[Lancia back in the US? not bloody likely ]
I've Received the following from Ed Levin in the USA, Ed follows the postings on the Forum, so I think it's pertinent to have the views of an American Lancia Enthusiast.
Brian
8227 8)
Hi Brian,
I see that the LMC forum is discussing that Luca Ciferri article. Let’s just say that those of us over here aren’t holding our collective breath. Don’t get me wrong; I think you probably know that nothing would please me more than Lancia returning to the US, but Ciferri seems to be describing some parallel universe.
He’s right that, for the most part, Lancia would indeed be perceived as a new brand, but it's not at all clear that 27 years' hiatus would wash the slate clean. He poses a comparison to Scion, but Scion worked as a new brand because Toyota's image of value for money dovetailed nicely with Scion's youth market orientation. Scion could start fresh because it was being marketed to twenty-somethings--mostly first-time new car buyers.
But Lancia would be selling at a much higher price point, to a significantly older market segment, and forty-somethings still retain a less-than-positive mental image of Fiats. This means that Lancia would have to hide its association with Fiat in order to establish an image of quality. Over here Fiat is still regarded as the punchline of a joke--when it's regarded at all. Fiat hasn't sold over here for 20 years, but it still hasn't shed its reputation as being mechanically troublesome.
But the bigger problem is even more basic: brand identity. The last car sold here was in 1982, and it was the Beta Coupe/Spider--not, as Ciferri suggests, the Scorpion (Montecarlo), which only sold here in 1976 & 1977. But even the Beta Coupe/Spider was a car that you could build a sporting identity around. Same, obviously, for the Delta/Integrale. The 8.32 or the Thesis could support a luxury/performance identity a la M-B or BMW.
But how in hell do you position the Musa and Nuova Delta in the context of the US market? (or any market, for that matter) How do those cars build on that 103-year heritage? Neither is a bad car--just one without an exciting (or even identifiable) image, an essential quality for (re)establishing a brand. That's not a model line-up that you can sell with ads based around old rally footage or LC2s running at LeMans. I don't think that Richard Gere driving a Nuova Delta from Hollywood to Tibet is going to impress the locals. And let's not even start with the Nobel laureates ad; sadly, most Americans think Aung San Suu Kyi is some sort of Chinese take-away.
So it's not utterly impossible to for Lancia relaunch in the US—particularly if they piggyback on Chrysler's dealer network. But it seems far more probable that Fiat is looking at Chrysler and its Windsor, Ontario, Canada assembly plant as a way of launching the new Fiat 500. That car has a fighting chance of volume sales here—something that can’t be said of Lancia's current model line-up. Would that it were otherwise.
All best,
Ed
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