Used car guide · 1998–2007

Alfa Romeo 156 common problems and MOT failures

What goes wrong on a used Alfa Romeo 156, year by year: known faults from UK buying guides, the parts flagged at MOT more than on other cars (from 3,424 MOTs done during 2023–2025), and what to check before you buy one.

3,424MOTs done in 2023–2025, all years of this model

3,412on the UK register

Pick the year

Most years have their own guide. The year is when the car was first registered (it’s on the logbook, or check the reg below).

2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998

What usually goes wrong with an Alfa Romeo 156?

We haven’t found widely reported faults for the Alfa Romeo 156 in the UK buying guides we use yet. That doesn’t mean it has none, so check the car carefully and look at the MOT weak spots below.

Alfa Romeo 156 MOT pass rate by year

Older cars fail more, so compare each year with all cars registered the same year.

Year	Pass first time	All cars that year	MOT tests
2005	58%	57% +1	494 (small sample)
2004	56%	57% -1	600
2003	63%	57% +6	704
2002	63%	58% +5	545
2001	63%	60% +3	426 (small sample)
2000	57%	61% -4	305 (small sample)
1999	61%	63% -2	202 (small sample)
1998	60%	65% -5	148 (small sample)

Looking at an Alfa Romeo 156?

Check the actual car: its own MOT history and what to ask the seller. Free, no sign-up.

Where this comes from: MOT figures are the DVSA’s anonymised results for every MOT test done in Great Britain during 2023–2025, grouped by the year each car was first registered. How many are on the road is from the Department for Transport’s vehicle licensing statistics. Known faults are from UK buying guides, in our own words, with links. How we score