Last week Garlick was talking about the virtues of big barge sheds, reaping the benefits of crushing depreciation and getting a lot of metal for your money.
So I decided to hunt out my own slice of shed luxury, the kind of thing that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the management car park a few years ago. There are lots of German luxo-barges around but I decided to go for something a bit different.
Remember these? It only seems like yesterday you could buy a brand new Alfa Romeo 166 from a showroom but it was in fact three years ago that they stopped selling them in the UK. It was 1999 that Alfa first rolled out the 166 and, following the success of the 156, the Italian firm was genuinely starting to look like a serious opposition to the Germans.
Not only did the 166 look great, far more interesting than the opposition, but quality was improving at a colossal rate, perhaps not enough to give BMW and Mercedes sleepless nights, but good reason to stock up on the Horlicks. The 166 was pretty well made for an Alfa and managed to dispel the reliability horror stories of big Alfas of old.
Have a look at the pictures – the 166 still looks fresh today both inside and out, and thanks to its rarity a lot of people probably haven’t noticed they have gone out of production. Obviously the pick of the bunch would be the 3.0 but this one is a 2.5 V6 24V (it was available as a 2 litre 16v) with Alfa’s fancy-sounding Sportronic auto. The auto ‘box had two modes, it could either select a pre-determined shift pattern based on your driving style or it had a ‘Tiptronic’ style shift.
Found on autotrader.co.uk the 166 we found has alloys, air, cruise control, which were standard, and comes in a nice sombre grey. It does have MOT and tax but the best bit has to be that it has only covered 78,000 miles. These Alfas still go for three grand so to find one at £999 does seem a bargain.
Once this would have cost you £24,000 but now you can have boardroom style for the price of an old Fiesta. The Italians might not quite be able to take on the Germans in the showrooms but when it comes to sheds, they've got them licked.
Ad reads: 1999 ALFA ROMEO 166 2.5 V6 24V Sportronic 4dr Auto Saloon
Automatic, 78,000 miles, Grey. ABS, Alarm, Alloy wheels, Body coloured bumpers, Climate control, Cruise control, 2492 cc. £999. no offers