Alfa Romeo 75 with 370 000kms on it, can anyone better?

[Anthony Miller]

Later model cars should last a lot longer than the earlier ones as it probably took a couple of years to run out the stock of dodgey russian rusty steel. Mine is an 88 and has only a speck of rust near the rear windscreen,on the other hand, my Joolies were 82 models and all suffered from terminal tin worm in hard to get at places. Mechanically, alfas are over engineered to buggery and it's usually the bodies that let them down, or at least this has been my experience.

[Typhoon90]

Exactly, and the design of cars back in the 70's-80's was bad, lots of crevices etc that just couldn't be treated for corrosion properly. Look at how windscreen channels used to be finished at the base of screens as just one example. Relying purely on a couple of layers of acrylic lacquer to stop water penetration.
Now we have cars designed with box sections as part of the structure, bonded windscreens, weldable primers and weldable seam sealers that protect the inside of box sections etc.

Regards, Andrew.

[VeeSix]

A 90 with 500 000kms on it! Does anyone have a Alfa Romeo with more than 500 000kms on it original engine or not?  

[75Guy]

I do know of a one owner grandma driven, alfa serviced since new, alfetta 1.8 that has 479,000 kilometres (ish) on the original engine. She refuses to sell it to me, but I had a flick through the service books and it hasn't missed a single service since 1978.   

A friend of mine is an Alfa dealer mechanic and he has dealt with it a few times. Just incredible.

[Andrew Bose]

Yes,
I have a 33 1.7ie with 545.000 on the clock, and it still starts first go! the injection seems to let them live for quite a while longer the carb cars. I owned it from about 170.000km from memory so it seems to be in front at the moment. Shame I am dimantling it for spares for a lower Km car I bought.

[SimonR]

Our family mechanic told me of a client with an Alfetta with well over 500k klms that he used to regularly service and the engine was still fine and not smokey, it was just the bits hanging off the engine like starter and alternator etc that needed to be rebuilt.

Also if its of any interest our family owned a 1974 BMW 2002tii since the 1970's and when it was finally sold in 2004 or 2005 mum had covered just over 1mio klms in it. The engine was rebuilt partially (ie head) at about 600k klms and then the fuel injection rebuilt at 800k or so and it still went like a rocket. Tough old car and great to drive too, I wish we still had it!

[VeeSix]

How did most of those 33s kilometres get clocked up Andrew?
Did you use it as a work/everyday driver?
Mainly around the city or higher speed country/freeway kilometres?

90, 75 or 164 yes, but i would not have expected someone to raise that many kms in a 33!!!

(She really does deserve to be laid up in a barn or something, seems a shame to fully strip her down)

[Andrew Bose]

I drove it everyday, drove it to Sydney several times (about 20) when my Ex girlfriend lived there and I even used it for trackdays. It even got lent to friends, only Alfa drivers that would not stuff the synchros, I decided to steal all the good bits, Konis, springs, recaro, momo etc. and several parts are going to other Italian cars to keep them alive so it lives on in spirit. It has a few cracks in the front inner guards and was not worth the effort of saving. Generally I thrashed the hell out of it and loved it. In short it went from just an Alfa for fun to an old friend. I took it to a dyno day a couple of years ago and it had 70hp it still went on but it became embarrassing when they blue flagged people in corners and even when they backed off I still could not pass them down the straight. If it had been a Classic I would have restored it.

[hammer]

Julian Lord in Brisbane has a silver 75 twinnie that now has well over 400,000 original ks on it. It had the 400,000 service last year, so not sure exactly what is on it now. Julian and Deb purchased it with 30,000 on the clock and have driven the pants off it ever since.

The head has never been off this engine but it has new Penrite in it every 5000km. It's done a lot of laps around Oran Park and Lakeside, transported kids and been used for driving instruction when those kids grew into teenagers.

I took a drive in it two weekends ago and it's still a damned fine ride! It makes me pine for my sadly departed twinnie that I cruelly converted into a race car.

Cheers,

Brent

[75TS]

In answer to the 75 TS engine reliability question... So long as they are maintained they are bullet proof! Mines done over 200000k and returns 9-ish L per 100 & manages 7.4 on the highway. Brilliant engine. I do know of one lady that managed 1 million in hers (lived in Cairns). Sold the car not so long ago, wish i could have purchased it....  Definitely one of the best that came out of Arese