when I was looking for a replacement for the Subaru, the 3 cars on the list was a Alfa 159 V6 manual (2yrs old, 20,000km) a Focus XR5 (ST in the UK) and the GTI, all of them around the same price about $42,000 (AUD). The Alfa was almost $70k AUD new.
The Alfa looked and sounded gorgeous, although the back seat was cramped. My dad had Alfa 2000 Berlina, back in the late 70's and the engine note on that was something special, although it did need an engine rebuild at 40,000 miles.
The Focus had a great engine note but the GTI's interior was much, much classier. We didn't buy the Alfa because of the concerns of high running costs and parts prices. The Focus although slightly better equipped than the GTI (bluetooth and leather) just felt a class below the GTI in finish, but certainly had a nicer engine note.
My wife's comment was that the boy racer had finally grown up and finally bought a 'sensible' performance car.
