Used car buying guide: Alfa Romeo 166

Quick steering helps to give the 166 a sense of agility The Alfa Romeo 166 was once derided because it shed value so fast but now owners are watching prices rise. Here's how to join them If you wanted to make a profit on a 166 – not one ofAlfa Romeo’s most revered designs but certainly among its more comfortable propositions – then really you should have snapped one up in 2009, when we named it “Britain’s worst depreciating used car”, with the average example worth just 14.4% of what it had cost new. By that point, the 166 had been out of production for just over two years, having been quietly put out to pasture following a sharp drop in demand for a car that was never exactly popular in comparison to its French and German rivals. Prices couldn’t dip much further, however, and the average price for a decent, running and driving example today is hovering around £2500 – but not for long, according to Racheal Whitehead, Alfa Romeo parts supplier and 166 aficionado. “If you want one ▶ Full story on autocar.co.uk