New Alpine A110 owners experiences and photos.

I installed the chip by Reß Motorsport

https://www.alpine-tuning.de

and can report install is easy (two connections, unlike three for race-chip). You will be hard pressed to notice the extra urgency in built up areas or below normal speed limits simply because this tune mainly or totally unlocks a little more boost pressure and getting to full boost in this car, and then getting a few more psi, requires 2nd or 3rd gear wide open throttle. Driving it for two hours in the city/suburbs I noticed some extra urge maybe twice.

I expect it to reduce 100-200kmh time from 13s closer to 11s not that I can measure it without a distant empty straight road. 0-100kmh will probably stay at 4.5s

It says in the included notes that 98 octane is needed but since the a110 is a detuned Megane RS 300 (221kw) and the Megane takes 95/98 I'm not sure 95 would knock.

My A110 has just suffered a total electrical shutdown, at home fortunately.
Its been driven 300+ miles this week, and on trip today started to get "apply parking brake" and also "air bag alert" signals on dash.
The car was registered Jan 2019, A110 Pure.
Got home, swithed off and everything is now dead! Have called Alpine Assist (RAC)......
Anyone have similar experince and solutions to share?
(I have seen the posts about "battery issues" and alternator replacement)
Thanks.

My A110 has just suffered a total electrical shutdown, at home fortunately.
Its been driven 300+ miles this week, and on trip today started to get "apply parking brake" and also "air bag alert" signals on dash.
The car was registered Jan 2019, A110 Pure.
Got home, swithed off and everything is now dead! Have called Alpine Assist (RAC)......
Anyone have similar experince and solutions to share?
(I have seen the posts about "battery issues" and alternator replacement)
Thanks.

When my alternator failed (and the battery voltage fell) all sorts of random errors came up. It never got to the stage of dying completely (and oddly would still start easily!). Might be worth checking the battery voltage if the RAC haven't sorted you

An RAC approved recovery crew checked battery voltage....OK at 12V, and no life with power pack/jump leads. It's totally dead .....locking, parking brake, windows, dash, ignition ... everything. Aghh.
Very strange and frustrating. Its now on flat bed to go back to Alpine St Albans, from where I am in North Wales.
Will post any news that may help the community!

Mike’s issue has me worrying about whether to get rid of my - to date trouble-free - A110PE. Reason being it is parked nose-in to a single garage and in Northern Ireland, which is a ferry crossing away from my nearest dealer (Glasgow).

Am I right to be so concerned, or should I grow a pair?

CB

Hi Cloudburst! As you seem to be a committed Renaultiste you must have lived with the chance of gremlins for a while?
Keep the A110 ........ DEFINITELY! This sort of thing is just an ownership joy of modern electronic loaded vehicles.

To reduce paranoia one could park it nose out and keep the towing eye in the cabin, not in the rear (elec catch) boot and simply get some good breakdown cover (which many people have anyway for their cars, and can even come via bank accounts eg: Nationwide).

Enjoy

Mike’s issue has me worrying about whether to get rid of my - to date trouble-free - A110PE. Reason being it is parked nose-in to a single garage and in Northern Ireland, which is a ferry crossing away from my nearest dealer (Glasgow).

Am I right to be so concerned, or should I grow a pair?

CB

I would put a charge cable on the battery so you can get to it to at least power up .
Also if it’s in a garage, I would also leave with the parking brake off.
It would still be in park.
The ones I see have been either a total failure of battery, or I have seen a couple of poorly secured earth cables.
But sometimes it takes a bit of use to show these up.
I would certainly not be getting rid of the car just in case an issue shows up.
I think these are fantastic cars, and have plenty that I have seen for servicing that have had no issues at all.
Great cars really, and new products will always have some issues appear in the first year or so.

An RAC approved recovery crew checked battery voltage....OK at 12V, and no life with power pack/jump leads. It's totally dead .....locking, parking brake, windows, dash, ignition ... everything. Aghh.
Very strange and frustrating. Its now on flat bed to go back to Alpine St Albans, from where I am in North Wales.
Will post any news that may help the community!

Very sorry to hear that. I have heard of one other vehicle that happened to (not bcr's) where the car was totally dead. It would be useful to know what happened in these cases - perhaps a batch of duff batteries.

I was stranded twice by a Mercedes' electrical fault which never reappeared after the second fix. I'd be inclined to give the Alpine a few chances Cloudburst - just make sure you are using it!
One advantage of my Alpine living outside is that I never worry about driving it. We've had heavy rain here over the past few days but the sun has just come out - I'll be out in the car in the next hour or so!

I installed the chip by Reß Motorsport

https://www.alpine-tuning.de

and can report install is easy (two connections, unlike three for race-chip). You will be hard pressed to notice the extra urgency in built up areas or below normal speed limits simply because this tune mainly or totally unlocks a little more boost pressure and getting to full boost in this car, and then getting a few more psi, requires 2nd or 3rd gear wide open throttle. Driving it for two hours in the city/suburbs I noticed some extra urge maybe twice.

I expect it to reduce 100-200kmh time from 13s closer to 11s not that I can measure it without a distant empty straight road. 0-100kmh will probably stay at 4.5s

It says in the included notes that 98 octane is needed but since the a110 is a detuned Megane RS 300 (221kw) and the Megane takes 95/98 I'm not sure 95 would knock.

Sorry I missed this previously - how is this going a month later?

I hit 10000 miles in mine over the weekend. I shared these thoughts elsewhere, but thought some here might find them interesting too.

So what are my thoughts after 18 months and 10000 miles?

It's a very jekyll and hyde car. By that I mean that if you want to chill out, relax and waft along, it can do that very well. The cabin is fairly quiet, the stereo excellent and in auto mode the box is good. But if you want to hustle it along like a hooligan, it does that too including comments from a few folk at a Donington track day being surprised how quick it was But... it does suffer from the Cayster problem of being a bit too good - it feels like the car is doing the work, not me as the driver. I do also miss the sensation of speed you get in ragtop - at least on a nice day. OTOH, in shitty weather the cabin is lovely and snug. And that ability to waft also takes something away from the specialness of the car. It would be a stunning daily, but I think that makes it a bit less of a weekend special.

The IVI is still catastrophically bad and annoying, I still can't understand how they let it out the door with so many basic issues in usability. Lack of cubbyholes etc not a problem - you can get a fair bit behind the seats, and a few velco elastic pockets around the place work well for odds and ends. I also bought a proper stowage bin for between the seat and door for my glasses case.

So long term prospects - I'm not sure. I'd really like to get a good few hours drive of an Elise S3 220, although that still feels like a compromise between the Caterham and Alpine. Haven't got the garage space to have an Elise alongside the Alpine (or better still, one of each of the 3 ) What I'm really after is something that's better suited to wet track days than the caterham, but also something for the road that's fun at sensible speeds and can manage a weekend (or even week) away. MX5 + Ginetta? Elise + ??? I mean the Alpine would make a good wet TD car, but it's not light on consumables, even being only 1100kg.

Is it that the Alpine isn't what I hoped? I don't know, I think it delivers on a lot of its promises very, very well. I'm still astonished how well it handles a shitty B-road. And I'm sure for many drivers it would be a fantastically rewarding car to own and drive. Maybe I need to go to the other end of the spectrum and try something like a v8 mustang? Just a bit big for most UK roads.

Oh yes, I still get stopped almost every time I'm parked or stopping for fuel to get asked "that looks nice, what's that then?" (or "funny looking audi" ) followed by "What's an Alpine?" (my usual answer is "posh renault")

Anyway, not rushing in to anything - there's very little interesting on the new car horizon either bar maybe the new GT86 (although I don't know if we're getting it) but definitely starting to think about what might come next.

[quote="JonT"]I hit 10000 miles in mine over the weekend. I shared these thoughts elsewhere, but thought some here might find them interesting too.

So what are my thoughts after 18 months and 10000 miles?

It's a very jekyll and hyde car. By that I mean that if you want to chill out, relax and waft along, it can do that very well. ............... But if you want to hustle it along like a hooligan,

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Jon - That sums it up, I agree. Trouble with enthusiasts is we always want something slightly different

The best summary I have read (but unfortunately I cannot find it now) was from Julian Thompson on a Pistonheads forum (Is it actually the Elise JT? - Not sure).The gist of it was similar to your thoughts.

Sort of...........Fine for two to go on holiday or a weekend trip, with sufficient luggage. The motorway miles will not be a chore, and some B roads will be fun. Have a civilised trip and if you want a Track Day on the way home it will cope admirably! Oh, and its fine to use as a daily driver, if necessary.

Its a fine compromise solution with just enough slant towards the performance to scratch that itch. If you have one choice to make for a sporting car its a pretty good one, for ticking many boxes. As discussed endlessly, is that a strength or weakness? Obviously depends what one wants.

As an Elise and Alpine owner, I think comparisons are inappropriate - they deliver on two different aspirations for customers. Hard not to enjoy both, in the right setting!

Hi, everybody,
I decided to write some first impressions of the Alpine A110 premiere edition.

First of all, I can not say that I am an extremely sophisticated motorist in terms of sports cars, but I already owned a Porsche Boxster 987.1 automatic transmission and a BMW M2 Comp. manual transmission, Alfa Spider 939 3.2 automatic transmission is not really about a sports car, but nevertheless=).

Also, the car was still at the end of the run-in (yes, the car of 2018, but the mileage was only 900 km ) and I did not press the pedal to the floor.

Appearance. I will not evaluate the appearance, as it is always subjective. Someone likes the new M4 here =), but it is important to note that everything in the car is subordinated to its purpose without props. Flat bottom, working diffuser, thanks to which it was possible to achieve a smooth silhouette without hanging giant spolers.

Interior. Again, I will not evaluate the design, if you touch the leather, then rest assured, this is leather, not imitation, carbon is real.
Separately, I will note the sports seats, they are really very tenacious and comfortable for a relatively long trip of 200-300 km (but you need to see if you will be comfortable in terms of physique). At the height of 197, I am placed very comfortably.

Technically, this is an aluminum chassis developed from scratch, at the first stage together with the Caterham engine from Renault Megan RS 1,8. The block is not cast iron, but aluminum with steel sleeves. A box with wet clutches, unlike the Megan. Suspension double wishbones front and rear.

I can't explain for sure, but apparently due to the suspension with double wishbones on both axles, even when cornering at low speeds, you get some special pleasure. You can not go to the limit, and you can at a calm pace, but still get a special experience. ESP has never worked in Karelia, I will need to go to the track to understand where the limit of grip on dry and wet roads is.

I was just amazed at how comfortable the suspension is. Bumps on the sharp turns of Karelia or tram tracks in St. Petersburg, all worked out with an amazing level for a sports car. It doesn't shake everything out of you, you can drive every day without any exaggerations.

The sound is definitely better than the 4-cylinder Porsche 718. The optional sport exhaust sounds very interesting.

The ease with which it changes direction makes you smile from ear to ear. After the trip, I could not sleep for a long time, closing my eyes, I remembered the Karelian roads. Lightness, responsiveness, sweaty palms =) and sound.

Great car.

just a quick first post to say hi, as this afternoon (03/09/21) I placed an order for an A110S - Abyss Blue, Fuchs wheels, Carbon roof! From the Glasgow Arnold Clark. Likely to get it mid march 22 but to be confirmed. All terribly exciting, I need to go lie down!

DaveW

Congratulations Dave, you'll love it!
All the things you've read are true - it's not just a sports car, it's an event. From the word go you'll be smiling!
Mine was delivered a little earlier than anticipated, so you never know...!
Cheers, CliveJ.

Nice spec, by the way.

My first long road trip to France. Two serious issues, the first was a complete power down on my first stop after a couple of hundred motorway miles. Went through a full restart procedure and it lit up again. De-activated start/stop to avoid happening again. This may have contributed to the major issue. A full shut down in slow traffic that brought central Reims to a halt for 30 minutes!! Engine over heated without start stop in slow moving traffic. Should not happen in a modern car. Anyone else experienced this?