Please Help us to save the Lancia Brand

[Pierluigi T.]

The Fiat Management is going to fuse the anoymus Chrysler brand to the historical and amazing Lancia one .
Viva-Lancia is collecting subscription to issue to Fiat before the end of January to stop them :

If you are a FB member go to :

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... 659&ref=mf

otherwise go and apply to :

http://www.viva-lancia.com/lancia_fora/list.php?287

Please support us !

[gamma a.i.]

I have given this some thought.

MAYBE IT IS A GOOD THING!!!

IT MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO ASSURE THAT LANCIA (even as a name) SURVIVES !

Lancia has not built a "pure-Lancia" in years. Which doesn't mean that I haven't liked / bought a # of new "not pure Lancia" Lancia in the last 20 years. Perhaps you, who is reading this, too !
When I had a Kappa I had a Lancia. Ditto for my Lybra.

I didn't buy Lancia Vans; they were - as you all know - the same car as Citro/Peug/Fiat Vans. The Fiat version was less expensive than the Lancia version & I didn't want to pay more only for a Lancia Grill.

Many of my friends in Italy did; because "arriving anywhere in a Lancia is better than arriving anywhere in a (mere) Fiat" they said. OK, maybe that is true in Italy !

Some ?'s:

is a Audi not an Audi because it is really just a "expensive VW" ? Do Audi driver hide in shame for having paid more money for an A4 than they would have if the bought (the same car) a Golf ? I think not !

Skoda lives. Skoda has become very popular in many countries since becoming a VW. No one is ashamed to drive a Skoda now. Not so many years back, this was not the situation, in many countries. "Skoda, you must be kidding" they would have said.

How about Seat? When Seats were "real Seats", they were not "very well thought of" in many countries !
I understand / understood why. Now they are thought of as the "smartest VW than can be bought"...kg for kg & € for €.

PS: I would never buy any of the above VW cars...they don't fit me. Lancia does; even if (I pray this is true) they will be "unpure Lancia/Fiat/Chrysler" Lancia.

NOTE: when I first arrived in N. Euro (35 yrs ago) I (almost) never saw a Lancia...anywhere ! Lancia was unknown in Germany.
NOTE: there were not many Alfa, but there were some...for richer people.
NOTE: The Fiat, sorry...the Italo-Car that was seen most often was...of course...Fiat; although many were German assembled "Neckar Fiat". Autobianci ? Unknown. Innocenti ? Unknown. Lancia...in magazines & on sports-TV. On the road ? never !

It was the little Lancia Y10, a Lancia (on some markets an Autobianci) ) that wasn't a Lancia at all, that made Lancia popular in Germany...via marketing it as being "chic & feminine " . I never understood how a Lancia could be "c&f", but it seemed to work ! It certainly was the 1st 'Lancia' to sell in relatively big #'s outside of Italy.

Of course...the Beta Integrale was a big-break through for Lancia.....although in small #'s. But (sorry), nothing Lancia has produced since ( perhaps I should exclude the scary* 832) has really been a major sales success ...outside of Italy.

Perhaps that will change in the next years ???

*I say scary because, (I am sure) that maintaining an 832 would be "very scary" & far more expensive than a "lesser" Thema.

[Philip]

does this give you any confidence in the future?

http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/chrysler-lancia/#2

if Lancia is not unique, then forget it...
'
maybe they can sell a pastiche of Chrysler and vehicles branded Lancia to ignorant 'nouveau riche' type people but not to me...I am a very sad at the moment. I might have to go back to a Fiat...if they ever produce anything that suits me, but for now...I'll keep my Lybra, and am I glad that they built them so well!!!!

[roughcut]

Chrysler name is bad in the uk thats a given but this a new era for car sales and a new generation of buyers across the world can now access the brand

build the dialogos and i will sell my kidneys

[Ed Levin]

roughcut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> so to anyone with a lancia thesis or older rejoice
> at the fact you have a LANCIA made by lancisti
> pure and simple....

Pure and simple? How ironic. What you're saying is exactly what lancisti said back in 1969 after the Fiat take-over. We have the last of the "real" Lancias; everything after this...

[rossocorsa]

whatever I can't understand this twinning of a proud brand like Lancia with engineering and design heritage above all other marques with a down and out like Chrysler. It is all sad and illustrates the continuing crazy Italian marketing policies that have always hit them hard the thing that i really can't understand is that this move ruins the Italianate aura of the Lancia brand something that always seems to have been a core value of everything Fiat. i can't see any reason not to base chryslers on lancia or alfa platforms but not sticking wholesale lancia badges on inferior chrysler product or demeaning Deltas with a pentastar. Incidentally is it just me but not speaking Italian I can't really make head or tail of this petition, I don't tweet, facebook, myspace or any of that junk either.....maybe I'm just an old fart??

[Philip]

you're doing just fine!
I agree with you wholeheartedly...unfortunately since Fiat bought Alfa Romeo they totally lost focus on what Lancia was about and treated the brand in such a way as though Alfa Romeo and Fiat were the only other brands on the planet, and hence Lancia would jsut represent 'luxury'...what a HUGE, extremely HUGE error of judgement; and then the styling direction they wee taken with the Thesis and Ypsilon was also off the mark as the scared any person with a mainstream type of styling taste. The other failure, and its seems they are continuing down that path, is the total lack of continuity in product development...look at 2010. Nothing, absolutely nothing new is planned for Lancia or Fiat other than the irrelevant Doblo which is really a 'truck'...people like changing their cars for a better or restyled version of their car or eventually a new model.

When I had my Thema SW I had to keep it for over 10 years because the Kappa already was not what I had been hoping or expecting; the SW version was half baked, not as roomy or practical as the Thema and was not offered with three shoulder/lap belts on the back seat (which i needed) although all the Germans and Swedes had them by then...

I eventually bought a Lybra 2.0 SW even though it was a little smaller than I wanted, but by then the 'kids' had left...I wished I could have had one with a bigger engine (real lack of torque low down) and wrote to 'Fiat' in Turin...of course i never heard back from them...I complained and commented to the dealer...the Lybra was never developed into what it could have become...they only slightly upgraded the 2.4 diesel but all other versions remained stagnant for their entire production life...the styling of the Lybra was also compromised, and polarised potential purchasers (I heard this from more than one salesman) and the saloon version was just not right...the SW looks much better accomplished...Herbert Demel, the then CEO tried to shut Lancia at the time and perhaps that's why the Lybra 'expired' without a replacement till the Delta was launched, but which is not a Lybra replacement...its trying to be too many things but no Lybra SW alternative...

Marchione is not a 'car' person and i fear he is depending too much on people who have no clue of what Lancia is supposed to be, which is not minivans...; if Olivier Francois convinced him that Chrysler and Lancia share similar heritage and he bought it, that proves my point...

enough said...enjoy your Sunday!
P

[Niels Jonassen]

Lancia seems to represent different things to various people. Let's remember that traditionally Lancia was a well designed and well built car with no sporting pretensions whatsoever. It was built to appeal to slightly sedate, elderly and wealthy men. Some of the
customers, being Italian, could not help taking part in motor sport. Because of the solid build and good road manners the cars performed quite well - at least they did not break down. There have been a few periods when Lancia took an official interest in motor sport, but generally the accent has been on discreet luxury. You cannot survive to day if you build cars the way Lancias used to. In its hayday the Fulvia was producent in numbers like 30.000 to 40.000 a year. This was sensational for Lancia. This is what Lancia builds in four months now, and they have to expand to survive. So from a survival point of view a merger with another make - any - sounds sensible. What comes out of it is anybodies guess. The traditional Lancia died years ago; nevertheless I am perfectly happy owner of a Delta HPE from 1997 - apart from our Aurelia GT.
Niels Jonassen

[marmani]

At first I thought it was a bad joke. But now I have seen the pictures of Geneva I fear it's for real.
What a nightmare! (td):X