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Argentinians find stash of never-registered, brand-new 30-year-old Italian cars

While much of the world is sheltering in place, several new, never-registered Italian and French cars exited a 27-year confinement in Argentina. They were left for dead in an abandoned dealership that sold Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Peugeot models in a city named Avellaneda near Buenos Aires, the country's capital. Details surrounding the dealership are murky. Argentina's Autoblog (no relation to us) reported it closed at some point during the 1990s after the owner and his son died in violent circumstances. Automotive archaeology tells your author it likely shut its doors in 1993, because that's the only year in which the first-generation Fiat Ducato launched in 1981 and the post-facelift Fiat Tipo, axed in 1995, overlapped. Both are clearly visible in the photos. What's certain is that someone finally inherited the property in 2020 and wanted the cars gone as quickly as possible in order to sell it. The anonymous owner asked Kaskote Calcos, a local body shop that also runs a used-car lot, to haul them away via Instagram. We're guessing the firm didn't need to be asked twice.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Axel By Kaskote (@kaskotecalcos) on Mar 24, 2020 at 1:57pm PDT Many of the cars hidden in the dealership were made by Fiat; the photos show several examples of the Tipo, an Uno, a Tempra, and the aforementioned Ducato. An Alfa Romeo 33 wagon and a Peugeot 405 were also stashed in the trove. Most were stored indoors so they weren't damaged by sunlight or humidity, and images of the cars taken after they were pressure-washed confirm they're in like-new condition inside and out. We're told some even started, though for the love of valves and pistons we hope they got a new timing belt before being fired up.  Kaskote Calcos hasn't revealed what it will do with the cars. None are particularly sought-after, they're economy cars that were mass-produced and mass-destroyed, and their current values reflect that. You can get a post-facelift Uno for the price of a few Peroni pints in Italy. The fact that they're new, never-registered examples will undoubtedly increase their appeal, even if registering them could require slashing through jungles of red tape. As a side note, finding a 405 beached in a Fiat dealership isn't as random as it might sound.

Form and function in fairly equal parts | 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Drive

Alfa Romeo, a brand synonymous with sports cars that combine beautiful Italian design with historically dodgy reliability, now makes a crossover. The Stelvio is named after what is quite possibly the best driving road in the world, and the automaker would have you believe that it is the most purely focused driver's ute in the world. To that end, the Stelvio boasts a perfect 50/50 front-to-rear weight distribution, a fast 12.0:1 steering ratio, and an all-wheel-drive system that's tuned to send 100 percent of the engine's power to the rear wheels whenever possible. All of those bits add up to an SUV that's genuinely fun to drive on winding roads. Think of the Stelvio as an Alfa Romeo Giulia with a suspension lift kit that puts you 2.5 inches higher off the tarmac. Yes, those stilts mean the crossed-over Alfa isn't quite as sharp as the Giulia, but the Stelvio isn't at all dimwitted. It's a true Alfa Romeo, in spirit and in execution, right down to its standard carbon-fiber driveshaft. The Stelvio shares its 111-inch wheelbase and its double-wishbone front and Alfa Link rear suspension systems with the Giulia. That's not to say that the Stelvio drives as well or looks as good as the Giulia. The crossover is 2 inches longer and 8.9 inches taller than the sedan from which it was born. We got the feeling that we were sitting on top of the car's chassis instead of within it, which is due entirely to the high seating position that American drivers are so fond of. And whereas the Giulia wears its sheetmetal like a slinky little black dress, the Stelvio's Scudetto front fascia and Trilobo air intakes are stretched over a much larger frame and its sides are sculpted in a more masculine way. Still, the Stelvio is an attractive beast, inside and out. It's unmistakably Italian, which is to say well-tailored with an impeccable form that influences but begrudgingly follows function. Leather seating surfaces are standard. From the driver's seat, the dashboard is dominated by two binnacles housing the tachometer and speedometer. In between is an LCD display that shows a bunch more relevant information. A second screen in an exaggerated widescreen format houses the bespoke infotainment system from Magneti Marelli. That LCD's unique shape makes it look smaller than the Stelvio's competitors, especially as its pinched height makes the backup camera image appear pretty small.

2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio tweaked outside and in

Another Stellantis brand has hopped on the streamlining craze, this time Alfa Romeo. The Italians from Turin dropped info on what's coming to the 2023 Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover for international markets, the best bits likely destined for our market as well. After introducing new brand hallmarks on the Tonale, the Giulia and Stelvio adopt the revised Trilobo grille and three-section full-LED headlights. You'll need look closely to see the grille differences, but there's a touch more depth and sculpting around the edges. The headlight changes are easier to spot, the "3+3" inspiration coming from the SZ and Brera, which predate the Tonale. The headlights also come with automatic high beams. Other shores that can have fancy lights get the Adaptive Matrix high beams that automatically adjust beam contours so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Yes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cleared the mechanics of such lights for use in the U.S. in February of this year, but U.S. laws stipulate a lower maximum brightness than allowed in other markets. We'll see if the matrix system makes it here. The taillights don't appear to have changed, their covers have. The Giulia gets transparent glass taillight covers, the Stelvio gets smoked glass. There could be some illumination tricks front and back, too. We're used to seeing sequential turn signals in back, spy shots have shown a sequential turn signal pattern in the headlights, and Alfa says there's a "'Welcome and Goodbye' device that turns on every time the driver closes or opens the car."  Every trim features a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel that comes with three themes. The Heritage theme recalls the analogue gauges on vintage Alfas, with some upside down numbers on the analogue-looking speedo, a minimalist tachometer and a digital facsimile of the old school odometer with rolling numbers. Evolved "represents the future of Alfa Romeo design," placing most information in the center, the circular areas at the edges containing sweeping needles for the speedo and tach, but no numbers in the 'dials.' Relaxed puts nearly everything in the center, putting vitals like fuel level and oil temperature at the sides. Trim levels will be reorganized into two primary levels and two options levels. The basic tiers are Super, the entry-level, and Ti.