939 series - What's going on ?

[Mark Baigent]

OK - that's it - the question has to be asked of the learned faithful ....
Why are so many 939 series Alfa's coming up for sale ? Especially the Spiders ...

People who pay $60-$90K for the various models available in a 939 Spider would have more than likely purchased under a 3-5 year lease and don't sell with just 14,000klms on the clock unless something has gone pear shaped.

Could it be that the influence of Chrysler on the mechanicals eventually becomes too much for those seeking a genuine Italian love affair ?   

[colcol]

Apparantly the Chrysler motor thats going to be made in America is a good bit of gear, its a V-6 that was going to be produced with Mercedes until they got divorced, Chryslers have always produced pretty good motors, but everything else they did was a disaster, the current series with their General Motors engines are OK too, BUT, they are not ITALIAN, thats why we love our Marque, for all its problems, having engines brought in on crates, is not the way to go, please Fiat, make the motors in Italy, with them being used in Fiats and Lancia's, after all the motor is the heart and soul of the car, Colin.

[shiny_car]

What's not Italian about the current V6 engine? The basic unit is GM, but that's it. It was up to Alfa to modify the heads, intake, ECU maps, exhaust, and thus the character and sound and performance curves.

To say the current V6 is the fault of a lack of 'Italian Alfa', and too much 'GM', is like saying the Arese V6 is a gem because of the German Bosch electronics. lol, this could deteriorate into a lot of flaming.

But as above, the current Pentastar V6 looks good on paper, in terms of power/torque.

To answer the question: unsure why so many are being offloaded so early. My guess is they have been bought by the 'not so faithful Alfisti'; for example, first time Alfa owners, rather than long term enthusiasts. And they won't be reading your question, so can't give you the answer!  

[colcol]

Shiny car, i think you hit the nail right on the head, some of the newer cars are being purchased by non Alfa type people who buy them as fashion items and discard them when the next best thing comes along, i reckon thats part of the low resale value of Alfa Romeo's, as they are last years must have to this years out of fashion item, oh well thats good for people like me who will let someone else wear the loosing 50% of its resale value after 10 minutes, Colin.

[Davidm1600]

Too true Col.  I saved a bundle in buying my 156 sportwagon second hand. When I bought it, it was 4 years old and had only had one owner. He would have paid/leased it but the purchase price was say around $55K. I paid $20K for it.  Sure since then it has halved in value, but at least my loss is less than that for the original owner, and as a long term Alfisti, it does all I could ask and then some for a "new" Alfa.

The only question I need to consider is whether to keep or sell in the next few years ??  At this stage given how practical the wagon is for my needs, I am kind of thinking to keep it.  Afterall, the further depreciation in value now is going to be less, and yet it is still a damn fine car, relatively speaking little different in condition from when I bought it, apart from a few further Kms on the clock.

I think the same thing is true now for people thinking of buying a new generation GTV6/GTV, 166, 147, GT, and Brera.  They actually are now offering fantastic value for relatively little outlay.

[colcol]

Well David if that good 156 JTS wagon is OK, why sell it, and with news of the 159 replacement, the new Guilia coming along, i suppose the current owners are selling before their cars loose too much value, but all cars loose value very quickly now as there are so many good cars on the market now, and since the demise of Daewoo and British Leyland, there are no truly horrible new cars on the market, Colin.