Rather corroborating what I've read in Autocar, the latest issue of Auto Express has a 'new cars for 2008' supplement, including a short piece on Lancia. The Delta HPE is pencilled in for July 2008, with a possible UK launch at the British Motor Show at EdExcel (which may force me to attend this excuse for a show which should still be at its proper home at the NEC
).
Perhaps most interesting is the projected starting price for the Delta of £14k, well below the projected price for the new Alfa 149, due according to Auto Express in the Autumn of 2008 (or 2009/10 if you read Autocar...) which is mooted to be a £20k ask (and if you ask me, is overpriced at that level). At a £14k starting level, that does mean competition may not be so much with the A3 and 1 series on price, but perhaps the Golf and Civic. That's fine by me - the 149 is pricing itself out of my company car allowance at that rate, certainly by the time I get a diesel with decent spec.
The article also suggests the Musa and Ypsilon in 2009 (again differing from Autocar, which seems to suggest a RHD Musa alongside the Delta in 2008). Fiat and Alfa dealers are being suggested for sales - again contradicting what we have heard earlier about limited distribution through approved Alfa dealers only. But like others on here, I'm waiting for the first invitation to a dealer's cheese and wine launch for the Delta...
