Old Alfa Romeos are generally cars that demand your full attention, both in on-the-road driving and ongoing mechanical upkeep. Accordingly, when you buy a vintage one, the owners usually have the full assortment of books, records, binders, and the whole lot of materials that this Alfa Romeo has been looked after by the only kind of caretaker that’s acceptable, which is one that is highly detail-oriented. That’s why the listing for this 1986 Alfa Romeo GTV6 featured here on craigslist is a bit puzzling, as it’s quite light on information. The seller is asking $15,000 and claims it runs well.

Thanks to Barn Finds reader Barney for the tip. When I had my Alfa Romeo Milano Verde, I bought it as a total project, a non-running car. The seller was more or less an Alfa enthusiast, which helped me feel better about the purchase, as the surrounding confines where I found my project convinced me I was buying from the right guy. However, even as a project, the car turned out to be so much worse than expected, so the logic of “buying the seller, not the car” doesn’t always bear fruit. Still, it seems like perhaps the seller of this otherwise clean-looking GT V6 maybe just doesn’t know much about the car but simply bought one because he heard good things.

And the GTV6 is a fine driver’s car, and perhaps one of the last great bargains of its kind. The interior was always a spectacular place to spend time, with deeply bolstered Recaro seats, a factory 3-spoke steering wheel, and the kind of instrumentation that only the Italians could come up with. However, these are not cheap cars to tinker with, especially if you need the help of a professional shop – as I would come out find out. Parts are not hugely expensive, but also not exactly cheap, and there are numerous big-ticket items that could need replacing if maintenance hasn’t been on the up and up. Transmissions grind and engines implode if the timing belt isn’t serviced on time.

The best examples at auction tend to command around $25,000 to $30,000. Those cars usually have pristine cosmetics and stacks of paperwork. Cosmetically, this Alfa looks respectable, but I wouldn’t call it a show car. The listing describes a vehicle that starts up “quickly” and likely has a rolled-over odometer due to the 16,736 showing not being accurate. For $15,000, there’s not much out there in the enthusiast world that sounds or looks like this GTV6, so calling the owner and feeling him out via a conversation is likely worth the time investment for any serious parties.