Hi everyone,

I've wanted an Alpine since I can remeber, but have bever been in the market to buy a good one before, that is until now. I'm only really interested in the SIs-SIIIs and I've got a budget of around £7000.

Today I went to see my first one - it's a Red '63 GT with an asking price of £6995. I know this is going to be a very difficult question to answer, but I need to know if it's worth that much. I looked over the car thoroughly for about an hour checking all the places I think I should have and this is what I found:

The car had apparently had a bare-metal respray about seven years ago, and this showed! The paintwork was lovely and I simply couldn't find a blemish anywhere on the exterior. I spent a long time examining the underside of the car. The whole car had been undersealed (not great IMO as underseal invariable causes more trouble than anything else), but the underseal looked absolutely spotless and was black and still supple, unlike the brown crumbly underseal you get on some old cars! There was absolutely no corrosion. I checked all round the sills, the cross-brace, wheels arches etc. The door gaps looked OK, although they were not 100% perfect, but the gap (which was small) was even rather than being proud at the bottom or top. The owner said the car had never been used in the rain and the condition of the car backed this up. All in all the exterior was practically faultless.
The interior is a slightly different story. The things I noticed were that the dashboard had a couple of cracks in the veneer, both seats looked tatty and worn and the drivers seat had a tear. The rear 'seat' was also very tatty and the side trims in the back had broken away from their fastenings. The carpet, although it didn't look too bad, was loose and flapping about here and there. The steering column shroud also seed to have an extra hole on the left hand side for some kind of stalk which was not present and there seemed to be a large gap between the edge of the shroud and the steering wheel.
While driving I noticed that the oil pressure seemed fine and the temperature stayed below 90deg. I did notice that the speedo was way out, registering about 60mph when travelling at about 40mph. I also noticed that there was a yellow light that stayed on next to the clock in the centre - I quizzed the guy about it, but he didn't really seem to know what it was!!!
Under the bonnet things were fairly clean, but not matching the exterior - obviously the bare metal respray didn't go this far. There was no visible rust, apart from on the top of the cross member, but this was just a bit of surface rust. The engine was a non-standard 1725cc with twin Zenith Strombergs.

All in all, I was impressed with the exterior, but not so with the interior and under-bonnet. I've owned several classic cars since I was 17, but I have no experience with Alpines, so I would just like to know if this car is or isn't worth what they are asking. As far as I'm concerned, for £7K I'm expecting the inside to match the outside in quality, but I may be way off the mark!

If anyone could give me a little input on this, I'd be really grateful as it's a lot of money to spend and I don't want to get it wrong!

Cheers

Nick

Hi Nick

Email me the registration number/chassis number and I will see if we have anything about it on the club's database.

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Also access the club's web site click 'Alpines for sale' then click 'Read this if buying an Alpine'.

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I'm no expert on mechanical things, more of the administrator type as club memberes know but what you say about the interior and the other things wrong, I don't recon it's worth £6995

The hole on the left of the steering column is for the overdrive stalk.

Sounds like a lot of dosh for a car with a tatty interior and the wrong engine,for that money I would expect a near minter. Or am I out of touch with Alpine prices?

Thats top money for an Alpine. I have seen nearly mint cars for £5k. If you like the car, work out the cost of putting right all the things you have mentioned, and as them if they would knock that off the asking price. If not, walk away.

Very difficult to value any car from reading words but think on these things:
It's a GT so you have no soft top. Hard top or you get wet.
(Note that MOST club members think that adding a hood to a GT, if well done, is a good idea - the practicality outweighs the non-originality)
It doesn't have overdrive; also very desirable.
Bear in mind that whatever the condition of the worst bits is now, the rest of the car was worse before restoration.
I'm not impressed that a 'bare metal respray' - usually the ultimate approach to restoration - didn't include the under-bonnet.
The 1725 engine should work longer and better than the 1600, but if you want one, get a SV.
So I agree with the others - not a car to buy at this price, from the data you give.

It's good to know that I was absolutely right to walk away at that price! I had to make sure I wasn't throwing away a golden oppotunity though. Some cars you buy on bodywork alone and if that were the case, this car might be one of those 'cos the bodywork 'seems' superb (to my eyes, although as I've said, I don't know much about alpines (yet)). If I were to buy it (unlikely!) I would convert it to a convertible as it would be a pain in the backside without a soft top!