Ebay Purchase! 1996 Alfa GTV 2.0TS
Discussion
I’ve been looking for a 2nd car for a while – partly just for the sake of having something a little different to drive, but also so I don’t have to use my BMW 325i for my annoyingly short/bumpy/stop-start daily commute of 6 miles or so across the city.
Nothing specific was on my radar as I trawled ebay, Autotrader, and GumTree – I was just looking within a reasonable distance from home, something around shed money and the kind of car that would generally get a thumbs up from the PH community.
Cars that caught my eye recently included an E46 328 Tourer, a Saab 9-3 turbo, a couple of S-Types – one 3.0v6, the other a very tempting v8. Mark 1 Audi TTs (225) were also interesting me, albeit the budget would have to stretch a bit.
Anyway, this popped up on Gumtree priced at £1495 (seller’s pics) –
I communicated with the seller – he seemed a decent chap and was within walking distance of where I live. I passed the car a couple of times and it looked pretty smart, but didn’t get round to viewing it properly as I thought the price was a little steep.
Anyway, a week later it pops up on ebay – same description and pics, 7 day auction I think. I watch it and join the bidding with about 10 seconds left and only go and win it!
I possibly got a little carried away – went a couple of 100 over shed money but still well short of what he originally wanted. I’ve certainly seen these sell for a few hundred less on ebay and AT but not local to me so you could say it’s a case of supply and demand…
Anyway, the car –
It’s an early phase 1 Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 Twinspark which has done 83800 miles. Registered in August 1996 – these cars came to the Uk in April 1996 I believe so it’s certainly one of the earlier ones.
I’m the 9th owner – nothing remarkable for a 20 year old car I guess – the last owner only acquired it in June but the owner before that had it for around 6 years. The chap I got it from said he has back problems and could not get along with it – I got the impression he was genuine rather than just selling me a lemon!
The chap actually spent around £700 on it in July at one of our local Alfa specialists – full service, cambelt, balance belt, brake disks and pads all round. I even found a couple of pics on facebook of the car being worked on –
Other things of note – the service history is not complete – the service book is actually in great condition but lacks a few stamps. There’s nothing too alarming in the MOT history though it was off the road between 2012-2016. MOT until July 2017.
The car is actually in really nice condition, no real bumps or scratches. The interior likewise. There’s four keys, all the manuals, a few receipts for bits and pieces, new exhaust in 2012 I think.
You don't see a great number of these cars around and I did notice a few people taking an interest when I was parked up in the city earlier, which feels odd for such a cheap car.
Early impressions – well I’ve done less than 100 miles so far – used it on one commute to work plus a couple runs along local A roads and twisty B roads. I really like it – I’m sure the 3.0v6 they do in these is great but the 2.0 TS still has a decent turn of pace. It feels well planted and handles well on the B roads. The wet weather we’ve been having has meant I haven’t really pushed it too hard though.
Overall, it seems to run really nicely, there are no worrying knocks or bangs from the suspension. Only issue I did have was the clutch stuck to the floor once – a quick google suggests this is not uncommon and symptomatic of GTVs which have maybe stood for a while. The gearbox and clutch actually feel fine and smooth but I’ll keep an eye on this and get it looked at if it becomes a problem.
I end with a few pics of my own. Thanks for reading!
Nothing specific was on my radar as I trawled ebay, Autotrader, and GumTree – I was just looking within a reasonable distance from home, something around shed money and the kind of car that would generally get a thumbs up from the PH community.
Cars that caught my eye recently included an E46 328 Tourer, a Saab 9-3 turbo, a couple of S-Types – one 3.0v6, the other a very tempting v8. Mark 1 Audi TTs (225) were also interesting me, albeit the budget would have to stretch a bit.
Anyway, this popped up on Gumtree priced at £1495 (seller’s pics) –
I communicated with the seller – he seemed a decent chap and was within walking distance of where I live. I passed the car a couple of times and it looked pretty smart, but didn’t get round to viewing it properly as I thought the price was a little steep.
Anyway, a week later it pops up on ebay – same description and pics, 7 day auction I think. I watch it and join the bidding with about 10 seconds left and only go and win it!
I possibly got a little carried away – went a couple of 100 over shed money but still well short of what he originally wanted. I’ve certainly seen these sell for a few hundred less on ebay and AT but not local to me so you could say it’s a case of supply and demand…
Anyway, the car –
It’s an early phase 1 Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 Twinspark which has done 83800 miles. Registered in August 1996 – these cars came to the Uk in April 1996 I believe so it’s certainly one of the earlier ones.
I’m the 9th owner – nothing remarkable for a 20 year old car I guess – the last owner only acquired it in June but the owner before that had it for around 6 years. The chap I got it from said he has back problems and could not get along with it – I got the impression he was genuine rather than just selling me a lemon!
The chap actually spent around £700 on it in July at one of our local Alfa specialists – full service, cambelt, balance belt, brake disks and pads all round. I even found a couple of pics on facebook of the car being worked on –
Other things of note – the service history is not complete – the service book is actually in great condition but lacks a few stamps. There’s nothing too alarming in the MOT history though it was off the road between 2012-2016. MOT until July 2017.
The car is actually in really nice condition, no real bumps or scratches. The interior likewise. There’s four keys, all the manuals, a few receipts for bits and pieces, new exhaust in 2012 I think.
You don't see a great number of these cars around and I did notice a few people taking an interest when I was parked up in the city earlier, which feels odd for such a cheap car.
Early impressions – well I’ve done less than 100 miles so far – used it on one commute to work plus a couple runs along local A roads and twisty B roads. I really like it – I’m sure the 3.0v6 they do in these is great but the 2.0 TS still has a decent turn of pace. It feels well planted and handles well on the B roads. The wet weather we’ve been having has meant I haven’t really pushed it too hard though.
Overall, it seems to run really nicely, there are no worrying knocks or bangs from the suspension. Only issue I did have was the clutch stuck to the floor once – a quick google suggests this is not uncommon and symptomatic of GTVs which have maybe stood for a while. The gearbox and clutch actually feel fine and smooth but I’ll keep an eye on this and get it looked at if it becomes a problem.
I end with a few pics of my own. Thanks for reading!
Edited by andy118run on Tuesday 11th October 00:34
Nice GTV and it looks a sound buy, I've got an August 1996 Spider I'm working on at the moment that hasn't been on the road for a few years.
The only downsides you'll probably encounter is parts for the early Ph1 cars (pre Mar 97 I think) are starting to get rare, mine has given me a couple of nightmares already. I would advise a really good look at the rear suspension, caught the subframe on mine just in time.
Good luck and if you're not on there already Alfaowner forum is very useful.
The only downsides you'll probably encounter is parts for the early Ph1 cars (pre Mar 97 I think) are starting to get rare, mine has given me a couple of nightmares already. I would advise a really good look at the rear suspension, caught the subframe on mine just in time.
Good luck and if you're not on there already Alfaowner forum is very useful.
Thanks for the comments.
Interesting that someone commented on the wheels - I guess they are the originals and I think they (and the tyres) are in pretty good condition.
However, if I was going to change anything it would probably be the wheels. A set of these have cropped up 4 miles from me -
Described as - "4 Alfa 16" teardrop alloy wheels with good Firestone ZR tyres.excellent condition. £200 bargain!"
I messaged the fella and they're available to view later this week. Anybody have any views on these? I had a quick look on Autotrader and saw a couple of cars with them on, possibly phase 3 Alfas.
They look ok, not sure they look anything special?
Interesting that someone commented on the wheels - I guess they are the originals and I think they (and the tyres) are in pretty good condition.
However, if I was going to change anything it would probably be the wheels. A set of these have cropped up 4 miles from me -
Described as - "4 Alfa 16" teardrop alloy wheels with good Firestone ZR tyres.excellent condition. £200 bargain!"
I messaged the fella and they're available to view later this week. Anybody have any views on these? I had a quick look on Autotrader and saw a couple of cars with them on, possibly phase 3 Alfas.
They look ok, not sure they look anything special?
Evanivitch said:
I'm not sure they look particularly special. Have you considered teledials?
I was just looking at what was reasonably local on Gumtree and Ebay and this was all I could find.I recall Teledials were mentioned on the Alfa forum when I was having a bit of a google as pretty much the most desirable wheel upgrade though I got the impression 2nd hand ones are tricky to find. Maybe I'll explore the teledials a bit more then. Thanks for the reply.
HorneyMX5 said:
I remember crawling round one of these at the Motorshow the year they were launched. My Dad was looking at one for his next company car. Sadly the boot was too small for his kit. He bought a mk3 Golf VR6 instead.
Yep, pretty useless. I did remove the spare tyre the other day to increase the space but it didn't make a lot of difference. Therefore, the tyre is now back in place and I will use one of the other cars if I need a bit of boot space.
andy118run said:
[url][img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/43O6DCHL.jpg[/
img]|http://thumbsnap.com/43O6DCHL[/url]
Yep, pretty useless. I did remove the spare tyre the other day to increase the space but it didn't make a lot of difference. Therefore, the tyre is
now back in place and I will use one of the other cars if I need a bit of boot space.
it's ok for a toy surely? Our SLK seems to be a similar size and that got us a week and a half around Europeimg]|http://thumbsnap.com/43O6DCHL[/url]
Yep, pretty useless. I did remove the spare tyre the other day to increase the space but it didn't make a lot of difference. Therefore, the tyre is
now back in place and I will use one of the other cars if I need a bit of boot space.
I had one years ago (2003 i think)... same sort of age as that.
I bought it from a Ferrari main dealer of all places. I immediately swapped over the wheels and put some progressive Eibach springs on there (you need to be very careful as the sump guard is VERY low on these.... certainly not enough to clear a badger!).
Great cars... the 2.0 engine is lovely and they feel very special.
I never really had any issues at all with the car, unlike a later Alfa effort which pretty much self-destructed from purchase onwards
Good luck with it and enjoy....
I bought it from a Ferrari main dealer of all places. I immediately swapped over the wheels and put some progressive Eibach springs on there (you need to be very careful as the sump guard is VERY low on these.... certainly not enough to clear a badger!).
Great cars... the 2.0 engine is lovely and they feel very special.
I never really had any issues at all with the car, unlike a later Alfa effort which pretty much self-destructed from purchase onwards
Good luck with it and enjoy....
Yacht Broker said:
I had one years ago (2003 i think)... same sort of age as that.
I bought it from a Ferrari main dealer of all places. I immediately swapped over the wheels and put some progressive Eibach springs on there (you need to be very careful as the sump guard is VERY low on these.... certainly not enough to clear a badger!).
Great cars... the 2.0 engine is lovely and they feel very special.
I never really had any issues at all with the car, unlike a later Alfa effort which pretty much self-destructed from purchase onwards
Good luck with it and enjoy....
That GTV looks very similar, apart from the nicer alloys. I assume it's also a phase 1 car from the front grill.I bought it from a Ferrari main dealer of all places. I immediately swapped over the wheels and put some progressive Eibach springs on there (you need to be very careful as the sump guard is VERY low on these.... certainly not enough to clear a badger!).
Great cars... the 2.0 engine is lovely and they feel very special.
I never really had any issues at all with the car, unlike a later Alfa effort which pretty much self-destructed from purchase onwards
Good luck with it and enjoy....
Edited by andy118run on Saturday 15th October 00:49
carinaman said:
Thanks for the thread. I'll read fully later. I saw that on eBay and was annoyed that I forgot about the Atoll blue one that ended on eBay just before yours.
Must have missed the blue one though I tend to only look for cars within 50 miles-ish of me so I assume it was not local.andy118run said:
carinaman said:
Thanks for the thread. I'll read fully later. I saw that on eBay and was annoyed that I forgot about the Atoll blue one that ended on eBay just before yours.
Must have missed the blue one though I tend to only look for cars within 50 miles-ish of me so I assume it was not local.If you change the alloys I'd suggest keeping the old ones as the car looks standard I think would think it would be a shame to spoil it, it's your car but it looks quite lovely as it is.
A couple of links that you may be aware of already:
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/images/15-4-800.jpg
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_romeo_gtv.shtml
carinaman said:
The blue one wasn't as nice as yours but was a lot cheaper but was another phase 1 with the alloy cam cover rather than the later plastic shrouded one.
If you change the alloys I'd suggest keeping the old ones as the car looks standard I think would think it would be a shame to spoil it, it's your car but it looks quite lovely as it is.
A couple of links that you may be aware of already:
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/images/15-4-800.jpg
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_romeo_gtv.shtml
Thanks for the links - some interesting info there. I occasionally browse cars for sale to see what sort of miles I can expect my cars to do so it's good to know there are 2.0 GTVs out there with 190,000 miles on the clock! Not sure i'll be adding 110k miles to it though.If you change the alloys I'd suggest keeping the old ones as the car looks standard I think would think it would be a shame to spoil it, it's your car but it looks quite lovely as it is.
A couple of links that you may be aware of already:
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/images/15-4-800.jpg
http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_romeo_gtv.shtml
I agree with the wheels - I prefer not to modify cars so probably won't change them. Once close up to them they do show their age though, with a bit of corrosion here and there. Must admit I do rather like the teledial ones so will keep an eye out on the off chance that some pop up for sale locally in the future.
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