Man's Collection of Old Alfa Romeos Forcefully Scrapped After Battle With City

Dozens of old Alfas landed in a Michigan scrapyard after a mechanic claims the city forced him to junk his parts car collection.

Despite their reputation for unreliability, classic Alfa Romeos aren't cars you expect to find in American junkyards.

Alfa's long absence from our market means the broken ones often end up as parts cars passed around among Alfa owners.

But right now, a junkyard near the heart of the US auto industry is lousy with them.

We have part of the story as to why, but we only know enough to warn you away from trying to find out yourself.

The Alfas are being kept on the lot of US Auto Supply in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in the greater Detroit metropolitan area.

Photos recently uploaded by the business show a couple dozen classic Alfa Romeos lined up in various stages of disrepair, with some looking like they could run, and others showing damage from crashes.

Clearly, these aren't from some curated collection but are a group of parts cars.

(A series of historic Alfa Romeos in a junkyard)

(A series of historic Alfa Romeos in a junkyard)

The photos don't make clear what the full variety of models is, but we can identify a bunch of Spider sports cars, 164 sedans, and at least one Alfetta. A Giulia TI was also confirmed to be among them by the person who knows these cars best—their erstwhile caretaker, Dean Russell.

Russell runs a local Alfa specialty shop called Trail Auto, where these cars were stored until a recent spat with the city.

He told me the cars were hauled off after a court order following a zoning dispute, but still has the cars' titles and intends to take them back.

He declined to elaborate on what exactly was going on behind the scenes, saying that he's already getting too many calls about the cars as-is. So, don't ring him up.

Ref: Man’s Collection of Old Alfa Romeos Forcibly Scrapped After Battle With City (autos)