The value in owning an Alfa is in the driving (i.e. completely subjective), but we all have to consider the budget, so I've been thinking about this...
Basically I can happily justify pouring money into restoring my car at the same rate a new car would depreciate, and still come out on top. For instance a couple of years ago I could have bought a new 147 or the 105 GTV that I did buy. I sold the GTV for the same amount that I paid, about two years later. After the same time the 147 would sell for at least $10K less than the new price. On that basis I could have happily spent $10K on the 105 and still been as well off (if not better, because I wouldn't have to finance a lump of money for the new car). Plus I had a lot more fun

. So what seem like odd deals on the face of it can actually be quite sensible. For instance I saw a 105 GTV selling for A$22K (nice car), with A$35K worth of receipts (including the original purchase). Again, if that money was spent over a few years, it makes sense, but on the face of it it just sounds dumb. And I know this is right because it passed the spousal permission-to-spend-money test!
Last money-mention: my $0.02.
__________________
Gavin Cooke
[COLOR="Red"]'72 GTV 2000 (sold to a good home)[/COLOR]
'70 GT Junior 1300 (suddenly a project car

)
[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]'00 156 Sportwagon 2.0 TS (daily)[/COLOR]