Used Car of the Day: 1979 Alfa Romeo Spider

by Tim Healey

Published: August 22nd, 2023

used car of the day 1979 alfa romeo spider

Today's UCOTD is older than your humble author -- just barely -- and it shows us some Italian goodness. It's a 1979 Alfa Romeo Spider.

It appears to be in pretty good shape, and the seller says the car is well-maintained and runs well. The asking price is a reasonable $13,000. You should have enough money left over to buy a tweed jacket, a jaunty cap, and some leather driving gloves.

This North Carolina-based car also has a manual transmission.

You can live out your dreams of driving the Italian -- or at least Californian -- coast in an Italian sports car if you click here.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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9 of 45 comments

Alan on Aug 22, 2023

The British invented the sports car and the Italians copied them.

I wouldn't buy this maintenance intensive vehicle, and like the British vehicles of the 60s and 70s Italian vehicles had a lot of reliability issues.

Like Reply
- See 2 previous
- Art_Vandelay on Aug 22, 2023
  
  So did British cars like this. It took Japan to make them reliable
  
  1
- Jeff on Aug 23, 2023
  
  I wouldn't necessarily buy an Italian or any European sports cars because of the parts and maintenance but Italians make beautiful driving machines. I would pick a MIata because of the reliability and parts.
  
  1
- Steve S. on Aug 24, 2023
  
  This is far less maintenance intensive than any British coal cart. I've owned two.
  
  1
ChristianWimmer on Aug 23, 2023

Just wondering why the attitude here is “Pass, it’s gonna be unreliable.”

In this day and age the most common issues with specific historical cars are known. Thus you can easily do preventative maintenance by replacing the problematic parts which are bound to fail with modern improved parts specifically designed for _________ [Insert car here] and they will work reliably for a long time. Then there’s the large internet community of various car enthusiasts which helps you with DIY work or access to companies which offer reliable/modern spares or will professionally repair the car.

For a decade I worked with various classic car magazines as a photographer. The shoot would take an entire day which also meant spending time with the owners. I must have photographed an Alfa Romeo Spider at least half a dozen times. According to the owners these cars are generally reliable if properly maintained and they all are members of some Alfa Club of sorts where information on how to maintain and care for these cars as well as spare parts are shared.

This is also the reason why I am a member of an R129 SL Club, so I can keep my ‘89 500SL in tip top shape. It’s been a very reliable car anyway but there are known issues to watch out for and when the signs and symptoms show up I want to be ready. That’s just something you need to be on the fence about with ANY older/classic car.

2 Reply
- See 3 previous
- Jeff on Aug 23, 2023
  
  Some of us have reached a stage in life where we don't want to work on things. I hope this Alfa ends up in a good home one that will take care of it and hopefully with an owner that has the proper tools and is mechanically inclined. Of all the European cars my favorite from a driving standpoint are Italian cars they just handle beautifully and just a real joy to drive.
  
  Like
- Ras815 on Aug 23, 2023
  
  To be fair, a properly sorted R129 is essentially a 'modern' car - it has all the sophistication, build quality, safety tech, performance that makes for a tolerable daily driver, even. And it holds up with proper maintenance.
  An Alfa Spider is a creature from another era entirely (the 60s, basically) and can easily empty one's pockets when it comes to all of the little - and big - things that can go wrong on a decades-old Italian car that wasn't built to high production standards in the first place. They can be a blast to drive, yes, but it's worth a warning about reliability, too.
  
  2
- ChristianWimmer on Aug 23, 2023
  
  Ras85,
  
  Yes, the R129 is a generally modern car and was also well-made, but it was still a complex car for its time. I have one of the really early ones - one of the first 500 cars made!
  
  I still believe a car like an Alfa Spider can be made to run reliable using modern replacement parts. What made these cars unreliable back in the day? I’d argue it wasn’t really build quality (that’s a different issue) but most likely a design defect of mechanical or electronic parts. If these problematic parts are replaced with a modern equivalent designed to actually function as best and as long as possible, then the reliability of the car will be greatly improved. That’s what I was trying to say in my first post. :-)
  
  1
- SPPPP on Aug 23, 2023
  
  I wouldn't be all that worried. Back in the 1970s, there were people that really did drive these cars every day. If some small amount of maintenance and attention is paid, it should be plenty reliable enough to be driven 10 miles twice a week for the 4 nicest months of the year.
  
  1
- Jeff on Aug 24, 2023
  
  True this Alfa would be mechanically simpler than a modern car. I doubt someone who buys this car is going to daily drive it more likely it will be a hobby and taken out when the weather is nice with the top down. It would be perfect on a nice 2 lane winding rural road where there is some nice scenery. The handling of this car would really shine on a road like that.
  
  1

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