The 1991 Alfa Romeo 164S we featured yesterday has been up for sale for a while, but with no reserve, this 1992 164L 5-speed could very well turn out to be a bargain Italian classic for someone. While it has more mileage than the car featured yesterday, it still looks fairly mint and catches your eye with the red paintwork accentuated by the gray lower body cladding.
1992 Alfa Romeo 164L
This is a no reserve listing. This is my 1992 Alfa Romeo 164 L sedan with 113,554 miles. This is a reliable, dependable, great driving car that you could drive every day if you wanted. All of the typical issues and problems have been sorted out, and this is a superb, fun-to-drive car that you can drive anywhere. I have 8 years of service records for this car- it has been very well cared-for and serviced.
This is one of only 1700 of these cars sold in the USA in 1992, making it a pretty rare find. These cars have become very hard to find in good condition. This is probably the nicest 164 you will find for sale in the country. While this is a rare car in the USA, over 270,000 of these cars were produced worldwide. Consequently parts are plentiful and easy to source, and internet forums are a great source of information. This was the fastest, most-powerful Italian sedan sold in America at the time. It will accelerate 0-60 about as fast as American V8 "muscle" cars from the 80s and early 90s, yet it will get about 27 mpg on the highway.
The exterior styling of this car was done by the Italian design house Pininfarina- the same company who designed Ferrari cars throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This was one of the best-equipped European cars you could buy at the time. The list of standard features and equipment was staggering. Here is a list of some of the equipment on this car:
3.0L all-aluminum V6 engine
5-speed manual transmission
beautifully crafted high-quality leather interior
power and heated front seats
power moonroof
power windows and locks
rear window sunshades
foglights
driver's airbag
automatic climate control
anti-lock brakes
cruise controlI also have the original books and manuals with the car, plus service records going back 8 years. Literally thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent on service and maintenance work on this car- this has got to be one of the best-maintained 164 models you will see. This car handles and drives like a sports car. The car well-balanced, nimble and quick on its feet. The engine is amazingly powerful, and of course nothing sounds like an Italian V6 engine at full power. This car is truly a blast to drive. You cannot imagine how far superior this car was to its contemporaries- this car has a soul! If you hate boring cars, this is the car for you.
This car runs and drives great and there are no known mechanical problems. The car has been immaculately cared for. This car runs and drives outstandingly well. The engine is superbly powerful and torquey, the transmission shifts well; the brakes and suspension are responsive, and the car handles nimbly. This is a superbly well-preserved, great-driving 164 that I'd trust to drive anywhere.
The interior of this car is the highest quality I've seen in any car short of a Rolls-Royce. The quality and thickness of the leather is beyond compare. The seats are in nearly perfect condition, and the deep-pile carpets are excellent as well, albeit with some color fade. The quality of the materials and craftsmanship is outstanding. This interior is gorgeous- the best in its class. The exterior, paint and body look quite good. There is no body rust. The paint is all-original, except for the hood which was repainted due to clear-coat flaking. This exterior looks very presentable for the age. The air conditioning has been serviced and retrofitted to R134a. The system holds pressure, and the compressor cycles on and off. However it is too cold here in the Cleveland area to tell if the A/C blows cold.
For a car from Ohio, this 164 has been kept up in very good condition, if it does have some flaws here and there. But a car like this is meant to be enjoyed, and with some patina, one would be less worried about pressing it into regular use. With a no reserve auction, this car will probably wind up somewhere around $4,500 to $6,000, which is about what average examples go for these days with around 100,000 miles or so.
-Paul
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