International Lancia Forums

The Lancia press co has come out with all guns blazing announcing a full line-up for the Geneva show; the response by the Lancia crowd is underwhelming to a state of unbelief and hoping that what we are being presented is a nightmare which will go away...sadly, the powers that be have totally and utterly ignored their loyal customers and supporters and pushed through a badge engineering concept which is addressing people who hardly ever looked at a Lancia before; they do not believe in the power of the word of mouth positive advertising...

I bought my first Lancia, a Prisma in 1984. NIely finsihed it stood out from the crowd with its nice Ermenegildo Zegna fabric interior; in 1990 I moved up to Thema Turbo SW with a nice Alcantara interior, great performance for the day and it stood easily shoulder to shoulder with the already then overpriced Germans. The era with the Kappa, things started going wrong...I just could not feel any draw to its styling, being far too bland...the SW was a compromised design and impractical as such; it was more of a shooting break...I though I'd wait and see what replaces the Dedra, as I could live with a smaller car. The Lybra appaered...the sales people already had told me before it came out, that they were unhappy with the design and were concerned that it would not appeal to customers...they were proven 100% correct...the saloon was plain ungainly and unbalanced; the engine choices limited and capped off at 2L when one could then buy a Fiat Stilo with a 2.4L engine badged as Abarth! What sick mind though of that is beyond me...I wrote to Lancia at the time begging them for a Lybra with a larger engine...we never got it, and its styling was never refreshed. It died and was sold off to the Chinese...I bought a Lybra 2.0 SW in 2000 and still have it. The best car I've ever had in terms of quality (we also bought several Fiat Puntos & Unos in between). Again, I have been waiting for a worthy replacement. The new Delta is interesting but compromised; neither a sedan nor a SW and its Bravo interior/dashboard was and still is a huge disappointment.

Does Mr. Marchione realise why people are not buying it? (The Thesis is a disaster story all on its own, and in my opinion one can point its failure 99% on its styling, because otherwise the car was good...apart again from its underpowered engines...eg. one could get a 200bhp diesel in a Fiat Croma but have to make do with 175 or 185 bhp in the Thesis...doh...)

Lancia customers like elegant cars with above average performance; not Fiats in Sunday best clothing...and specially they dislike seeing Alfa Romeos given goodies which are not on offer on a Lancia.

The new cars based on Chryslers are a big joke; the new grille which comes off Chryslers is a huge mismatch...the engine choices on the new Y a super joke. I think Fiat is only interested in CO2 statistics and lady buyers for it...at least for starters.

Does all of this make me feel towards aspiring to purchase another Lancia or Fiat group car? Hmmm...I grew up in Fiats & Lancias from my childhood and my dad and I never bought anything else...maybe its time to move on and change something in this family tradition...others already broke their ties 10 or 15 years ago (Look at all the Audis & BMWs & Mercs on the roads in Italy)...some of us have been more patient...

For a moment last year, it looked kind of interesting: a Delta in the US, with a Chrysler badge - easily changed. Pretty nice idea.

But it seems they lost their nerve, and wanted big gains fast without thinking about it much at all. Hard to be interested at all, in fact, even hard not to be embarrassed. Having spent years owning, researching and studying Lancias, its hard when the new condition is hopefully not to see them.

embarrassing stuff I suppose at least in the UK we do not receive the shame of a s*** lump of c*** chrysler engineering adorned with a Lancia badge instead we will have the only two remaining half proper lancias Delta and ypsilon badged as Chryslers. Now that is a bad combination add a marque badge with a reputation for shoddy build, constant breakdowns and semi-budget pricing to what are premium priced Lancia cars in Europe?? CRAZY!!

I am incredulous at what Fiat have done

it's no longer Viva Lancia but RIP Lancia!!!


(with due credit to Julia for the badge )

weep weep...sounds of tearing garments...moaning from the dungeon...chains rattle :X; oh why did I sell my lovely K SW 2.0 Benziner; the best car I've ever owned, alas alas..........

had it been a 'D', I'd still own it !
because it wasn't a 'D', its discounted-price when it was 100% new was so so very low, I had no choice but to take it, in lieu of an equally nice but 30% higher priced 'D' SW ; although the SW I bought did not have any of my my wish-colors* nor wish-interiors*...... everyone else I knew thought the color & interior were fine & I grew to live-with it as it was..........

It certainly was large enough ... for my family & business needs; plenty fast, quite economical & safe safe safe.
It was the K Version I saw most in Germany; all owed by business persons. The extra nice Fittapaldi wheels cost not 1 cewnt more; same for winter wheels & tires. Yes, it had sat in the Showroom for a long time ... with no buyer in sight !

Lancia May even took my well-worn, winter-tired only, high-mileage Renault Rapid in trade as well !
A Renault Model with the safety features of a matchbox; a Renault that I was terrified driving, always fast, like a madman for 200,000km !! It still ran like a charm; but I gotr tired of driving in a state of permanent panic.
When I sold it, it honestly still ran like new ??? Amazing !

3 yrs later the SW had 200,000km as well !!

One of the nicest things about owning a K SW was that only Lancisit knew what it was !!!

Then it was replaced with a Lancia SW 1.6 'D'; a much too small & much too slow Lybra SW; which was a fine, comfortable SW, which I liked alot...especially the gas-mileage'; but it wasn't a K ! alas alas


finally .... IMHO the Lybra Berlina is still an 'Elegant Classic' IMHO........... like a mini-Bently ... so there !!!