Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Italian cars

[Ian900SLV]

Hi all,
Seeing as will are all ducati freaks, I wondered if any of you drive an Italian car as well. Reason being just purchased an Alfa Romeo 156 1.8 twinspark veloce, looks real nice parked next to the SL

Ian

[rcgbob44]

Definitly not!

[Ian]

I always loved the shape of the Alfa 156 sportswagon, - but went for a test drive, the salesman put me off with his honesty about reliabilty, service costs. I hate Honda motorbikes but I have a Honda car, forgive me. Now if I could afford the Ferrari F430 spider......

had an 1999 Alfa Spider for 3 yrars and 65k, was excellent .....

[Brogins]

Got, used, trashed several Italian cars in Italy..Lancia, Fiat, never owned an Alfa (Italians consider Alfa a cop's car.. - except dibble's spyder) ..bought an Audi and I'll never go back...
156 look good, and is like a Duke..you can be lucky and never have a problem.. or.. hell.

[Edited on 17-7-2005 by Brogins]

[HW]

Hehehe ... I've got an Alfa 156 1.8 T-Spark Veloce too! Bought it last year, so the new shape front end. Brilliant drive, almost as much fun as my bike. Almost.

[MARTIN H]

About 15 years ago I had a Alfa 164 3.0v6 I loved it but it nearly bankrupted me! I ran it for 2 or 3 years and only about 30k miles and it went through either 5 or 6 clutches, just about everything electrical was replaced and then the cam belt snapped at 5pm on xmas eve and managed to bend everyone of the 12 valves (luckily this was before the 24valve engine) I remember the rebuild cost was astronomical even back then the valves were £60 each! It was a hoot to drive as it put all its power just through the front wheels and the torque steer was ridiculous it would pull the wheel out of your hands and veer from one side of the road to the other. It was so bad a mechanic friend who drove it proclaimed it to be the most dangerous car he had ever driven. What engine though I could not resist revving it to its limiter just to hear that howl.

As bad as it was I still get a little misty eyed when I see one on the road (rare)

Had a few classic italians in the past Lancia Fulvias and Alfa 2600 sprint, something quite special about them.

[nelly]

I've got a 20V Fiat Coupe. Love it. More trouble than the Ducati, bags of style and character and stunnin to look at. The design was penned about the same time as the 916, and is just as timeless.

Oh yeah...........and it's YELLOW

[MJS]

I've got a Fiat barchetta, lhd, 2 seats, wind in the hair... had it 5 years now... not the fastest car on the road but lots of fun....

[keith_mann1959]

I have(had) a 156, its in the garage at the moment with a wrecked engine. written the thing off really. 90 miles after a top end rebuild its blown up and they say its nothing to do with them.
As others have said beautiful to look at and fabulous to drive but too painful to own