Dedra for sale

[ben]

I (reluctantly) listed my lovely dark green Dedra in the Cars for Sale section of the Forum last evening but checking this morning I notice I have it listed under the non-members section instead of the Members Cars.----So be sure you take a look!

I am in Yate near Bristol if you would like to some and see in the metal!

Ben Courage      Tel 01454 322931

[ben]

    I am pleased to report that the Dedra is now sold to a lucky new owner who fortunately had not read the bit in Brian's guide about the automatics!!!
    Incidentally whilst I have to admit that the fuel consumption was pretty severe the gearbox worked perfectly well, especially in the "sport" mode. Also the service records which covered the entire life of the car showed no reference to there ever having been a problem with it.
    However I guess the derogatory remarks in the guide are fairly irrelevant as according to the DVLA website it is the only one left on the road of the 27 sold in the UK.

[Lapsed Cesare Ferrari]

Ben,
you describe the fuel consumption of your former Dedra as "severe". I do not use a car less than twenty years old at all and wonder what counts as thirsty in these days of progress. What sort of miles per gallon figure were you getting, may I ask?
Cesare

[fay66]

    I am pleased to report that the Dedra is now sold to a lucky new owner who fortunately had not read the bit in Brian's guide about the automatics!!!
    Incidentally whilst I have to admit that the fuel consumption was pretty severe the gearbox worked perfectly well, especially in the "sport" mode. Also the service records which covered the entire life of the car showed no reference to there ever having been a problem with it.
    However I guess the derogatory remarks in the guide are fairly irrelevant as according to the DVLA website it is the only one left on the road of the 27 sold in the UK.

Ben,
I was talking from the point of having owned two Dedra's with Automatic gearboxes, and three 2.0's with Manual gearboxes, as well as two Therma series 3's with Automatic Gearboxes, whose Auto gearboxes were a different animal altogether to the Dedra's VW Electronic Auto Gearbox, so it was a well considered opinion, as were all my other comments.
As I said I had no problem with the rest of the Dedra Automatic, other than the gearbox and the consequent abysmal fuel consumption, about 10 mpg less than all my Manual Dedra, I also agree that it was a lot better in sports mode, and rather use the kickdown I used to drop into Sports mode for overtaking, but it was only a way of getting the gearbox to do what it should have been capable of doing by just leaving it in drive and using the kickdown as necessary.
I just think that it was a mistake for Lancia to choose the gearbox they did, as opposed to what else was available, and it wouldn't have been the case of the gearbox having had a problem in the service records because that's just the way the box was, so Lancia wouldn't have considered it to be a fault.
I even toyed with perhaps giving it another try with the one you had for sale

As for the numbers on the DVLA site they are irrelevant but because only something like 20 were sold here in the first place, which was a tiny fraction of the total number of Dedra's sold here, of which I owned 10% of the total, probably more than anyone else, and feel able to make a judgement.
The new owner has been in touch with me as Dedra Adviser, as I have all (my own) Dedra manuals including those relevant to the Automatic freely available just in case there is anyone else with one out there who needs advice, Terry Pritchard had one but I don't know if he has it on the road.

Brian
8227

[Sliding Pillar]

I once owned a Dedra Auto, it was bought as the previous Dedra was written off in a non-fault accident.
It was in fabulous condition, but the fuel consumption was terrible, 25mpg at the very best, the auto box was almost always in the wrong gear, so much so that I usually drove it like a manual. I replaced it with a Maserati, much more fun, and the MPG was about the same!!

[ben]

Hi Cesare
             The best consumption I got from the Dedra was about 25 mpg.
             It had an excellent gauge marked in gallons---up to 14!

             

[fay66]

Ben,
you describe the fuel consumption of your former Dedra as "severe". I do not use a car less than twenty years old at all and wonder what counts as thirsty in these days of progress. What sort of miles per gallon figure were you getting, may I ask?
Cesare

Cesare,
The newest RHD Dedra's are now 21 years old so one would be ideal to fit your criteria!

All of my 2.0 Manual Dedra never returned less than 34 mpg, even when driven hard, whereas the Automatic with the same engine neverr achieved more than 25 mpg in my hands, Tony Field from whom I bought the 2nd one said that he used to get 30 mpg on a run, I never ever got close to that with either of mine, nor did any of the other Auto owners I've met, or spoken to over the years.

Seems that Ade's experience of the automatic Dedra was similar to my own.

Just checked in 'All The Lancias' by Editorialedomus, a very good reference book, and it shows 12.5 Lt per 100km on the urban cycle, this equates to just under 25 mpg, it's a bit better at constant speeds but not near the manuals consumption, besides which all these official figures are taken under unrealistic  test conditions, rather than actual driving conditions, and are invariably optimistic.

Brian
8227

[Lapsed Cesare Ferrari]

Thank you all for the discussion. 25 to the gallon at the best in any conditions sounds disappointing to me, and I suspect that in London one might do worse still.
Cesare

[LanciaThema8.32]

Any other Lancia Dedras on sale? I am looking for one in good shape!