dont do it! I am saying this as the 156's are being replaced this year by the 159 and their secondhand value will take a tumble, i'd wait for the 159 if you are think of buying new or second hand for that matter.
I myself unfortunatly have the mispleasure of owning one, I have spent over €2,000 on the suspension alone not to mention the "small" things that have gone wrong, lights,indicators,starter motor,electric windows..
[Thomas J: using the search function to copy links for some reason or other will not work on vBulletin - the links time out after a certain time. I know that it is a searched link because the address shows "searchid". The correct link doesn't show this]
Even Top Gear say it. Wonderful looking cars for the ten minutes you're on the open motorway and everything's working well. After that everything goes wrong and the car sits in a garage getting fixed every two days.
Don't buy one unless reliability means nothing to you.
My own 156 has decided to change its name to Elvis and Die...
Gonna cost me round €1,500 to fix it...
In relation to Top Gear, the only reason i bought it was based on Clarksons recommendations, that it was a great car etc... Now from watching last sundays show i see that (as quoted above) they speak the truth about them, maybe the rose coloured Glasses broke or something, just like the ford ones that clarkson had..
Wouldn't do it. I have a 00-D and although it's a fantastic drive when working... It's a heartbreaking piece of crap when decides to break down again and again and again. Now it's sitting in the garden since the recovery vehicle dropped it off last month. Have since heard that there was trouble with the 2000 model but won't be trusting this make again.