[weiliwen]

I read my daily Hemmings mailing to see that a 1973 Pinto station wagon is on sale for $8K. My '76 Alfa? I got it for $4K and the best one out there is likely worth less than the Pinto. I may be biased, but the spider is a better car in every way than the Pinto (except maybe carrying capacity), but I guess that's the market.

 

[mmarvi]

Does the Pinto come with a Fire Extinguisher?

 

[alfasrule]

Maybe it's the Orange Pinto Wagon used by the Nazi's during the car chase seen in the Blues Brothers Movie?

 

[mmarvi]

I hate Illinois Nazis.

 

[Don Epstein]

Lets face it. That is asking. Anyhow my 86 spyder is worth nothing, as it is NOT for sale. It is worth millions to me, as I've had her (Ms B) since new. She will go to my Grandson when I can no longer drive her. Value is what you put on something. Oh, by the way..she is ALFA RED

 

[weiliwen]

True, Don, but I'm taking out emotions and looking at the market, which is obviously a cruel mistress in our spiders' case.

 

[MNVXer]

True, Don, but I'm taking out emotions and looking at the market, which is obviously a cruel mistress in our spiders' case.

The other side to this argument is that by having lower prices we can actually enjoy our cars! It would be great (and impossible) if our spiders approached the $100K value of Jaguar e-types, but then who would want to actually drive it? How much would the insurance cost? How meticulously would you want to keep it? My Alfa has (few, SOB oil cap) dents... Its currently covered in dust from a gravel road rally I competed in. Would I have done the same with a $100K spider? No way - unless I was making $100k per month.

 

[alfaparticle]

The other side to this argument is that by having lower prices we can actually enjoy our cars! It would be great (and impossible) if our spiders approached the $100K value of Jaguar e-types, but then who would want to actually drive it? How much would the insurance cost? How meticulously would you want to keep it? My Alfa has (few, SOB oil cap) dents... Its currently covered in dust from a gravel road rally I competed in. Would I have done the same with a $100K spider? No way - unless I was making $100k per month.

My threshold is much lower than $100k. I sold my nice GTV for $20k because it had become a garage queen. My Spider is so modified that the market value is probably a lot less than it is worth to me and my GTV6 is headed in the same direction. I don't want to worry about my cars getting scratches and stone chips.

 

[bshorey]

They can put it on sale for whatever price they want, the true test of the market value is whether anybody will actually pay that amount.

I've seen plenty of over priced cars for sale that don't sell for ages. Just because somebody asks $8k for a Pinto doesn't mean Pintos are now suddenly worth $8k.

bs

 

[Uaglio]

I read my daily Hemmings mailing to see that a 1973 Pinto station wagon is on sale for $8K. My '76 Alfa? I got it for $4K and the best one out there is likely worth less than the Pinto. I may be biased, but the spider is a better car in every way than the Pinto (except maybe carrying capacity), but I guess that's the market.

$8k Pinto? Pazzo! I think that just goes to show you people ask kooky prices. There was a guy on ebay for a while (roundly ridiculed here), selling a mid-80's Spider for like $90,000 because it was in the "wolf of wall street" movie for like 30 seconds.

 

[Jim G]

$8k Pinto? Pazzo! I think that just goes to show you people ask kooky prices. There was a guy on ebay for a while (roundly ridiculed here), selling a mid-80's Spider for like $90,000 because it was in the "wolf of wall street" movie for like 30 seconds.

I watched that movie. The alfa was in it for about 2 to 3 secs. When I first saw it I had to rewind the movie and watch that part again to make sure it was what I thought it was.

 

[bshorey]

I watched that movie. The alfa was in it for about 2 to 3 secs. When I first saw it I had to rewind the movie and watch that part again to make sure it was what I thought it was.

Yeah, and who didn't walk out of that theater thinking "Man, what an awesome car that was in that movie, so central to the theme. I'd buy it at any price..".

bs

 

[Boccaccia]

... The alfa was in it for about 2 to 3 secs. When I first saw it I had to rewind the movie and watch that part again to make sure it was what I thought it was.

Rewind? You got wolf of Wall Street on VCR? :detective:

That must be a really rare copy - I bet it's worth more than a '73 Pinto.

 

[Jim G]

Rewind? You got wolf of Wall Street on VCR? :detective:

That must be a really rare copy - I bet it's worth more than a '73 Pinto.

I figured typing rewind was a lot shorter then, I had to back up the amazon prime instant video.

 

[Boccaccia]

I figured typing rewind was a lot shorter then, I had to back up the amazon prime instant video.

Oh, I knew that already. The idea of an $8000 dollar Pinto is so silly, I decided run with the theme.

 

[Shakey]

Lets face it. That is asking. Anyhow my 86 spyder is worth nothing, as it is NOT for sale. It is worth millions to me, as I've had her (Ms B) since new. She will go to my Grandson when I can no longer drive her. Value is what you put on something. Oh, by the way..she is ALFA RED

Don, I agree. The photo you sent me of Ms B looks great!

 

[weiliwen]

Absolutely, people can ask anything they want for a car, but I'll be a nickel somebody ends up buying the explode-o-mobile for close to the asking price - nostalgia, and all that.

The Pinto is not just an outlier, though - a VW bug from the same era, if in any kind of shape at all, regularly out prices a spider even though they were sadly outdated by then. Heck, one of my favorite cars is the Datsun 1200, the ancestor of (and better looking than) the B210. they made 10X more of those than Alfa's (over a million, in fact), it wasn't a sports car like the Alfa or iconic like the VW, and you can't get one of those for what I paid for my runner '76. They are not much in the market and people who know them love them enough to pay up.

Well, I'm just whining anyway. I like my spider, and wouldn't buy a Pinto if I could get two for a quarter, so it's academic.

 

[grazie]

Asking that much for a Pinto only indicates the owner needs some really good therapy. Paying that much for a Pinto only indicates the new owner is too far gone for any type of therapy.

 

[nealric]

I do find it rather odd that S2-4 spiders have such low collector's value. I attribute it to the fact that it's hard to keep them running if you can't wrench your own. Many towns don't have any shops that specialize in Alfas, and you can't buy parts at your local auto parts store. By contrast, any shop can work on a 1970s muscle car and parts are a dime a dozen. There is also still a decent supply out there- I wouldn't call them common, but S3 spiders aren't hard to find if you are in the market. By contrast, the first gen spiders have gotten pretty rare, and their value has increased accordingly.