Save Lancia!

[Owain71]

I’ve done 9k miles in a Giulia since Jan, great car, as reliable as any Audi I ever had (incl. A5 / TTRS / S4) Our MD has an X5, same age, fewer miles, rattles are driving him nuts (I told him yesterday he should chop it in for a reliable Italian car). My first Alfa & would have another!

[face]

I am seriously considering one when I change next time around.

 

Shame about Lancia - there used to be a dealer in Bishops Stortford and the manager was also an enthusiast. He had a Stratos in the showroom which he would then blezz about town on occasion. Awesome!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I think it's time...

[Lacquer Peel]

Is a Lancia MPV such a stretch?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Is a Lancia MPV such a stretch?

 

It's pure sacrilege and a complete insult to the company's history, if you ask me ! Horrible, evil FIAT !

 

Such things would have never occured in the pre-FIAT-takeover days, you know... What's going to happen next, an Alfa Romeo minivan ?

 

 

 

Oh...

 

[martc]

I don't think it's looking too bad for FIAT, profit up, debt down (but I'm no financial expert...) -

 

 See https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/fca-2017-full-year-fourth-quarter-results/

 

Quote

'FCA: 2017 full year and fourth quarter results

January 25, 2018

FCA reports record results with Adjusted EBIT up 16% to €7.1 billion and margin at 6.4%, up 90 bps, Adjusted Net Profit up 50% to €3.8 billion, Net Profit up 93% to €3.5 billion. Net Industrial Debt nearly halved to €2.4 billion. 2018 Guidance confirms Business Plan key targets.'

[Cleon-Fonte]

Fiat's problem is that to return them to profitability (in the desperate, vain hope of finding a merger partner) Sergio Marchionne has effectively gone on a massive, decade long cost cutting binge which has left the core business gutted for the sake of the various subsidiary companies like Alfa and Maserati. Unfortunately, despite these efforts the only division of the car business to still make money is Jeep, which is now expected to prop up the rest of the organisation.

 

When Fiat announces it's no longer going to make cars in Italy and can't even afford to replace the Punto, which once dominated its market sector, you know they're fucked.

[Inspector Morose]

Is a Lancia MPV such a stretch?

Lancia were into pure electric people carriers well before the opposition:

 

There is one of these preserved in this country at the Sandtoft trolleybus museum near Doncaster. I've had a rip in it and it is rather tasty!

[warren t claim]

I for one am sad to hear this. One of my first cars was a Beta 1300 coupe in powder blue with a Playboy sticker on the front wing to strategically cover a big rust hole. Even as a humble 1300 it went well and impressed the ladies.

[Parky]

Maybe they should have stuck to making things like this?

 

As an alternative to a 1 Series or an A3 I think a modern version of this would have cleaned up.

 

God I love Fulvias

[NorfolkNWeigh]

If there was any money , I'm sure they would have. Not as confident as you that it would beat the German Prestige hatches though, the Alfa Mito didn't, not even sure if they still make/ sell them here any more.

[Parky]

Alfa Mito is still listed on their site. I think it’s a great looker although with a Grande Punto base it’s not exactly state of the art underneath and build quality is iffy.

 

Mrs P and I convinced ourselves we wanted one. We are both Italian car enthusiasts and neither of us were convinced it was good enough to buy. We didn’t even drive it as a few minutes inside was enough to make us realise this thing was fragile. Better interior would have made all the difference

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Yes, we did pretty much the same about a year ago . Daughter no.3 really liked Mitos, we looked at a couple then bought a Volvo C30!

[sporty-shite]

I love Alfas, but can only look at the Mito as having the face of a startled hamster on acid. And not in a good way.

[Zantimisfit]

Loads of Ypsilons in France, so I don't think it was an Italy only model.

Quite a few Deltas too, and some rebadged and regrilled Chrysler 300

 

Nah its been an Italy only brand for the past three years or so, I think once they stopped the Lancia/Chrysler badge swapping nonsense. Funny thing is Lancia still sells more cars in Italy than Alfa Romeo with all its new models and advertising. FCA even seems to be winding down Fiat with Mr Marchionne saying Fiat should only sell 500s and Pandas.....so it looks like they will throw everything behind Jeep and maybe RAM and hope to survive on the back of that.

 

I had a Ypsilon as a rentacar last year. It wasn't very good but I still grew to quite like it even though it was cheap, slow, noisy and uncomfortable.

 

Fulvia or Beta Spyder for me please.

[tul66]

Not at all surprised at this. As a long time Lancia botherer (dozens over the past 30 years) it should've been put out of its misery years ago.

[motorpunk]

Lots of love for Lancia at Goodwood today. 50th anniversary of the Beta.

 

 

more pics here - https://www.motorpunk.co.uk/out-and-about/love-lancia-50-years-beta-goodwood/

[2110]

On 8/27/2022 at 9:19 PM, motorpunk said:

Lots of love for Lancia at Goodwood today. 50th anniversary of the Beta

We were there too! Was a nice atmosphere and I was thrilled to see a couple of models I haven't seen before in the flesh, well, metal. I haven't sorted my photos yet but came home with a couple hundred as usual from these events... I need to cut back, never going to catch up 😄

[motorpunk]

2 hours ago, 2110 said:

We were there too! Was a nice atmosphere and I was thrilled to see a couple of models I haven't seen before in the flesh, well, metal. I haven't sorted my photos yet but came home with a couple hundred as usual from these events... I need to cut back, never going to catch up 😄

Nice crowd I thought. I really wanted to see a Gamma Coupe but didn’t. Friendly people too. Did you see the Alfa SZ? Guy takes it on track often. 
 

A few more of my pics.
 

[2110]

1 hour ago, motorpunk said:

Nice crowd I thought. I really wanted to see a Gamma Coupe but didn’t. Friendly people too. Did you see the Alfa SZ? Guy takes it on track often.

Unfortunately I was not able to stick around long enough to watch the track action, we were heading further south but I insisted we stop to see the Lancias! (To be fair we are at Goodwood pretty much every week for something or another!) but I did get to see the SZ, which is brilliant to hear that he uses it and enjoys it! I've attached a couple of unedited photos so excuse the lighting and lack of centralisation!

Seems like we were in the same place at the same time!

Here's the couple of first time seeing the model / trim up close:

And I was super impressed to see a helmet on the seat of this one, it was looking it's age but clearly the owner was maintaining and using the car properly, such a joy to see as that's probably how it would look if it was mine as I tend to use my cars more than worry about how it looks. I would have loved to see it out on track:

And that's my shot of the SZ:

[MJK 24]

Lancia still seem to be going strong (ish) in Italy. Plenty of Lancia badged Voyagers and Delta’s plus about 5 million Ypsilon rolling around.  Still a big seller new in Italy I believe.

[vaughant]

Blimey they made some beautiful cars. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 6/6/2018 at 6:37 PM, Sigmund Fraud said:

 

It's pure sacrilege and a complete insult to the company's history, if you ask me ! Horrible, evil FIAT !

 

Such things would have never occured in the pre-FIAT-takeover days, you know... What's going to happen next, an Alfa Romeo minivan ?

 

 

 

Oh...

 

I fancy a newer model: