Weekend Quickies - Feb. 6, 2010

1992 Alfa Romeo 164 - I have a good friend who lives in Los Angeles. She is, without a doubt, the most non-car geek person I know. She reads this blog, though. She tells me she finds the subject matter boring, but, as she once wrote, "your typos, grammar and punctuation mistakes are an endless source of amusement". Thanks.

Last night I received an e-mail from her. In it was a link to this car. In part, her e-mail said, "Isn't this like the one you're always whining about?" (She gets points for trying here... I've never owned a 164. I've often written about how much I miss my Milano, though. I wouldn't call it "whining"...) "It's not too far from me. Fly in, spend a few days with (us) and drive it home."

Damn, that's a tempting idea. I wouldn't mind owning a 164. It's also a crazy idea. Driving an unknown 18 year old car cross country in the middle of winter is an adventure I don't need right now.

If you live near LA or are more adventurous than I am, this appears to be a nice, clean Alfa Romeo 164. Located in N. Hollywood, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

1971 Renault R10 - In it's day, this was - at least here in the US - a cheap "economy car". It was a car meant to compete with the VW Beetle. But there's no way the French could just design a simple Beetle-esque car or a slab-sided econo-box. Look at the details on this. They are incredible... The curved front bumper, the sliding rear windows, the aluminum strip across the back, the ridges in the roof... Only the French could have designed a car like this.

Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit that we lost some unique automobiles when the French stopped selling their cars here.

As nice as this car appears to be - and it looks to be in amazing condition - the seller is going to have a problem selling it. He's got it priced at $14,990.00. Back in April I wrote about another R10 that was in similar condition (you can find the post here). That car didn't sell and it's been on and off eBay ever since. (It's listed now. The high bid, with 2+ days to go, is $3,710.00. You can see the eBay listing for that car here.)

$14,990.00 is a lot of money for an R10, no matter how nice it is. I don't know if he'll get it. But, no matter what the next owner pays for it, I hope they keep it in the condition it's in now. This car is a really cool piece of 1960s / 1970s automobile history. It's great to see this type of car in this condition.

Located in Costa Mesa, California, click here to see the eBay listing (which has a lot of nice, clear pictures).