Lancia's return to UK to be delayed?

[YKR 567J]

Any planned celebrations re Lancia's UK return may be premature, judging by this story on the Car magazine website.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Industry-News/Lancia-postpo
nes-UK-launch/

You can see the reasoning. Properly-prepared dealers with three cars to sell would be better than a possible disaster, especially if one of those cars is the Fulvia/Fulvietta CC. Maybe Italy has watched and learnt from the Terminal 5 debacle and doesn't want to risk the 'UK effect'.

John Simister

[ncundy]

Makes sense to me

link is : http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Industry-News/Lancia-postpones-UK-launch/

[fensaddler]

If that's the case, on a personal level that is an unmitigated disaster.  I will have had to have ordered something else by then, which I will be stuck with until January 2012.  Frankly that does not dispose me to fell too positively towards any part of the Fiat empire.  What I want to say is unprintable on a family site.

[Scarpia]

Consider yourself fortunate that it was at least theoretically possible as a lease car.I can choose anything as long as it is german and blue or grey....

I wonder what the behind the scenes discussions are like over the dealership issue.I can well imagine that many dealers are not that enthusiastic.If you weigh up the investments, training etc that presumably are needed I guess its a risky business for smaller dealers.If my own experience of the tension between fiat italy and local dealerships concerning liability and costs in the case of warranty issues are anything to go by then its a careful balance to make money on selling these things.
If you look at the responses on here, even we are not all in love with the new delta so it's by no means certain it's going to fly out of the showrooms.Now at least they would have time to prepare an integrale version and sell that from the start.That together with a fulvia will get  people in the showrooms who then may buy the normal diesel/petrol version.

[fay66]

Better late than never & it makes a lot more sense to have a range of vehicles, also by the time we get it any early problems should have been sorted out already.

I know finances are probably against it, but I would like to see seperate showrooms from Fiat for the premium brands rather than being squeezed into a corner of a showroom where no one seems interested in selling Lancia.
Fiat need to up the stakes with dealers and & run showrooms seperate from Fiat for premium brands, our dealerships seem to be the poor relations when compared to most of dealers on the Continent that I've visited & bought from.

My local (12 miles away) Fiat dealership has a small showroom packed with cars so you can't really have a good look at them, it also sells Proton's! in half of the showroom, what a great image that gives! deals in MGF's (although not in the showroom,)
The site itself is packed to the gunnels and totally inappropriate; I wasn't exactly pleased to sit there for a couple of hours the other day without being spoken to, or even offered a tea or coffee, which as far as I'm concerned is pretty poor customer care.
I worked for a Volkswagen/Audi Dealership for 3 years back in the early 90's & if we had treated our customers like that our Boss, who was a great guy, would certainly done a bit of reaming out

Brian
8227

 

[fensaddler]

I'm still appalled.  Lancia made the strategic decision to return to the UK some three years ago.  They made plans, they announced dates, they put this into the public domain and began to build momentum.  As the date has approached, the launch date for the RHD Delta has slipped backwards at about the same rate that time passed.  Not so long ago it was expected to be here in Spring or Summer, then by Geneva it was back to the end of the year, and now we're back into late next year at the earliest.  OK, so there is an issue with the dealerships and they want to get it right, rather than their return to the UK being an unmitigated cock-up, damaging the brand irreversibly - but what reputational damage has this shambles already done to the brand?

Their return has been flagged to the entire motoring world for months and years, everyone with any interest in cars or the motor industry knew this was happening, and now its not, and has slipped badly.  What values does that already attach to the brand - shambolic, disorganised and unreliable are the words that come to mind.  Sure they want to get it right, but they've had three years, and its a competitive world out there.  How am I supposed to view the rest of the Fiat empire now - should I choose a Fiat or an Alfa instead - or are their cars and their organisation as unreliable as this shambles?  There are plenty of customers who will have to walk away, or who will choose to walk away.  My point, after all this rambling, is this.  The potential reputational damage of arriving with a poor infrastructure was huge - but the reputational damage suffered by not being able to put that infrastructure in place in time is still pretty significant.

I'm spitting that I went all the way to Geneva to see this thing launched, I've just submitted an article to VL about that trip, and about how impressed I was by the car, and how it was right at the top of my list for my next company motor. I've carried the flag for the brand, worn my heart on my sleeve and told plenty of people how excited I am by the arrival of the new Delta, and now I find that Fiat have pulled the rug from under me personally.  So this is not just an analysis of the industry situation - I personally feel ripped off, let down and made a mug of.   Right now, stuff them all - Lancia, Fiat and Alfa.  Better late than never my pink a*** - second is nowhere.  I'll go and buy another Seat, because I know they can get themselves organised to sell decent cars in the UK when they say they will.

[ncundy]

Chris,
I can well understand your personal disappointment, particularly as you have been the flag barer and it is apparent to all how much you were looking forward to getting your hands on one.

I am not sure it has done much damage to the brand though. Judging by the amount of column inches in the UK press given to Lancia's return to the UK and the arrival of the new Delta (i.e. practically none) I don't think the motoring public give a monkeys so it will probably hardly register one way or another.
Good solid practical cars generate little excitement, and as the leader of the Lancia cavalry back into the RHD markets, my feeling is "hmmm, yes, very good.......is that it??". They need something with magazine appeal, something that will get the press and hence the punters talking, the Delta was never that car. It will be the car that earns the money (if it is as good as you say), but it is not the car to lead the charge (and I doubt the Ypsilon is either). I think it is a sensible decision.

But when you have your heart set on something it and it is taken away from you it really p****s you off, but look on the bright side - I'm an avid Derby County fan. There's always someone worse off then you 

[fensaddler]

Neil - Funnily enough, it was a footballing analogy I was searching for.  And as an equally avid fan of Walsall FC (many thanks for Messrs Boertein and Holmes BTW - two of our best players this season) I can understand  - been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.  Wolves fans (spit) had a banner at the end of another of their disappointing seasons a few years ago which read 'You've let us down again'.  Right now, that's how I feel about Lancia and Fiat.  Nevertheless, I've just been on the Fiat site to spec up my Bravo alternative, so I dare say I will get over it.  Quite what my finance director will make of my ordering a Fiat, if I choose that over a Leon, an Impreza Diesel, an Alfa GT or one of several others I don't know - I think he's likely to turn puce...

[Scarpia]

I recognise Chris's sentiments of "stuff them" when they do this sort of thing.
I suspect the delayed introduction is probably best and is about recognising the reality that they are not ready but there has been plenty of time to prepare so there is very little excuse. You try your best to be loyal and talk the fiat group up and then get kicked in the pants ...
We've bought several Fiats/lancias in a row so I think we are a reasonable repeat customer and yet you still end up with niggling discussions with dealers over minor problems and are left with the feeling that the dealer response is downmarket compared with other brands.My wife wouldn't have another fiat for this reason despite the car being ok (and despite my hints to wait for a delta) and has just ordered a toyota. The feeling you are left with is they are not interested and regard the customer as a necessary evil. My father in law had the same experience in the 70's already so not so much has changed.

[fensaddler]

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough,
'Cause there will be no Deltas now,
There are not dealers fit for us,
Just Alfa trash.

For three long years they have tried,
But now we've realised they've just lied,
There never was no right hand drive,
Just empty dreams.

For fifteen years and more we've waited,
To drive a Lancia that's not dated,
We've still not got out daily drivers,
Fat chance, we're stuffed.

With apologies to Betjeman, there may be more since its good therapy.

[fensaddler]

Apropos of the original article that provoked my ire, is there any formal news to confirm this yet?  Or is the official line unchanged?  I suppose I'm still clinging to the vain hope that Car magazine may be wrong (I've seen nothing else anywhere in the motoring press) even whilst closely scrutnising the offerings of competitors for a suitable substitute for my new Delta...

[Kevin MacBride]

After 30 odd years of working with Fiat dealerships, my cynicsm is well honed. I didn't need to read any articles about the 'return' of Lancia to know well in advance what was going to be the result.