Start with what the Alfa Romeo 75 is: a 4-door saloon with Petrol engine, built from 1985 to 1992, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Ermanno Cressoni at Centro Stile Alfa Romeo. 375,257 were built.
Where it came from
The Alfa Romeo 75 (Type 161, 162B), sold in North America as the Milano, is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1985 and 1992. The 75 was commercially quite successful: in only three years, 236,907 cars were produced, and by the end of production in 1992, around 386,767 had been built. The 75 was the last model released before Alfa Romeo was acquired by Fiat. (The Alfa Romeo 164 was the last model developed independently.)
Under the skin
The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1100 –. Drive goes through a 5-speed manual / 3-speed automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2510 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Alfa Romeo line-up the Alfa Romeo 75 has a clear place: it replaced the Alfa Romeo Giulietta (116); it handed the line to the Alfa Romeo 155; the factory was Arese Plant, Lombardy, Italy. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Toyota MR2, the Renault Espace, the Ferrari Testarossa. Nearby in the Alfa Romeo catalogue sit the A.L.F.A 12 HP and the A.L.F.A 15 HP.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Alfa Romeo 75 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.