Blast from the past

[GTV-074]

Ah yes.... who could forget the quality used cars that graced the forecourt at "Camberwell Car Centre" .... (More like off centre!)

Had a look at a few cars there...called them first then drove over to check them out...well...I was always amazed...were they talking about the same car?

That same location some years later , reorpened as a service station (i think when Woolies joined the petrol retail game) and promptly had some
claims put in against it for dirty fuel...when a heap of Mercs, Beemers & Audi's started spluttering to a hlat after filling there! ...

Old ghosts still haunt it!

Cheers.

[Garibaldi]

I was living in Camberwell at that time and remember it well. Their cars were amazing, for all the wrong reasons.

[Andrew Bose]

I remember a yard in Camberwell taking a customer to court over a 450SLC (I think) because he purchased it subject to inspection. It was the biggest pile of junk I had seen! I did not bother to go through it fully because I only had one pen and and two sides of A4. Perhaps they assumed he wanted it  when the inspection told him  it needed a fuel leak and a misfire to fix it properly.

[colcol]

My brother and i used to go there on weekends, when they were shut, and were amazed at how crappy the cars were for a dealer in Camberwell, more like wrecking yards in Campbellfield, [i know i used to work round there], there was always a good chance that you would find a car left open and you could sit in them and look at them and change gears, etc, the cars always had plenty of repaired rust as evidence from new paint around the sills, the Alfa Romeo cars always smelt musty inside from the water leaks rotting the carpet, was a dealer we used to look forward to going to, as they always had interesting cars, the Alfetta wagon that was there used to get me into trouble at club nights, because i told someone that there was an Alfetta wagon there and i had seen it, someone purchased it as i saw it driving around, wonder what happened to it?, Colin.

[aggie57]

Ah yes.... who could forget the quality used cars that graced the forecourt at "Camberwell Car Centre" .... (More like off centre!)

Had a look at a few cars there...called them first then drove over to check them out...well...I was always amazed...were they talking about the same car?

That same location some years later , reorpened as a service station (i think when Woolies joined the petrol retail game) and promptly had some
claims put in against it for dirty fuel...when a heap of Mercs, Beemers & Audi's started spluttering to a hlat after filling there! ...

Old ghosts still haunt it!

Cheers.

Sadly Land Rover's also suffered from that dodgy fuel; speaking from personal experience

[aggie57]

My brother and i used to go there on weekends, when they were shut, and were amazed at how crappy the cars were for a dealer in Camberwell, more like wrecking yards in Campbellfield, [i know i used to work round there], there was always a good chance that you would find a car left open and you could sit in them and look at them and change gears, etc, the cars always had plenty of repaired rust as evidence from new paint around the sills, the Alfa Romeo cars always smelt musty inside from the water leaks rotting the carpet, was a dealer we used to look forward to going to, as they always had interesting cars, the Alfetta wagon that was there used to get me into trouble at club nights, because i told someone that there was an Alfetta wagon there and i had seen it, someone purchased it as i saw it driving around, wonder what happened to it?, Colin.

It seems someone else had the same idea:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/alfetta-gtv6-1972-1986/158249-i-didnt-know-alfetta-estate-existed-pics-attached.html

Can't say I'm a fan.  Proportions look all wrong. 

[jg1053]

Col et Al,
I cant say I have read such an evocative thread, well done. Ah...those were the days, aimlessly traversing Melbourne looking at the current stock of cars, looking for hard to get parts or those on a wish list. Not sure if it has been mentioned, but there was a Alfa/Fiat parts place in Nth Fitzroy???....Tony??? It's these great memories of what once was that makes AROCA what it is today. Keep up the good work guys.
Regards
Jim

[GTV-074]

I think that was Mudano Motors on St Georges Rd (now a block of town houses). I had them order a set of Cromodora Mags for me at one stage. After having them on order for about 2yrs I gave up on them! They were mostly a Lancia/Fiat shop as I recall but did have some Alfa gear.

[colcol]

There was a place at Nicholsen St. Fitzroy, that about 1990 sold spare parts, they may have been a Maserati Dealer as i remember the Triden on the window, they were called Auto Sprint Motors.
Used to go to Alfa City in Peel St. West Melbourne, and if they didn't have what i wanted, i would try Autosprint on the way home, Alfa City didn't have a left hand genuine tensioner for the 33, and they were about a month away from Australia, so i purchased a non genuine left hand tensioner, with VEMA Italy on the box, so i thought that would be good.
When i got it home, the tensioner sounded rough, like it was lubricated by sand and the bearing was sloppy and leaking already, put it in the 33, and it sounded terrible, waited a month and purchased a new genuine tensioner, installed it and sounded better, checked VEMA tensioner under a microscope and the important part, the bearing was made in Romania!, had to do the job twice because of this, kept tensioner as a reminder of the folly of buying rubbish parts, didn't go back to Autosprint Motors, Colin.