Posts Tagged ‘italian’

Needs more Alfa – 1974 Alfa Romeo Berlina

April 8, 2010

As I was saying the other day, I felt I’d kind of strayed from the oddball cars. Well, I did it again by featuring a pair of spiders, so while this is still Alfa, it’s about Berlinas. If it weren’t for spiders being so common, Berlinas are pretty much the bargain of the 115 platform. In fact, to make the potential buyer feel better, we can say Berlinas are a bargain fixed-roof Alfa – certainly far more affordable than a GTV, and with the same platform and performance potential. They may not be as easy on the eye, but they do grow on you after a while. And while some have been seriously abused (as daily drivers for the past 35+ years), they also attracted true sports car fanatics who couldn’t sacrifice four doors.

This particular car looks to be one of those. While it shows some wear for being around for 36 years (ack!), it’s got a fairly tidy interior, all the important bits are shiny, and the outside is pretty solid as well. It looks to have had some recent attention lavished on it in the way of performance upgrades as well, and has some cool extras that should make up for the absence of a convertible roof or competition-crushing styling. With only 77K miles, it’s listed on the AlfaBB for $3500.

1974 Alfa Romeo Berlina right

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Too Good To Be True? 1994 Alfa Romeo Spider CE

April 7, 2010

I normally prefer not to feature cars with one picture and a limited description, or cars this new, but this one seems too much of a screaming deal to let details get in the way. And being essentially the same car that came out in 1966, this one can be grandfathered.. in case you needed convincing. While even the earlier cars can work reasonably well as daily drivers, with good brakes, 5 speeds, and a decently powerful fuel-injected engine, the later ones offer more refinements that can make them good daily drivers.

1991 Alfa Romeo Spider CE

And that’s where our car comes into the picture. It’s a series 4 spider, with the final redesign and more luxury and safety options than earlier spider owners can shake a stick at. Further, this particular car is listed as a CE, which implies that it’s from the final 1994 run of Commemorative Edition cars, built in anticipation of the new 916-chassis front-drive spiders. With less than 65k miles, the car is listed for $3300 in Buffalo, NY. The big question is, is it real? Well, in its favor, the seller has posted a VIN, and gives good specifics about the mileage and the title. On the downside, the price is pretty low, the car doesn’t appear to have any CE badging visible (on the nose and possibly on the wheels, although those could easily go missing), they mistakenly say it has a 6-speed manual, and it’s listed as for-sale-by-owner, although it appears to be in a dealer showroom. The year is also not specified. So take it with a grain of salt – but if I were in Buffalo, or in the market for an S4 spider, I would be there in a flash.

Best Documented – 1981 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce

April 5, 2010

Update: Price is now up to $1900 – he must be getting more calls than expected. Even at this new price, the car is a pretty decent deal.

Here at RustyButTrusty, I try to totally favor Italian cars show an even selection of cars. That said, I realized I hadn’t featured an Alfa Romeo in a while.. and it’s easy to find plenty of expensive Alfas, project Alfas, and listings with a phone number and not much else, there is the occasional thorough, well-written listing for a reasonably priced driver that has plenty of summers’ worth of fun in it, and can legitimately qualify as a classic (later spiders and 164s don’t really fall into that category just yet, although they’re getting close).

This is a pretty rare example of a well-written ad for a very reasonably-priced car. The seller has thoroughly photographed the car with a good selection of decent-sized pictures, and a clear description of the car’s good & bad points, as well as recent work. You can find it in Springfield, PA (near Philadelphia) for just $1300… incidentally, the same price I paid for my spider in 1991, and it was not nearly as nice.

1981 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce left

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