1987 Alfa Romeo 33 1.5Ti 1.5

Summary:

Cheap and nasty a disappointing child for Alfa

Faults:

Eats batteries for a living when it sits for 3 or 4 days, leaks water through the tailgate, ad round antenna hole - drips on your lap when its been raining - fixed with a wee dab of silicone. Helluva noisy - suspect baffles in middle muffler. rear parcel shelf keeps collapsing under the weight of the 6x9s that I had installed.

General Comments:

I've always liked the look of the 33. Some nice styling queues. Found myself a fixer upper - tidy body. Not heard running. I've replaced engine and gearbox. Goes OK now but I suspect new engine is past its prime. Easy to start when the battery hasn't gone flat, and some novel features like the Christmas tree dash - with an array of warning lights which don't mean much to me, but maybe will impress the ladies. Handling is OK - quite chuckable and flat through the corners, but tending to understeer early. enough panache to scare passengers, but this may be more due to feeling that something is about to break. Certainly doesn't beg to be driven as my former Alfasud did. General feeling of flimsiness and tiredness in suspension. There you have it then - something a little bit different. Get one if you can live with the niggles that you invariably will get. Look out for rust in the ass end too BTW.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 11th June, 2006

11th Aug 2006, 11:06

You seem to be expecting new car quality from an 18 year old car with a very high mileage, which is unrealistic with any make and certainly with Alfa Romeo.

1987 Alfa Romeo 33 Gold Leaf Boxer 4C

Summary:

If you can find one without RUST, you are on a winner

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car. Apart from its continuing rusting away to nothing. That's a given, they rust.

General Comments:

Funny, the example given on this site is: This car is seriously quick and handles like it's on rails.

I can honestly say, that is the exact words I was going to use.

All you need to do is cut the springs in the back with an angle grinder (take 2 inches out of it) and you have yourself a car which doesn't dip when braking. Which looks normal, not out of balance.

Then rip out the air filter and whack on a nice piece of foam. The type of foam meant for custom air filters. It should cost about $10. Put those on, and suddenly you have a wild machine that revs like a V8 with a 5" exhaust all the way through.

I also have an 1984 Alfa, it is crap. The Gold Leaf edition of the Alfa seems to be something with harder suspension, better performance and handling.

I think my motor (which has only 20,000ks on it) has had some head work done on it.

This little baby does 185KM/h.

Get one in RED, they look so sweet. Mine is silver and I want to paint it red.

The interior in these is crap. My old Honda Prelude was 10 times better.

My Alfa pulls up a 30 degree hill in 3rd doing 100Km/h around sharp bends. Like a ballerina prancing around.

I raced a new 318i BMW and won. What does that say?

All that is left to do: Paint it RED, put Recaro interior through it. Find a body kit for it. Get some nice phone dial mags for it. Custom made 5" exhaust straight through.

I seriously love this little 33, it looks so boring. Yet it sounds like a hotted up WRX. It handles as good as anything for its age.

With a little bit of modification from a Gold Leaf Edition, you can get a seriously performing car for cheap.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 28th August, 2002