|
Lancia pulled out of the UK market in 1994 to concentrate on Europe.
There was an idea to bring Lancia back to the UK, but they decided against relaunching the Lancia brand in the UK, so brought the Lancia Delta and Ypsilon to the UK badged as Chrylsers. Some of the bigger Chryslers were sold in Europe as Lancias.
In the 1970's and 1980's Fiats range was simple. They had Fiat, Autobianchi and Lancia. Autobianchi was phased out, Fiat did the cheap family cars and Lancia did the sporting cars and luxurious. Fiat had a stake in both Maserati and Ferrari, but didn't control either.
Then they acquired total control of Alfa Romeo in the mid 1980's and that confused the position of Alfa and Lancia. Both had strong sporting heritages and both could do Luxurious, but Fiat decided to invest more in Alfa Romeo and to relaunch that as a credible brand alternative to BMW etc., (jury's still out on that).
So at the moment, Fiat don't know what to do with Lancia, they only produce one model and only sell it in Italy.
What to do - sell the brand? Geely? Jaguar Land Rover? VW?
Close it?
Use it for something else?
|