Chrysler Delta & Lancia Delta?

[UnluckyTimmeh]

Are they the same car?

Spotted this the other day:



But then i've just seen an advert for the Chrysler..... I take it GM now own both? just seems a bit strange they would allow two cars exactly the same to sell under the same name but with different manufacturers....

Or am I being thick and in the UK GM is Chrysler and in europe it's Lancia?


Links to the two cars:

Chrysler

Lancia

[Alx323]

Fiat owns Chrysler now AFAIK. They also own Lancia. Made more sense to launch it in this country as a Chrysler rather than building new Lancia infrastructure I guess.

[cheesyblob]

They are the same car, and made under the FIAT group. Neither companies were ever owned by GM. It is a Lancia in Europe, and a Chrysler in the Uk and everywhere else.

[Blakewater]

As the Chrysler dealership network is already established and the Lancia name disappeared from this country years ago with an air of unreliability about it, Fiat decided to launch the car here as a Chrysler and sell it under the Lancia brand in Europe.

[Codswallop]

These Lansler/ Chrycia threads seem to have become more common than what car threads recentley

[Ozzie Osmond]

What's so astounding is that they haven't got the nerve to call it a Lancia and put the Brits right after 20 years of excessive bias against the brand.

Hence "Chlamydia Delta" is seen as preferable branding!!

[UnluckyTimmeh]

Thanks for that.

It's a shame they are using the model name 'delta'.

Somewhat ruins the legend a bit.

[joebongo]

PT Cruiser replacement?

[davepoth]

UnluckyTimmeh said:

Thanks for that.

It's a shame they are using the model name 'delta'.

Somewhat ruins the legend a bit.

This is more like a "classic" Lancia car than the Integrale ever was; they were always meant to be a bit plush.

[300bhp/ton]

UnluckyTimmeh said:

Thanks for that.

It's a shame they are using the model name 'delta'.

Somewhat ruins the legend a bit.

Umm, well this was the 2nd Gen "Delta" and more recent that I suspect the 1st Gen one you are referring too.

[davepoth]

The Crack Fox said:

I don't understand why they're not using the Lancia name here too, I mean, Chrysler ?! C'mon...

Mainly because we have a lot of Chrysler here and no Lancia. In the rest of Europe they have Lancia but not a lot of Chrysler.

[Alex]

Launching the Lancia Delta as a Chrysler is insane. People still remember the Delta, but the Chrysler name means nothing in the UK.

[ChevronB19]

300bhp/ton said:

Umm, well this was the 2nd Gen "Delta" and more recent that I suspect the 1st Gen one you are referring too.

Which I've always liked to be honest. Also liked the first Ypsilon as well...

[craigjm]

It is cringworthy that they are trying to promote them as American in the advertising. I do wonder how long it will take for people to start swapping the badging and grille back to Lancia.

[300bhp/ton]

craigjm said:

It is cringworthy that they are trying to promote them as American in the advertising. I do wonder how long it will take for people to start swapping the badging and grille back to Lancia.

Is it as bad as advertising Vauxhalls and Fords in a similar way then, only more of a British slant?

[craigjm]

300bhp/ton said:

Is it as bad as advertising Vauxhalls and Fords in a similar way then, only more of a British slant?

The strange thing about Vauxhall and Ford Europe is that people don't think of them as being American generally. Used to make me laugh when I was a kid and people would buy a Ford Escort as they wouldn't be seen in anything foreign!

I don't really think the Chrysler brand has a good imagine in the UK and they could have started selling Lancia's at Fiat dealerships as a slightly more Luxurious model over standard Fiat.

[sjg]

Yep, Fiat took a controlling stake in Chrysler a few months back, they already had a substantial share before that. Part of their strategy to push into the US, which also involves a lot more badge engineering to fill out the ranges.

Lancia haven't sold anything here for 17 years. Most people (who remember that far back) associate the brand more with rustbuckets than WRC victories. Bizarrely though Fiat are planning to use the brand in the US. For the UK, Chrysler do have a dealer network, plus they need to get their CO2 averages down so flogging smaller hatches alongside the US stuff goes some way to achieving that.

[SixtySpeedTwin]

Ah good old lancias i remember driving along in the rain and the wiper arm falling off a practically new white hen Y10. Some what exciting at the time...