Until now, in the Car of The Week section we had the Toyota Celica from Japan, then we had the Mercedes CLK Black from Germany and now we’ve got this: the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 156 from Italy.

This is one of my favourite cars and that’s why I bought one. I have the old model from 2001 and about 150k’s on the clock. Now many motoring journalists would tell that by that figure an Alfa would have been recycled 3 times – but no. Mine hasn’t had a single problem. I love it!

I’m not the kind of man who would just go with the others and buy a 3 Series BMW. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Beemer very much but not enough. Jeremy Clarkson said that if BMW made cars that look like Alfas we needn’t walk anymore. But for me, it’s that good because mine doesn’t break down all the time. It might be just mine, it might not, I’m not going to talk about the delicate subject of how reliable Alfas are.

Now if you want more info about buying a 156 just ask but until then, as always, a bit of facts. In its lifetime the 156 had a big choice of engines both petrol and diesel. You could have 6 different petrol engines or 2 diesels and most of them are really good. It was one of the first cars with Fiat’s then revolutionary common-rail system and twinspark (which basically means it has 2 spark plugs per cylinder). No problem there then, lots of choice, quite modern for the time and form the bigger ones, quite powerful as well. It’s so good-looking it has won numerous awards and it handles brilliantly. The interior is amazing, good quality leather and plastic with an amazing design.

For me, it’s just brilliant – an executive car that looks amazing, drives well, is well-built and was modern at the time. I might even be bold in saying it will be a future classic. For now, we just know it’s our Car of The Week.