Rare Rides: A 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Styled Like a BMW

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

Which sedan has the looks of a BMW, but without all the tedious reliability that comes standard from the Bavarian offering? Why, it’s the Alfa Romeo Alfetta, from 1979.


Launched in 1972, Alfetta was the midsize sedan offering in Alfa Romeo’s lineup, designed to replace the old 1750 and 2000 sedans. The new offering drew its name from the Tipo 159 Alfetta, a Formula One car from the 1950s. Like the Alfetta racer, the sedan version featured a transaxle layout and a De Dion tube rear suspension. Both of these features were departures for the company’s road-going models. The developments lent themselves to a better weight distribution, which in turn meant the Alfetta had better handling.

Pleased with their technological development, Alfa endowed the later GTV, 90, and 75 models with derivations of the same setup.

The Alfetta was only available in four-door, notchback sedan format — “Berlina” in its home language. Only one trim level existed for the first few model years, with one engine: a 1.8-liter inline-four. Trim offerings expanded in 1975, when a 1.6-liter engine entered the lineup and Alfetta gained a new base model. Further enhancements to the model lineup occurred as the years went on, with the addition of a sporty 2.0-liter version called the 2000, as well as an upmarket turbodiesel trim called Turbo D. That type of power plant was a first in any Alfa Romeo passenger car. Throughout its life, the Alfetta offered only inline-four engines paired with a five-speed manual or three-speed automatic.

Alfa offered the Alfetta to customers in the United States, just not for very long. Available between 1975 and 1977 in its original format (called Alfetta Sedan), for 1978 and 1979 Alfa rebranded it as Sport Sedan. That latter offering was a version of the 2.0-liter model sold throughout Europe.

Alfetta continued with frequent revisions for a few years as Alfa Romeo prepared its successor. By 1984 the new 90 made its debut, and Alfetta production wound down at the end of the year. Over the 12-year life of the model, Alfa produced over 450,000.

It proved too difficult to find an American-market Alfetta with usable pictures, so today’s Rare Ride is from Italy. It’s a base 1.6-liter example with a manual transmission. With just under 75,000 miles, the sporty blue sedan asks $9,900.

[Images: seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • OliverTwist78 OliverTwist78 on Jan 31, 2019

    "Launched in 1972, Alfetta was the midsize sedan offering in Alfa Romeo’s lineup, designed to replace the old 1750 and 2000 sedans." No, the production of 2000 Berlina continued until 1977. Alfetta is more like a sporty GT version while 2000 Berlina more of executive car.

  • YellowDuck YellowDuck on Feb 01, 2019

    My mom had this exact car, in a kind of purple colour. Dad had boring company cars and so had mom driving stuff like a restored TR3, and Alfa GT junior, and then this thing. Unfortunately my brother rolled it in a ditch as a new 16-year-old driver, having borrowed it without Mom's permission one evening. One weird thing I don't think the article mentioned - it had one brake disk in the rear, located in the middle if the axle if memory serves.

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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