) the tie-up with Alfa to produce a shared platform for the next (?) MX-5 and equivalent Alfa small convertable is what they want. Personally speaking, I have no idea why Mazda would do this - I cannot see any benefit in giving a marque not renouned for reliability and build quality a good amount of that from Mazda - its not as though the MX-5 is a souless car and ugly...all it would do would be to hand some sales to Alfa.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Avant

Indeed - there's nothing that Alfa could bring to Mazda's party except their name and past reputation - and after 25 years of the MX-5, Mazda have their own good name for performance and reliability.

Just avoid the diesel engines and Mazda are a strong contender for the holy grail that we're talking about here. I can't remember ever seeng a complaint on this forum about a petrol Mazda.

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Engineer Andy

Indeed - there's nothing that Alfa could bring to Mazda's party except their name and past reputation - and after 25 years of the MX-5, Mazda have their own good name for performance and reliability.

Just avoid the diesel engines and Mazda are a strong contender for the holy grail that we're talking about here. I can't remember ever seeng a complaint on this forum about a petrol Mazda.

Correct - my Mazda3's petrol engine has always been ultra-reliable (here's hoping I've haven't jinxed it now!), as to be honest have most Japanese non-turbo petrol engined cars for a good number of years now. The only exception on Mazda's side is the rotary engined cars, which tend to be unreliable when they are used as weekend shopping cars (short trips) - as an owner found out at my local dealer a year or two ago when it cost him a lot of money to fix it (including a new CAT). He apparently forgot their warning that it should always be used for longer runs.

Surely Mazda don't need to save any money by a joint collboration in this instance? They appear to be doing quite well generally, more so despite (or maybe because of) the pull-out from Ford?

The soul of an Alfa with Hyundai quality and logic - Trilogy

The just about to be launched MX-5 is a product of an 'Alfa' and Mazda tie up. The twist is their won't be an Alfa version. It will be a Fiat 124, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. Seems to be OK for a Fiat to be made in Japan, but not an Alfa.