i want to buy an alfa am i mad?

The thing with Alfa Workshop (who are probably one of the best Alfa indies out there in terms of knowledge vs efficiency vs cost) is that their prices aren't typical of indies. They're significantly cheaper, so unless you live around Royston, you might as well add another 20%-30% to whatever it is they're charging.

You go to an indie that appears to offer a comparable price and you run the risk of them not changing something that should be changed or using non-manufacturer parts with the result that you go away thinking its cheap but the costs stack up later on or even worse you're left with a car that's a ticking time bomb. I remember going to a place for my sister's car and I enquired as to what they did when changing the cambelt at the 72k interval. They quoted a list of parts but which didn't include the variator or water pump. When I asked them why they didn't propose replacing those parts, they said they only replaced them if the customer specifically asked. That's absolute madness.
 
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There are plenty of decent indies out there, my local guy is in Epsom (so depending on where in Surrey he is based its not far) and hes pretty good and cheap.
 
SideWinder said:
Slight hijack, worth buying an Alfa for £1000 or would it be too expensive to run?
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It will be a banger or will need a lot of work doing on it or will be an old Alfa (which are a lot more unreliable than the modern Alfas) and they will all be more costly than the average car to run.
 
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SideWinder said:
Slight hijack, worth buying an Alfa for £1000 or would it be too expensive to run?
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Ok as long as it's been maintained. Lots of people buy Alfa's as they cost they same as Mondeo's/Vectra's. Unfortunately too many people don't factor in the higher maintenance costs and many will be neglected examples being sold off cheap for a quick sale.

Anything that has suffered a cambelt failure or been run low on oil will shortly require a bottom end rebuild costing about 2k.

Clutches cost about £700, and about £1000 for a Selespeed overhaul. Spark plugs on Twinny's cost about £200 from the dealer although you can source them for about £50 online.

cambelts are anything between £300 to £700 to replace every 30k.
 
The question you have to answer when considering buying an Alfa Romeo is 'How do you like your girlfriends?'

Do you like a girlfriend that's high maintenance, never pays for anything, complains a lot, has emotional meltdowns and screams at you fairly regularly but is exotic looking, wears sexy dresses and makes a lot of noise in bed? :o

On the other hand, if you like a girlfriend who's attractive, independent, confident, reliable, smooth in nature, emotionally very well balanced, and supportive, you're also probably the sort guy who prefers Audis or BMWs :D
 
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GTVs/Spiders are a lot more unreliable than 156/147s. It's from the previous generation of Alfas which didn't tend to last very long. The GTVs are fairly notorious for having suspensions problems (not fatal, just expensive to fix/replace).

So it really depends on the history and what evidence you have things being done on the car. Unless you have 100% proof that everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) has been replaced on that car (ie everything from wishbones, transverse arms, bushes, balljoints, cambelt, variator, plugs etc) and there are no electrical problems (which can be a nightmare to diagnose/fix) and the car hasn't ever been run low on oil AND you're prepared to top up your £1k purchase price with an additional budget of £1k in case you have to put anything right, AND you're prepared to cough up £500-£1000 a year in maintenance costs, then it isn't the sort of purchase for you. As [TW]Fox so often says, 'you pay £1k but you won't have £1k car running costs'.

I wouldn't recommend you getting a car like that unless you get a full AA inspection or you take with you a mechanic who knows Alfas (particularly GTVs) inside out.

It's also maroon.....
 
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im aware that this car is going to cost a bit more to service than your average car.
im used to it though as my previous cars have been golf g60's which cost a lot more to run due to charger servicing etc. just really fancy a change with someting that looks great and has some toys for once so be it if it goes wrong a bit lol
 
The GTV is a great looking car. Hardly looks dated despite being about 12 years old.

I had one and loved it, electrics where fine, the leather never looked worn and the paint remained shiny.

Reliability wise it never let me down other than a wheel bearing and just normal servicing. The suspension had been overhauled before I got it at about 50k.

Downfalls were the titchy boot and rear seats, the 2 litre isn't that quick, turning circle is awful and the car was prone to grounding on uneven roads/speed humps.
 
A few yrs ago, I had a low mileage 3 yr old 156 V6 for about 2 yrs. Absolutely loved the car, never had any problems with it whatsoever whilst driving it.. The thing drove like a dream and looked the pants ! Probably could have been a little quicker for a V6, but it was definately comfortable and very stylish.

That was the good part.. The bad part was selling it was a little difficult, probably cos the cost of fuel and the size of the engine, me thinks. Plus at the time of sale, the new owner noticed a leak from the engine.. I offered to have the leak fixed which turned out that a new tranny was needed. cost 1800GBP .... ouch..

You and your luck though..
 
-westy- said:
This is fantastic, everyone slagging Alfa's off drives the used price down for people like me, who aren't afraid of maintaining a car :)
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Nail... head... hit...

CoreKrogoth said:
im pretty sure im going to get a 1.8 or 2.0 now, just need to find the right one as there is so many different interior specs etc and make sure it has a very good service history
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A twinny then, you need to make sure the cam belt hasn't been on longer than 36,000 miles, it used to be 72,000, but a few went pop so they changed it.

You need to make sure it's timing variator is OK, it should NOT clatter on the over-run from a quick blip of the throttle. It may clatter just after starting. If it's always clattering, hold at 1000RPM for 60 seconds, 2000 for 60, then 3000, then 4000, then go back to the start of this paragraph. This is the sign of a well treated one; bad oil, and it needs a variator before 50,000 miles (I looked at one like this, walked away), regular good oil, and it will last long past 100,000 miles.

Spark plugs - there are 8 - are platinum electrode ones, and are needed every ~60,000 miles.

Happy Hunting.
 
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