Alfa Romeo Repair: 2.0 twinspark cloverleaf, alfa guilietta, alfa 145

Question
I have an Alfa 145 with the above engine.  The engine has lost power to the extent that it is very sluggish below 2000 rpm.  At about that point it suddenly springs to life and pulls away powerfully.  The engine has plenty of power although it no longer dashes uphill in 5th.  From standing start or changing up a gear at lowish revs it almost feels as though the engine is flooding.  It is not a tubo engine (as far as I am aware) so I am not experiencing turbo lag.  I used to have an Alfa Guilietta which had, so I was told, an accelerator pump but I don't know whether this engine has a similar feature.  THe car has been regularly serviced, the plugs have been changed within the last 25000 miles and both my local service garage and the Alfa agents have told me there is nothing wrong - but they're both wrong!  I KNOW it used to have better performance.  Can you suggest where the problem might lie?

Answer
You must have 100k miles on it to have had the plugs changed...
This means the cam belts should have been changed already.  It could be that the cam belt timing has slipped.
I believe your complaint is real and you need to take a mechanic on a road test to demonstrate the problem. Otherwise they do not know what to look for.

And in closing, please do not go up or down hill in top gear.