GTAm

Won't a CRX, Del Sol and Legacy RS be a lot cheaper than his budget?

Hi Blazin, since you're in the UK..... I have got a friend over there who owns two BMs including a 330i. I've just invited him to this forum. Hopefully he'll join. He usually gets great deals. I'd be surprised if they were. I don't think you will get a Boxter for less that 20k Pounds.

Foget the snob image man. If you can get a 330Ci for ten grand, that's a steal! I'll learn to live with any image ! 230bhp straight six, RWD with class leading ride and hadling, full four seater with a boot and only the M3 sitting above it!! Go for it!

Yeah I guess the image of BMW in the UK is really bad thanks to its huge success. In fact I don't like the image myself even though I know the cars are great. I'm not really happy with modern Audis they have unnecessarily hard ride and no soul. The only thing I like about them is the build quality and the interior. What's your budget? Thought about a Golf R32? Mazda RX8 or a Alfa GT 3.2?(My choice ) I totally agree !

You're right about the diesels. But then again you'll miss the top end only on a track. Foget the Audi I know the S3 is a v quick hatch but none of the new Audi's I've driven recently have a finesse of a BM. And the 330i said to be a cracker. It's the E46 right? If so it's also a good looking car unlike the new 3. 3.0 straight six vs a turbo four?? The choice is too easy.

What a pity. I loved that car when I drove it!!

I remember the same year the 320d s started flowing in to SL and reading rave reviews about the car, I asked Milroy on behalf of a friend who was interested in buying one, and he said they were problematic and advised me against it. However I guess now those early cars must have been sorted out as if not there would not be so many running and commanding high prices. The problems were probably due to our filthy fuel. But I'd heard that the 530d s are problematic is this true. I once drove one and still remember how perfect it felt.

Will check for you. send me your email address.

The one that was/is for sale was an '84. Not the most sort after muscle car. I think its a V6 as well. It offered for sale by a bit of a shady character.

I will keep you informed. We are thinking of our next track day in Feb or March. It will be great to have a few Dutch Alfas!! You can contact me on [email protected]

I drove a 300- 1.8 and found it awful in almost everyway. Not one bit a drivers car. I know the Camino is a hot car. Today I saw a Primera badged M6. What the hell is that?

It's called badge engineering in the motor industry. It's all to do with economies of scale and having a complete range at your showroom. For example it's more profitable to make 250,000 cars than 125,000 cars. So when manufacturer A can sell only 125,000 cars from all their distributors, then it may make sense to offer manufacturer B a deal to market the same car with that manufacturers badge. Since B also has a large distributor/dealer net work crying out for another model that B cannot afford to develop, they go to A and shake hands. I'm sure this is what happened with the Vannette badged Bongo. In the 80's Ford took a stake (33.3%) in Mazda to stamp their presence in the Asia Pacific region and since Ford US had large cars that were not suitable for Asia and Ford Europe had expensive andf shitty cars that would not sell in Asia it made sense to get Mazda to re-badge the 323 as the Laser and the 626 as the Telstar. Mazda learned how to design good cars and emply European dsign houses as Ford deasign came from their own Ghia studio in Italy. And everythng is the same except the grille badges and lamp. The 1.6 and 1.5 are both Mazda units. As for Lexus and Toyota in Japan there used to be no Lexus (not sure if they're there now) and all Lexus models are badged Toyotas so that's why we get the Harrier here instead of the RX. But now other Asian markets do get Lexus. The VW story is a bit different as VW fully owns Audi, Seat and Skoda. And all the cars share the same basic architecture. But materials used and suspension set up varies according to the brand. Now after realizing the cars were too similar the VW group has decided to make them more different. I think people shunned Daewoos because they were terrible and very flimsy. GM has improved the quality and brought in a few newer cars which seems better. Also Daewoo was a cash strapped and mismanaged company towards the latter stages of its life and that hurt sales. You won't see a TATA badged Nissan but you will soon see a Fiat engined TATA. You will also see a Cherry engined Fiats. Which is the latest deal Fiat has signed. You will also see Nissan engined Renaults and the new X-trail will spawn a Renault soft roader called the Kalos which was developed with the help of Samsung Auto which also is controlled by Renault. BTW the latest badge engineered soft roaders are the Peugeot 4007 and Citroen C-Crosser which are actually the new Mitsubishi Outlander!!! And to confuse everyone even more....the Diesel outlander will have a VW engine in Europe!! Deals within deals!! Another crazy badge engineering exercise is the Saab 9-2 which is actually the Subaru Impreza wagon. Saab is owned by GM and when it happened GM had a stake in Subaru which they sold to Toyota recently. GM, Saab and Subaru are all loss makers. And anyone remember the 80's Civic which was badged the Rover 213 in Europe? Not to mention the later 200s that were rebadged Honda Domanis. In fact the Rover 800 series had Honda V6s and gear boxes as the car was developed jointly. And the first Land Rover Discovery was badged a Honda for the Japanese market....Must have been the worst built Honda ever ! Anyway I really don't think badge engineering works. It's just that manufacturers do it when they are desperate.

Yes your right it's the Autodelta 3.7 GTA and there was a concept GTAm which is how I got my name I'll look for bigger pics and email you guys.

I saw two today. One in Kohuwela and the other coming oout of the port with grease and dust on it. Frankly I think it looks funny. The pervious models looked better.

Hi FastCar There are no agents right now. But Euro Motors which is part of Wheels Lanka have got the Fiat Agency and have already brought down 30 cars (Fiats). I went and saw them last week. They also claim that they are launching Alfa next month. There is a possibility that this might be true (Fiat owns Alfa) although I doubt it will be as soon as next month. As for parts and maintainence for later models like the 33, 146, 155, 156 and 166, it's not a problem. There is a very good specialist called Indika who takes care of it. He imports and stocks spares and is the guy who handled the work shop at the previous agents. I use a 156 as my daily drive and he is the guy who maitains the car. Excellent service I must say. If something is out of stock, it come from Singapore in two days. There one or two other suppliers who have some spares as well. But not the full stock.

Yes the old S40 shared the same platform as the Charisma which was made at Volvo DAF's Dutch plant. But this one is totally different. It might have similarities with a Hyundai as when the development started Mitsubishi was part of Daimler Chrysler and Hyundai group. Since then of course DC dropped links with Mistubishi. Not to mention the Alfa 156 which came in 1997!

Nah man. Aston has no agent in SL. The company is owned by Ford so perhaps David Pieris Motors can get it if they want. Rs. 62 Mill I'm told.

What's a Valentino? Special edition?

Like the Corvette Z06!!!!!

Sorry I did not know that. Well he knows about AL so it's upto him if he wants to advertise. Looks like it mate . Won't my contact details be blocked as well? Romesh is a bit of an expert on the E30 that's why I wanted you to talk to him. Anyway I owned an E30 316i a long time back. You have to look for maintainence records. And the car should have been maintained by a specialist. Timing belts need to be changed every 30k miles. Radiator leaks means you have to replace. Lots of cars are now tatty so take a long time in finding the best you can. And there still are a few good ones around. If you can find a 320i which are quite rare go for that. The 316i is a bit under powered. But they are still nice to drive.

Call Romesh on 0777#####. He's got one for sale.

There was a Turbo model. But they are based on the Trad Sunny and so terribly awful to drive. Not even close to being a sports car. I remember a magazine naming it the worst car that year. I'd go for a Ser.1 RX7 instead.

SZ in SL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????? Yeah they were all LHD but there is one South African convert to RHD known to exist in the UK. Very unlikely and must be the black GTV, although I wish I was wrong ! No Devinda that car is still languishing at that garage. What a waste! This one I found in Warakapola in a car sale about 2 years ago. It was in very rough condition but it screamed and flew and one drive made me want it !

More Pics of Alfas - Another of my Junior, Friend's Sud L (Guilia in front) and my Sprint being restored. Sorry for the large size guys. Not sure how to make them smaller now

Hey great to have Dutch Alfisti over here. Please do come for our events! We can share knowledge and have a good chat about Italian machines. I have read that the Dutch clubs are very active. But that's not surprising since Alfa Romeo and especially the Giulias were such a dominant force on your tracks in the 60s and 70s. Zandvoot isn't it? Maybe you can help our club. We are looking for videos of old races or even the new historic ones to show our members. Do you know where we can find such dvds? I was thinking about old ETCC events, but did they film them at that time? I had completely forgotten that the Alfa 164 and Lancia Thema shared the same Type 4 platform along with the Chroma and Saab 9000. So of course there must have been the Arese Alfa V6. Can't be the Dourvin V6 that Peugoet, Renault and Volvo used. Btw my junior runs on two twin choke Weber 40 DCOEs. I saw my GTJ for the 1st time in 1995. And can you beleive that it was the first time I had ever seen a Giulia coupe? I had only lusted after Sud Sprints and Alfetta GTVs before that. When I saw the two massive Webers, twin cam aluminium engine, discs all round and a 5 speed box on a 60s car, I knew I this is my kind of car . But I was very afraid to buy it, knowing nothing about the brand or the car. (I was running a VW Jetta diesel at that time.) I had already bought a Triumph 2000 blindly lured by the stright 6 engine. It was no drivers car and getting it restored was a nightmare as the guy who undertook it cheated me . Anyway 5 years later the junior was advertised in the Motor Mag and had been there for years. I went to see it again; it was red now from black earlier. It was looking awesome and I just wanted it. The seller agreed to relieve me off the Triumph and we did the deal. It's been an amazing time since then with the Alfa. And since then of course I've hunted down a Sprint Veloce and GTV 2000 as well. I drove the Sprint before taking it apart and it's such a blast. Can't wait to have all 3 parked next to each other !