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  #1  
Old 03-17-2007, 12:21 AM
Ottobon Ottobon is offline
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Anybody driven a Alfa Romeo?

Just wondering if anybody on here has driven a Alfa Romeo, as well as owned a SVX, was wondering what you thought

im trying to decide if i want to buy a Milano Verde, or a SVX,

Alfa Romeos seem not to make sense, but trust me on this, their amazing, the amount of personality and soul is just unparrelled, eveything that could and can be expressive, and everything that can be great about cars is great in a alfa romeo, and thats why i love them

i do already have a fun car, 1989 Toyota MR2 T-top , its been great to me, but its falling apart and i need to restore it, id love to be able to take a drive without worrying about the rust eating my car alive (which it is) my biggest problem with that car otherwise is the stock suspension is on the soft side (still aggressive enouph to beat on newbies in E46 M3s and EVOs at trackdays ), but more importantly toyota kinda drowned out the engine, im working on that now, and i should be able to extract the personality built into this car out to its potential, the styling i think already has enouph flair, its sooo 80s it makes me smile, its mainly just the engine that Toyota snuffed the flamboyancy out of


anyways the SVX is probably one of the most lovable Subarus ive ever been around, its just a great companion, and for that id love to own one someday, but im not sure how i would feel when I could of had a fire breathing Milano Verde or GTV6 as my "don't modify it too much, just drive it and love it" car


anyways id love to hear what you have to say, and also im NOT worried about alfa reliability, we have a great alfa club around here

Last edited by Ottobon; 03-17-2007 at 12:23 AM.
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  #2  
Old 03-17-2007, 05:25 AM
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Trevor Trevor is offline
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Years ago, sucked in by the name and all the hype, I purchased 1750 GTV to race in a production championship. I am very lucky to be here right now. The unpredictable handling was nearly my undoing. What is more it was not fast enough and I changed to a Ford 3000 Capri. Crude it was, but quicker round a racing circuit than the flossy Alfa. Sure it cornered on three wheels, but what the hell, you knew what it was doing and could press on regardless.

You asked for an opinion, the modern stuff may be OK, but I am sure the badge is the still the number one item. The GTV was the worst car I have owned. When one dug into things it was just another piece of tin.

The SVX may not have the glamour name, but as an interesting well engineered car an Alfa in my opinion, does not hold a candle to it.
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Old 03-17-2007, 06:45 AM
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Darren Darren is offline
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Hiya,

We call it the alfa 75 over here, I presume your thinking of the 3.0 V6 not the 2.0 twin spark?
Fantastic cars in the day, lovely neutral to oversteer handling, a real drivers car. Too be honest unless you were buying a show car with mege silly low usage I would not buy 1 nowdays, to get the most from 1 you will need all the suspension in top condition to keep the crisp handing and also the engines seem to lose power over the course of time.

I would ony be looking to ever have 1 as a weekend toy and not a regular driver, its almost into the modern classic stage now, most are over 15 years old at best!

Cant see your idea of an MR2 beating evo's & M3's on trackdays, the JDM only produced 178bhp in non turbo form.
Maybe you have a case there of the more money you have does not equate to more driver skill

Darren
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  #4  
Old 03-17-2007, 08:47 AM
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Mr. Pockets Mr. Pockets is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ottobon
i do already have a fun car, 1989 Toyota MR2 T-top , its been great to me, but its falling apart and i need to restore it, id love to be able to take a drive without worrying about the rust eating my car alive (which it is) my biggest problem with that car otherwise is the stock suspension is on the soft side (still aggressive enouph to beat on newbies in E46 M3s and EVOs at trackdays ), but more importantly toyota kinda drowned out the engine, im working on that now, and i should be able to extract the personality built into this car out to its potential, the styling i think already has enouph flair, its sooo 80s it makes me smile, its mainly just the engine that Toyota snuffed the flamboyancy out of
I think you're dead wrong about Toyota 'snuffing the flamboyancy' out of the 4AGE in the MR2. They did nothing of the sort. For the early 80s, a twin-cam, 4-valve engine was pretty cool. Is it extremely powerful? Hell no. I have an '86 and it's pretty damned slow. But I understand that the thing was built over 20 years ago and was never big to begin with. It's a 1.6L - what do you want?

I think the engine has character enough. No, it doesn't have the torque to spin the wheels, but the 8k fuel cutoff is pretty cool.
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  #5  
Old 03-17-2007, 09:10 AM
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Ira Davis Ira Davis is offline
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I owned: 1979 Alfetta, 1979 Spider Veloce, 1982 GTV-6, 1983 GTV-6 and a 1987 Milano.

I loved Alfas ... still do just not as much .

The reason is that I'm a horsepower junky. Most of the cars that I now play with (street rods) have at least 300 hp (no self respecting small block would have less). It takes a lot of time, patience and cash to develop serious horsepower out of an Alfa. In fact the easiest way is to save the money and look for someone selling a twin turbocharged Calloway GTV-6 (and yes Calloway did actually build several of these units).

I sold my Milano to pick up my first Subie an 02 WRX (which is easy to extract power from).

Now to answer your question:

I don't know about the "fire breathing" portion of the Milano; as the Verde just tops out at 200 hp. The handling however is awesome. A very neutral and crisp handling car with the Verde transaxle and gearing (limited slip with 4:10 I believe) allows it to pull very hard to redline in all gears. I wasn't impressed with the power though. Now granted my car wasn't a Verde but my father in law owns a GTV-6 with a Verde 3L stuffed into it with some go fast items and I'm still not impressed. Once again the strong point is the neutral handling provided by having the transmission/transaxle in the rear of the vehicle.

Alfa V-6s rock... period. Anyone who says differently has never owned and driven one or if they did it was abused and probably a mechanical nightmare. Our first GTV-6 went 225,000 miles and the only major mechanical problems were the clutch and the fuel pump. We sold it and it's still on the road to this day... but it's rusty as hell. We had very few mechanical problems with any of our Alfas so don't believe all of the hype. They are just like any other vehicle; they respond well to love and care and don't respond well to abuse or lack of care.

The fit and finish of the car is not so good. I guess it was probably on par or even exceeding the crap that came out on the market then but really most of the GTV-6 and Milano interiors were cheap. The highlight of the interior are the Recaro bucket seats which I had in my car.

Milanos and most Alfas suffer from cancer (rust) particularly in the quarter panels if they have spent much time on the east coast. If you buy, attempt to find one from the west coast or an area with low humidity.

I would never (ever) go back to a Milano after owning either of my Subies... most importantly my SVX.

My wife has a differing opinion. She would own and drive a Milano over an SVX any day (she thinks the SVX is butt ugly and hates auto trannies). She loved the handling and the seating position and it's pickup off of the line. Understand however she was raised with Alfas and has a major bias to them.

Well I have to go and replace a fuel pump on an 85 GTV-6 now (no, really) . If you have any questions about the Milanos or Alfas in general don't hesitate to ask. You might want to PM me as most of the SVX owners here don't probably care about Alfas.

Have a great day.

Ira
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  #6  
Old 03-17-2007, 11:11 AM
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lhopp77 lhopp77 is offline
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Svx

Is this about the SVX or an Alfa---I am a bit confused.

Lee
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  #7  
Old 03-17-2007, 12:49 PM
ebaybrad ebaybrad is offline
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i had a 164s for a while. Nice car, great engine. The front wheel drive had some serious torque steer. It was an electrical nightmare, but reliable otherwise. make sure you got a good mechanic. I always liked the milanos look. It looks like nothing else on the road. It does ave 80's dated style. I personally like 80;s style. I wont, however, be buying parachute pants or a rubiks cube anytime soon. Alot of bank for your buck in the milano. Great fun to drive. Make sure you buy a good one or you will soon spend twice that geting up to par.
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Last edited by ebaybrad; 03-17-2007 at 12:51 PM.
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  #8  
Old 03-17-2007, 12:57 PM
ebaybrad ebaybrad is offline
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here is a nice one for sale...bit pricey for a milano though...

http://home.earthlink.net/~maia7/alfa/forsale.html
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  #9  
Old 03-17-2007, 01:36 PM
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Question

I can't really speak for the Milano, except the cookie, but I had an MG in the 80's and my sisters boyfriend liked the ragtop so much that he bought an Alpha Spider. I drove the Spider a lot and it was fun, but it does not compare to my SVX, it's more comfortable, better appointed and is much less common, nobody can quite figure out what it is. At first I didn't like the automatic being that the only other auto trans I ever owned was an 87 XT but it has so much power, I kind of like the Auto now, it's like driving a V8 auto. I just say before you buy the Alpha and have the European gremlins that come with British and Italian cars, drive an SVX.
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  #10  
Old 03-17-2007, 01:48 PM
ebaybrad ebaybrad is offline
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i love milano cookies !!!!
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  #11  
Old 03-17-2007, 06:33 PM
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andrew.anderson andrew.anderson is offline
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Ottobon,

Which year are you looking at for your Alfas? I don't know alot about them but we see them alot here in Germany. I had never given them a second glance until I read your thread earlier today.

Are they really that good of a car? Most of the new ones I see on the rodad are kinda ugly.
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