Do you have to own an Alfa Romeo to truly be a car enthusiast?

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Do you have to own an Alfa Romeo to truly be a car enthusiast?

  • Yes, because no-one puts so much passion into making cars.

    Votes: 10 10.1%

  • No, because of other great enthusiasts' cars

    Votes: 54 54.5%

  • No, because Alfa Romeo always get something wrong in making their cars: build quality

    Votes: 16 16.2%

  • Who cares?!

    Votes: 29 29.3%

  • I can't decide!

    Votes: 4 4.0%
  • Total voters
    99
  • Poll closed .
DK

DK

No-one's having an A1 day
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CiaranGTR94
This is the question that I have known the answer to for a while: no. Why? Uh...because Alfa Romeo isn't the only car manufacturer that has made a classic car! Porsche 911, enthusiasts car. Nissan Skyline GT-R, enthusiasts car especially if you love to give your Porsche-driving friend/enemy/family member the old middle finger salute. Mazda RX-7, enthusiasts car because it's unique because of that rotary engine. Toyota Corolla AE86, enthusiasts car because it's a cheap way of experiencing RWD. Toyota MR-2 (2nd Generation), enthusiasts car because it's an affordable taste of MR drive. Ford Mustang, enthusiasts car because it's a classic. I could go on and on, but I want to hear YOUR opinions. A poll will be on the way shortly.
 
Any car that's old enough is a "classic car". That's not the point of the statement...

Alfa Romeo are the only Italian manufacturer that makes affordable, fast cars (FIAT flirted with the Coupe, but that's about it). And the "Italian" part is the important bit. Historically, the "romance" countries have had somewhat of a unique approach to car manufacturing. They usually look good (there was a brief period of vagina grilles which are the exception), sound good, look awesome under the bonnet and are woefully unreliable. Apparently a car must be a thing of beauty first and... you know... a car second. The French get this too and yet no other country on Earth can manage this.

Of particular note are the electrics. Despite electricity being invented by an Italian, apparently the ability to harness it didn't filter through to their car industry. Italian and French automotive electronics are... again, unique.


But ultimately if you can find that one perfect day when it's sunny outside, the car hasn't lost all of its electricity and there are no major mechanical catastrophes for a change, you can take your Alfa Romeo out for a drive and it'll have you beaming from ear-to-ear.

Until it breaks down.

Again.

And the rest of the year it's sitting in your garage like a mistress. Obviously a mistress who doesn't mind being in the garage and bumping into your wife on a daily basis.


You only get that with Alfa Romeo. Fast. Fun, Drop-dead gorgeous. And sometimes you can drive it too.
 
I said "who cares"
Driving isn't about making yourself look cool or rich, it's about the thrill of driving.
 
There's no "You take Top Gear too seriously" option.

Doesn't mean I don't want an Alfa, though.
 
We don't get Alfas in North America, so does that automatically mean we aren't petrolheads? I voted no, you don't need to have an Alfa to be a petrolhead/car enthusiast.
 
JCE
We don't get Alfas in North America, so does that automatically mean we aren't petrolheads? I voted no, you don't need to have an Alfa to be a petrolhead/car enthusiast.
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*coughs* We DID.

I know where there's at least 20 of em right near me of varying years and conditions.
 
Aye. I've seen a GTV6, and what I thought was a 155, in my time. And I can look out my back window and see a cornfield.
 
*sigh* And I thought I was crazy about Top Gear.

I would never really want to own an Alfa, especially a current-day one. It's not because of the breakdowns, or the cost, it's because they've sorta lost their charm in recent years, probably thanks in small part to FIAT who owns Alfa. They've actually become reasonably sensible rather than extremely unreliable but verrrry pretty Italian sports cars. I'd have a Giuletta Sprint though if only I had the cash. That's classic Alfa.
 
Romantic, round, hairy, dangling things.

Alfas... lots of show, unfortunately, only occassional go.

I ran a 156 Selespeed as a company car a few years back. It looked so much better than any other 4 door saloon of the time, and I always thought it drove great until I tried my brothers 2.0lx Mondeo, and realised the Mondeo was faster and its ride/handling was on another level.

Over the 3 years I ran it (70k miles) it had 2 complete engines (following first, an oil pump failure and second, a head gasket failure), 1 ECU (fried itself) and a new hub (after the wheel welded itself to the hub). But this pales in to insignificance compared to the garbage that masquaraded itself as a gearbox. I guess it spent at least 25% of its life in the shop... and the dealer was the worst I have ever come across in my entire life... absolutely, completely, utterly useless.

If you've never owned one, consider yourself lucky... you're not missing anything.

Though one day I'd still like to own a Fulvia.
 
Stotty
Over the 3 years I ran it (70k miles) it had 2 complete engines (following first, an oil pump failure and second, a head gasket failure), 1 ECU (fried itself) and a new hub (after the wheel welded itself to the hub). But this pales in to insignificance compared to the garbage that masquaraded itself as a gearbox. I guess it spent at least 25% of its life in the shop... and the dealer was the worst I have ever come across in my entire life... absolutely, completely, utterly useless.
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That's some effort!

At least your ready for when your Porsche starts having engine failures :sly:
 
The engine is fine (996 engine failures are exagerated)... though it does need 4 bottom arms, 2 back boxes and a diff rebuild... £2k or so should cover it.
 
I voted yes, you have to own an Alfa to be a car enthusiast.

That's okay, because I'm not a car enthusiast. Echoing what Famine said, I'm a driving enthusiast. And a pretty, finicky mistress just doesn't always enjoy a fast drive down the backroads.
 
Problem is this... Alfa used to make cars with passion running right through them, but now they only make front wheel drive cars, which is just... wrong
 
Maffski
Problem is this... Alfa used to make cars with passion running right through them, but now they only make front wheel drive cars, which is just... wrong
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Apart from the 8C ;)

I voted "No, because of other great enthusiasts' cars". Don't get me wrong, I'd love to own an Alfa and I'm over the moon that both my brother and my mum have Alfas, but I'm sure there are a great many people out there, with the US being a prime example, who've never had the opportunity to own an Alfa but are still both car and driving enthusiasts through and through. It's no fault of theirs that they've not been presented with the opportunity to own an Alfa and it would therefore be harsh to consider them "not enthusiasts" just for that reason.
 
Stotty
Romantic, round, hairy, dangling things.

Alfas... lots of show, unfortunately, only occassional go.

I ran a 156 Selespeed as a company car a few years back. It looked so much better than any other 4 door saloon of the time, and I always thought it drove great until I tried my brothers 2.0lx Mondeo, and realised the Mondeo was faster and its ride/handling was on another level.

Over the 3 years I ran it (70k miles) it had 2 complete engines (following first, an oil pump failure and second, a head gasket failure), 1 ECU (fried itself) and a new hub (after the wheel welded itself to the hub). But this pales in to insignificance compared to the garbage that masquaraded itself as a gearbox. I guess it spent at least 25% of its life in the shop... and the dealer was the worst I have ever come across in my entire life... absolutely, completely, utterly useless.

If you've never owned one, consider yourself lucky... you're not missing anything.

Though one day I'd still like to own a Fulvia.
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Yep - my friend has one and these recounts sound all too familiar.

And yes - an HF Fulvia would be awesome - in a navyish blue - with that BIG painted "HF" on the back - maybe with some gold/bronze wheels - yeahhhh.

As for the original question....

No. What an Alfa does is show that you are willing to bare with the shortfalls (both mechanically and systematically) in order to occasionally drive something that is more stylish and sometimes better to drive (I disagree on the last front) - it does NOT mean you are a car enthusiast. It means cars mean something to you. A 147 does pretty much the same thing as any other hatch - I would not call the drive an enthusiast untill I meet/talk to them.

I'd say it depends what alfa you are talking about. If its a 147, no. If its a 1750 GT or an SZ I'd say so.
 
No, you don't because their current build quality is on par with the rest of GM subsidiaries. Everything was better when they used to build RWD models.
 
80Y 2C2
I'd say it depends what alfa you are talking about. If its a 147, no. If its a 1750 GT or an SZ I'd say so.
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Why not the 147?

Leonidae
No, you don't because their current build quality is on par with the rest of GM subsidiaries. Everything was better when they used to build RWD models.
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How'd you figure that? Build quality now is a thousand times better than it used to be, as is paint quality and general reliability (which has improved even over the last five years - just look at the FIAT group as a whole where reliability is concerned).

I'm aware you're another one of the tiresome many who deride Alfa (or any other company) just because they don't make RWD cars any more when it really doesn't make a blind bit of difference in everyday driving. Ask me what makes a car feel more alive on the daily grind out of RWD and say, very quick steering (an Alfa trait) and I'd say quick steering.

For about the millionth time, you can have as much fun on the roads in a FWD as you can in a RWD. Sure, I'd like to see a RWD Alfa 3-series competitor as much as the next man, but I'd rather they began with making the 159-sized line lighter and bring a bit of character back to the engines after they did away with the Twin-Spark units (and their gorgeous chrome-piped V6) for GM-developed stuff.

Incidentally, I have a huge back-catalogue of magazines where cars like the 156 and 166 have beaten 3- and 5-series, A4s and A6s and other such competitors in road tests. It's not like Alfa consistantly produce uncompetitive cars - it's more a case that they produce competitive ones that are then out-developed in due time.
 
Absolutely not. The only two Alfas I know of that us 'Mericans can buy are either 6 figures, or Dustin Hoffman, trendy, girly, movie-mobiles.

Actually, I suppose I do recall seeing a 164 a while back. But, still.
 
No, you don't even have to have a car to be a car enthusiast.
 
Have you sat in any alfa's that have come out within last 10-15 years? I have, and they're plain nasty inside. I couldn't tell the difference in quality between Alfa interior and Opel interior. also, doing maintenance on Alfa is a major pain in the backside.
 
Leonidae
Have you sat in any alfa's that have come out within last 10-15 years? I have, and they're plain nasty inside. I couldn't tell the difference in quality between Alfa interior and Opel interior. also, doing maintenance on Alfa is a major pain in the backside.
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I have too. It had full leather Recaros, lots of shiny metal and a 12 speaker Bose system.

The last Vauxhall I sat in was made of 6 different types of grey plastic.
 
depends of the spec. you must've been in GTA or something like that :P I sat in base 156.
 
Justin
No, you don't even have to have a car to be a car enthusiast.
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This is my opinion on the matter as well.

And for the record we did get a good handful of Alfa's in the states up until 1995 when they stopped importing them. I still see a few around from time to time. A couple weeks back I even saw a Giulia for sale and tried to figure out if the sale of my kidney would be enough to cover it.
 
Justin
No, you don't even have to have a car to be a car enthusiast.
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I agree, but it's certainly a lot more fun to actually have a car :p.

No Alfa has ever been on my wish list, and that certainly shouldn't taint my car enthusiast status. Different people have different tastes. Both of my cars excite me, but someone else might be "meh" :indiff:.
 
Why on earth would you ever need to own an Alfa to be a car enthusiast? That makes it sound like some snobby elitist club of Alfa owners who think they're better than everyone else.

The only requirement to be a car enthusiast is to like cars. Period. That applies to somebody who drives a HotWheels car, a 1995 Chevy Malibu, a sports car or a Ferrari.

Maffski
Problem is this... Alfa used to make cars with passion running right through them, but now they only make front wheel drive cars, which is just... wrong
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Eh? There is nothing wrong with front wheel drive. Sure, it has limitations to its size and performance potential, but for smaller cars, FWD is just fine. How many of those iconic, front driving hot hatches and coupes are "just wrong" because of their drivetrain? And how many of them would be made any better with a rear drive setup?
 
Re the FWD v RWD comments...

This weeks Autocar has a comparative test of the Focus RS, Scirocco R and 370Z. Both the FWD cars were faster and handled better than the Z, despite the Z having much the highest power to weight ratio an RWD. To quote Autocar... 'the Z struggled to keep up with the Scirocco and couldn't see which way the Focus RS went'.
 
I'm interested what they'll do with their next 16x series car. That'll be Rear Wheel Drive...Via Chrysler.
 
Philly
That applies to somebody who drives a HotWheels car, a 1995 Chevy Malibu, a sports car or a Ferrari.
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There was no 95 Malibu.
 
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