I'm getting frustrated ;-)

What a crock of, (excuse my french), s**te.

Open your eyes, ffs.

I too used to be loyal to one brand... this was when I was 18, and knew no better... at your age you should have woken up and smelt the coffee by now.

Ooh, SteveH... uk.rec.cars.modifications very own Roger Cook!

-- JackH

If you know what you like, then stick with it. I've repeat purchased Rover (213, Montego, 414, 75), Volvo (S40, S60) and Vauxhall (Zafira 1.6, Zafira

1.8) as they've done the job I wanted at the time.

Plenty of serial merc / bmw drivers around too.

Dealers skimp on servicing. There. Happy?

Not like Italian cars then, eh!

No.

Italian cars don't have a reputation for being reliable.

-- Dan

Heh...... with Italian stuff (IMHO, YMMV, blah, blah) it's more like:

'More reliable than the reputation would suggest' ;-)

In fact, would you be interested in a *very very* cheap, black 155 V6? I might just know where there is one...

Pete M

Prices are not as strong as you might think, dealers are jeeping them high but they don't come out of auction as high as you'd expect, unless you want a diesel.

I did, a Volvo....

It speaks volumes about the current owner, IMHO. An Alfa isn't something you can drive and forget. They need careful maintenance, often before it's scheduled, to keep them running. Buying any Alfa with the twinspark motor and varaiable timing that is overdue the belts / tensioners and variator is like sitting on a timebomb - the ones that I've seen are obviously being disposed of because the owners don't like the price of having work done to the car - so how much have they neglected other stuff?

Because I'd like some driving time out of the car before I splash out on a service. There's a big difference between buying a 50k mile car that's got 22k to go before needing that work and a 72k mile car that's overdue. And the prices being asked don't reflect the cost of having the work done.

If the price reflected the condition, then I'd buy. Last 155 I saw the seller wouldn't go under £1400. That's very close to being money for a very tidy one - and this needed over £400 of work done, plus 2 transponder keys ordering.

I'm being fussy. I want a fairly tidy Alfa. But there's very few around.

Because they're not priced accordingly. HTH.

But woin't the ones that have had it done will be priced higher again?

When the cars only £800, spending £400 on it straight away seems a bit wrong.

That said, if it then ran flawlessly for 10 years and did another 150k miles, maybe it would be worth it ;)

-- Dan

It means the current owner has forseen a bill coming, and got rid of the car. If you want a new car, and yours suddenly requires £400 of work, then clearly you're gonna get rid of it. Who would spend £400 on a car they were about to sell anyway ?

So why on earth don't you just buy a decent car ? ;)

Why ?

Agreed. But two years down the line, when both have passed the 72k mark, they'll be identical.

£400 is neither here nor there, when buying a car. You wouldn't turn down your ideal motor, for the sake of £400 would you ?

Ditto. When I was buying my TI, I wanted Black or Silver, '97 "R" or newer, with

50k or less. That narrowed it down to a choice of three (!) on Autotrader. Nearest was 100 miles away. I went to look, and the ONLY fault was the front brakes. £250 to sort em - I'd have been mad to turn it down !

Which means they're only overpriced by £400. Not worth worrying about - you'll have spent more than that (and used up LOADS of your life !) by the time you find the one you want :) Write-off the £400, as a convenience charge.

Agreed - although I thought he was looking to spend a few grand ?

On a up close personal basis?

That's very expensive for an old Volvo ;-)

You're getting confused Tim - that's a wife you're talking about there ;-)

snip

(shameless editing)

Ahem, and what about the car?

...which is yet another reason why you need to stop being fixated by eytie rubbish.

HTH

-- JackH