Keith Martin's problem with his online purchase

[Bogeyman]

Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market, ran into a problem with an Alfa Romeo he purchased. Buyer beware...

Keith's Blog: Have I Been Scammed? - Sports Car Market

This story is a little complicated, so buckle your seatbelt and get ready for a ride. It’s now easier than ever to look up the history of your car. While

www.sportscarmarket.com

 

[daantjie]

His first mistake was buying an Alfa

 

[r44raven]

His first mistake was buying an Alfa

Oooh, that's a bit harsh? Let the guy enjoy his Alfas. We know what we've got is far better

 

[Markus-MD]

Old Estern Europe man told me for 30 years Alfa good Car runs fast but not long
but i like this cars too. The 3,0 Busso V6 also name as the Violine of Arese is the best Sound of the V6 Engine evry time.
i dreove this into an 166 v6 3,0 great sound in every range of revs.unbelievebel.
This Engine has a SOUL.

 

[FD.]

Keith Martin is trying to explain things in plain language, but hasn’t fully understood the subject themselves.
With all due respect, the “veteran publisher” status doesn’t guarantee the level of knowledge and hands-on experience that even a teenage flipper can have nowadays.

It’s also interesting that the comments under the article are mostly from people who seem far removed from modern VIN-based research practices and don’t really follow cause-and-effect timelines.


...It wasn’t until I was registering the car that I noted the VIN on the car I bought (ZARBB42N1M6006871).
*This car has been offered online multiple times as a low-mileage queen…:

1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

The Rennlist Marketplace - 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce - 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce. Red/Tan with rare Automatic transmission. 2.0 litre, double overhead cam. Currently has 21,3xx original miles. Selling because I just don't drive it except to the occasional show. I've owned this pretty...

rennlist.com

...I've owned this pretty Alfa since October 2008. (с) Rennlist user with 2000 posts.
= He doesn’t look like the type of guy who flips odometers on $15k AlfaRomeos.

SOLD - 1991 Spider Veloce, Automatic (new price)

Disclaimer: in the spirit of full disclosure, I found the Carfax report shows "not actual mileage". When I bought it, the seller's California title did NOT indicate that. But because of that, I removed the ad, revised it, and lowered the asking price substantially. 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider...

www.alfabb.com

The same seller's comment:
Disclaimer: in the spirit of full disclosure, I found the Carfax report shows "not actual mileage". When I bought it, the seller's California title did NOT indicate that. But because of that, I removed the ad, revised it, and lowered the asking price substantially.

And here is his report back from 2008 - right after the purchase with 18k miles:

https://www.alfabb.com/threads/new-guy.124296/?post_id=646643&nested_view=1#post-646643

P.S. The AlfaBB listing includes the seller’s email, which easily leads to a name and even a phone number via a quick Google search.
It’s fairly obvious Keith Martin could have tried to contact him and get a comment — that’s basic journalism, after all. Instead, the veteran gentleman chose, in 2026, to recount how he was probably scammed back in 2022 by the next owner.

 

[FD.]

p.p.s. and back in 2022 the story from KM was slightly different:

Keith’s Blog: Car Knitting, SCM-Style (Part Four) - Sports Car Market

No matter how I try to manage my collection, I seem to end up with eight to 10 cars. I sell three and I still have 10. It’s a mystery. Where do I park

www.sportscarmarket.com

...Looks like back in 2022 two AR specialists never doubted the 21k miles (instead of claimed now 80k)...


I have added a 1991 Alfa Spider S4 automatic. I found it on eBay, with a CARFAX-documented 21,000 miles. While I generally hold my nose and stay far away from eBay due to the undisciplined nature of the listings, this one caught my eye.

It was being sold by a long-time SCMer. It was in Palm Desert, and AROO member Doug Zaitz looked at it for me. He gave me the okay and I pulled the trigger. I think I paid around $21k for it, which seemed about right for an unloved automatic with these low verified miles.

The S4 went straight to Portland Alfa guru Nasko. He was pleased to see it had Bilsteins and had been well taken care of. Never hit, never rusted and never painted.

 

[FD.]

BTW the other car mentioned ZARBB32N8M6010751 had around claimed 24k miles in 2022 as well... but was / is manual.

24k-Mile 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce

Bid for the chance to own a 24k-Mile 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #62,987.

bringatrailer.com

 

[FD.]

 

[R129 UK]

"I paid around $15,000 for the car and thought I got a deal."

This is the crux of all scams, greed.

 

[doolar]

Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market, ran into a problem with an Alfa Romeo he purchased. Buyer beware...

Keith's Blog: Have I Been Scammed? - Sports Car Market

This story is a little complicated, so buckle your seatbelt and get ready for a ride. It’s now easier than ever to look up the history of your car. While

www.sportscarmarket.com

Well he wasn’t really scammed, he says that he didn’t do his due diligence and sometimes it works out well, sometimes not.

To not even run the VIN is quite naive IMO. Of course the seller was an a-hole, but as long as there are gullible people out there they will be taken advantage of.

 

[TerryA]

IMOP, Alfa Romeo is just another style of Italian FIAT which stands for “Fix it Again Tony”

 

[R129 UK]

IMOP, Alfa Romeo is just another style of Italian FIAT which stands for “Fix it Again Tony”

It’s “Fix It Again Tomorrow” on this side of the pond

 

[TerryA]

@R129 UK,
Ha! I’ve always heard “Tony” here in SoCal.

 

[doolar]

As a full time recovered Alfista I approve of these allegations.

But in the mid-90’s, the cheapest way to get a rear wheel drive, transaxle 180+ hp V6 car was a Alfa 75 (Milano in the US).

I had several Alfas back then but in particular a 1989 75 with all options, and I paid $2500 for it when it was six years old with low miles. It was a lot of performance for the money! A six year old BMW or Merc with the same power were like $15k.

And they were good cars mechanically, just not built to last. A lot of electrical gremlins. The ARC panel… oh the memories.

Damn now you got me looking at the classifieds again. ”-Be strong Doolar, remember you’ve been Alfa-sober for two decades now!”

 

[gerryvz]

For those of you who don't know Keith and his history, here's a little context with regard to him, and Alfa Romeo.

Keith has been an aficionado of Alfa Romeos for probably the past 30-40 years. The magazine "Sports Car Market" was originally published and titled as "The Alfa Romeo Market Letter" starting in 1988, before broadening its focus and morphing into Sports Car Market Letter in the early 1990s, featuring auction reports. Keith has always had at least one, and usually two to three, Alfa Romeos in his personal car collection. By the late 1990s, the magazine had become simply "Sports Car Market."

He has long had a love for Italian cars. Originally (before SCM), Keith was the General Manager of Ron Tonkin Ferrari, in Portland, Oregon.

I first came across the magazine early in the year 2000, when I bought my 450SEL 6.9 from a guy living in Oakland CA (the good part of Oakland). That seller turned me on to SCM, and I have been a subscriber ever since. At this time Keith lived mere blocks from my house in Portland, and the SCM offices (and Keith's garage for his collection) were just a 10-minute walk from my former house in NE Portland's Irvington District.

Several years ago, Keith suffered a severe stroke, and this affected his ability to move his legs, and thus to drive manual-transmission cars (in terms of being able to depress the clutch pedal with his left foot). And around that time, he also began culling his personal collection of cars to about one-half its former size. In recent years, he has cycled through a number of cars, including a Mercedes-Benz (W114) 250C coupe, V-12 Jaguar E-Type, Land Rover Discovery, a couple of Alfas, a C3 Corvette that he bought for his 16-year-old son, and many more vehicles.

He tends to keep them for a few years, improve them, and then resell them and move on. He writes about this often in his weekly "blog" and in his monthly editorials in the magazine.

Keith has ALWAYS owned at least one Alfa Romeo, and currently has an automatic model (I think it's a "Graduate-mobile" model, but newer). This allows him to enjoy the Alfa experience without the need to manually shift.