I agree on non-owners, but an experienced independent mechanic who knows the marque is probably your best bet for reliability information. Non-owners usually don't know anything, and you'll always have lucky and unlucky owners, but the specialty mechanics see the cars day in and day out and know their issues.

But the specialty mechanic has an incentive to lie, if he thinks you're going to bring the car to him for service. ;)

I almost bought an alfa romeo once, but I was too young and didn't think I'd be able to be a garage mechanic at all. I vividly recall the guy had so many parts thrown in for free, he just got too old to lie underneath his car. It's a purchase I still regret to have passed on.

I've owned two Alfas (one of which I still have). The reputation for poor reliability is very well deserved in my experience, and we are very well known by the local mechanics. It varied a bit by model - but overall I think it's a fair assessment.

Like so many things these reputations form for good reasons - you may get lucky and have no particular problems with an individual example but that doesn't mean the reputation isn't deserved.