An Alfetta 1.8 saved from the crusher
In 1996, I (Jurgen) found a colleague who was driving a blue 1982 Alfetta 1.8. After a while, I noticed the car sitting at the back of the corporate parking lot, so I went for an inquiry. The owner said that we was planning to sell the car as he was getting a company car. I thought the asking price of Dfl 600,- ($300,-) too high so left it at that. Nothing changed for weeks until I happened to bump into him again one day, and inquired again as to the status of his car. He said: "Well, I haven't sold it yet, and the road taxes and insurance are up for a new payment in less than a week, so I am going to take it to the crusher to get rid of it". When looking at my raised eyebrows, he blurted: "...that way I'll get Dfl 100,- ($50,-) as scrap metal value...". Wordlessly, I drew my wallet, pulled out a Dfl100,- note and placed it in his hand. This left him taken aback as the realisation that he had, well, fucked himself slowly drew on him :-). Anyway, we transferred ownership the next day, I drove the car home. We did some maintenance to get it though the road test and that wat it. I drove it once in a while for a couple of months but had the GTV6 as my daily driver. After some time I got a new company car again (no choise, it was all diesel VW's there, no wonder I left that company within 8 months...) so it just sat in front of my house. I finally gave it for free to my girlfriend's brother in 1997. He's is using it -to this day- as his daily driver. The morale: Alfa's are notoriously reliable if given some TLC. And, a $50,- Alfa can be good for many many happy years of driving. Here's the car being used as a pull during the grey GTV6's dismantling.
I personally liked the car, it is actually rather big and somewhat soft when compared to either the Giullietta or the GTV6) but unmistakingly a transaxle Alfa. I have a special soft spot for Alfetta's, 'cuz that's the car whith which the Alfa virus 'took' me :-). This happened when my dad took me as a little boy to the Alfa dealer in the early seventies and sat me behind the wheel of an Alfetta. The image of the centered revmeter, the speedo, the clocks & dials and the steering wheel with the Alfa Romeo badge has remained burned in my memory ever since. There has been no escape ever since, I didn't stand a chance anyway. Maybe if I ever decide to get back into this hobby again, I secretly think it is going to be with an early Alfetta 1.8, the ones with the round headlights, the small rear lights and the chrome bumpers. It is a classic, elegant and shapely tre volumi ('three boxes') design, the way kids draw cars. I gues that's one of the reasons for it's appeal to me: it's s-i-m-p-l-e.
