RE: The young alfa driver/budget threads

[Chr1sM@domain.elided]

I guess this is a reply in general to the whole young-ppls-driving-alfas 
threads popping up recently.

I'm 17, and I have (more or less) 2 and a half GTV6s. I have to have a car 
because my High School is 40 minutes away, and without busing there has to be 
some way to get me here, and my father cleverly put his cars under a Hagerty 
insurance policy so I can't touch them (not like I know to drive a vaccuum 
clutch on a '36 Cord Westchester anyways).  I got my first one when I was 16. 
 It was either my gtv6 or a fiat spider, which with my rather tall (6'5) self 
knocked it out of the question after I drove my father's spider. One silver, 
my baby, one yellow, half mine, half my father's, and a parts car, which is 
what everyone needs.. It's already paid for itself.  Before we had it a new 
door handle was $150, a new headlight switch was $200, a new side mirror 
was$120.. you get the picture, and I won't have to worry about that, at least 
as long as i don't break anything on it.  My alfa budget is small, because  i 
haven't had too many big problems with these.  It consists of, more or less, 
gas, oil, and other.  I also have a party time 3 day job which keeps money in 
my pocket (for cds).. and I have a forgiving father (who knows what it's like 
to have sensitive cars.. he has a Fiat Dino, and a Lancia Flavia, to name a 
couple, which usually have high running costs if you need a part.)  So he 
helps me out sometimes if I need a part or two for my car.  
    The next thing on my list is new brake pads and to re-tune the 
suspension, as i just lowered the front end as far as it would go.  But we've 
yet to find a mechanic in Indy competent enough to work on these.  (At 
circuit city, to put a new stereo and 4 speakers in my car they wanted a $300 
installation fee, because they think it's a "custom" installation.. heh)
    I'm not sure what my point is.. except that for young people alfa's are 
expensive enough to run, especially on a tight budget  (i work 16 hours a 
week for $130/week).  I haven't even thought about getting fog lights or 
anything else of the such.  When you're still in high school you tend to rely 
on your parents.  And since these cars cost so little initially (the silver 
was $350, with ~2000 in restoration, and the yellow one $700, with $1000 so 
far in restoration[it's more my father's side project than my car])  They 
cost relatively little initially, but it adds up in the long run.  We'll 
never get our investment from this car, but who cares, it's a great car, and 
extremely fun.  Let's just hope nothing breaks.  When something breaks, i'm 
carless for around a week to a month, until we find the parts if we don't 
have them.. or can find someone to install something we don't know how to do.
    And, I still don't have heating in my Silver GTV6.

Chris Miller
Indianapolis, IN
82 GTV6  Silver
82 GTV6  Yellow

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