Everybody knows that ‘buy one get one free’ offers are merely a ploy to make you spend money on something you didn’t need in the first place, but sometimes a deal just looks too good to resist.
Take this Alfa Romeo A12, for instance. Even if you’re not familiar with the model name, you’ll have gleaned its significance from the images. Part of the confusingly named Romeo range of commercial vehicles – yes, that’s the Alfa Romeo Romeo – the A12 specifically was the light truck variant sold from 1967 to 1983, alongside the F12 van range.
A Perkins diesel was offered, but the truck on sale here, through Italian car specialists DTR Sports Cars, uses the other option, a 1290cc twin-cam, which originally made around 52bhp through a four-speed manual gearbox. As you can imagine, that limits performance somewhat, though carrying a load would limit things even further.
You’ll notice this A12 is doing exactly that, however, with a cute little 1954 Fiat Topolino sitting behind the cab. But the Fiat is no mere prop – it’s included in the sale, meaning that if you buy the A12, you effectively get the Fiat thrown in for free.
Okay, so in reality the price tag of £35,000 probably reflects the value of both vehicles, but it’s more fun to think of this as being the ultimate Italian BOGO. The Topolino really sells the look; it doesn’t take much effort to imagine similar scenes playing out all over Italy in the 1970s, as A12s helped rescue decades-old 500s from the roadside, perhaps squeezing a family of four into the Alfa’s passenger seat en route to a local garage.
The truck has had plenty of recent work, with bills totalling £40,000, according to the ad, including a rebuilt engine, a new clutch, new brakes, and fairly fresh tyres, plus an electric winch and a set of ramps for loading small, light vehicles onto the back. The ‘12’ in the name stands for the 1200kg you can, in theory, transport on the bed.
The Fiat is said to be in good running condition, and it looks smart enough in the photos. The absolute heaviest Topolinos barely stretched the scales at 750kg, so you’d be a good half-tonne under what the A12 is capable of shuttling around. In reality, you’d want a little leeway anyway to account for yourself and a passenger, but if you wanted to put the A12 to work moving classics around, quite a few should come in under the weight limit. In fact, you’d likely be more limited by the length of the ramps.
If you’re interested, we’d recommend popping along to DTR’s showroom in Surrey for a closer look, not least because they usually have some other quite tasty stuff on offer, too. It’s surely a better use of your time than getting duped into buying more baked beans or bog roll in some other buy one, get one free offer . . .
