Lancia was once one of the world's great auto makers. It seemed genetically incapable of producing an uninteresting car.Its early 50's bread and butter sedan, for example, was the Aurelia – all Lancias were named after Roman roads – it had a front engine V-6 engine, a rear mounted 4 speed trans-axle with inboard brakes, all independent suspension. It was an aluminium and steel bodied wonder. The 2 seater convertable was even better. It could run all day long at 100 mph when most cars couldn't get to a hundred.
I have owned several Lancias and each one was an idiosyncratic charmer. Like the Fulvia with a 1600 cc V-4, front wheel drive, and an aluminum body by Zagato.
Now Lancia is just a rebadged Chrysler. It may be a good car, even a great car, but it is not a Lancia.
Our Lancia in Italy 7 Years ago was more like a Hundai hatchback so it’s path away from high design veered awhile ago. We laughed at our Lancia not knowing its illustrious past.
Yeah, it all sort of went to hell when Lancia was bought out by FIAT in the early 70’s. Lancia wasn’t so much high design like a Ferrari or Lambo, as interesting and high quality. Sort of like an interesting Mercedes.