1970 Alfa Romeo GTV 1.7 from North America

Summary:

Unique, fun and fast; dealer service is nil and parts are $$$

Faults:

Like a great mistresses, it will take your breath away, then leave you broken hearted with an empty pocket book.

I gave it a 0 for dealer service, because there was no dealer, anywhere! Dealer service happened in my garage, behind my house, by me, with a shop manual.

All my parts were ordered via the internet from Italy.

My wife hated the car and I loved it! I can't say it was unreliable, it was just a process to get parts, a complicated and expensive process. Problem was, when the car broke, nobody could fix, or even wanted to, and then I'd have to wait three weeks to get what I needed.

I bought the car off the original owner with all records so I can say with certainty what was done to it.

Clutch, alternator, brakes, exhaust, heater motor and core, tune ups twice a year, really, that's about it.

General Comments:

I loved that little car! It was simple to work on, was very fast and I had the only one in my province, I thought that was kind of cool. It had disk brakes on all four wheels, had fuel injection and an absolutely terrific heater. At minus 41 Celcius, it was toasty warm.

It would cruise a 100 miles per hour like nobody's business. I had it up to 140 miles per hour on several occasions.

My complaints about it... the seat belts were complicated and rust liked to snack on the old girl, but really - big deal?

Rust got it in the end.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 3rd January, 2004

4th Jan 2012, 15:16

I had a '74 GTV and feel the same way about how optimistic the 140 MPH claim is, but blame Alfa. I had my 2000cc girl up to 140 on a couple of occasions as well.

Although I talked up the 140 MPH to friends at the time, I had a Chevelle and an MGC at the same time that were pretty fast, and am (and I admit *was*) pretty sure that the Alfa was lying to me. I wish that I'd had a GPS unit available to me at the time, but I'm guessing that 140 on the Alfa's speedo equates to right around 120 (by seat-of the pants guesstimate).