Alfa Romeo bargain
- Thread starter AV8
- Start date
Nero
Re: Tired
Well, I've had three Alfas, and ran two of them to 70k miles with no problems. I only had the other one for 6 months. None of them gave me any problems.
In fact, the only warranty replacement I had was the mirror insert in the passenger sun blind, as Signora complained it was distorted so much, it made putting on her lipstick difficult. I suspect that was the hard ride.
In fact, the only warranty replacement I had was the mirror insert in the passenger sun blind, as Signora complained it was distorted so much, it made putting on her lipstick difficult. I suspect that was the hard ride.
More updates.
I have spoken to the owner, she is a teacher at the school, it turns out that the car is a diesel & was bought for the economy in order to get to work. I was wrong about the cost, it wasn't £400, it was £150. It needed an MOT & some welding, that brought it up to circa £400 to get it legal.
However, her family are Alfa fanatics, they have 5 cars in the household, all Alfas of various sorts.
The petrol ones are an Alfa GTV 3.0 V6 & an Alfa 156 2.5 V6, there is another that I never noted down.
Also she has visited the car club meet at The Corner Pub in Wrightington on a few occasions.
More details to follow, the Alfa 156 is a non runner at the moment, in order to make space it might be available to someone free of charge.
To be continued....
I have spoken to the owner, she is a teacher at the school, it turns out that the car is a diesel & was bought for the economy in order to get to work. I was wrong about the cost, it wasn't £400, it was £150. It needed an MOT & some welding, that brought it up to circa £400 to get it legal.
However, her family are Alfa fanatics, they have 5 cars in the household, all Alfas of various sorts.
The petrol ones are an Alfa GTV 3.0 V6 & an Alfa 156 2.5 V6, there is another that I never noted down.
Also she has visited the car club meet at The Corner Pub in Wrightington on a few occasions.
More details to follow, the Alfa 156 is a non runner at the moment, in order to make space it might be available to someone free of charge.
To be continued....
Reliability is ALWAYS at the top. Nobody can afford to have a car break down. Maintenance is another affair. Lots of people say "it's got to be reliable" when they really mean " I want to put petrol in it and never go anywhere near a garage apart from an annual service if I am forced to for the rest of my period of ownership" which is not the same thing.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I loved my Alfasud Ti - engine apparently designed by Porsche, inboard front disc brakes. Bought it for a song when it was 2 years old and already suffering from rust. A few gallons of Waxoyl stopped any more rot. Nice car, shame they made the body panels from recycled Russian scrap and the electrics from the Italian version of Lucas. Oh, and when I first got it switching on the wipers somehow engaged the starter solenoid - never did figure that out but removing the tail license plate fuse solved the problem....
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Haha, superb... a mechanic friend of mine use to do pre delivery inspections for a large used/sometimes new car supermarket, they had a few Alfas through that I assume must have been rejected by customers as they were essentially brand new with no miles on them... these kinds of electrical gremlins were common amongst all of them, their onsite auto electrician became well versed in fixing them, this was in the early 00s. If I bought a very old Alfa to restore, the electrics wouldn’t scare me because I’d essentially just rip everything out and start again myself.
Thankfully, by the time CAN bus became the industry standard, they seemed to have gotten better.
AnilS
pfm Member
This teacher sounds like a nice petrolhead, along with her family.
Any pictures of her?
Some years ago I nearly bought a 164 V6.
Unfortunately, during the test drive, there was a small electrical fire in the engine bay, put out quickly, because the dealer, oddly had a fire extinguisher in the boot!
Lovely looking and sounding car. Bought a Vauxhall Carlton 3000 gsi 24v instead that never let me down.
Any pictures of her?
Some years ago I nearly bought a 164 V6.
Unfortunately, during the test drive, there was a small electrical fire in the engine bay, put out quickly, because the dealer, oddly had a fire extinguisher in the boot!
Lovely looking and sounding car. Bought a Vauxhall Carlton 3000 gsi 24v instead that never let me down.
wow&flutter
pfm Member
The inboard front discs were my least favourite thing about the Sud to be honest. I understand the weight advantages of not having callipers at the end of a suspension arm but it made front pad replacement a real fiddle. How many cars do you need a set of feeler gauges to fit a set of disc pads?
Rust was never an issue on my two suds for some reason, the 80 model ti had a couple of bits on the seems starting either side of the boot but that was it. The 82 tix was completely free of rust even when I sold it, likewise the 33 I had many years later had no rust issues at all, in fact apart from a water pump and belt service and a clutch due to mileage it never actually went wrong!
Actually, just remembered, on the ti the little bullet fuses started to corrode a bit for some reason but if you took the fuse box cover off and rotated the fuses on their axis that cured it!
So true, my cousin bought a brand new Alfa in the late 80's and the turn signals were wired the wrong was around...
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
That sounds typical, I think it was only a relatively small number that had these kinds of issues but of course you always hear about the faulty ones, nobody reports a good car... the bigger problem was poor weatherproofing, Italian roads are pretty dry, British roads less so. Because the electrical systems are relatively simple in old cars though, it’d be quite feasible to pull the lot and build your own better quality loom with better weather proofing from scratch... providing you have the necessary electrical engineering knowledge of course.
Simon Dawson
Angry, Ill & Ugly
Not quite, Rudolf Hurska, who used to work at Porsche was one of the main engineers responsible for the Sud. Most of the electrical problems with older Alfas (and Fiats, Lancias etc) is due to poor earthing caused by corrosion, so the current finds it way to earth via some other, unintended route (I've owned Alfas continuously for over 30 years and if sorted and properly maintained they are pretty reliable).
Now that could explain some of the driving in Italy.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Me in 1983 at RAF Marham, doing acceptance checks on new Tornados:
“Why are the wings already corroded on the underside?”
Everyone: “Because they were made in Italy.”
So we were rubbing down the underside of the wings once the paint stripper had done its job until all signs off corrosion had been removed. And then someone found a manufacturer’s torch in a wing fuel tank....
I can’t think why I’ve never bought an Italian car!
“Why are the wings already corroded on the underside?”
Everyone: “Because they were made in Italy.”
So we were rubbing down the underside of the wings once the paint stripper had done its job until all signs off corrosion had been removed. And then someone found a manufacturer’s torch in a wing fuel tank....
I can’t think why I’ve never bought an Italian car!
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
And in many, if not most, Italian cars, the middle pedal seems to work the horn.
As we now slipped into F*****s. I've actually been present when a brand spanking new 550 Maranello lost a brake caliper!!! It wasn't properly fastened and was just hanging down from the hoses. The angry owner went to the seller who insisted the warranty wasn't valid!
The Alfasud was designed by Rudolf Hruska with input by Carlo Chiti on engine design, the only link to Porsche I can see is Hruska worked for them during ww2 and later had a dealership. The steel for the body panels came from the Taranto steel works not Russia. The real issue with the Alfasud was the work force and the poor attention to quality.
edit: Simon beat me to it!
edit: Simon beat me to it!