Italian cars I have owned & what happened to some of them.
Discussion
I should start by saying that I have enjoyed owning all of these vehicles. I didn't always treat them nicely though. (Not it chronological order).
S-Reg Alfa Sud 1350 Ti. Bought it dirt cheap, spun it, plastic wheel arches fell of on the M4, noticed how the front of the car was only attached to the rest of it by the radiator hoses & cables for the lights, spotted the Give Way sign that had been welded into the passenger footwell, got a new MOT on it, drove it about some more & sold it to a guy who resprayed it metallic blue using spray cans. I think at that point the paint was worth more than the car.
W-Reg Alfa Sud 1500 Sprint. Was my most expensive car to date. Girlfriend commented 'That's nice & practical, a hatchback'. The car lasted longer than she did. Sold to fund some more ambitious project.
V-Reg Alfa Sud 1500 Sprint. Bought for 100 quid as a stop-gap when the GTV had given up. Outlasted the GTV as it was less trouble. Factor in that less trouble included the wing mirrors dropping off, a leaking sunroof & electronics that seldom did what they were supposed to do & you will understand how cack the GTV was.
V-Reg Alfa Romeo GTV 2000. Required the purchase of the ^^^ Sprint. Have had worse cars but not by much. Sold for spares. Nice on the rare occasions it could be bothered to work.
Y-Reg Alfa Romeo GTV6. Glorious noise & I liked the way it handled. And now the rest of the story. Gear change appalling, no chance of a quick change as, assuming you'd driven the 5 miles required to get the oil warmed up, the linkage was still so wobbly & worn getting the right gear took ages. It leaked. Comedy electrics. Whilst applying the brakes vigorously the engine stopped. Cause beyond me so asked tame mechanic who went straight to the emergency cut out fuel switch ( a steel ball in a cup ) & bi-passed it. Sold when I looked at the invoices it came with (finally) & realised that headgasket change the previous owner had spent a grand on was only to 1 side & that the other side was leaking oil.
S-Reg Fiat X-19 1300. Bought without an MOT, mucked about with it & sold it on without really having given myself the chance to thrash it properly. Which is a shame 'cos it was loads of fun. It goes without saying that it leaked, the electrics had a mind of their own & bits fell off if you sneezed violently.
V-Reg Strada 105TC. My 1st hot hatch. Bought cheaply, run for a bit & sold when I'd spotted something better. Not actually a bad car. Watertight (ish) & the electrics mostly did what they were supposed to do.
B-Reg Abarth 130TC. My 2nd hot hatch. Brilliant at times but mostly frustrating. Climbing into & out of the Recaros. Sitting in the Recaros. The driving position afforded by the Recaros. The fact that, like the GTV6, you had to drive it 5 miles before the gearbox warmed up enough to get 2nd & 4th. Sold as I wound up with it & a Mk2 Golf GTI at the same time & 1 had to go. Yes the Abarth was the faster car (when the gearbox was warm) but the Golf had a heater that got the car warm inside 2 mins. May not sound like much but it was a revelation after years in Italian cars. Golf bought with 80,000 on the clock & sold 5 years late with 200,000. It was, for the most part, boringly reliable. Sold (for 200 quid less than I'd paid for it) to fund the purchase of a Golf 2 G60 Ralleye which was the worst car I have ever had the misfortune to own. Utter pants. Of the 2 years I owned it was off the road for a combined total of 6 months & that includes the fortnight it was stuck in 3rd car & I drove it to work anyway.
V-Reg Lancia Beta Coupe 1600. Cheap summer runabout. Not fast but it worked. Sold to an East German mechanic who had moved to Britain & wanted to get out of the 70's Lada he'd bought. Yes I took the Lada in PX. Well, it's sort of Italian isn't it?
R-Reg Lancia Beta Coupe 1600. Another cheap runabout. Sold to a former Formula Renault driver.
T-Reg Lancia Beta Spyder 2000. Bought it, played around with it & sold it. Not noticably faster than the 1600 Coupes.
Other Italian stuff in the immediate family. Fiat 131 Miafiori x 2, Lancia Trevi x 2, Alfa Romeo 33 Sportwagen, Lancia Beta HPE Volumex another Beta Spyder and 2 Beta Saloons.
So, what happened to yours?
S-Reg Alfa Sud 1350 Ti. Bought it dirt cheap, spun it, plastic wheel arches fell of on the M4, noticed how the front of the car was only attached to the rest of it by the radiator hoses & cables for the lights, spotted the Give Way sign that had been welded into the passenger footwell, got a new MOT on it, drove it about some more & sold it to a guy who resprayed it metallic blue using spray cans. I think at that point the paint was worth more than the car.
W-Reg Alfa Sud 1500 Sprint. Was my most expensive car to date. Girlfriend commented 'That's nice & practical, a hatchback'. The car lasted longer than she did. Sold to fund some more ambitious project.
V-Reg Alfa Sud 1500 Sprint. Bought for 100 quid as a stop-gap when the GTV had given up. Outlasted the GTV as it was less trouble. Factor in that less trouble included the wing mirrors dropping off, a leaking sunroof & electronics that seldom did what they were supposed to do & you will understand how cack the GTV was.
V-Reg Alfa Romeo GTV 2000. Required the purchase of the ^^^ Sprint. Have had worse cars but not by much. Sold for spares. Nice on the rare occasions it could be bothered to work.
Y-Reg Alfa Romeo GTV6. Glorious noise & I liked the way it handled. And now the rest of the story. Gear change appalling, no chance of a quick change as, assuming you'd driven the 5 miles required to get the oil warmed up, the linkage was still so wobbly & worn getting the right gear took ages. It leaked. Comedy electrics. Whilst applying the brakes vigorously the engine stopped. Cause beyond me so asked tame mechanic who went straight to the emergency cut out fuel switch ( a steel ball in a cup ) & bi-passed it. Sold when I looked at the invoices it came with (finally) & realised that headgasket change the previous owner had spent a grand on was only to 1 side & that the other side was leaking oil.
S-Reg Fiat X-19 1300. Bought without an MOT, mucked about with it & sold it on without really having given myself the chance to thrash it properly. Which is a shame 'cos it was loads of fun. It goes without saying that it leaked, the electrics had a mind of their own & bits fell off if you sneezed violently.
V-Reg Strada 105TC. My 1st hot hatch. Bought cheaply, run for a bit & sold when I'd spotted something better. Not actually a bad car. Watertight (ish) & the electrics mostly did what they were supposed to do.
B-Reg Abarth 130TC. My 2nd hot hatch. Brilliant at times but mostly frustrating. Climbing into & out of the Recaros. Sitting in the Recaros. The driving position afforded by the Recaros. The fact that, like the GTV6, you had to drive it 5 miles before the gearbox warmed up enough to get 2nd & 4th. Sold as I wound up with it & a Mk2 Golf GTI at the same time & 1 had to go. Yes the Abarth was the faster car (when the gearbox was warm) but the Golf had a heater that got the car warm inside 2 mins. May not sound like much but it was a revelation after years in Italian cars. Golf bought with 80,000 on the clock & sold 5 years late with 200,000. It was, for the most part, boringly reliable. Sold (for 200 quid less than I'd paid for it) to fund the purchase of a Golf 2 G60 Ralleye which was the worst car I have ever had the misfortune to own. Utter pants. Of the 2 years I owned it was off the road for a combined total of 6 months & that includes the fortnight it was stuck in 3rd car & I drove it to work anyway.
V-Reg Lancia Beta Coupe 1600. Cheap summer runabout. Not fast but it worked. Sold to an East German mechanic who had moved to Britain & wanted to get out of the 70's Lada he'd bought. Yes I took the Lada in PX. Well, it's sort of Italian isn't it?
R-Reg Lancia Beta Coupe 1600. Another cheap runabout. Sold to a former Formula Renault driver.
T-Reg Lancia Beta Spyder 2000. Bought it, played around with it & sold it. Not noticably faster than the 1600 Coupes.
Other Italian stuff in the immediate family. Fiat 131 Miafiori x 2, Lancia Trevi x 2, Alfa Romeo 33 Sportwagen, Lancia Beta HPE Volumex another Beta Spyder and 2 Beta Saloons.
So, what happened to yours?
EnglishTony said:
... So, what happened to yours?
All mine seem to have disappeared 
F-reg Fiat Panda Abarth: 1100cc Lancia Delta engine in a twin-sunroof 1000CL bodyshell, went like the proverbial, wouldn't stop this side of next Christmas, bloody brilliant! not seen since p/xing for:
D-reg Lancia Delta Cabriolet: fabulous car, really enjoyed it,sold to my brother who ran it into the ground, passed it on, and it's vanished.
E-reg Lancia Delta LX: bought for £20 because it was spewing oil out like the Torrey Canyon, cleaned the breather pipe and it gave three years reliable service, given to a friend who kept it for a couple of years, now gone.
L-reg Lancia Dedra 1.6: probably the most under-rated car I've ever had, loved it but Lancia's back-up (or lack thereof three months to get a replacement exhaust) meant it had to go
H-reg Lancia Dedra 1.8: bought from my brother because it had a tow-bar which helped me move house, sold it to a couple of eastern Europeans who were planning to drive it home
1958 Lancia Appia Pininfarina Coupe: imported from Italy, enjoyed for a few years, then sold it to Japan, so I'll not see that again
Enjoyed them all, and apart from the 1.8 Dedra, I'd happily buy any one of them back again if I had the opportunity.
I tend to hang on my cars a little longer - first MG B I had for 10 years, the current one has been in the family since 1986.
My 1999 Alfa Spider twin spark - lovely bright zoe yellow, had it for 6 years. Ragged the engine trying to out gun a type r civic up haldon hill at Exeter and seized it. Couldn't face binning the car, so replaced the engine with a reconditioned one at not far off what I'd paid for the car. Ran virtually trouble free bar - driver's side window caught on the hood, so you had to have the window down 1/2 " so it leaked when the wind blew that way. Crank sensor failed but was easily replaced. Rear brake shims squealed every 1000 miles no matter how much copperease I put on them. The rest was wear and tear - brake components, exhaust (ran a lovely ragazzon back section on it for 4 years) Electric aerial failed, bought a new one from maplin which lasted 18 months before it failed and then it became economically unviable to replace it again. So 6 years and only one trip on the back of the RAC wagon was a lot better than anyone expected. Did call the RAC out about the crank sensor, but by the time they'd mobilised the car had cooled down sufficiently to start itself.
Current 147 GTA was running absolutely brilliantly apart from an occasionally wet passenger footwell caused by a t shirt being rammed in where the pollen filter should be. Then I lent the car to a good mate while I've been working abroad (thinking it would be better than having it standing on the drive and driven by the wife once a week) and he's trashed the brakes and the MAF has packed in. I'm letting him off because he found the t shirt and solved that problem.
Loved the suds when I was younger but couldn't find a good one. Was after a GTV6 for a while too, but then the prices were going up and I ended up with a capri for a while instead.
My 1999 Alfa Spider twin spark - lovely bright zoe yellow, had it for 6 years. Ragged the engine trying to out gun a type r civic up haldon hill at Exeter and seized it. Couldn't face binning the car, so replaced the engine with a reconditioned one at not far off what I'd paid for the car. Ran virtually trouble free bar - driver's side window caught on the hood, so you had to have the window down 1/2 " so it leaked when the wind blew that way. Crank sensor failed but was easily replaced. Rear brake shims squealed every 1000 miles no matter how much copperease I put on them. The rest was wear and tear - brake components, exhaust (ran a lovely ragazzon back section on it for 4 years) Electric aerial failed, bought a new one from maplin which lasted 18 months before it failed and then it became economically unviable to replace it again. So 6 years and only one trip on the back of the RAC wagon was a lot better than anyone expected. Did call the RAC out about the crank sensor, but by the time they'd mobilised the car had cooled down sufficiently to start itself.
Current 147 GTA was running absolutely brilliantly apart from an occasionally wet passenger footwell caused by a t shirt being rammed in where the pollen filter should be. Then I lent the car to a good mate while I've been working abroad (thinking it would be better than having it standing on the drive and driven by the wife once a week) and he's trashed the brakes and the MAF has packed in. I'm letting him off because he found the t shirt and solved that problem.
Loved the suds when I was younger but couldn't find a good one. Was after a GTV6 for a while too, but then the prices were going up and I ended up with a capri for a while instead.
Cars:
A GTV6 was my dream car when I started driving, but I never found a solid one that was within my price range, so I had to wait until the 164 came along before I could get my Alfa fix:
1990 Alfa 164 V6 12V Lusso - bought in 1993, kept for 3 years then sold privately with about £2K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 V6 24V Super - bought in 1996, drove for 3 years then parked up for a year while I had a brief fling with:
2000 Alfa GTV V6 bought in late 2000, sold in late 2001 with £2.5K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 24V Cloverleaf - part-exed the 1993 Super in 2002 , drove the Cloverleaf for three years until my only real Alfa-related failure...cambelt went when I sailed a bit too close to the recommended replacement time limit...lesson learnt!
2002 Alfa 156 GTA - bought in 2005 - still have it, love it, won't ever sell it. Now a second car behind a C6 RS6, which I am considering replacing with a 4C, although I'll probably keep the RS6 for a couple more years.
Bikes:
2002 996r bought in 2005 - still have it and, conservatively, it's now worth 50% more than I paid for it...which will go someway to covering the servicing, fuel & other consumable costs...bargain riding - who'd have thought it!
2012 Hypermotard 1100 evo - still have it.
Overall, I have had three non "acceptable wear and tear" incidents in 23 years of exclusively driving / riding Italian machinery:
164 Cloverleaf - cambelt (left change too late, combination of Alfa's stupidly long recommended intervals at the time and me being disorganised)
156 GTA - Alternator went last year at 13 years old...just required a jump start & charge to get down to the garage to get a new one fitted.
996r - aftermarket Alarm b
ksed the electrics, meaning I had to start it with a jump lead from the battery to the starter motor during a trackday, leading to numerous "unreliable Ducati" comments.
With Good GTAs' prices now bottoming out, I'm also pretty pleased with the depreciation!
A GTV6 was my dream car when I started driving, but I never found a solid one that was within my price range, so I had to wait until the 164 came along before I could get my Alfa fix:
1990 Alfa 164 V6 12V Lusso - bought in 1993, kept for 3 years then sold privately with about £2K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 V6 24V Super - bought in 1996, drove for 3 years then parked up for a year while I had a brief fling with:
2000 Alfa GTV V6 bought in late 2000, sold in late 2001 with £2.5K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 24V Cloverleaf - part-exed the 1993 Super in 2002 , drove the Cloverleaf for three years until my only real Alfa-related failure...cambelt went when I sailed a bit too close to the recommended replacement time limit...lesson learnt!
2002 Alfa 156 GTA - bought in 2005 - still have it, love it, won't ever sell it. Now a second car behind a C6 RS6, which I am considering replacing with a 4C, although I'll probably keep the RS6 for a couple more years.
Bikes:
2002 996r bought in 2005 - still have it and, conservatively, it's now worth 50% more than I paid for it...which will go someway to covering the servicing, fuel & other consumable costs...bargain riding - who'd have thought it!
2012 Hypermotard 1100 evo - still have it.
Overall, I have had three non "acceptable wear and tear" incidents in 23 years of exclusively driving / riding Italian machinery:
164 Cloverleaf - cambelt (left change too late, combination of Alfa's stupidly long recommended intervals at the time and me being disorganised)
156 GTA - Alternator went last year at 13 years old...just required a jump start & charge to get down to the garage to get a new one fitted.
996r - aftermarket Alarm b
ksed the electrics, meaning I had to start it with a jump lead from the battery to the starter motor during a trackday, leading to numerous "unreliable Ducati" comments. With Good GTAs' prices now bottoming out, I'm also pretty pleased with the depreciation!
Edited by ian996 on Friday 22 January 13:08
Edited by ian996 on Friday 22 January 13:09
ian996 said:
Cars:
A GTV6 was my dream car when I started driving, but I never found a solid one that was within my price range, so I had to wait until the 164 came along before I could get my Alfa fix:
1990 Alfa 164 V6 12V Lusso - bought in 1993, kept for 3 years then sold privately with about £2K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 V6 24V Super - bought in 1996, drove for 3 years then parked up for a year while I had a brief fling with:
2000 Alfa GTV V6 bought in late 2000, sold in late 2001 with £2.5K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 24V Cloverleaf - part-exed the 1993 Super in 2002 , drove the Cloverleaf for three years until my only real Alfa-related failure...cambelt went when I sailed a bit too close to the recommended replacement time limit...lesson learnt!
2002 Alfa 156 GTA - bought in 2005 - still have it, love it, won't ever sell it. Now a second car behind a C6 RS6, which I am considering replacing with a 4C, although I'll probably keep the RS6 for a couple more years.
Bikes:
2002 996r bought in 2005 - still have it and, conservatively, it's now worth 50% more than I paid for it...which will go someway to covering the servicing, fuel & other consumable costs...bargain riding - who'd have thought it!
2012 Hypermotard 1100 evo - still have it.
Overall, I have had three non "acceptable wear and tear" incidents in 23 years of exclusively driving / riding Italian machinery:
164 Cloverleaf - cambelt (left change too late, combination of Alfa's stupidly long recommended intervals at the time and me being disorganised)
156 GTA - Alternator went last year at 13 years old...just required a jump start & charge to get down to the garage to get a new one fitted.
996r - aftermarket Alarm bksed the electrics, meaning I had to start it with a jump lead from the battery to the starter motor during a trackday, leading to numerous "unreliable Ducati" comments.
With Good GTAs' prices now bottoming out, I'm also pretty pleased with the depreciation!
Hi, I think I know you, are you the brother of DH11 my dear departed friend ?A GTV6 was my dream car when I started driving, but I never found a solid one that was within my price range, so I had to wait until the 164 came along before I could get my Alfa fix:
1990 Alfa 164 V6 12V Lusso - bought in 1993, kept for 3 years then sold privately with about £2K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 V6 24V Super - bought in 1996, drove for 3 years then parked up for a year while I had a brief fling with:
2000 Alfa GTV V6 bought in late 2000, sold in late 2001 with £2.5K depreciation.
1993 Alfa 164 24V Cloverleaf - part-exed the 1993 Super in 2002 , drove the Cloverleaf for three years until my only real Alfa-related failure...cambelt went when I sailed a bit too close to the recommended replacement time limit...lesson learnt!
2002 Alfa 156 GTA - bought in 2005 - still have it, love it, won't ever sell it. Now a second car behind a C6 RS6, which I am considering replacing with a 4C, although I'll probably keep the RS6 for a couple more years.
Bikes:
2002 996r bought in 2005 - still have it and, conservatively, it's now worth 50% more than I paid for it...which will go someway to covering the servicing, fuel & other consumable costs...bargain riding - who'd have thought it!
2012 Hypermotard 1100 evo - still have it.
Overall, I have had three non "acceptable wear and tear" incidents in 23 years of exclusively driving / riding Italian machinery:
164 Cloverleaf - cambelt (left change too late, combination of Alfa's stupidly long recommended intervals at the time and me being disorganised)
156 GTA - Alternator went last year at 13 years old...just required a jump start & charge to get down to the garage to get a new one fitted.
996r - aftermarket Alarm b
ksed the electrics, meaning I had to start it with a jump lead from the battery to the starter motor during a trackday, leading to numerous "unreliable Ducati" comments. With Good GTAs' prices now bottoming out, I'm also pretty pleased with the depreciation!
Edited by ian996 on Friday 22 January 13:08
Edited by ian996 on Friday 22 January 13:09
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