3 x Italian Cars, Total Spend £5k, What Would You Buy?
Discussion
The great thing about being a fan of Fiats, Lancias and Alfas is how cheap many of them still are. So it got me thinking that I might start to form a small collection of 80s and 90s cars, many of which it's still possible to find very good examples for peanut money.
First off would be a rear wheel drive Alfa and seeing as my old man bought one brand new in 1983, when I was 9, then passed it to my mother and eventually sold it in 1991 it was the car I remember most fondly while growing up, so,
No.1 Alfetta GTV 2.0 - still possible to find a good, solid plastic bumper car for around £2500 and I prefer the later interior and seats, Gun Metal Grey with Orange Velour please!
Next would be one of the most fun hot hatches I've had the good fortune to own but unfortunately getting very rare now in the UK that I may have to look to Europe to find a rust free example, so next up is
No. 2 Alfa 145 Cloverleaf - specifically an early car with the metal top cam cover, tubular manifolds and the two tone cloth seats. I would probably go LHD as they all came with the much more pleasant facelift dashboard which never made it to the UK, £1250 should find a good one.
Lastly, sorry for the Alfa bias, would have to be a Busso V6 and whilst I'd love a 75 3.0 or a GTV6 the remaining budget precludes a good one so it would have to be one of the most beautiful saloons ever made
No.3 Alfa 156 2.5 V6 - for me the purity of the Mk 1 wins every day, being a V6 it would need to be a Sport Pack or Veloce with the Carbon effect dash and orange dials and again £1250 should buy a very nice example.
So there you have it, there's so much choice I could quite easily come up with about 10 alternatives! Let's have yours.
First off would be a rear wheel drive Alfa and seeing as my old man bought one brand new in 1983, when I was 9, then passed it to my mother and eventually sold it in 1991 it was the car I remember most fondly while growing up, so,
No.1 Alfetta GTV 2.0 - still possible to find a good, solid plastic bumper car for around £2500 and I prefer the later interior and seats, Gun Metal Grey with Orange Velour please!
Next would be one of the most fun hot hatches I've had the good fortune to own but unfortunately getting very rare now in the UK that I may have to look to Europe to find a rust free example, so next up is
No. 2 Alfa 145 Cloverleaf - specifically an early car with the metal top cam cover, tubular manifolds and the two tone cloth seats. I would probably go LHD as they all came with the much more pleasant facelift dashboard which never made it to the UK, £1250 should find a good one.
Lastly, sorry for the Alfa bias, would have to be a Busso V6 and whilst I'd love a 75 3.0 or a GTV6 the remaining budget precludes a good one so it would have to be one of the most beautiful saloons ever made
No.3 Alfa 156 2.5 V6 - for me the purity of the Mk 1 wins every day, being a V6 it would need to be a Sport Pack or Veloce with the Carbon effect dash and orange dials and again £1250 should buy a very nice example.
So there you have it, there's so much choice I could quite easily come up with about 10 alternatives! Let's have yours.
Honestly, none unless I would have another 5 grand each to keep them running.
This is not me having a go at Italian car "reliability". In fact I can name some German or Japanese cars that would need a significantly bigger maintenance budget. Just wanted to make the point that buying cars cheap is one thing, but unless you want to put them on a plinth as a statue, what comes next is the part where you pay the real money. Old cars break down all the time, simple as that. Before the war the state of technology was not far enough to prevent otherwise, after the war obsolescence became built-in. Even if you do all yourself you'll still need to pay for parts.
Three cars for 5000 will put a maintenance cost strain that will be hard to survive. One decent 75 for that money would be my choice.
Make it a Twin Spark.
This is not me having a go at Italian car "reliability". In fact I can name some German or Japanese cars that would need a significantly bigger maintenance budget. Just wanted to make the point that buying cars cheap is one thing, but unless you want to put them on a plinth as a statue, what comes next is the part where you pay the real money. Old cars break down all the time, simple as that. Before the war the state of technology was not far enough to prevent otherwise, after the war obsolescence became built-in. Even if you do all yourself you'll still need to pay for parts.
Three cars for 5000 will put a maintenance cost strain that will be hard to survive. One decent 75 for that money would be my choice.
Make it a Twin Spark.
Gassing Station | Alfa Romeo, Fiat & Lancia | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff