If you do get one good service history is vital and go through it and check what has been fixed. A car that has been garaged is probably better than one that has been left to the elements. With mine its kept outside and suffered when it only had minimal weekend use. However now that i use it daily to and from work it has been superb. Fuel use around town around 170 miles on a tank full, on a good run at motorway speeds i get 290 miles on a tank full. Some spares are becoming very hard to get like front shocks. Rear discs are unique and only available from the superb twosixties . If you want something a little different that is becoming very rare and puts hairs up on the back of your neck every time you get in it then get one. Smiles per mile is endless...
I just wonder how many are out there that aren't known within the forums? The 155s are getting thin on the ground but the odd stranger crops up. I never bought an Alfa without provenance so I hope to do the same if I get a 260. I didn't know the discs were such a high cost so it's a good job I started here! Mind you, when I had a 190 I went for a new screen, and the guy at Autoglass said Rover windows were getting hard to source - and that was 5/6 years ago...
Unfortunately the rear discs are advertised by nearly all motor parts outlets as being available but this is not true. The 260 rear discs are larger than the fronts. Because the 260 is a very rare car not many people understand that this is different to the other models and wrongly assume that the discs front and rear are the same as the 190. (Fronts are the same). I replaced my rear discs last year and suspect it still had original discs in place so they may last for another 10 years, my car has only covered 57k miles...
Until the middle of last year I had run a 260 then a 385 as daily drivers for more than 6 years and a combined c.190,000 miles (On LPG thankfully). I did most of my own basic servicing and unless you get a car with a particular issue to deal with it shouldn't prove to be too expensive to run. The big issue is that they are now all at least 10 years old and some parts are getting harder to get a hold of. The upside to that is this club which have a number of resourceful members who put a huge amount of effort to sourcing (and in some cases arranging the fabrication) of replacements.
I only stopped using mine daily for a combination of it being too nice a car too keep banging the miles onto and my work commitments was preventing me spending the necessary time on maintaining it as I would like. But it's such a satisfying car to drive and the membership on here are a fantastic bunch who will be able to help you with just about any issues that arise.
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