2001 Alfa Romeo

2001 Alfa Romeo 2.5 V6 manual Veloce

Pre-facelift, 'SP3' Veloce, finished in Vela blue with 16-inch teledials and dark grey momo leather interior. 71k miles with full Alfa / Alfa specialist history.

All the usual 156 kit – remote central locking, alarm/imobiliser, electric windows, driver, passenger and side air bags. Only non-standard item is a Philips MP3/bluetooth/DAB head unit.

I'm the fourth owner. Bought it off my friend at the start of 2018, when he emigrated to California. He had owned it since 2010. Previous owner to that had it from just 6 months old. Originally, it was an Alfa press fleet car.

The car has a massive file of history, including the original invoices. For most of its life it was serviced at Desira Alfa in north London, and then Veloce's – the Alfa specialist in Barnet. More recently, I've had Alfatech in Huddersfield look after it – they changed the Cambelt and tensioners, waterpump and spark plugs in April 2018. Car was last MOT'd in the summer, passed with just two advisories. Has until June 2019 before it needs another. Notably, Alfatech said that mechanically it was one of the nicest 156s they'd seen, and given that many 156s are starting to rust at the sub-frame underneath, it was completely clean below and free from rust.

It's great to drive – the 2.5 V6 busso sounds fantastic, and the throttle response shames any modern turbo charged performance car. Ride is smooth and the steering responsive. It's also been very reliable – in the year i've had it, it's never failed to proceed – and from what I can see in the history has only let anyone down once in 17 years!

If you're looking at this and you know your Alfas, you'll know how rare these are getting. And that GTVs and 156 GTAs are starting to command silly prices. So I doubt you're going to lose money... i'm not going to sell you a cliche about this car being an appreciating asset, everyone seems to think their car is these days.

In fact, I've priced the car low compared to what a tidy, low mile 156 V6 should be. For while the car is mechanically very sound and the interior lovely, the exterior bears a number of age related marks and dings – the car living in London most of its life. It's nothing terrible – a couple of hundred quid on some touching up and a detail would see it looking like new. So I've taken this into account with the price.

Unfortunately I've a new job (which means I'm commuting to Sweden each week) and simply haven't the time to get things sorted to a standard I'm happy with, and I'm not using the car given i've got two others and work in the car industry so have other things land on my drive. So that's why I'm selling.

I've also got 2 Uniroyal Rainsport 3s I've not had time to put on. If I get the asking price, you can have them with the car.

No silly offers please.