You Can Buy An Alfa GT For Just Over £1000 And I'm Actually Quite Tempted
Alfa Romeo really does have a lot of making up to do. Sure, in the Giulia the Italian manufacturer now has a genuine BMW 3-series rival with a - shock horror - newly developed rear-wheel drive platform, but the era of shoddy Alfas we’re only just getting away from leaves a lot to be desired.
Case in point? The GT coupe. Under its handsome Bertone-penned flanks it’s essentially a rehashed, front-wheel drive 147 hatchback, a car derived from the 156 saloon, which itself sat on an old Fiat platform.
When I first passed my test I wanted one of these really badly, until I sat in one at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and experienced the laughably cheap-feeling cabin first hand. I do like the idea of the 3.2-litre ‘Busso’ V6 version, but the slow 2.0-litre ‘JTS’ petrol or 1.9-litre ‘JTDM’ diesel? Forget it.
However, when cars depreciate enough, they can become tempting propositions despite what you might have thought about them previously. And these non-V6 GTs are getting cheap: while the six-pots require a budget of £5000 and up, prices for other versions start as low as £1000 these days.
Yes, these aren’t the last word in handling and they’re hilariously slow (you’re looking at 9.6 seconds to 60mph for the 150bhp diesel for example), but as a pretty - potentially disposable - runaround for a little while? If I needed such a thing right now, I’d be tempted.
This one has done just under 100,000 miles, and is up for £1295. It is the diesel however, which has a habit of breaking. Expensively. So if you’re serious about buying one, maybe wait until a cheap JTS comes up. Either way, that’s a lot of car for £1295, isn’t it?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
No such thing as a cheap alfa, You’ll pay either in money or headaches.
I’m here like I’m in America :/
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Diesel Alfa. Whats next? Pineapple pizza?
My uncle bought one new in 2004. It’s engine blew up in 2005. He then got a Golf Mk5 GTi.
You sound like a spam bot! Did he get it working from home on his own computer?? XD
My pal insists the headlights look like a Veyrons!!
Alfa’s are much better than what most people actually think…
I had a 916 Alfa spider, another Alfa suffering from really bad depreciation, lived up to every single Alfa stereotype. If you intend on dailying it, your going to become good mates with the AA man
Ive owned 7 Alfas and not really had any major problems I’ve had Bmws and they were nothing but headaches and a Ford C-Max 2.0 diesel and that just kept going wrong weekly so I have gone back to Alfa and own a 159 Ti 1.9 jtdm which I have had remapped which is now fast enough and this car has been so reliable I also have a GTV 3.0 Busso anther car that gives me no trouble and I use it as my daily car ! Whoever wrote this article has not got a clue I work in a garage and its the German cars that are unreliable and expensive to fix !! But I will say French cars are the worse !
Sure, In the world of speed cameras and police EVERYwhere 9.6 seconds is the deal breaker for a £1000 car…