What about the classic love of Alfa Romeo?

In the National Classic Survey 2017 we look at the state of the classic love of manufacturers and importers. Today: Alfa Romeo.

You can only be successful as a brand if you know where you come from and are proud of what you do. In case of Alfa Romeo, that shouldn't be so hard. Jeremy Clarkson shouts from the rooftops that you are only a real car enthusiast once you have one Alfa have had. And more importantly: Enzo Ferrari only dared to start his own sports car brand after he joined Alfa learned the trick. Moreover, that is certainly not the only highlight in the more than 100-year history of the Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili.
Henry Ford recorded the following: 'When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.' The first Formula 1 race? Won by one Alfa. The first Formula 1 world champion? Drove Alfa. In short: if we are at Alfa worked, we would cherish that wonderful history. After all, there are only a few brands that can match it.

Component supply

Still find Alfadrivers who participated in our classic car survey, which leaves much to be desired on the involvement of importer and manufacturer. 'I give a meager 5 for that,' says Dennis Jansen. 'I am a member of the SCARB, with the advantage that you get a discount at the dealer network. Sometimes that makes a difference in terms of parts, but the dealers often no longer have the expertise for the more complex matter and diagnosis.' Those parts must be available: he gives a 166 for the parts supply of his 3. Arjan van den Brand agrees: 'The parts supply is seriously insufficient!' Rik Jongen even took drastic measures: 'The supply of parts was partly the reason that I got rid of my 916 GTV and 156 GTA, which were simply impossible to do as daily transport. The somewhat older generation Alfas and especially the types from the 90s and early this century are a drama. Normally I didn't have such a problem with that, then I went to work with the bike. But last year we went to live outside the city, in a village, and we had a baby, so I couldn't afford to wait or look for parts anymore. Especially the GTV 3.0 from 1999, the 164 and the 156 GTA were terrible, because fairly essential things such as engine mounts or shock absorbers are no longer available.'

Business cases

Spokesman Toine Damo of importer FCA Netherlands: 'As a manufacturer, we have an obligation to supply parts for another ten years after production has ended. FCA generally provides parts and service for much longer, but it does look at the demand and the business case. Availability depends on the fleet that is still on the road. Be like that for one Alfa Romeo 147 and 159 all parts still available, but not all parts are available via FCA for a GTV and Spider.'

Numbers

Time to look at those numbers. Out of 67.266 Alfacars with a Dutch license plate, 22.576 were built before January 1, 2002. Almost a third of the Alfa's is therefore a youngtimer or classic. There are 7.560 Alfa's in the Netherlands that were built before January 1, 1987 and there are also 19 pre-war ones Alfas. Strangely enough, however, there are many more 156s — for which, according to the owners, all parts are no longer available — than 159s, for which the parts are still supplied.

More about it National Classic Research 2017 you can read in the February issue of Auto Motor Klassiek. That is on 20 January with the subscribers and on 24 January in the store.