Staying Off Mainstream

I kept the 1980 Rover SD1 for three or four years, & then sold it for what I paid, thanks to its rarity, perhaps. I wasn't intending to sell, but my girlfriend's sister was looking for a car to replace her worn out Chevrolet Astra (which wore out very quickly, being so poorly made) & I suggested she get a Toyota, for their reliability for a young single woman. So we went looking together & found three, the same afternoon! One for her, one for her sister (a nice Honda CRX ) and,...I fell in love with a 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano. It can only have been a year old, but Alfa had a very poor reputation, & perhaps justifiably so - "all go & no show" might have been the label, but this manufacturer, with its link to Ferrari had plenty of go - in fact they went too fast as far as bodywork was concerned. Rust was a major problem on salt-encrusted Canadian roads. I don't, sadly, have a photo of it, but it was just the same as this one, but in a rich, dark blue. I think this car, the Alfa 75 in Europe, is one of the best looking cars of its time.

With a fabulously responsive 2.5 litre V6 engine it was a delight to drive. Well, almost. Sadly - and unnoticed by me on my ecstatic test drive - these cars suffered from the famous Italian ape-like driving position! Meaning the steering wheel was too far away when the seat was moved back to enable efficient pedal reach. And even more disconcerting was the staggered layout of those pedals - they were not in line with your seating position, so you had to sit sort of sideways a bit to drive. I didn't mind that around town, but on our long, 2 hour journeys to our place on Georgian Bay, I fretted. Complained.

And then one day, my partner's brother - a budding automobile broker, brought an Audi 80 for us to look at. I was astonished at the build quality - it seemed to be cast from a solid piece of metal. So off I went, charmed with the pride of ownership of a "quality" car for perhaps the first time.And indeed I was mostly pleased - nothing squeaked or moved as you drove along, unlike my (almost) beloved Alfa. The car was attractive, in a bland sort of way, comfortable, economical & very well built. But a little (a lot, really) slow after the Milano. In fact, despite the sensible manufacture, the car was BORING! Slow, with awful torque steer I discovered one day when having to accelerate heavily in a tight corner. Oh dear!. And, as an avid reader of car magazines, I knew -or thought I knew - that these cars came with a 5 cylinder motor which was said to be an ideal compromise between the economy of a 4 cylinder & the power of a 6. Imagine my surprise - confusion - embarassment even, when after a couple of weeks I went to check the oil - and noticed - oops! Only 4 spark plug leads! That must mean, umm, four cylinders! No wonder it needed a bit of patience when overtaking!

But my tastes were gradually becoming more refined as far as cars were concerned. Of course, everyone, even then, aspired to BMWs but too many, in my opinion, opted for status instead of the dynamic reasons for the maker's reputation. Me, I wanted the comfort of a US car, the build quality of a Leica camera all combined with the rear wheel drive handling of a European aristocrat. The Audi had the quality, the Rover had the comfort & the Alfa epitomised the Euro handling, but to combine all those things, it seemed to me, there was just BMW & Mercedes.