Start with what the Alfa Romeo 166 is: a 4-door saloon with Petrol engine, built from 1996 to 2007, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Centro Stile Alfa Romeo: / Walter de Silva / Daniele Gaglione (facelift).
The story
The Alfa Romeo 166 (Type 936) is an executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo, between 1996 and June 2007. It is a four-door saloon car with a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and replaced the 164 in the marque's model range. The car was designed by Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, under the control of Walter de Silva, and was facelifted in September 2003.
What is underneath
The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1420 –. Drive goes through a 5/6-speed Manual transmission / manual / 4-speed ZF Friedrichshafen / ZF ZF 4HP20 transmission / Q-System Automatic transmission / automatic / 5-speed Aisin Manumatic / Sportronic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2700 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Alfa Romeo line-up the Alfa Romeo 166 has a clear place: it replaced the Alfa Romeo 164; the factory was Rivalta di Torino. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Škoda Auto Škoda Octavia, the Lotus Elise, the Porsche Boxster. Nearby in the Alfa Romeo catalogue sit the A.L.F.A 12 HP and the A.L.F.A 15 HP.