1976 Chrysler Alpine TV road test yo. 1442 rattly tappets rust NOT ALPINE RAPIER

[JeeExEll]

"Oh pissin arse shit. We've miscounted due to le-Metrique-Systeme or something and everyone's gone home now.

Quick, change the windscreen-stickers, and try again".

 

Major suit-distraction-tactics.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

^ L'depreciation c'est catastrophique.

[sierraman]

I came home from hospital in one of these, my father had a 1979/80 Alpine in metallic brown with a cream interior, he must have had it a while as I can remember as a kid watching him through the window washing it. He ended up selling it the neighbours brother and swapping it briefly for a Mk3 Escort 1.3L.

[Talbot]

In late 1988 when my Father bought a new Mk2 Cavalier, my Mother bought a second-hand 1985 model Horizon 1.3LS. It was a relatively nice new car, and was comparatively lovely compared to the chod she'd owned previously.

 

In early 1993 I used it to learn to drive in, and later that year I plowed it hard into some utter twat who had left a dark brown mini sideways in the outside lane of the motorway, at night with no lights on. That Horizon was astonishingly strong.

 

Over the next few years I had another 1.3LS, three 1.9LD's, a 1.5SX auto (with tripcomputer dontchano) a 1.1LE briefly, and a 1.5LS. All the petrol versions were the clatteriest engines I have ever driven, but were not bad cars. The bodyroll was quite comical.

 

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, but when a very cheap Alpine 1.6 came up for sale in about 2001, I stupidly decided it would be a genius plan to drive it, as it would be like a bigger horizon. Except it barely is. Quite how the Alpine and Horizon managed to have different markets is beyond me, as the difference in size between them is minimal. All the running gear is nigh-on identical.

 

Very high specification brakes and suspension for the class of car though. I didn't even realise that most cars "only" had single-piston sliding calipers, or cheaper mc-pherson struts, or beam rear axles until I tried working on something other than my Horizons. Twin-piston fixed calipers, double-wishbone front suspension and independent trailing arm rear suspension is fairly high-specification even today.

[JeeExEll]

Nicked from the back cover of Roy Axe's school jotter.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

Very high specification brakes and suspension for the class of car though. I didn't even realise that most cars "only" had single-piston sliding calipers, or cheaper mc-pherson struts, or beam rear axles until I tried working on something other than my Horizons. Twin-piston fixed calipers, double-wishbone front suspension and independent trailing arm rear suspension is fairly high-specification even today.

 

 

 

It was French. They designed cars properly back then. 

[AnthonyG]

I re-read one of those 'Car' magazine article compilation books today (due to bank holiday and too much rain) - in the 'Top ten buys' article for February 1979 the Alpine gets an honourable mention in at last three categories (based on prices, between £3k and £5k), and the Horizon is quite well regarded as well. 

 

Its quite ironic, virtually all of their 'top ten' could also feature in 'top ten worst depreciating cars' or 'top ten least likely to last 10 years' or 'top ten Jalopy magazine cheap heaps for 1991': 

 

• Less than £2000: Citroen 2CV
• £2001-£2500: Fiat 127 1050L
• £2501-£3000: Citroen GS Special
• £3001-£3500: Alfasud Super 1.5
• £3501-£4000: VW Golf GLS
• £4001-£5000: Lancia Beta 2000
• £5001-£6000: Renault 20 TS 
• £6001-£7000: Renault 30 TS
• £7001-£10,000: Peugeot 604Ti
• More than £10,000: Jaguar XJ12 5.3 

 

If you assume all registered in Feb 1979, I reckon only the 2CV6, Golf and Jaguar had a decent chance of surviving to see Vic and Bob hail in 1990 10 years, 10 months later.

[Asimo]

Would like to try one. I was temping at Chrysler in Coventry in 1975 and we were all invited to have a look at and sit in a new Alpine, the "new model that was going to save the company"

I was suspicious of new-fangled front wheel drive, and thought the rear seat legroom poor.

It was the same colour as this one I papped in France a few years ago.

 

There is this available

https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic/saturday-14th-april-2018/1977-chrysler-alpine-gs/