zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?
At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:19

Nice Price or No Dice 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio

The seller of today’s Milano asks that no offers be made on the car until it is seen in person. Before we get that personal, we’ll have to decide how good his offer — and the car — is, to begin with.

As a child, if you’ve ever been sent to summer camp you may have at one time or another been duped by one of that camp’s counselors into the fool’s errand of a “snipe hunt.” Now that we’re all grown-ups, we can endeavor to undertake our own quixotic quests. One such might be finding greenhouse glass for an obscure gray-market import that had suffered damage in a hail storm.

That was the problem facing any new owner of the we investigated yesterday. At its $2,500 asking, the car looked initially to be a solid deal. Delving into the details, however, we saw that the car’s hail damage had left it open to the elements and unlikely to pass a state safety inspection should one be needed. Finding the replacement glass would prove a daunting — and likely expensive — task. That prospect ended up with both the comments and the 56 percent No Dice vote leaning against its undertaking.

As we discussed yesterday, Renault never sold the Twingo in the U.S. By the time of the little car’s debut, Renault had, in fact, stopped selling anything under its brand name here in the States. The late ’80s to early ’90s proved to be a tough time in the U.S. for a lot of foreign carmakers. It was at this time that, due to financial difficulties, the U.S. saw the disappearanceof car companies like Daihatsu, Peugeot, Yugo, and the subject of today’s contemplation, Alfa Romeo.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

This 1988 certainly has a long and tongue-twisting moniker. Perhaps that was why it wasn’t more successful in America. In Europe, the model was simply known as the 75. That’s unlikely since most people took to just calling the cars “Milanos.”

The Milano debuted in 1985, riding on a chassis that owed a great debt to the preceding Alfetta model. Like that previous car, the Milano rocked a torsion bar front suspension and a sophisticated de Dion rear suspension wrapped around the rear-mounted transaxle. Unlike the Alfetta sedan, however, the Milano in the U.S. was powered exclusively by V6 engines.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

Being a Verde makes this one the ultimate edition, replacing the standard Milano’s 2.5-liter Busso V6 with 3-liter version. That makes 183 horsepower to the lower-echelon model’s 154. Behind that — way behind, in fact — is a five-speed manual in the transaxle.

The ad claims the seller to be the second owner, having bought the car from the original owner’s estate in 2016. It apparently spent most of its life with that OG owner in Southern California where was babied. Based on the option sheet the seller has shared, it was originally sold by Wegge Motor Cars in Pasadena, California, one of that town’s oldest family-owned dealerships.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

There are 160,000 miles on the car and while the seller claims it to have been well cared for during their ownership, they do note it exhibiting the kind of wear and tear one might expect of a car of its advanced age.

Having spent most of those advancing years in sunny Southern California, the car presents as rust-free. The Nero paint looks perfectly serviceable and favors the Milano’s design by masking a lot of the extraneous body lines its designers felt were needed. The black plastic trim strip that runs from the leading edge of the front fender to the spoiler on the boot is all intact but does look like it’s turning an ashy gray as such things do. The car is pictured with aftermarket 15-inch wheels but comes with the factory phone dials too.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

The interior presents in a similar fashion with some wear evident on the cloth-covered Recaro seats and some curling of the floor mats. A Momo steering wheel and shift knob liven up the place, as does the factory Frankenstein switch hand brake lever. All the major elements are there and seemingly in usable condition. The boot contains the rare factory tool kit and hard storage lockers. Those alone make this car more desirable than your standard Milano.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

Not everything is Peaches and Herb here though. The seller does an admirable job of attempting to present the car accurately, warts and all. That description notes a number of small niggling problems that abound. Included in those are the non-working driver’s side power mirror, sunroof, and windshield washer. Other problems are a funky ARC panel, a bad start-up injector, and some boot lid springs that may let the lid bonk you on the head if you’re not careful. On the plus side, the car comes with a number of extra parts (always helpful with any Alfa) and has had the timing belt plus a bunch of suspension and exhaust work already done. An ABS delete has also been undertaken.

Image for article titled At $8,500, Is This 1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde Quadrifoglio A Lucky Find?

The seller claims the car drives well and is only selling it to free up garage space as they don’t want to have any member of the fleet banished outdoors. There are a ton of maintenance and repair receipts that come with it along with the car andall those extra parts. The asking price is $8,500 and the seller requests that no one drop an offer on the car until seeing it in the metal.

Now that we know all there is to know about this hot Milano, what do you think such a thing might be worth? Could it really command that $8,500 asking? Or, does that price mean this Quadrifoglio’s luck has run out?

You decide!

Seattle, Washington, , or go if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
I Can't Get Enough Of This YouTuber Who Builds Tiny, Fully Functional Scale-Model Cars
I Can't Get Enough Of This YouTuber Who Builds Tiny, Fully Functional Scale-Model Cars
I love tiny, of . I have a that is roughly half the size of a normal cat, and she’s perfect. I own a 2013 , which is like the miniature version of a normal-sized vehicle (at least here in Texas) — but beyond that, I also own a Hot...
Jul 9, 2025
Watch ABS Fail When MotorWeek Tests A 1997 Chevy S-10
Watch ABS Fail When MotorWeek Tests A 1997 Chevy S-10
MotorWeek’s is some of the on the internet. The long-running automotive news magazine has a treasure trove of tests after being on the air for over 40 years. Where else can you find detailed instrumented testing of long-forgotten cars like the or a ? MotorWeek’s recent Retro Review upload is...
Jul 9, 2025
Subaru Had It Right All Along
Subaru Had It Right All Along
When first came to the United States, it sold small funky cars that were decidedly un-American. As the company grew its own identity and became more established in the U.S., it became the first automaker to offer an all-wheel-drive passenger car in 1975. Subaru was also an early-adopter of...
Jul 9, 2025
I Entered My Lifted Miata In A Real Off-Road Race, Here's What Happened
I Entered My Lifted Miata In A Real Off-Road Race, Here's What Happened
I have two automotive loves: The first is the Miata, the second is off-road racing. For a while I raced air-cooled Volkswagens in the deserts of California and Nevada and I was lucky enough to co-drive in a class 11 stock bug in the Baja 1000 a few years...
Jul 9, 2025
2024 Kia EV9: What Do You Want To Know?
2024 Kia EV9: What Do You Want To Know?
At long last, we are about to get behind the wheel of for the first time. Sure, , and sure, , and sure , but hey — what can you do? Anyway, before we get behind the wheel of this three-row electric beast, we want to know what you...
Jul 9, 2025
Toyota Is Moving A Prewar 700-Ton Press Machine Halfway Around The World
Toyota Is Moving A Prewar 700-Ton Press Machine Halfway Around The World
closed its São Bernardo Plant in November 2023, marking the end of its first overseas production facility. The closure caps off a period of continuous car production in São Paolo, , lasting over 60 years. The plant was home to a Komatsu 700-ton press that predates itself. And now...
Jul 9, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved