You know you're a car nut when....

[Spectre]

Now that's damning with no praise.

Tied for the position of 'Worst Car I Have Ever Owned": Peugeot 504, Alfa Spider.

 

[Interrobang]

I was looking for a cheap convertible. It was down to an Alfa Spider and an MGB. The Alfa was cheaper and in better condition cosmetically.[...]

You chose an Alfa for reasons a grown up would use to pick a car. You looked for price and condition. As a german, I respect that. But ... most italian Cars (or food, clothes - whatever you?d call "italian" too) are stuff that?s not "grown up". The child inside of you buys stuff like that. The child that doesn?t hear reason, that just sees something it likes and wants it. Sure, Broccoli is good for you ... BUT YOU WANT CANDY FOR DINNER!!! AND PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST!

I think these cars channel your inner child somewhat ... you know it?s bad for you, you know other options are more sensible ... but you still want it. It?s like you go to work every day, you pay your taxes, have your insurances, mow your lawn, keep the noise down ... and just when you think you?re finally almost dead inside ... there?s that unreasonable italian car that puts a really idiotic smile on your face ...

 

[Spectre]

I think these cars channel your inner child somewhat ... you know it?s bad for you, you know other options are more sensible ... but you still want it. It?s like you go to work every day, you pay your taxes, have your insurances, mow your lawn, keep the noise down ... and just when you think you?re finally almost dead inside ... there?s that unreasonable italian car that puts a really idiotic smile on your face ...

I don't need a terrible car that doesn't run to put an idiotic smile on my face. I just go get on my motorcycle.

 

[Labcoatguy]

You chose an Alfa for reasons a grown up would use to pick a car. You looked for price and condition. As a german, I respect that. But ... most italian Cars (or food, clothes - whatever you?d call "italian" too) are stuff that?s not "grown up". The child inside of you buys stuff like that. The child that doesn?t hear reason, that just sees something it likes and wants it. Sure, Broccoli is good for you ... BUT YOU WANT CANDY FOR DINNER!!! AND PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST!

I think these cars channel your inner child somewhat ... you know it?s bad for you, you know other options are more sensible ... but you still want it. It?s like you go to work every day, you pay your taxes, have your insurances, mow your lawn, keep the noise down ... and just when you think you?re finally almost dead inside ... there?s that unreasonable italian car that puts a really idiotic smile on your face ...

Yeah, but nowadays you can get Japanese roadsters, for example, that give you at least 90% of the joy with 1% of the headache. Heck, they're so usable that they can be year-round daily drivers in places with real winters. Short of knocking someone up and having it confirmed on daytime TV, I have no reason, practical or emotional, to give up my car, something that can't be said of any unreliable passionmobile.

 

[Interrobang]

[...]Yeah, but nowadays you can get Japanese roadsters, for example, that give you at least 90% of the joy with 1% of the headache.

It?s totally acceptable to pick a reliable car. I?m not saying that it?s something bad. And there will be a lot of car-choices that will even provide said reliability, while not only giving you 90% of the joy ... but 100 or 110 % of an Italian Car.

But then that?s not the point to start with. "Reason" is completly out of this ... you see one, you love it, you want it. It?s an emotional connection with an inanimate object. I don?t expect anyone to understand it that hasn?t experienced it ... but it happens to a lot of us with italian cars. And Alfas have won a lot of hearts (and broken them).

I don't need a terrible car that doesn't run to put an idiotic smile on my face. I just go get on my motorcycle.[...]

And why wear that Armani-Suit when a Sweat-suit is also "clothing" and more cheap and comfy ...

 

[Spectre]

Yeah, but nowadays you can get Japanese roadsters, for example, that give you at least 90% of the joy with 1% of the headache. Heck, they're so usable that they can be year-round daily drivers in places with real winters. Short of knocking someone up and having it confirmed on daytime TV, I have no reason, practical or emotional, to give up my car, something that can't be said of any unreliable passionmobile.

This. There's any number of other makers out there who can provide something that sates your inner child without:

1. Failing to ever complete a journey successfully.
2. Going on fire every few starts.
3. Having replacement parts that are worse quality than the broken one you're replacing.
4. Eating every penny you have and then asking for more.

I mean, seriously, does anyone think I bought this for grown-up reasons?

Nobody ever buys one of those for purely practical considerations. If you did, you'd buy the non-supercharged version. You buy one of those for the same sort of reason that one would (supposedly) buy an Ital-fire-mobile. The difference is that these stay bolted together for more than ten seconds so you can actually have that idiotic grin for more than 30 seconds (which is about how long the Alfa gave me at a stretch before it turned that smile upside down by exploding.)

Wanting an Alfa is like wanting to marry Courtney Love. Sure, maybe she looks hot, but you know she's a train wreck and so does everyone else. (I have a theory that Kurt Cobain woke up one day completely sober for the first time in his adult life, realized he was married to Courtney Love, and promptly shot himself out of sheer horror when he realized the enormity of what he'd done. )

 

[Interrobang]

I mean, seriously, does anyone think I bought this for grown-up reasons?[...]

You can buy Jaguars for grown-up reasons ... Reasons like displaying Status, income, influence ... stupid, dickish grown up-reasons ... but still ...
I?m not saying you did that btw, just generally speaking.

 

[Spectre]

You can buy Jaguars for grown-up reasons ... Reasons like displaying Status, income, influence ... stupid, dickish grown up-reasons ... but still ...
I?m not saying you did that btw, just generally speaking.

The people that do that usually buy the four doors (new - and only new), and then they usually buy the luxobarge version instead of the sporting models.

Nobody buys the XKR for anything but fun of some kind.

 

[Hbriz]

Comparing an XKR to an Alfa is a bit of a stretch. Yes, the Jag is far better engineered and will be more reliable, etc. etc. but using prices here, an X100 XKR convertible costs around $60,000 for a cheap one. You can get a decent Alfa Spider of the same age for $50,000 less.

An Alfa Spider should be compared to an MX-5. For the same money as a decent late 90s Spider Twinspark, you can have a 1989 MX-5 1.6 with over 300,000km and a leaky roof. Just by that, I'd buy the Alfa. It may not drive as well, but god it's beautiful. Not just on the outside, but inside and under the bonnet (yes, insert as many "not beautiful when its spewing oil" jabs as you like). Plus, you get the emotional benefit of driving an Alfa Romeo. And in my heart I know that every day I'd rather walk outside to an Alfa than a Mazda. One may be the better car, but one makes you feel a whole lot more special.

I'm not saying everyone should feel this way. You either get it or you don't. If you don't, thats what the Japanese are for.

 

[Spectre]

Comparing an XKR to an Alfa is a bit of a stretch. Yes, the Jag is far better engineered and will be more reliable, etc. etc. but using prices here, an X100 XKR convertible costs around $60,000 for a cheap one. You can get a decent Alfa Spider of the same age for $50,000 less.

An Alfa Spider should be compared to an MX-5. For the same money as a decent late 90s Spider Twinspark, you can have a 1989 MX-5 1.6 with over 300,000km and a leaky roof. Just by that, I'd buy the Alfa. It may not drive as well, but god it's beautiful. Not just on the outside, but inside and under the bonnet (yes, insert as many "not beautiful when its spewing oil" jabs as you like). Plus, you get the emotional benefit of driving an Alfa Romeo. And in my heart I know that every day I'd rather walk outside to an Alfa than a Mazda. One may be the better car, but one makes you feel a whole lot more special.

I'm not saying everyone should feel this way. You either get it or you don't. If you don't, thats what the Japanese are for.

1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce, $18,500: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/cto/2281550192.html
1992 Jaguar XJS Convertible, $8000: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/2271761578.html
1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata, $7500: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/2282589329.html

1990 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate - $5500: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/2274643745.html
1995 Jaguar XJS convertible - $2999: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/cto/2279323190.html
1992 Mazda Miata - $3800: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/2282856535.html

Not a stretch to compare the contemporary top Jag 'vert to an Alfa over here.

I did get the Alfa thing. Then it burned when I peed, so I went to a doctor for an antifungal. Cleared it right up.

There's reasons why Alfa got booted out of the US market.

 

[JipJopJones]

When you do stuff like this....

 

[Hbriz]

Not a stretch to compare the contemporary top Jag 'vert to an Alfa over here.

Which is why I specifically referred to this country. If I lived in the US I wouldn't want an Alfa either. Too many other cheap cars that I would rather own. It's rather different here, where Alfas are plenty and Jags are extremely expensive. If an XJS was that cheap here, I wouldn't have bought my car.

 

[That American Girl]

Wrong girl then.

Agreed!

And for me...when you overhear a co-worker talk about wanting to buy an old 70's muscle car not for the looks (which are awesome!) but because he wants:

"Yunno...something that I can take out and run rings around all this new foreign crap. Something big and tough (agreed!) and handles like nuttin those overseas guys can get their hands on..."

Which at that point I put them in a headlock and explain why a BMW 3 or M series (awesome), an Elise (which I've driven many times and love) and tons of smaller cars out now would leave him in the dust on a really windy type road.

 

[katwalk]

You know what annoys me? Alfas are allowed to suck and still be cool because they have "personality".

My car doesn't? It's a fucking smiley face on wheels. Lack of reliability is also more endearing when your car breaks in ways that are obnoxious but it still moves. At least you can get home/to the shop to fix it then.

 

[That American Girl]

You know what annoys me? Alfas are allowed to suck and still be cool because they have "personality".

It gets worse. Whenever I shamefully admit that my first car was a 77 Gremlin, most people (who have obviously never driven one) say "Oh...cool!"

Well, it's not.

It was shit when I bought it, it was shit when it was new, and it was even more shit when I finally took mercy on it, and took it out back and had it shot.

 

[Labcoatguy]

It?s totally acceptable to pick a reliable car. I?m not saying that it?s something bad. And there will be a lot of car-choices that will even provide said reliability, while not only giving you 90% of the joy ... but 100 or 110 % of an Italian Car.

But then that?s not the point to start with. "Reason" is completly out of this ... you see one, you love it, you want it. It?s an emotional connection with an inanimate object. I don?t expect anyone to understand it that hasn?t experienced it ... but it happens to a lot of us with italian cars. And Alfas have won a lot of hearts (and broken them).

It is possible to be both "reasonable" and "emotional", as I'm sure you'll agree. Spectre and I have merely let little scraps of reason contaminate our emotions, hence our respective car choices. Heck, I'm feeling the emotional tug for a Saab 9000 Aero right now; I've driven one and fallen hard for its turbo power, bouncing boost gauge, and Star Trek shuttlecraft styling. Curse that reasonable side for stopping me from buying such a money pit.

 

[tigger]

When you do stuff like this....

:lol: I used to do stuff like that at lights or when I was waiting to pick someone up. Now I make up pace notes in my head when I'm riding my VFR.

Lack of reliability is also more endearing when your car breaks in ways that are obnoxious but it still moves. At least you can get home/to the shop to fix it then.

True. That's the kind of stuff my truck likes to do. Bumper fell off, it gets temporarily stuck in gear sometimes (really fun when it's reverse), shock mount breaks ... but I'm pretty sure it will run forever. Which sucks for me, because I have a hard time letting go of running vehicles.

 

[ninjacoco]

Oh, gosh. There's plenty of instances of nerdery here.

When I was little, I used to think the Ninety-Eight was the coolest car ever. Mom had one. It had all the late-80s bells, whistles, and gaudiness to it. I totally wanted it when I got old enough to drive (this changed later, lulz). I used to count how many other Ninety-Eights I'd see on road trips to pass the time.

I also give Dad endless crap about getting rid of the Corvette. Always have, always will. It's just wrong, man. Truly one of the great injustices of our time.

My 18th birthday landed on my high school graduation rehearsal day. Because we were off for the rest of the day, my best friend and I decided to go look for Porsches in Bellevue for me to have a picture taken in with the goofy birthday tiara on.

There were many, many school projects I picked for vehicular awesomeness. The LeMons movie (that I still need to finish), the paper in high school on "Die Another Day" (we had to pick a "serious film;" I argued that the movies in the James Bond franchise always exploit contemporary political paranoias. Best. A. Ever.), the presentation in Japanese Animation over "Initial D" (wheeeeee), etc., etc. There was another "reality check" assignment for one of the intro to college/find a major-type classes where we had to make a budget--I budgeted for an Elise. :lol:

I frequently Freudian slip "nine-eleven" instead of "nine-one-one." Oops.

My last few papers in college were written on a racetrack's couch.

I still keep part of my first car's grill on my wall. This, of course, is a perfectly normal piece of home decor. People without car parts on the wall are the real weirdos.

I've come to the conclusion that I really only wanted to do law school so I could afford a Porsche. :lol: Or I thought I wouldn't suck at college as much as I did. Or that was before I saw everyone I knew in law school dying of sleep deprivation. Erm, one of those things. But I really, really need a 911.

My desk felt naked without toy cars on it. It was one of the first things I did when I moved in here: I found a Panoz and an Isetta. 'Tis much better.

 

[Lightning Count]

When you're sitting in the passenger seat of friends car going down the motorway, you hear a car going past while lookling the other way and say "That was [insert car make and model] that just went past right?." Your friend then confirms it and you're thinking "Had to be, no mistaking that engine noise."

 

[MacDubois]

If you ask my parents, they'll tell you my first word was "Porsche"

I bought my house because it has an oversized heated, insulated garage. I started dating my fiance because she has a mechanics degree, more tools than me and she had a race car when I met her.

I go to junkyards for fun. And I could tell you which local pick & pulls have which interesting cars.

All the turns on my way into work will be apexed, all the downshifts will be heel-toed.

I've asked for tires for every birthday or Christmas for 8 years.