Lil’ Alfa: 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT
The great Peter Egan once wrote a Side Glances column about how he and some friends used beer & pizza as a common measuring unit. Twenty years ago, a friend and I used Alfa Romeo Alfettas as our common measuring unit. We established that at that time, an Alfetta had the US Dollar equivalent of 1,000. Then, when someone said they bought a new car for $25,000, we would exclaim “Wow, that’s 25 Alfettas!”. The rising tide of classic car values has lifted even rusty, old Italian barchetta’s and it seems to be time to come up with a new measuring unit. Find this 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT for sale in Renton, WA for $13,000 via craigslist.
Tip from Fuel Truck.
The Alfetta GT was Alfa’s modern replacement for the much loved Bertone-designed Giulia GT/GTV. Emissions and crash safety laws did much to dampen its performance and low quality steel made it rust if there was a wiff of moisture in the air. I seem to remember most of them came in beige with a few red and black ones thrown in, so this one’s recent repaint is probably covering beige. No under-hood pictures are included so we can’t look for the tell-tale signs.
Inside there has been some recent upholstery work, again in a non-standard color and a design that looks more appropriate for a Bayliner. There is also a dash rug covering what I would expect to be the requisite cracked dash
Out back, the 5mph rubber baby buggy bumpers are still there, but the Alfetta tail lights have been swapped with later GTV-6 tail lights. Might want to ask why.
Here’s the ad text:
Selling our 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta Coupe
New upholstery, paint, cam + more
Runs & drives well, owned it for just over a year but we are retired and it no longer gets use. Hoping to find it a good home with someone who appreciates how special of a car it is.
See a better shade of 80’s teal? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Gianni is Daily Turismo’s Pacific Northwest correspondent.
Ah man, my Bianchi would look great on the roof of this! Love it.
Celeste – The facts may be elusive, but the tales are wonderful. The most well-known include the notion that company founder Edoardo Bianchi made a bike at the request of the Italian queen and painted it to match her eyes. Another suggests that the color comes from toned-down surplus military paint after World War I, though references to celeste in Bianchi ads predate the war. Still another says it's the color of the sky over Milan.