Sadly a 156 suffers at the hands of the Top Gear boys in the trailer for their new series:
We don't take Top Gear too seriously, but its more like entertainment with cars, but don't worry by the time channel 9 get hold of it they will put it on early/late/cut bits out/not put it on at all, Colin.
Fingers crossed it was a Selespeed....................
What is it with these Pommie nuff nuff motoring hosts and quashing good cars. It's hardly side splitting comedy . If they have to surely the world has plenty of Hyundai's & Kia's for this purile behaviour.
Or perhaps some more Morris Marina's. Now that's no great loss. Maybe the Alfa club can start a campaign like the Marina Owners club did.
But no matter whether it's purile or not, it's still very popular.
*L*
The UK car market depreciates far faster than here. Check ebay.co.uk or pistonheads.com if you want to see and cry about what cars are really worth (there). With regards Kias and Hyundais, they have better warranties and after sales service than Alfa.... which is king in the UK where the majority of new cars are company owned (salary and role packaged), completely maintained by your employer. Get a new job, or promotion? ... get a new car. Yer old car goes to auction and is cheap as (above) most everybody gets a new packaged car with their job (I generalising a bit, but that's how it mostly worked where i was).
An early 156TS will be worth nowt... especially if it's spat a cambelt. Check out the value of the later 159s or Brera if you really want to upset yourself (or an RS4, 911, boxter, etc).
it looks like Selespeed on the right hand side. Its sad really, lucky they give us a pretty good show compared to whats on tv these days.
Craig's right regarding the issue of depreciation and so prices asked for cars such as the 156 in the UK. I was chatting with some guys on the 156 forum and they mentioned that over there, you normally pick a half decent one these days up for no more than about 500 quid. So no wonder this sort of thing would occur.
Mind you I recall seeing Clarkson rave about the 156 when it was new, so perhaps it is a little disappointing they might use it in this way. But then again I also recall the TG episode where Clarkson went out of his way to destroy an early 911.
It seems that a ten year old car in the UK is a lot of trouble. We won't see rusty 156s here, but they do rust over there where it's damp 9 mths of the year and worse if you are on salted roads. I also noticed that everything rubber and plastic in the engine bay perishes and falls apart in the 8-10 year mark, again I assume due to climate. Combine that with annual MOT and low new car prices (esp grey imports). You have to be an enthusiast to keep an aging car over there?
Get some cheap ones for an Alfa 156 Race series! Manuals of course! :)
Just watching the first episode now. It's actually in South Africa that the 156 gets crushed. And yes it's a Selespeed. Still a bit uncomfortable to watch though...
Made up for 5 minutes later when they blow up a Hummer....
Quote from: pep105 on June 17, 2011, 04:27:59 PM
Fingers crossed it was a Selespeed....................
ha, i LOL'd...