Thread: Was there ever a perion when alfa made QUALITY cars?
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Old 03-07-2008, 04:56 PM
yvesmontreal yvesmontreal is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTV4EVR View Post
In the 60s, everything rusted much more than today's cars, but Alfas seemed to rust more than most. My 69 GTV (in Montreal) was rusted through in large areas and in a lot of places below the belt line by 1971
We're the rust belt. The first new car my father bought in my lifetime, a 1963 Ford Custom, had rust holes the size of your hands on the top of both front fenders in less than two years.

When I started shopping for used cars in 1976, no Fiat earlier than 1974 could be found. Corollas from the same period often used a 2x4 to keep the front strut towers at the proper spacing after a few winters.

The addition of plastic liners in the front wheel wells, gravel guard on the underside and general attention to body design improved things considerably. My father kept a 1976 Fiat running for 10 years, and it kept going for a couple more after that.

Alfas did rust with a capital R, but pretty much everything did. Was it that much worse than other cars?
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