2008 Alfa Romeo Brera 2.4 JTD

Our Love to Admire

With no regard to the risk of either opprobrium or canine displeasure, we stop to appreciate a flawed rarity.

While it could never be considered an outright penance, Alfa Romeo ownership could nevertheless be classified as something more akin to a calling, much like medicine, the religious orders, or perhaps, care work. Certainly here at Ireland’s Southern tip, the Biscione tends to be regarded with dark suspicion and their owners with a mixture of pity, mystification and at times, outright horror. In previous, less secular times, some might even have Continue reading “Our Love to Admire”

Anniversary Waltz 2017 : A History of Lessons

A decade ago, Alfa Romeo wowed the faithful with the 8C Competizione, a car which ultimately amounted to less than the sum of its parts. But weren’t we here before?

The philosopher, Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás once essayed the line, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Following this logic, amnesia clearly runs as deeply within Alfa Romeo as blind optimism. The perennially crisis-ridden Italian car brand seems locked into a habitual cycle of hope and despair, with each new dawn promising that this time all will Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017 : A History of Lessons”

Theme: Economy – A Penalty Box for Six Bags of Sand

If you’re keen on value for money, you can get quite a dreary new car for the price of an excellent used one or you can get a car that is much the same for half the price.

2015 Dacia Sandero or part thereof. You don´t want to see the whole thing, do you?: Dacia UK

For £5,995 you can buy a brand new Dacia Sandero . What else could you do with six grand? I dialled in £6000 as the lowest price point at Autotrader. The very first car it politely threw up was a 2006 Audi A3 2.0 TFSI S Line Sportback with just under 82,000 miles on the clock. Pages and pages of similar cars appeared, all at six thou. All of them had no fascination factor. Continue reading “Theme: Economy – A Penalty Box for Six Bags of Sand”