Any GT 1.9JTDM owners on here?
Discussion
Hi all, I've not ventured into this part of PH before but it's really starting to feel like time to scratch the itch. GT prices are hilariously low currently it seems, and I'm really drawn to the idea of one as a daily driver to replace my entirely mundane and unattractive Golf. I'm well into bangernomics currently with the Golf costing me a princely £50, but it does the job and nothing more, and having to drive a car every day that I never really desired or had any lust for is a little grating! The GT is calling with that lovely shape and interior, however it would be the daily and my weekends are TVR-shaped and thirsty so the least sanity I can resort to is to opt for the relatively econominal 1.9 derv. I know little about the car nor engine though, so any owners on here that can share their experiences and a little guidance? It would be much appreciated!
Cheers
Cheers
Cheers fellas, what is it that tends to see the suspension off? Just weak components? I'll look into the aftermarket solutions a bit more 
Little niggles like bulbs etc won't be bothering me in the slightest, the appeal of the car for me lies in how stylish and sumptuous it is for close to shed money, I'm certainly not intending to run a concours car and I can put up with imperfections.
I'll dive back into Google and do as much reading as I can on the JTDM, I'm not too clever with Diesel engines so I'm sure a learning curve is in store. With any luck I may be reappearing on this section of PH in the near future, really appreciate the insight and hopefully it'll sort me out with finding a good'un
Little niggles like bulbs etc won't be bothering me in the slightest, the appeal of the car for me lies in how stylish and sumptuous it is for close to shed money, I'm certainly not intending to run a concours car and I can put up with imperfections.
I'll dive back into Google and do as much reading as I can on the JTDM, I'm not too clever with Diesel engines so I'm sure a learning curve is in store. With any luck I may be reappearing on this section of PH in the near future, really appreciate the insight and hopefully it'll sort me out with finding a good'un
Went to look at my first today. Pretty scruffy and neglected car from a small dealer, but advertised for just £1k. Moon mileage and no MOT, it hasn't moved for a long time and will need work to pass. I wouldn't touch it as it stands, but the dealer have said that they'll get it MOT'd next week so I can test drive it. I know it'll need new parts to legitimately pass so if I turn up next week and see lots of shiny bits it could start looking like a good punt. It started from a booster pack and from cold was surprisingly smooth and no smoke or smell from the exhaust. All electrics worked as they should and most of the cosmetic stuff would clean up (it didn't look as though the dealer had touched it)- the shedding hemisphere of my brain is starting to say that for £1k with a years MOT its worth the risk.
I'll keep looking though, I'm quite excited to visit the other end of the budget scale and see some really nice examples too. Could go either way- to shed or to cherish!
I'll keep looking though, I'm quite excited to visit the other end of the budget scale and see some really nice examples too. Could go either way- to shed or to cherish!
Edited by CanoeSniffer on Wednesday 13th September 19:56
rxe said:
A £1000 shed GT might not be a bad punt, as long as the MOT is kosher. If you can spanner yourself, it could be a bargain.
Edit: what's your definition of "space shuttle mileage" - anything up to 150k is fine. They do go on to 250K, with care and maintenance.
That pretty much echoes my thinking. It's got full leather and the lovely Alfa multi spoke wheels (the name of which escapes me), it's really not a bad spec, just neglected. I'm not averse to spannering so it's an interesting proposition. This place was a little backstreet though so I'm half expecting to turn up next week and be handed a glittering MOT with no advisories, with the car still sat on the rotten tyres and brakes that I saw yesterday. If that's the case, I'm walking away. Mileage is just over 150k.Edit: what's your definition of "space shuttle mileage" - anything up to 150k is fine. They do go on to 250K, with care and maintenance.
Edited by rxe on Thursday 14th September 09:34
One year on- what a great car.
Paid £1550 with 109k miles, now on 127k.
Needed wishbones for the MOT, apart from that it's needed no mechanicals. I've bought and fitted a new door handle hinge as the drivers side had snapped, nasty job but sorted for buttons and good as new. I was a bit pissed off to find in the service history an invoice for the same on the passenger side from a dealer a couple of years ago, this was fitted incorrectly and they creased the door skin slightly. If I could sort it for £10 with my 10mm spanner then I feel for the PO who parted with £50 to have a s
t job done.
Also fitted a new brake light switch which went on the blink then failed, again an easy fix with a cheap part. Well out of tolerance though which meant lights permanently on initially, switch appeared to be a sealed unit with no adjustment so I made up a spacer with a spare bit of rubber and adjusted it to about perfect- my bodge has held for 6 months now so maybe a permanent installation!
I installed an aftermarket head unit using a great guide from the Alfa forums to change the wiring config, also wired in a module to the steering wheel controls which works for volume but plays silly buggers with the skip functions- not too worried about that as I rarely need it, new head unit has USB/iPod connectivity and if I was constantly skipping my own music collection it would be a bit pointless having it!
Discovered post-purchase that the car has a piggyback ECU installed, I always thought those things were a load of bks but the difference in fuel consumption when I took it off was huge. MPG on a run with the 'box is ~60mpg at ~70mph, dropped to 52mpg average without. I did some number-crunching and the figures seem to be accurate which is unbelievable, I'm still open to the idea that the piggyback ECU is misinforming the trip computer somehow leading to such great figures- for example I took SWMBO to Paris via Eurotunnel and average figure for the entire trip was 63mpg which sounds too good to be true, though we covered >700 miles on one tank during that trip so who knows!
The piggyback ECU also appears to dump fuel at and approaching WOT resulting in a great big satisfying derv cloud, great for dealing with tailgaters but not so great for the MOT. Daft of me to put it in for test without removing the box first but it was interesting to note that the car produced next to zero smoke when re-tested without it, a big difference. The car definitely feels more punchy with the box too, I'm happy that it's not doing anything too nasty and those fuel figures are hard to argue with so on it stays (except for the MOT- must remember).
I love the interior and I think the seats were made to measure me, just sooooooo comfortable and they've held their miles really well. I do have a small frame though and bigger mates of mine haven't found them so comfortable, I guess the average Italian must be 5'6!
The interior looks great for its age, but the rubberised plastic door handles have had some funny reaction and have started to degrade which is a shame as it lets the rest of the interior down a bit, from what I gather they're a pig to replace though.
The exterior was okay when I got it, paintwork was and still is great but the panel fit is a little wonky. Unfortunately it only took a matter of months for careless inconsiderate wkers to cover it in a smattering of door dents. I always park defensively but sadly practicality doesn't allow for the daily driver to live its life in bubble wrap and the mouth breathers have got to my poor Alfa in several places. It infuriates me but then I do need to remind myself that it's only a cheap car, it's just hard not to be overly proud because it's so pretty!
I've self-serviced the car but unfortunately really struggle to get my jack underneath it, and after my last attempt started collapsing the sill against the arm of the jack (exactly what I knew NOT to do!
) I decided to give up and I get underneath it by driving it up onto bricks instead. 'Elf'n'safety not my forte... Damage to the sill not too bad, luckily I noticed before the jack had fully taken the weight of the car.
In terms of driving it does what it says on the tin- GT. It does handle nicely but in the company of my track-prepped TVR and mk1 MX-5 it was never going to feel like a precision tool- I prefer to sit on the motorway with the cruise on, sink into the leather and watch the miles disappear out the window!
All in all, I'm really happy with the GT. it's a fine car, and will hopefully stay in my company for many years to come. It perhaps doesn't get the attention it deserves in the company of the other two cars, but it's quite happy to do all the graft work when required and has been very economical and practical in doing so. I leave you with some gratuitous photographs including excerpts from my self-titled 'inappropriate loads for a 2-door Italian coupe' series
Paid £1550 with 109k miles, now on 127k.
Needed wishbones for the MOT, apart from that it's needed no mechanicals. I've bought and fitted a new door handle hinge as the drivers side had snapped, nasty job but sorted for buttons and good as new. I was a bit pissed off to find in the service history an invoice for the same on the passenger side from a dealer a couple of years ago, this was fitted incorrectly and they creased the door skin slightly. If I could sort it for £10 with my 10mm spanner then I feel for the PO who parted with £50 to have a s
t job done.Also fitted a new brake light switch which went on the blink then failed, again an easy fix with a cheap part. Well out of tolerance though which meant lights permanently on initially, switch appeared to be a sealed unit with no adjustment so I made up a spacer with a spare bit of rubber and adjusted it to about perfect- my bodge has held for 6 months now so maybe a permanent installation!
I installed an aftermarket head unit using a great guide from the Alfa forums to change the wiring config, also wired in a module to the steering wheel controls which works for volume but plays silly buggers with the skip functions- not too worried about that as I rarely need it, new head unit has USB/iPod connectivity and if I was constantly skipping my own music collection it would be a bit pointless having it!
Discovered post-purchase that the car has a piggyback ECU installed, I always thought those things were a load of b
ks but the difference in fuel consumption when I took it off was huge. MPG on a run with the 'box is ~60mpg at ~70mph, dropped to 52mpg average without. I did some number-crunching and the figures seem to be accurate which is unbelievable, I'm still open to the idea that the piggyback ECU is misinforming the trip computer somehow leading to such great figures- for example I took SWMBO to Paris via Eurotunnel and average figure for the entire trip was 63mpg which sounds too good to be true, though we covered >700 miles on one tank during that trip so who knows!The piggyback ECU also appears to dump fuel at and approaching WOT resulting in a great big satisfying derv cloud, great for dealing with tailgaters but not so great for the MOT. Daft of me to put it in for test without removing the box first but it was interesting to note that the car produced next to zero smoke when re-tested without it, a big difference. The car definitely feels more punchy with the box too, I'm happy that it's not doing anything too nasty and those fuel figures are hard to argue with so on it stays (except for the MOT- must remember).
I love the interior and I think the seats were made to measure me, just sooooooo comfortable and they've held their miles really well. I do have a small frame though and bigger mates of mine haven't found them so comfortable, I guess the average Italian must be 5'6!
The interior looks great for its age, but the rubberised plastic door handles have had some funny reaction and have started to degrade which is a shame as it lets the rest of the interior down a bit, from what I gather they're a pig to replace though.
The exterior was okay when I got it, paintwork was and still is great but the panel fit is a little wonky. Unfortunately it only took a matter of months for careless inconsiderate w
kers to cover it in a smattering of door dents. I always park defensively but sadly practicality doesn't allow for the daily driver to live its life in bubble wrap and the mouth breathers have got to my poor Alfa in several places. It infuriates me but then I do need to remind myself that it's only a cheap car, it's just hard not to be overly proud because it's so pretty!I've self-serviced the car but unfortunately really struggle to get my jack underneath it, and after my last attempt started collapsing the sill against the arm of the jack (exactly what I knew NOT to do!
) I decided to give up and I get underneath it by driving it up onto bricks instead. 'Elf'n'safety not my forte... Damage to the sill not too bad, luckily I noticed before the jack had fully taken the weight of the car.In terms of driving it does what it says on the tin- GT. It does handle nicely but in the company of my track-prepped TVR and mk1 MX-5 it was never going to feel like a precision tool- I prefer to sit on the motorway with the cruise on, sink into the leather and watch the miles disappear out the window!
All in all, I'm really happy with the GT. it's a fine car, and will hopefully stay in my company for many years to come. It perhaps doesn't get the attention it deserves in the company of the other two cars, but it's quite happy to do all the graft work when required and has been very economical and practical in doing so. I leave you with some gratuitous photographs including excerpts from my self-titled 'inappropriate loads for a 2-door Italian coupe' series
Gassing Station | Alfa Romeo, Fiat & Lancia | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff