Hi,

Economy should improve with age, as the engine loosens up. A new engine
can sometimes be a bit tight. My JTS has loosened up alot in it's first
6000 miles, and the economy has improved with it. I think I'm getting
about 30mpg on average, or 330 miles out a 156 fuel tank.

It's a general thing that engines loosen up with time.
Normally after 5-10000 miles it will have it's "standard" (what ever that
may be) fuel use.
I'm into Alfa's since 1972 and all my Alfa's kept improving on fuel economy
until the day I sold them.
Even at 200.000km!!
Particulary the JTS engines have been a pain in the a** for Alfa in the
first 2 years. To large spread in the tolerances in the engine parts for the
(then) new technology engine.
Remember Alfa is the first to use the direct fuel injection the way they do;
going for extra performance rather than extra fuel economy as i.e.
Mitsubishi did (and completely failed b.t.w.)
This spread in tolerances resulted in 2 thing, a) oil consumption and lack
of power when tolerances were to large and b) very high internal friction
and wear and lack of power when the tolerances were to small.
The "fortunate" owners that caught an engine with all tolerance "in the
middle" (as per design specifications) had a ball; perfect power, perfect
feel yet a "normal" fule consumption for the power.
Many, many others that wern't that lucky all ended up with an under
performing engine/car and the fule economy wasen't that fine eather.
They solved this with the introduction of the 147/"new"156/GT so all JTS
engines now perform to spec.
Nevertheless, fuel economy is not the reason to buy Alfa's JTS because it
wasn't a design feature! That was power (in relation to engine size) which
in deed is quite remarkable for a non-turbo 2 litre engine (over 85HP per
litre!)
So just wait a while.

Question:
I am driving a 156SW now, and am waiting for my GT 2.0JTS.
What do you mean by "much different feel than my 156"?

Consumption of fuel is normally higher with a new engine.
So which one do you prefer the feeling of?
Is it a different preference on differing road circumstances?

Pete

Thanks for the replies.

We actually have 2 x 2.0 TS 156's at the moment, as well as the GT JTS also
2.0.
My wife's from new has always been reasonable with fuel consumption.  My 156
I got at 3.5 years old (low mileage, one owner) and has also been ok on
fuel.
All 3 cars are different. My 156 has lowered sports suspension & exhaust and
uprated vent/grooved brake discs so feels and sounds totally different from
the other 156.  It has this lovely throaty hard-to-describe sound.  I like
it as there is probably a bit of boy-racer left in me! (Is it ok to
advertise it for sale on this NG?)  Now my wife's 156, it is pretty smooth
but still sounds good if you know what I mean.

The GT feels closer to my wife's 156 but different.  How is hard to say,
both the grip,steering and road feel are great like Alfas, the seats and
seating positions are different (lotsa different positions possible), gear
shifts different. But I am not only comparing 156 against GT but TS against
JTS, I still jump in the 156 and feel at home immediately, while the GT is
still new and seems to improve each day, feels new each day. The JTS is
silky smooth, my 156 has a unique growl, both great. No wonder the GT won
best looking car in Italy recently.