Finally, sincerely: RIP Alpine A110
The very last A110 has rolled off the production line - we won't see its like again...
Yesterday, the final Alpine A110 rolled off the production line. It was an R 70 in Alpine Blue, the 28,701st example to emerge from the factory in Dieppe. Alpine reckoned its spec served to encapsulate the ‘brand’s heritage, savoir-faire and sporting DNA’. Of course, that was also true of the 28,700 cars that preceded it - from day one, the A110 mesmerised pretty much everyone who drove it. Alongside the Porsche 718 Cayman (also dead), it served to remind people that, pound-for-pound and in the broadest possible sense, there is nothing quite like a properly sorted, mid-engined sports car.
Granted, it had some shortcomings. The A110's failure to consistently overcome the Cayman as an ownership prospect could be traced to three limitations: its petrol engine had too few cylinders, and too little character from the four it did get; its interior was too obviously a product of Renault-based sensibilities; and there was tragically little storage space for anything larger than its credit card-sized key. But buyers were easily persuaded to overlook all three once behind the wheel, such was the quality of flow and uncanny finesse coming from the chassis.
Though Alpine added more power and purpose as time went on - often to great effect - it is true that almost everything great about the A110 was contained within the base model (one trait the Cayman could not stake a rival claim to). Good news for customers when new; good for secondhand buyers now. Of the 46 A110s available in the classifieds, the cheapest example is this Pure model from 2019 at £38,000. ‘A quite hard-to-find car - people don’t want to part with them’, exclaims the dealer. Never a truer word spoken. It has completed 44,500 miles courtesy of two previous owners. We’d encourage anyone to seriously consider becoming the third.
Presumably the 250hp entry-level A110 went down very well in France, where they appear not to care about the implied added value of higher trim grades - but this being treasure island, we tend to like our cars embellished. Consequently, when the S was launched in 2019 with 300hp and a lower, slightly stiffer chassis, British buyers fell on it like wolves. Consequently you will find plenty of these in the classifieds, too, albeit starting at the wrong side of £40k. Around £45k will bag you one on low miles (this one, from 2021 has just 16k on the clock) and usually in a showier spec.
If you’re prepared to spend more than £50k, you get to access the GT model that became a mainstay of the lineup after 2021. The GT is notable because it combined the S’s higher output with the softer suspension settings of the base car - and was nicer inside than either. All things being equal, it is arguably the version to buy if you’re looking for a do-it-all A110 with a bit more straight-line energy. This one, from 2022, is a limited edition Legende example (apparently one of just 12 in the UK) has covered less than 4k miles and looks very fetching in blue over tan.
Alternatively, if your budget is uncapped, you might want to consider the range-topping A110 R. Alpine possibly missed a trick by not extracting yet more output from its 1.8-litre four pot (only the absurdly expensive and uber exclusive Ultime finally earned 350hp) but the R is sufficiently talented to make you forget all about the bits of road in between corners for what it does during them. You’ll likely need to cough up more than £80k for something like the ritzy and very recent Turini edition - but we were quite taken by this standard R from 2024, a snip at £77k and wonderfully mean in black. Actually, who are we kidding? We were taken by all of them. And as much as we’re looking forward to seeing the battery-powered replacement (due at Festival of Speed in prototype format) it obviously won’t be the same. RIP A110.
Too late for me I fear, I just hope he listens to me and gets out.
And if I had the money I'd buy an A110 in a heartbeat.
That said still vastly preferable to any EV.
I would just put it in track mode so you had to use the paddles. A real fun car and ridiculously fast, I mean 4.5s to 60mph.
Did a couple of Euro trips in it, including driving from London to Tenerife, and back. Comfy for driving at high speed for 8 hour days, then those amazing Sabelt buckets to hug you on the smooth surface Spanish Twisties.
Only sold it as I had lost my job and I panicked about money.
I was very tempted to jump back in but it's a lot of cash for an out of warranty one.
I'm now in a Mazda MX5 with a 6 year warranty and a lovely manual gearbox.
And no real danger of getting to licence busting speeds with a mere dab of the accelerator
Clio-sourced ICE control I’m glad they spent the money on the body and chassis rather than wasting it on a bespoke controller for the Hifi…
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