hello,
first excuse my poor english, i hope you understand the way i think.
i am sure huib is a lancista with great(est) expierience- reading huibs comments
i think i see a real lancista who is disappointed with fiat because fiat
almost never had lancia in this level, lancias fame would be worth it.
and thatswhy there is not only disappointment but really pitty and
a little pessimistic touch in the words.
dont forget that all goods are produced first for the home market and after
then for other markets.
what i want to say: italian cars are first made according to "italian automobile
psychology" the same thing is with german cars for german aesthetics or
american cars or japanese.
in america you have big roads, cheap fuel, large cars, in germany good roads and
people having a lot of money to spend for good cars (germany is-despite to
other thoughts and roumors- one of the more expensive country to buy a car),
and as german life is organized and disciplined so they want the cars,
and finally italy is is poorer country (compared with america/germany)
with old cities and little roads inside them (thatswhy the tendency to make
compact cars with very good use of inside capacity)
wonderful architecture and design, this reflects in the cars they built.
on the other hand the italian psychology is that it is more important what you see
(outside shape) than what is behind (inside,f.e.electronics
)
and the whole life in southern europe is a real theatre, so the cars are in the same
way.
and finally dont forget that southern europe is different in climatological way:
it is no surprise that rust oder electronic problems are less common for
lancias driven in southern europe compared with cars in northern europe.
for example in greece, and greece is the best export market for lancia,
as percentage, there is a quite good fame for lancia (and alfa) and there are
a lot of lancia dedra, prisma, even fulvia or alfa 33,alfasud without rust
problems.
I am not afraid of Lancia as a part of a big manufacturer, like beeing only a little
part of a hyper-market. thats the way it is in todays business. but the point
is that lancia should have the exclusive corner of the hypermarket it deserves
and fiat should be aware what the goal and the aim is.
for example, i think the light retro-lybra is good, why not design a nice
lybra coupe ? and combine the sportiveness with luxury or redesign the fulvia,
doing the same like others with mini/beetle etc. instead of trying to make a lancia thesis a new mercedes, no one will accept, forgetting the C segment (delta)
or they could make a bigger 5-door Ypsilon, why not ? better than nothing,
(well, in one way i can understand that they want to built the italian mercedes.
they need at least one italian big limousine and there is no one other to make
something like this)
do you really belive that fiats decision on the one hand to give more space to
alfa romeo but on the other hand to keep lancia with fiat could mean the beginning
of the solw end for lancia, like other italian before ? (autobianchi,abarth)
hope that they find a solution, its achievable, look at volkswagen. nobody
wants to close down audi, although threre are vw,audi and seat and skoda.
cordial regards to you all ,Dakis