Alfa Romeo’s roots lie in the first decade of the 20th century and the early days of car manufacturing. But its history over the intervening century or so has been one of success and adversity.
In the ‘30s and ‘40s Alfa Romeo was a stylish, expensive marque for buyers who wanted beautiful, fast performance cars. But by the ‘50s and ‘60s Alfa had expanded into the mass market, offering beautiful cars like the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider alongside dynamically interesting but rather boxy saloons. In the ‘70s Alfa became State-owned and entered a long, dark period – a new range of interesting and technically innovative cars like the Alfa Romeo Alfasud and Alfa Romeo GTV suffered from under-development and chronic quality and rust problems.
In the late 1980s the Italian Government coerced Fiat into buying Alfa Romeo. Fiat, although a reluctant buyer, has turned out to be Alfa Romeo’s saviour. The Alfa Romeo Spider was rejuvenated in 1990 with a restyle by Pininfarina to create the Alfa Romeo Series 4 (the model owned by Great Escape Classic Car Hire) and a host of new models were launched, mostly based on Fiat running gear. Over the last few years Alfa Romeo has launched a new range of cars and in February 2007 the Alfa Romeo Duetto lineage continued with the gorgeous Brera-based Alfa Romeo Spider.
Our Alfa Romeo Spider is one of only a handful of Italian cars available for classic car hire in the UK. To find out more about our rental package, click here or for prices, click here.