Great to welcome Lancia back

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Friday, October 14, 2011

I often agree with the Top Gear crowd, but when they recently decided that Lancia was the marque which, down the generations, had provided more innovation and style than any other, I doffed my cap to their taste.

The sad fact, of course, is that Lancia no longer produces cars in right hand drive and this has been a very sad thing for those of us old enough to remember the sheer pleasure the company provided us down the years.

In fact, when asked about my favourite cars of all time and I respond that the Lancia Delta Integrale was right up there with the best, many people look quizzically at me as if my sanity was questionable.

Sadly, most young people don’t even know that the Integrale was a multiple world rally champion, as well as being a truly sensational road car which was a pioneer in terms of both engine turbocharging and the delivery of painted-to-the-road four-wheel drive characteristics.

Back in the day, the Audi Quattro certainly did not have things all its own way and that was because of the diminutive thunderbox that was the Integrale.

But sadly Lancia — or at least its paymasters at Fiat — decided back in the 1990s not to make right hand drive models any more and this, to my mind, has been a terrible loss for the discerning buyer.

Of course, the rust scandal involving the Lancia Beta (they tried to hide terminal corrosion problems by buying the cars back from the owners and saying nothing publicly) back in the late 1970s in Britain almost killed the marque stone dead in what is a huge market and it was obviously felt that this was a position from which the company could never recover.

But Lancia is back — well, sort of anyway.

Since the Fiat Group took over the failing American giant Chrysler a few years ago, big changes have occurred and these have seen some of the Lancia product line-up being re-branded as Chryslers, with more to follow in the coming months.

This has saved the Fiat Group from an expensive re-launch of the Lancia brand, but you’d have to wonder if sticking Chrysler badges on products from the famous Italian company will cut the mustard for many buyers.

After all, Chrysler products were never noted for much on this side of the Atlantic, other than being pretty crap.

For me, though, the arrival of this machine outside my door was a pretty weird thing. Indeed, it was a little like stepping back in time.

Everything about the Chrysler was very Italian and when you noted stuff like the leather stitching detail on the dashboard you were immediately aware that this was very definitely an Italian car.

The Chrysler badging, therefore, was a little bit of a turn-off, simply because it didn’t really fit.

Sure this will mean nothing to younger people for whom Lancia is nothing other than a relic of oul’ decency, but I wonder if it will draw buyers to a Chrysler badged machine.

The nuts and bolts of this Delta indicate that this is a Golf/Focus sized family car which is beautifully appointed, spacious and oozes class.

Sure, being based on the same floorpan as the Fiat Bravo and sharing much of the same running gear, its classiness might be questioned, but that should not be the case as it has a completely different exterior design, equipment levels and more luxurious.

From the time of its launch at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, the Delta has taken flak across mainland Europe for its somewhat outré exterior styling. But many of its styling cues have since been adopted elsewhere and the Delta now no longer looks as strange as it did originally.

On the road the Delta is a fine machine to drive and while it may not be quite up to the level of a Golf or a Focus for driving dynamics, it is still a pleasure to pedal around.

We tested the top of the range ‘Limited’ version of the car with the two litre turbodiesel engine which produces some 165 bhp and a whopping 360 Nm of torque.

It will do the 0-100kph dash in 8.4 seconds and top speed is 214kph.

It will also provide an economy return of 5.1 l/100km over the combined cycle.

This is a nice, smooth unit with plenty of bite to it, and in the Delta power is delivered through the front wheels and the set up of the car is such that a very flat ride is delivered and grip levels are impressive.

The result is a handling package which is hard to find fault with.

Inside, the Delta is among the most spacious in the class and its sliding read seat offers people the choice of a monstrous boot or a very big rear passenger compartment.

I enjoyed my time with this car and in many ways it was like meeting an old friend who had been through a divorce and enjoyed some cosmetic surgery, but was still, in essence, the same person.

I do have misgivings about Lancia’s heritage being sacrificed to expediency and fitted with a Chrysler identity, but the bottom line here is that this is a very decent car and one which deserves not to be judged simply by the badges it wears.

When is a Lancia not a Lancia?

When it is a Chrysler, of course.