Late Graduation: 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider

For some reason, the value of Series 4 Alfa Spiders remain substantially higher than the late Series 2 and 3. If you must have the more modern car with the Bosch L-jet EFI and revised body lines, it's somewhat difficult to find a bargain on one that's only just nice enough to reliably beat the piss out of while still being presentable. Find this pretty decent and lightly modified 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider for sale on Johns Island, SC for $6,500 via craigslist.

The Series 4 Spider wasn't a huge change over the previous car as the model was on borrowed time anyway. With better appointments and some improvements in reliability, the Series 4 was becoming more of a tourer than a roadster. Nevertheless, with 124hp and about 2,450lbs to move around, performance was good but nearly as strong a selling point as the looks.

With nice examples normally trading for $10k+, I went to go check this car out over lunch as it seemed like a great bargain. First off, it's fairly clean and absolutely rust free. The respray is a really nice color but unfortunately the hue is not original. The paint quality isn't that bad, however, the overspray is pretty atrocious. If you're a little OCD, you'll be spending hours getting drunk on lacquer thinner fumes while riding a rolly stool with a razor blade cleaning up bits that weren't masked properly.

The owner is a really nice and reasonable dude. He loves the car but has 90's ragtop redundancy with an E30 convertible alongside it in the garage. It appears that he's been fastidious about the maintenance and upkeep but the car will need new tires in fairly short order. Big bonuses are the Panasport wheels and some Bilsteins and Eibachs at each corner. In summary, the price is probably negotiable as its been on offer for a while. On the other side of the coint, the guy paid substantially more for it than what he's asking. Keep those points in mind as you put together an offer for what could be bargain Italian roadster-ing.

See another Spider you're not scared of? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com

Matt, a self-proclaimed bottom-feeder of the classic car market, spends half of his time buying cars, half of his time retrieving them, and the remaining third on keeping them on the road.