ALFA Romeo has been drinking in the last chance saloon for so long now it’s got its own pint glass.

The charismatic Italian company has been on life-support for as long as I can remember. The first financial crisis came in the 1950s and ever since it has stumbled from one problem to another.

A joint venture with Nissan (which resulted in the awful Alfa Arna) was disolved when the Japanese realised what they were getting into and a proposed marriage with Ford came to nothing when Fiat stepped in. Since then, the marque has enjoyed something akin to financial stability but that hasn’t improved its fortunes.

For every saviour, like the 156, there’s been a duffer like the 146.

Alfa was still harbouring hopes of making a go of it alone when the 33 was on the forward-planning schedule. Codenamed Type 905, the 33 was the long-awaited (and desperately needed) replacement for the Alfasud.

Despite being nice to drive, the Alfasud was brought low by its terrible reputation for rust. Alfa’s plan was to take all the best bits from the Alfasud (including the unusual flat-four ‘Boxer’ engines) and wrap it up in a new rust-proof body styled by Ermanno Cressoni, the head of its in-house design studio.

Cressoni’s crisp design ensured the 33 looked cool and distinctive when it was launched in 1983. The urgent need to flog as many 33s as quickly as possible meant responsibility for the estate had to be handed over to an external design house (Pininfarina). This meant the shooting brake (originally called the Giardinetta before a name change to Sportwagon) was able to launch just 12 months after the hatch.

Sadly, critics were soon carping about the usual Alfa problem – the driving position was seemingly designed for an orangutan. No amount of steering or seat adjustment could avoid the outstretched arms/bent legs torture. British imports compounded this with off-set pedals which forced the driver into further contortions.

This being the early 1980s, Alfa also found the cash to design a 4x4 version - the all-wheel drive was selected manually via a handle ahead of the gear lever – but the original AWD 33 was no Audi Quattro chaser. The 1.5-litre engine could only muster a dismal 84bhp. Twin-choke carbs attempted to add some go to the show by lifting output on the Cloverleaf version to the heady heights of 105bhp.

Autocar ran a long-term 33 4x4 and the results weren’t pretty. The engine swigged oil like a parched dipsomaniac. “That in itself would be no big deal,” said the mag, “if it wasn’t so incredibly awkward both the check the oil and replace it.”

The door locks froze solid, the windscreen wipers came off mid-wipe, the speedo failed, the gearbox was sticky, the lights switched off when dip was selected, the suspension broke, and by the end of the test the engine was puffing ominous clouds of black smoke.

When the Boxer 16v engine arrived, bringing with it much-improved performance, a poorly designed fuel injection system made smooth driving almost impossible. Oh and every model suffered from spongy brakes and chronic torque steer to some degree.

Incredibly Alfa managed to sell a million before a replacement arrived but wary drivers weren’t hurrying back to replace their 33s with another one.

Later this year Alfa launches the Giulia, a handsome saloon billed as a new beginning. Boss Harald Wester reckons the Giulia is a break with the past that will enable Alfa to sell 400,000 cars a year by 2018.

We hope for Alfa’s sake that history does not repeat itself.