Supercar Looks, A Carbon Tub, & Hatchback Running Costs: Why Did Nobody Buy The Alfa Romeo 4C? 

I got to my mid life crisis and get myself New VW Touareg. Such fantastic looking and amazing to drive, tech packed suv. I love it!

@@spk8989pl ew

It is a vw suv with porsche badge.

@@spk8989pl That's no way to enjoy driving, my friend.

I can't afford a mid-life crisis . . .

Fair play. Great little car👍

I’m 1,9m tall. Will I fit?

why are these shit on but alpine a110 so loved?

I opted for a Lotus instead because I wanted stick and a bit more power. 300HP and a manual and they would have sold at least twice as many.

Down what line? they will be ornamental by 2040 due to the fossil fuel ban, so I don't know what's going to happen to the classic car market, what's the point in having a car you can't drive unless you dump a telsa motor set up in them.

Facts!!!!!

@Scott Sophia this is a sport car for sporty drivers, not a limo for pigs.. For those which can't fit inside, does exist bmw X6m.. go for it.. will look as a sport coupe with a huge sea elephant behind the wheel 😂😂. ps: if the worked HARD to keep LIGHT weight of that superbe alfa, OBVIOUSLY they don't imagine a huge animal of 150kg on the driver seat. pps: if the most intensive pleasure of your life is EATING.. stick with it, let sporty driving for others.

V8 Vantage!

@Scott Sophia I think you need to go on a serious diet if you can't fit in. Unless you're excessively tall and wide, there's plenty of space.

@Scott Sophia Maybe a diet is in order?

I didn't want to pay $70k for only $50k worth of performance.

@@c.f.1133 depends how you define performance. What car is faster around a circuit at that price?

@@dagnut at $70k? Corvettes. 718s. Some hot hatches. Lots of cars really, including mustangs and Camaros.

@@iluvcakes19 around a circuit? No chance!

@@dagnut this isnt the 1960s, all the cars he listed are for sure faster around a circuit

Loved the concept. But it was rushed to the market underdeveloped and was usually delivered to the customer criminally unfinished. Didn't look that great, was too wide, sounded and drove horribly, was too expensive. A very special car (in a special needs kind of way).

@@bulversteher You hit the nail on its head here. Good summary.

The MC20 is the rebirth priced as a Maserati, because it was made by Maserati. It costs a lot to get its regular carbon tub bolt tightening.

I have a 2015 4C Launch Edition bought new. Has been dead reliable and a blast to drive. Lots of upgrades if you want to play with suspension, more power, etc. but dead stock it is impressive....although the stock tires hold it back and cause tramming. Set front to to 0 or a bit of toe in and it makes s huge difference. Compared to other sports cars it is pretty cheap to maintain but it isn't Chevy or Ford cheap....but that goes out the door when you go for a drive in the twisties.

People fail to notice that in this cars early days, Alfa were scoring higher reliability ratings than BMW. Old clichés stick around, whether true or not.

Sad isnt it? A world filled with suvs, soy boys and mobile phones glued to people hands!

The problem with it was this: it was too much money for what it was. The Miata is a better driving experience, at less than half the cost. For the $$$ they were charging for the 4C, they needed to put in more good stuff. The mid-engine Corvette base model costs less than did the 4C, and includes so many more useful features and refinements. Had the 4C been available new around $40K, it likely would have sold much more.

I have one of these, and since I don't go driving every car to see how bad or good this car is, I am good with it. I think it is a great car for the price, I love boosted applications, Lotus Elise might be a good car but I think it is not as flashy as the 4C and it should does not turn as many heads as the 4C does. In addition, another guy said that the 4C steering was not as connected to the road as the Lotus Elise. well! let's talk materials. the 4C is carbon fiber which in the long run will buffer shearing and bending and will buffer from the some road feel. It is the nature of it as opposed to any other materials. Kind like in triathlons, An alluminium Cervelo triathlon bike vs Trek Carbon fiber one along a 112 mile race, you will feel different. Cervelo will make you feel your teeth vibrating more over every pebble you hit but not the Trek. Having said that the steering on the 4c is very tightly coupled and where you put that steering wheel is where the car goes. In addition, a car is balanced an aligned for a particular terrain and if you are heavier than the weight it was aligned or balanced for and you will have a very different behavior in handling but don't blame it on the car. All of these reviews are cool and fine but when you come out pretending to be an expert when you are not, that is miss leading and unfair. I say this because not a single one of these guys have specified the caster, camber and weight the car is aligned for when they borrowed these cars. I would, first hand, tell you whether I had it aligned or not. I would also tell you and log in at what speeds, I took these curves and when the tires lost their grip. In reality this reports are just a matter or preference which I respect. My preference is that I love the 4C and while I have rented many sports cars and driving them for 600 miles before I can get a good feel for how they respond, I have not done it in a way that I can be fair to handling. I would have to go to the circuit of the America's and learn how to push these cars around the track and record their times and speeds. Peace out people of you tube and enjoy.!

Cars guys: we are just going to buy used 3 series and mod them, thanks!

@@Gk2003m you cant compare a miata to a 4c lol

WOW, i couldn't disagree more, esp now with the super dull one but i'm guessing this is UK vs Canada and the little differences in what we both listen to on average. funny.

I like the intro music, it's got that great 80s vibe going on.

Amazing car, have a convertible one atm

"Very fast" is a stretch. It's slower than a Supra, and the Supra is significantly cheaper

Want something fast for the track, buy a radical. Want something fast and light for the road, buy a lotus elies. Want something fast and Italian, buy a Ducati. Want a 4c, buy therapy.

@@lokibrux true

you are blind as being in love mate

Loki Brux a lotus Elise is not faster than this car on any road. The only advantage the lotus has is manual gearbox for driving pleasure, dynamically and performance wise the 4c eats the lotus everyday.

I’m glad they weren’t more popular. Nothing worse than seeing loads of your favorite cars everywhere once you buy one

Guila foligio

@@TregTube until you need spare parts...

@@mro9466 very true indeed. It’s at this point where true petrol heads excel, and “enthusiasts” sell up and buy an Audi or something usually in my experience

Thanks for the comment. Where did you get the leather work done?

Yeah, I want to know as well.

@@robinchina471 A guy named Lars on the 4cforums does it.

it fucking Alfa Romeo ..... affortable at first and hell to own...

@@campkira They are obviously not known for being the most reliable cars on the market but can you give Alfa a break? They have created some wonderful machines such as the 155 Ti V6, 33 Stradale, 8C Competizione, 156 GTA, TZ2 and the 147 GTA. You need to know whats under the hood in order to maintain and look after them properly. When it comes to unreliability, the Italians actually do not make it on the list, German cars are starting to become worse in terms of reliability apart from build quality

​@@campkira These cars have proven to be reliable. I daily drive one ;) The transmission is from a dodge dart lol.

@@SoldatX2 Well, no. The transmission is not from a Dodge Dart, but the Dodge Dart has a transmission from Fiat. It's not a transmission made by Dodge, it's very much Fiat.

Poor you, had to settle for a Ferrari! Actually, I came to my 4C from an F355, so I'm just messing with you. Ferrari certainly makes the most glorious engines, though.

@@canto_v12 haha, yeah, it was a little facetious because I love having a Ferrari 360 Modena. But, I can't say it's honestly the better car or better styled. The performance is very close, rides are similar, and styling's classic Italian. So I'm paying more for the badge up front and in maintenance or upgrades, for older tech and suspension components. Styling's a bit subjective, but I find the 4C as appealing or more at certain angles compared to my Ferrari - it's like a smaller version that they scrunched up, making all of the curves more pronounced.

i hate it when im forced to settle for a ferrari

Yea ok. Go hate something else. Depends on where you are ass. Enjoy you WRX!

Toyota engine.

Comparatively the Alfa is not cheaper and definitely not less reliable. I've had both the 4c and an Elise of the same age and the lotus was nothing but hassle.

@@bencocker7487 should have got an s2000

@@kanatsizkanatli 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I owned an 06 Elise that I ended up supercharging and I own a 4C. IMO the Alfa is the superior car in almost every way except for the steering feel. Thats it. And the dual clutch in the Alfa is much nicer than the sloppy manual in the Elise. I loved my Elise but the 4C honestly is a much better car.

​@MunroM84 True, but you cant blow 90% of your budget on the chassis and then basically cut everything else down to potato.

@D B OK keep driving the Miata! LoL. Or is it a Suburu WRZ?

Alphaboy1 why u skip the Y? To WRZ 🤣

Here in South Africa these cars were hyped up before launch so much that they were more expensive than a Boxter S. The Alfa is good looking, however their perceived quality problems ultimately sank this car in my opinion.

The Cayman S is also way over 100.000€ with good specs. 70-80k for the 4C isnt that bad considering what you get: An extremely light and Well Handling car

Stalker

They couldn't package the engine in there with double wishbones at the back, hence the macpherson setup

Well, that setup isn't inherently bad, but macpherson struts are not the same thing as a normal strut. They are bad for sports car applications since the camber of the wheel changes as they are compressed and decompressed, which happens during hard turns or on a racetrack. Still, perhaps it could have been tuned more optimally.

Yup..Why didn’t they give it any storage space? Why didn’t they make the interior slightly bigger? Why discontinue the coupe to sell the spider? Why no Quadrifolio? Stupid management over there sadly.

Silly comment comparing the 2 Miata (BIG MAC) VS 4C (filet mignon) is laughable.

At that price it should have a 6 cyl.. It's not about the power but the sound and refinement.

The problem is that every review I've ever read about the car says it DOESN'T have "great driving dynamics".

Can't remember when I saw 147gta. Oh wait. It was on the A1M, broken down due to its exquisite Italian engineering

@@zonta71 no mate, you must live in a country where people cannot do simple maintenance and take care of their cars. I've seen 156's reach over 140,000 miles with full comprehensive service history + invoices and receipts for parts etc

@@asifnoaman8978 lol. I live in England and alfa and fiat are the worst depreciating brands. I have owned 2 Italian cars fiT and Lfa and I will never buy any brand from Italy. Design is good but reliability is the worst of all brands. So why didn't the alfa 4c sell? Cos its beautiful car but user experience is like have the having a tooth pulled out by the mafia. And am a biker also so let's include ducati

@@zonta71 first of all, I'm in the UK and you dont seem to understand that I'm talking about the older Alfa's. Besides, any car will depreciate in value these days until they have an attractive audience like they do these days unlike the common BMW 3 series or Audi A3 etc

@@zonta71 if that’s the case, why is German cars I find broken down in our wonderful All lane Running motorways 🛣 with their stupid electric hand brakes and stuck in Park..!!

And you never drove one. It’s a brilliant fast little car. Your attitude is exactly why it failed, because it doesn’t sound impressive on paper or in videos. If ever you drive one, assuming your head can fit, it will change your mind.

Having the space to take luggage for a long weekend is something I really like about my Cayman. I auto-X and occasionally track mine, but I still love to take long drives and road trip in it.

and then you compare it to Ford Puma 1.4 16V and understand how stupid Alfa thinks everyone is in this world :D

Imaging the 4c with a gated manual, it would trade over 100k today. But a dodge dart transmission, give me a break

DCTs are lighter than a synchronized gearbox. Alpine said that was the reason they went DCT over a manual gearbox.

@footballcoreano they don't need Americans for that. After the merger with PSA (Peugeot, citroen,..) Carlos Tavares is in charge. In crisis situations cost cuttings are nr 1 priority and low sales products are the first to go. The new DS brand is also not selling that well so my guess is 1of these 2 has to go and I doubt the frenche wil give up their own newborn 'luxerybrand'. I sincerely hope i'm wrong.

"I call them the spec-sheet generation. 0.1 sec les from 0/60 and a 2 miles/hour higher topspeed on paper is enough to define the 'best' car while it is totally irrelevant." The problem is that a car like the Cayman is faster by every metric, handles better, is more reliable, holds its resale better, has a ten times better interior, on and on. You can't say "the 4C is for the purists" when other cars do what it is supposed to excel at better than it does along with everything else. Hell most journalists said it's just twitchy and not even a well thought out car from a handling perspective.

Yep the S2 Exige is the goldilocks car IMO.

I've had both and kept the Alfa. When you realize that you are sitting in a carbon fiber tub you understand why it costs more. But its an experience like no other...

Very generous to call them eye melting quick. They were only 220bhp with a 0-100 time of 12 or so seconds.

You are a lucky man! In the EU its base price was about 80 000 EUR ...

It was 92k sticker but it was discounted to 69k Canadian, I wouldn’t buy one at sticker but at the discount price I jumped, used ones are asking more then what I payed

Yeah, no manual made this car DOA. I drove one. It was fun. But no manual and HUGE blind spots made this car unbuyable.

@@iluvcakes19 I ended up buying an Evora S manual instead of this. But that's another story and Lotus as a car brand are simply something I would never touch again...never drive your heros.

Agreed. The engine sounds awful

@@Jut1233456 dang!.. real sorry to hear that!

Don't forget no power steering as well

The 4C is a bit of a glass cannon, and I always felt they were overpriced by $10k or so after test driving one. At $67k, there's a lot of better bargains.

To be fair, no super-slurpee cupholders or "plus-size" seating for the average American "sports car' buyer. But they did try by fitting the Florida transmission as standard.

chris davidson I feel you on the tribeca thing, but in person the tribeca looked grotesque and the 4c always looked surprisingly good...

Why would you want a dated aluminium chassis that’s heavy and flexible? Metals are on their way out.

@@HairDom I literally said in my comment, it would be £10k cheaper, if not more.

We talked with our Alfa Romeo dealer(officially the best one in germany) and he only retightens the bolts that are really necessary. Thats way cheaper. Our 4C now has 26k kilometers and not a single part failed