The Alfa Romeo 164 Was the Last Alfa Sedan Sold in America

Long ago, in a time before the Alfa Romeo 4C sports car entered the world, before even the 8C supercar came out in 2008, Alfa Romeo sold cars in the United States. Their final model year was 1995, and their final model was this: the Alfa Romeo 164 sedan. See the Alfa Romeo 164 models for sale near you

Although you probably knew about the Alfa Romeo Spider and maybe even the 1980s Alfa Romeo Milano sedan, you may not have known about the 164. Occasionally, I’ll be in the car with someone, and we’ll see a 164. They’ll say, "Look! Someone imported an Alfa Romeo!" But that’s not the case: The 164 was sold right here in America, through Alfa Romeo dealers, until, of course, it wasn’t anymore.

So what exactly was the Alfa Romeo 164? Essentially, it was a front-wheel-drive midsize luxury sedan with a handsome — though very 1990s — design and more buttons than you could possibly imagine in the interior. Seriously, the center control stack went: a) gear lever, b) 50 million identically sized, poorly labeled buttons and c) climate-control vents.

In the U.S., the 164 offered only one engine: a 3.0-liter V6, which was available in two states of tune. If you opted for the humdrum 164 L, you’d get roughly 180 horsepower, while the sporty 164 S made 200 hp — not a bad number, considering the BMW 3 Series of the period topped out at 170 hp.

In the end, however, Alfa Romeo couldn’t manage to stay competitive in the U.S. market due to a confluence of factors that included transport costs, dealer-network sizes and changing federal safety regulations. The Alfa Romeo 164 left our market in 1995, and we haven’t seen an Alfa Romeo sedan since. Find a Alfa Romeo 164 for sale

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