Top six Alfa Romeos to invest in now

The V8 Montreal coupe is one of few Alfa Romeos to have skyrocketed in value. Twenty-five years ago good cars could be found for $40K but the price now is more like $140K. It is easy to see how the Montreal would appeal to someone who might have hankered for a Ferrari or Maserati.

The company arguably lost its way somewhere in the mid to late 1980s when making a wholesale transition to front-wheel-drive. Had all those new models been brilliantly engineered, the allure might have continued, but they weren’t and it didn’t.

The 1972 Alfasud was Alfa’s first front-driver and remains highly celebrated by enthusiasts but, sadly, fast-rusting low-grade steel guaranteed a minimal number of survivors. Its 33 successor was more mainstream, less charismatic and now all but forgotten.

Engineering was always a key brand attribute but build quality was often average, at best. The 1972 Alfetta sedan, for example, exhibited perfect 50:50 weight distribution, a delectable 1.8-litre twin cam engine and De Dion/ Watts Link rear-end, but suffered badly from rust and the interior trim failed to withstand Australian UV levels.

By the mid-1980s Alfa Romeo had pretty much conquered the rust issue but product planning seemed, at best, haphazard. It was one of the few manufacturers still making mid-sized rear-wheel-drive cars but was having trouble in making real advances; the 1984 Alfa 90 sedan was really not much more than a reskinned Alfetta with a V6 engine, power steering and a hotch-potch cabin full of gimmicks such as a lift-out briefcase and a digital dashboard incorporating two speedometers. The 90 and its 75 sibling carried Alfa Romeo’s 1970s design themes through to the end of the 1980s.

In 1989 the large (front-wheel-drive) 164 sedan with gorgeous Pininfarina styling was the best of four luxury models sharing a platform (the others being Saab 9000, Lancia Thema and Fiat Croma). But its 166 successor barely developed the theme and sold in tiny numbers locally.

Doubtless the best news Alfisti have received in decades was the Guilia Quadrifoglio (four-leaf clover) sedan which combines all-wheel-drive with a stonking 375kW/600Nm 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 and eight-speed sports automatic transmission. This dedicated sports model – which won motoring.com.au’s Australia’s Best Driver’s Car award in 2018 – is at least the equal of a BMW M3 sedan. It’s one to watch with used prices plummeting. The Guilia Quadrifoglio arrived here in 2016, priced at some $160K on the road. Already, outstanding examples are available for $110K. When one-owner cars have depreciated to $70K, that will be the time to jump.

The 1930s and 1960s were arguably Alfa Romeo’s glory decades with the marque chiefly recognised for its coupes with bodywork by the leading Italian carozzerria – Farina (later Pininfarina), Bertone, etc.

The most beautiful of these coupes have long been collectible and the classic sedans are beginning to follow suit.

The price ranges suggested here were supplied by Shannons National Auctions Manager, Christophe Boribon.

The gorgeous 2600 Sprint GT with bodywork by Bertone went on sale here in 1965. That year just three Alfa Romeos were offered, marking the first appearance of the marque since World War Two. This was the undoubted flagship at £4258 ($8516) compared with £2030 for the Guilia Ti sedan and £2723 for the 1600 Sprint GT coupe.

These Tipo 106 were the last Alfa Romeos with a dual overhead camshaft straight six-cylinder engine. The Sprint was equipped with triple twin-choke Solex side-draught carburettors and delivered 165bhp.

According to then Wheels editor, the late great Bill Tuckey, in his road test published in the July 1966 edition, it was ‘one of the most exciting cars we have ever driven’. Remembering that back then a true top speed of 100mph was still impressive – at which velocity, said Tuckey, it could ‘cruise comfortably’ – the Alfa’s 129 was virtually supercar league. The standing quarter mile took 17.5sec.

At 15 feet in length the Sprint was physically bigger than an HR Holden.

By mid-1966 the price was pegged at $7500, which made the 2600 Sprint GT $140 dearer than a Jaguar E-Type coupe. An MGB cost $2840, a Porsche 911 $9446.

This Alfa is surely the nearest less expensive alternative to a Ferrari 330 GT. As recently as 2011 one of these cars was passed in at a Shannons Auction but it is difficult not to believe that prices of what was always a relatively rare car will rise steeply in coming decades. The 2600 Sprint GT seems to be curiously underrated by collectors. (Why is it any less desirable than a Montreal?)

Price Range: $50,000 - $70,000
Rating: 1

When Sydney Alfa Romeo distributor and retired racing driver Alec Mildren imported an Alfa Romeo Giulia Super Ti sedan to enter in the 1964 Sandown 500-mile race for standard production cars, he went about the business in a thoroughgoing fashion. The white car, driven by ace Italian Roberto Bussinello and the experienced Ralph Sachs, not only blitzed the 1301-1600cc class but won the race outright, completing 230 laps and beating the second-placed Mini Cooper S by seven laps.

The Mildren team repeated this success the following year, again in the same car, driven this time by local aces Frank Gardner and Kevin Bartlett. Mildren had also imported a lightweight GTA coupe, which he hoped would win. But the GTA, driven by Bussinello and Sachs, blew up its engine while leading, some two and a half hours into the race.

The Sandown circuit is extremely hard on brakes and the Alfa’s four-wheel disc system was undoubtedly better than that of any other car in the race.

Although the hot Giulia Super Ti was never sold here (despite intense demand in the wake of its 1964 victory), the Guilia Super with a less highly tuned engine was.

Introduced locally in 1966, the Super had a 1570cc twin overhead camshaft four-cylinder engine with dual twin-choke Webers. It produced 112bhp and driving through a five-speed gearbox (highly unusual in the Australia of 1966), gave this compact Alfa sedan, which weighed less than a ton, a top speed in excess of 100mph. It had disc brakes all-round. There was comfortable room for four adults and a big boot.

The interior was nicely laid out with a beautiful fascia incorporating large round matching dials for speed and engine revs. There were genuine timber highlights.

Paradoxically, this upright, boxy four-door boasted a superior coefficient of drag to its voluptuous coupe sibling.

This is really a classic Alfa Romeo story. Known as the 105-Series, this pair of Alfas has always had a keen following among Alfisti. But until recently there was little interest in the sedans outside the Alfa clubs. While the coupes were commanding quite high prices by the late 1980s, this was not the case for the Giulia Super. I paid $5000 for a lovely example in 1987, when a comparable coupe would have been $20K-plus; indeed, I paid $30K for a 2000 GTV in 1990.

Everything about the car oozes charm and distinctive character: here was the definitive mid-to-late 1960s Italian sports sedan.

Price Range: $30,000 - $50,000
Rating: 3

Although the Alfetta sedan, which made its international debut in 1972 and went on sale here two years later, was less distinctively styled than its Berlina and Giulia predecessors, in engineering terms it represented a forward step.

Perhaps Alfa Romeo’s marketing department was a little cheeky in choosing the name Alfetta because this moniker already graced one of the company’s most famous racing cars, the 159 Alfetta. At least the Bertone-styled sedan boasted a rear transaxle like the 159.

This was the first Alfa Romeo sedan with rack and pinion steering and it delivered perfect feel. There was no need for power assistance either, the Alfetta being compact and light on its feet.

Torsion bar suspension and the De Dion/Watts Link rear-end constituted a step up from earlier Alfa Romeo practice.

The gearchange (that remote transaxle!) came in for plenty of criticism but was never as bad as they said; it was always a case of working with the car rather than fighting the controls.

Sadly, the interior was neither as well finished nor as durable as in earlier models. But at least there were still lovely pieces of wood veneer.

Rust ate many cars alive; my aunt’s Alfetta 2.0 virtually self-disintegrated in a Hawthorn garage.

Like the 105-Series, albeit to a lesser extent, these 116-Series models saw the coupe variants attract a larger share of the limelight.

The Alfetta sedan soldiered on until 1985 (having gained a 2.0-litre engine with much more torque but greatly reduced appetite for high rpm in 1977) but in my view the 1.8-litre versions are preferable with their cleaner detailing and genuine wood trim.

It was modern where the Giulia was traditional, but both were unmistakably Alfa Romeo in character.

Price Range: $10,000 - $15,000
Rating: 7

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The best thing about Alfa’s (Tipo 119) 6 sedan was the all-new 2.5-litre V6. Never sold here, the 6 looked like a stretched Alfetta.

Synergy beckoned. When this V6 engine was plumbed into the Guigaro-designed Alfetta coupe, the resultant GTV6 was one of the most charismatic of all Alfa Romeos. Where the slow-selling 6 boasted the odd complexity of six carburettors, the GTV6 got Bosch L-Jetronic injection for superior reliability and economy with the same maximum power of 117kW.

The Alfetta coupe was not as well balanced as the sedan, due mainly to its shorter rear overhang and the heavier V6 engine exacerbated the car’s natural inclination to understeer. There was no power steering and the GTV6 needed a sensitive driver to get the best out of it.

To many it was an acquired taste which they never acquired, but I was addicted from the first drive. The GTV6 was a unique concoction: what could have been a Ferrari V6 – so beautifully mechanical yet operatic was its soundtrack – with low overall gearing and a power fifth gear (meaning the car achieved its top speed in the highest ratio), evocative matt black hump in the bonnet (to accommodate the bigger engine), direct and alive-in-your-hands steering, delectable styling.

Fit and finish was poor. The plastic dashboard creaked. What looked like a perfect hatchback design in fact was a conventional boot with fixed rear window.
In the September 1984 edition of Wheels comparison between six sports coupes, in an opinion piece I wrote:

“I am ashamed of my own perversity. From the moment I first tried to get comfortable behind the Alfa’s beautiful steering wheel, I knew that this car had far too many faults to take seriously. But that’s the price you pay for choosing an Alfa.

The damnable part about it is, I probably would. Despite everything.
With so many faults in its design, you couldn’t recommend an Alfetta GTV6 to anybody but yourself.

Let logic prevail, then. The Mitsubishi Starion will drive around the Alfa…

So there’s my entirely subjective summary. When your heart says Milan but your head says Mitsubishi.”

I have owned three GTV6s, one of them twice. These cars demand to be driven properly and when done so reward you richly. Even back in 1983 when the early GTV6 (centrally placed instruments) arrived in Australia, buyers were beginning to expect power steering in this size of car. But the GTV6 (upgraded for 1984 with a minor facelift and cleaner dash layout) was the last of the old purist Alfa Romeos and the better for it.

In contrast to its 105-Series predecessor, the GTV6 was slow to attract a widespread following in the broader classic car world.

Price Range: $15,000 - $25,000
Rating: 2

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The mechanically similar Alfa 90 and 75 sedans (the marque’s first with power steering) exhibited Alfa Romeo’s confused product planning and tight budgets in the early to mid-1980s. They were the last cars developed before Fiat subsumed Alfa Romeo.

The 90 was a conservatively styled luxury car (essentially a facelifted Alfetta by the same design house, Bertone) with no automatic transmission option. It was intended to replace the Alfetta. The wildly styled, extreme wedge (in-house by Ermanno Cressani) 75 with less plushness and lower gearing was allegedly the Guilietta’s successor. Both used the GTV6’s charismatic 2.5-litre V6.

Eventually the 90 was discontinued. The 75 range grew to include the four-cylinder Twin Spark, 2.5-litre (three-speed) automatic and 3.0-litre manual.

The final and most desirable of all these sedans was the 75 Potenziata which used the 164’s more powerful version of the 3.0-litre engine with Motronic rather than Bosch injection.

This was the last descendant of the 1972 Alfetta and Alfa Romeo’s final rear-driver. It is a historical curiosity with its bizarre styling, superb engine and quaint interior.

Price Range: $10,000 - $15,000
Rating: 5

The weak link in the 164 was the troublesome ZF automatic transmission. Australian buyers had no choice, which was paradoxical since many would-be buyers of the 164’s predecessor, the rear-drive 90, would have preferred an auto but could only get a manual.

In 1991 the 164Q (for Quadrifoglio) solved this problem. The 3.0-litre V6 was massaged to produce an extra 11kW (147) and 12Nm more torque (265). Its five-speed manual was a power transmission like the GTV6’s with a sweet shift and beautifully spaced ratios. The zero to 100km/h time was cut from about nine seconds to 7.7.

An electrically-controlled sports suspension improved the already good handling of the 164.

With its unique alloys, lower ride height and small boot-lid spoiler, the 164Q exuded unique appeal. It was something like Alfa Romeo’s version of the BMW M5.

In one sense the 164Q was the successor of the GTV6 coupe but it was far more refined and luxurious with opulent leather and electrically adjustable sports front seats. And much quicker – the GTV6 took nine seconds to 100 and peaked at 206 but the Q could achieve a top speed of 237: quite a lot of progress in half a decade!

By this stage, Alfa Romeo’s product range had become so confused and so remote from its glory days that once the Alfisti had secured their examples, the 164Q effectively became invisible.

Price Range: $10,000 - $20,000
Rating: 4

The GT arrived locally in mid-2004 to supersede the 156 GTA sedan and supplement the 147 GTA launched here the previous year. All three cars used Alfa Romeo’s impressive 3.2-litre V6, but while the GTAs both made 184kW, the GT offered 176. Peak torque was 300Nm in each case. A close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox was the only transmission on offer on the GT. (On other Alfas, the Selespeed transmission – known in the trade as Silly Speed – is best avoided.)

In truth, Alfa Romeo’s product planning seemed especially confused when it came to the high performance models. In the late 1990s to 2005 time frame, the company offered the front-drive GTV6, 156 GTA, 147 GTA, GT and the V6 (a much more charismatic version of Holden’s Alloytec engine) Brera, all of which were variations on a theme and most of which competed with each other for sales.

Although the GT was based on the 156 sedan, its coupe body with low roofline and shallow glasshouse was unique and this makes it more appealing than either of the GTA pair or the front-drive GTV6. (Alfa Romeo purists were doubtless displeased by the use of the GTA badge, which had originally been used for a racing version of the 105-Series coupe with aluminium outer body panels.) As for the Brera, Alfa Romeo purists would surely prefer an Alfa V6 to a revivified Commodore engine!

The Alfa GT could only have been an Alfa with its heart-shaped grille and traditional styling cues and was, in my view, the most aesthetically appealing model since the 164Q: for the first time since the 164, Alfa Romeo aesthetics had been reimagined.

The GT is not a car for rough roads (where its short travel, very firm suspension tends to crash) but the combination of zesty V6 performance, plush interior (with BOSE sound system, but minimal room for rear occupants) and its almost custom car looks make it great value for the Alfa enthusiast reared on the old GTV6. If any Alfa Romeo of the early twenty-first century will prove collectible, my bet is on the GT.

Exactly 100 100th Anniversary edition GTs came to Australia. They boasted 18-inch alloys, red-painted brake calipers and unique seats.

Price Range: $10,000 - $20,000
Rating: 6

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