4car have a feature on alternatives to the Tata Nano (or other ways you could spend £1,700 on a car and have a better time of it)

Guess what shows up as number three on their list?
Linky

On the bright side it's the only one they sound genuinely excited about and it's cited as "pretty reliable" ... must be n/a

It says about the Alfa

"It was a 2001 1.6-litre petrol with 134,000 miles on the clock, so we think first-name terms with the local mechanic will be the inevitable result."

Nothing wrong with being on first name terms with your
local mechanic. So long as he's called Roger!

I rather drive my coupe than an entry level new car.

I don't know what this Nano is like, but there are some very low spec new cars on the market that are just annoying.

Any of those cars would be better than a new car!
New cars are almost all bland-looking grey boxes with identical styling, even an old Vauxhall Vectra looks better than what they're churning out now, especially when it's bloody hard to tell the difference between a Corsa/Astra/Focus/Fiesta/Audi Thing/ BMW Thing/New Impreza (euuugh!)

So true! The only general/mundane new cars that still look good are italian: alfa romeo mito, alfa brera, fiat 500, fiat grande punto etc. Nearly all new japanese/german cars are incredibly boring and all look the same, a lot of the british public really have no mind of their own when it comes to buying cars, theyre like little sheep