Might Volkswagen represent the saviour of once great Lancia? We explore...
So Fiat/Chrysler overlord Sergio Marchionne has laid out his five-year plan to turn the new FCA Group into a global behemoth. At its core the plan involves reversing the fortunes of Alfa Romeo and Maserati while reinventing Fiat as the 'everyman' brand it always should have been. One brand conspicuous by its absence from the FCA press conference was Lancia and that is because the grand old dame of Italian motoring does not feature in the global plans of the Group, being restricted to the Italian market only. The Lancia/Chrysler rebadge debacle that saw Chrysler 300s sold as Lancia Themas in Europe and the Lancia Ypsilon gaining a Chrysler badge for the British and Irish markets has not paid off; the result is that the Fiat 500-based Ypsilon will be the only Lancia offering.
Which seems to suggest that Lancia's days are numbered; restricted to just its home market and likely starved of investment it will trundle on until the Panda/500/Ypsilon platform reaches the end of its life before disappearing off into the ether.
But might Lancia have a saviour in the guise of the Volkswagen Group?
It has long been known that Volkswagen supremo Ferdinand Piech wants to get his hands on Alfa Romeo, but as Alfa is an integral part of the FCA plan, that is not going to happen anytime soon (that and the fact that Marchionne has basically said Alfa would be sold to Volkswagen over his dead body), but what about taking Lancia off Fiat's hands? In truth Lancia would probably sit better in the Volkswagen portfolio than Alfa would. The acquisition of Lancia would allow SEAT to forget about all that Latin sportiness stuff and focus on what it does best - being a cut-price Volkswagen alternative, while Lancia assumes the sporty mantle - something Fiat forgot about, instead pushing it into the realms of luxury.
Volkswagen could start with a clean slate as it did with Bugatti and reimagine the brand in its vision while at the same time calling upon some of the names from Lancia's past. Imagine a Volkswagen Polo-based Lancia Beta. The MQB platform would certainly allow it and it would give Lancia a quick re-entry into the rally world with a re-bodied Polo WRC model.
The Delta could be the most interesting as it would essentially be and Italian Golf, but to appease those who remember the Delta Integrale tacked it could also be offered with Golf R or Audi RS 3 underpinnings. Can you imagine?
If the Delta is redone then so must the Lancia Fulvia. It is the Jetta to the Golf but instead of being a regular three-box saloon design work could be handed over to Giugiaro with instructions to produce a swooping four-door coupé worthy of the name.
The current Lancia Thema is just a rebadged Chrysler 300C, but might it work with Passat or even A6 underpinnings? It would certainly be more memorable that the SEAT Exeo anyway...
Every brand needs a halo and for Lancia that car is the Stratos. Ask anyone born since the mid-seventies to name a Lancia and most will think of the wedge-shaped, Ferrari-powered rally car (that or the snorting Integrale rally car, but work with me here). Porsche has been rumoured to be considering a sub-Boxster mid-engined roadster, but looks to be held back by the bean counters - no other brands are thinking along the same lines as the Volkswagen BlueSport is no more and Audi is focusing on SUVs rather than the R4 sports car. Should Lancia step in to the fold with its own mid-engined Stratos the economies of scale might just work. Ok so it will not have a Ferrari Dino V6 and current crash protection may limit its 'wedginess', but still, who would say no to a modern Lancia Stratos or a fully functioning Lancia as a whole?