Penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Alfa Romeo 159 inaugurates the new style of Alfa Romeo, first seen on the Italdesign Giugiaro Brera concept car in 2002. It embodies fluid lines with elegant, muscular flanks and a prominent grille to ensure the continuity of sporting elegance specific to the many famous models produced by the Milanese marque.

With generous dimensions (4.600 mm long, 1.828 mm wide and 1.417 mm high) and exceptional build quality to meet the most demanding standards, the Alfa 159 is poised to attack the sales of its direct German rivals: namely the BMW 3 Series and the Audi A4.

The Alfa 159's interior is predominantly focused towards the driver. The driving position is perfect, the controls have a quality touch and all instrumentation is angled towards the driver’s line of view. On top of this, the choice of interior materials is set to an exceptionally high standard, and the design has no fewer than 12 storage areas. Leg space has been improved and the boot capacity has been increased to 405 litres (compared to 378 litres for the Alfa 156).

Thanks to its new platform, the Alfa Romeo 159 offers the best torsional rigidity within its category (182.000 Kgm/rad compared to 153.400 Kgm/rad for the previous BMW 3 Series). A new suspension system with quadrilateral arms at the front and a multilink setup at the rear ensures the Alfa 159 with excellent road-holding, increased stability as well class-leading turn-in, even at remarkably high speed.

Sound proofing has also been improved, which is partly due to the new architecture of the door frame design which reduces wind noise in a drastic way. The glass has also been thickened to 5 mm against 4 mm on the Alfa 156.

With a 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating, the Alfa Romeo 159 has all of the latest innovations in terms of active and passive safety: 8 airbags (front airbags for driver and passenger, sidebags, curtain airbags front and rear, kneebags for both driver and passenger), seatbelt reminder sound, seatbelt pretensioners, anti-whiplash headrests, retractable pedals during frontal impact, Fire System Prevention, ABS / ASR / VSC.

A lot of new equipment can be found on the Alfa 159 range: electronic keycard (with engine start / stop button), central console with coolbox, automatic Tri-zone Air-conditioning, digital tyre pressure guage, parking sensors at the front and rear, 6.5" colour TFT screen for satellite navigation, voice recognition, blue tooth, etc.

More equipment includes: folding rear seats, interior inserts from aluminium or genuine wood, electrically operated seats, bi-xenon headlights (with increased visibility of 300% compared to traditional headlights), Rear Entertainment Kit, etc.

The Alfa Romeo 159 will have a number of engines available from the start of its dealer launch, all of which ensure optimal performance in terms of power and torque. There will be three aluminium-block petrol engines using the latest JTS direct injection and Twin Phaser technology. These engines are the 1.9 JTS, the 2.2 JTS and the 3.2 JTS. The 3.2 JTS will only be available with integral four-wheel-drive. Alongside the petrol engines, there will also be three diesel engines available with Multi-Jet Common Rail technology, variable turbo geometry and Diesel Particulate Filters. These diesel engines come in the form of the proven 1.9 8V / 16V and 2.4 20V units. The 2.4 JTD M-JET 20V will be available with both two- and four-wheel drive.

All of the engines meet EURO 4 standards, but even more impressive are the diesel engines which meet EURO 5 standards due to their Diesel Particulate Filter technology. EURO 5 standards will remain valid until 2010 for automotive manufacturers.