2007 Alfa 159 Sportwagon Review

The new car is good-looking, strong, expressive and modern. Its beauty is expressed in the seduction of exciting all-Italian styling. Its strength lies in its technology and temperament, a traditional heritage of Alfa Romeo cars. Its expressiveness is the result of the vast range of engines, body-colours, outfits and options. And its modernity comes from a reinterpretation of traditional Alfa Romeo values from the viewpoint of modern lifestyles. The Alfa 159 Sportwagon combines these winning features with a luggage compartment that is a ‘designed space’ that meets a wide variety of requirements, whether it is used for business or for leisure time. And it never compromises where sportiness and performance are concerned.

The Italian styling of the Alfa 159 Sportwagon is developed around a single flowing line that runs without hesitation from nose to tail. A continuous pencil stroke which makes the car sporty and agile, but above all does not reveal where the original saloon ends and the ‘extra volume’ typical of the station wagon begins. This is the true strong point of the new model, which becomes all the more captivating where most station wagons reveal their main limitations. It is also the key to understanding the soul and character of the new model, on which a great deal of work was done to incorporate the extra volume into the lines of the station wagon. So it is not a car with an extra ‘box’ for loading, but a car with temperament, that adapts its interior roominess to different needs, thanks to its flexibility that allows it to be modified and divided in various ways.

The luggage compartment is more accessible than you would expect on a station wagon (both from the passenger compartment and from the back, thanks to the forward hinged tailgate). The boot of the 159 Sportwagon was designed precisely and rationally with geometries that waste no space. The sides of the loading volume were designed with boxed elements, and then covered with elements of different thicknesses, calculated so that they do not affect the insulating and sound-deadening properties, as they create more load capacity. This operation has produced a loading volume of 445 litres, plus various oddment compartments created by the intelligent use of space, for example under the brackets for the curtain that separates off the rear, and two closing compartments at the sides complete with nets. On request the luggage compartment can be fitted with containment nets anchored on the loading floor, the sill or behind the rear seats to prevent the load from shifting suddenly.

The luggage compartment on the Alfa 159 Sportwagon is clearly not the traditional place where you load things haphazardly, but a functional space in which items can be carried correctly, without being flung around, consistent with the spirit of a station wagon with a sporty temperament.

From the side, the line of the 159 Sportwagon is attractive and full of character, with grooving that lightens and projects the entire car thanks to elegant light and shade effects, and it underlines one of the central features of Alfa Romeo sportiness: the compactness of the passenger compartment in the body of the car. This has been achieved by a number of significant, targeted stylistic features, such as the ‘accelerated’ curve of the roof which recalls the sleek lines of a short-tailed coupé. But also the design of the rear pillar which optically thrusts the passenger compartment forward, with the ‘elbow’ pressing on the wheel axis – a clear sign of power and sportiness. Another stylistic device is the way the front pillar has been set back, helping to shift the weight of the passenger compartment to the rear wheel, accentuating the car’s compact look.
On request, the car can be fitted with aluminium rooftop bars that underline the car’s status as a station wagon, while they highlight its stylistic elegance.

The front is unchanged, dominated by the same distinctive features as the saloon, with the major harmonious relationships that always lie behind the elegance and sportiness of Alfa Romeo cars. For example, the proportion between the long bonnet and the compact passenger compartment makes the car more prestigious, whereas it is the relationship between the glazing and the sides, which also enhances the compactness of the passenger compartment thanks to the position of the pillars, that makes it sportier.

The styling of the 159 Sportwagon is an original interpretation of the theme of ‘compact sportiness and elegance’, combined with excellent interior roominess and loading capacity, and it blends features typical of Alfa and characteristics borrowed from the saloon, in a stylistic whole that is peculiar to the Sportwagon.