Lancia Sales...

[St Volumex]

If Wim Oude Weernink says that about the Lybra, who am I to argue?  Case closed.

[peterbaker]

Perhaps someone can explain to us exactly how Fiat interpret the Lancia brand?

[Scarpia]

I think your optimism that anyone from Fiat would know this is to be applauded but I wouldn't hold your breath....

I see lots of Lybra's here in Belgium, and the estate looks very nice.I don't know to what extent it shares it's genes with the Dedra before it but I've always regarded it as a facelift Dedra where the styling was much more successful.In both cases I couldn't quite love the saloons as I found the rear end treatment on both a little drab.I know of no particular problems with the Lybra and think it's as good as any recent Fiat vehicle but I find it a meaningless overstatement to claim it was the best Lancia ever made and completely subjective of course.I haven't yet saved enough for La lancia but i'm suprised at such a statement appearing unless it's quoted out of context.

[Harvey]

By "drab", you mean "understated", surely?! The Dedra has some nice touches at the back if you look hard enough.

Anyway, the published figures put into context Lancia's goal of selling 300,000 cars per year - if it's 100,000 sales in 9 months, then it must be about 130,000 in a year, and hence they need to more than double sales to reach target. I can't remember how long they set themselves to get there, though...

[Scarpia]

wash my mouth out with soap, did I say drab? Of course I meant "understated".


I  actually prefer the rear end of the dedra saloon to the lybra saloon which is even more "understated" but i definitely prefer the overall look of the front end on the Lybra and the estate as a whole.

and this sophisticated "understatement" is all very well but I do sometimes wish Lancia would be a little more assertive in what they want to "state".I don't really need convincing but the rest of the public won't "look hard enough" to notice the redeeming features.! Thats why I rather like the photo of the new delta integrale.No danger of understatement there..

[Kevin MacBride]

When I started working for a Fiat/Lancia dealer the first Lancias I came into contact with were Flavias/2000's Fulvias and Betas. I was unaware of earlier models. There was one customer whos Dad had a Lambda, but to be honest he may as well have had a rocket ship for all it meant to us. As far as I was concerned the twin cam engine could have been a Lancia part rather than a Fiat part. After all the Betas were FWD and a bit ahead in terms of finish than the 132 or 131 which carried the same engine. It was only later on did I find out that Fiat had bought Lancia, but it didn't make me think they had 'diluted' the marque.  Unless a new potential Lancia customer knows the history of the motor car he will care less about where his car may have come from over the value he is getting for his/her Euro or Sterling.
What do Fiat think of Lancia   My boss, the son of the owner, is looking forward to Lancia coming back. He has fond memories of his dads Thema. The salesmen we have, could be a problem...the only thing they are interested in , or love...IS COMMISSION !!!

[St Volumex]

In Torino at the evening cocktails with fireworks party at Biscaretti, Olivier Francois (ex Citroen) the new Lancia Brand President had a good late night try at explaining the Lancia brand to us, or at least I think he did, because by that time I was half asleep as it was well after 'pumpkin time'.  I can't say I heard anything really new from him except rah, rah, rah, and how great Lancia was going to be again.

But I think Kevin has "hit the nail right into the lid" (in the spirit of mixed figures of speech used on this forum - just in case someone's 'in wicked, pedantic mode', it's a quote), it's all about (more) PROFIT for Fiat.

The gist of chapter 18 in the new "La Lancia" is that at the the end of the nineties Lancia was selling better quality cars in greater numbers than ever before, and then along came Morchio and Demel...

[Kevin MacBride]

I could be completly wrong here, but I have a hazy recollection that in 1993 or 1994, we (in Ireland) actually sold more new Lancias than in th UK. In or around the same era Alfa began a re-emergance with the 145/155 etc. Could it be that Fiat wanted to 'push' one brand in favour of another. People seem to have less of a problem associating Alfa with Fiat than they have Lancia with Fiat.  I remember at that time trying to order some Alfa part from Fiat (before they 'officially' joined up) and getting a lot of grief from Fiat at the time when they stated that Alfa would be marketed as a seperate brand.

[fay66]

As an ardent Dedra Lover I'd like to add a couple of comments.
I have always though that Dedra saloons as a whole, are very nicely understated & underrated, and the back end is far nicer than that given to it's cousin, the Tempra saloon which always looks a bit awkward, one feature seen on Tempra in this country was the rear window wiper set up, heavens alone knows why Lancia didn't consider it as standard for Dedra in one of the wettest countries in Europe (I Think the Emerald Isles beat us).

The reason Ireland sold more Dedra's in 1993-4 was probably they had more hanging about! not many were sold in the Uk in 1994 as they were only the residue of the 1993 RHD cars which were left over, as Dedra RHD production actually ceased in 1993.

As far as Kevin's salesmen only being interested in their commisson, that has always been the downfall in Fiat/Lancia/Alfa products here, but I understand that with Alfa & hopefully Lancia, in future the criteria for bonus payments etc to the Dealers will not be on the number sold, but based on customer satisfaction; perhaps that might make them sit up and take a bit more notice whentheir lack of interest hits their pockets

We also had a call from Fiat yesterday regarding satisfaction of service from the Dealer regarding our new Grande Punto, Felt sorry for the poor bloke after our recent experiences, but we were fair to the Dealers, rating them mostly 8-9 on a scale of 1-10, but he wasn't happy when I told him we rated Fiats performance as 1 or 0 on the same scale.

Brian Hilton
8227

[St Volumex]

I could be completly wrong here, but I have a hazy recollection that in 1993 or 1994, we (in Ireland) actually sold more new Lancias than in th UK. In or around the same era Alfa began a re-emergance with the 145/155 etc. Could it be that Fiat wanted to 'push' one brand in favour of another. People seem to have less of a problem associating Alfa with Fiat than they have Lancia with Fiat.  I remember at that time trying to order some Alfa part from Fiat (before they 'officially' joined up) and getting a lot of grief from Fiat at the time when they stated that Alfa would be marketed as a seperate brand.

I knew from the moment that Fiat bought Alfa there would be problems for Lancia as a 'brand'.  (Gee, I hate using that term when talking about the cars I love.)  I see more problems emanating from Alfa for Lancia than from Fiat, where Lancia fits into the stable is concerned, as the Alfa name is so much better known, compounded by the problem of marketing so many marques, all with very proud racing histories?  IMO that's why they wanted to push Lancia forward as a maker of bigger luxury cars like the Thesis, and just look how that strategy worked out...

[lee69]

Perhaps someone can explain to us exactly how Fiat interpret the Lancia brand?

I know I've posted this before, but this seems relevant as it offers some insight into Fiat's strategy for Lancia

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2007/motor_shows/frankfurt/lancia/press_conference/1209.html

[toby2449]

full year sales figures for Italy have been produced,

Lancia is up 5.28% to 103710
Fiat is up 10.83% to 602907
Alfa is up 2.4% to 73545

of Lancia's total, 69673 were Ypsilon & 30962 were Musa, so everything else in the range sold 3075 (ie Thesis & Phedra)