I’m thinking about buying an Alfa?

[BradH]

I’m thinking about buying an Alfa and could use some help.

I have been thinking about buying a commuter car for a little while but have not pulled the trigger on it. Lets face it buying a Prius is not very much fun or appealing.

Anyway, my wife found a car that she said would make a great commuter and it is “really cute” I was pretty shocked when I saw that it was an Alfa Spider Veloce. At first I thought that won’t work; then my wife convinced me to give it some more thought. She said that it would be a good car for my mid life crisis and it is a lot more fun than a standard commuter, and I could rebuild it and have fun restoring it. I really love my wife!

So I have a few questions what type of milage do the spiders get? And are they reliable enough to use as an everyday driver?

I am not sure of the year but it has around 60K miles and appears to be very well maintained (not much to restore). I would be driving it 60 miles round trip a day to work. Am I crazy for considering this?

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.

[Tifosi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradH She said that it would be a good car for my mid life crisis and it is a lot more fun than a standard commuter, and I could rebuild it and have fun restoring it

[Terry]

Mine is a daily driver May through October. Reliable, good gas mileage, fun to drive, turns heads. The gas & break peddle are very close together so make sure you can get comfortable with that. Not sure what year you are looking at but these cars are getting old so they need some tlc every now & then. If you have to take it to a mechaninc every time something needs to be fixed it can get a little pricey. Overall parts are readily available.

Terry
'88 Spider Veloce

[vf31rhill]

If you buy, pay more up front for solid, rust free example. Low milage and detailed maintenence records are a real plus. These cars have a well deserved reputation for erratic electrical problems, but the basic mechanics are solid and generally reliable. Above all, remember that Alfa abandoned the American market in 1993, so they are now all 15 or more years old and thus used cars in the truest sense of the word. You will have to be creative in locating some parts, but this forum and the net make capitalizing on what it available a lot easier than in the per internet days. You can get some new parts from England, Europe, Austraila, and New Zealand. Again, the net makes this doable. But plan for back up transportation if the situation requires it. On the bad days, this can be a problem. On the good days, with the top down and all the other drivers of Detriot tin gauking, it makes it all worthwile. Just jump on in and test the water. But remember, pay more up front for a quailty example, rather than buy a "bargain" and try to play catch up for the rest of your Alfa days. After doing some serious tune up work and getting the fuel delivery system in order, I am getting 30 MPG highway, and mid 20's in town.
Robert
BTW, Alfa is making claims again to re-enter the American market in 2009. But the new generation of Alfas are modern, BMW and Audi looking cars, none of the classic designs. It remains to be seen how a new Alfa dealer will take to being hounded by owners of "our generation" of Alfas seeking only parts and not particularly interested in buying a new "BMW looking" Alfa.

[ghnl]

I use our '84 nearly every day. It sure makes going to work a little less onorous...

And I bought it when my wife saw one at a vintage sports car race and said, "I like that car, we should buy one." When your wife tells you to buy a red Italian sports car you should listen!

[BradH]

Thanks for all the helpful responses!

I guess that I need to add a little more information:

I live in California so the weather is generally pretty good in my area. I am an Engineer and have restored cars and boats in the past so I am not afraid to work on things myself. As a matter of fact that is one of the appealing features about this car to me. It looks simple enough that given the time and parts availability I could fix anything. This will be my third car so if it were to have a problem I would not be a major ordeal. I just don’t want to be working on it everyday

Based on the responses and the fact that no one said that I am crazy. I am going to go give it a test drive and get some more info. I am sure that I will have more questions after I test drive it. But I do have one question now, Electrical problems was mentioned in one of the above posts. What type of electrical problems do these cars typically have?

Thanks again for the responses, this board seems to be a great resource/network for Alfa owners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghnl I use our '84 nearly every day. It sure makes going to work a little less onorous... And I bought it when my wife saw one at a vintage sports car race and said, "I like that car, we should buy one." When your wife tells you to buy a red Italian sports car you should listen!

[Peter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradH What type of electrical problems do these cars typically have?

[ghnl]

As Peter says, most electrical problems are poor ground connections.

What model year Spider are you looking at? The S3's & S4's (S3 = '82-'89, S4 = '90-'94) have Bosch EFI/ignition systems and are quite reliable. The earlier models have either carbs or SPICA FI. SPICA is an Alfa-only mechanical FI system (based on a diesel FI system modified for gasoline). SPICA can be reliable but it needs proper care otherwise it can expensive to repair/replace.

[wutdhec]

Your wife sounds really cool..congrats. Mine is pretty cool too and when she said something similar recently I got busy and bought a '91 back in Feb.

One thing that might be a factor for you is comfort. I love driving my spider in the mountains and around town, but I get really tired on the freeway. I have Koni's in the front and it seems a bit bouncy, plus its still noisy with the top up. The AC works but isn't great when its really hot...maybe its my particular spider's quirks, but if you're going to spend that much time in the car daily, you should make sure you really like long trips in it. For me its just a fun car for whenever I feel like driving it, so I can deal with the "features".

One thing I'm going to get is a wind screen...I love driving it all the time with top down but around 50+ mph, you get blown around alot.

[rgsspider]

If you do go for a test drive, let us know what year, condition and asking price. I paid $4,000 two years ago for an 87 with 96k miles on it with newly rewired electrical system and new muffler. Owner was original owner and I got all his service records back to 87. Body was in good, not great condition but mechanically was very sound. I use it as a daily driver from April through October and actually just had my first breakdown on Monday. So, I would consider that pretty reliable for a 21 year old car. I agree 100% with the others though that these cars do require a little more TLC (though not excessive) than average. The fact that you know your way around a wrench will help a lot.

[JohnR156]

I too bought my 86 as a commute car/daily driver. I'm also in California and drive mine year round, 90 miles a day round trip. So far I've racked up 35,000 miles since I bought it. I have done some rebuilding like to the head, brake system and driveshaft components. All preventative, no breakdowns. GO for it...it's a car and a hobby.

[BradH]

Ok I just drove it, It is really fun to drive!

It is at a local used car dealer and it is an 81 with 68K Miles, the previous owner was a collector that had it for two years and put about 500 miles on it (he lives about a mile from me).

He has the service records and the previous owner put a new head gasket on it a few hundred miles ago and put new wheels and tires on it in that same period. It appears that it was repainted recently (within a few years)

The body is clean, no dents, no rust, really clean paint. Tires and wheels are new and the interior is in really good shape (seats look new). The only thing that is wrong with the appearance is the back window has turned a little brown.

The engine looks as you would expect a car from the 80’s would look. I noticed a rubber grommet that was disintegrating, other than that I couldn’t see anything that looked wrong or any hack job fixes.

He is asking $9995, he says that is what the previous owner paid and he put some money into it and very few miles.

So what do you guys think? From what I read this car is a series 2 and has SPICA injection. Should I be concerned about that?

Any input you guys could provide would be appreciated….

[ghnl]

For $9995 I'd expect an essentially perfect Spider. Your description makes it sound very good but perhaps not yet perfect.

SPICA can be a nice & reliable system. It does require knowledgeable maintenance (if you are willing to learn you can do it). Note that the '81 is considered the lowest HP SPICA model - the intake changed to a single butterfly vs the 4 of earlier SPICA Spiders.

Check very carefully for rust. New paint can hide a multitude of sins. Rust in the sills & floorboards is a big problem. They form the main structural strength of the unibody. The outer rockers can look OK but if the inner sills are rusted the unibody is dramatically weakened.

[BradH]

Thanks, I looked for rust in the outside panels and looked underneath. It has undercoat in the fenders but the best that I can tell the metal looks good. I tapped all the lower panels to see if there was any filler and couldn’t see any evidence of it. I will check again and look under the floorboards.

What do you think that I should offer if I decide to go for it?

[Bob Sacamano]

Not to be a wet blanket, but $10K for an '81 seems way out of line. If one had to pick the single worst year Spider to have, the '81, because of the monofarfalla version of its Spica injection would have to be it. For $10K that Spider needs to be perfect in every other way, and I mean really perfect. Even if you need to stop at Wal-mart and buy a $100 digital camera, I would urge you to post some detailed pictures here before making any commitments. That car's not flying off the lot for that kind of $$$, don't worry.