RE: SOTW: Lancia Thema V6

[Snoggledog]

Oh dear. It's an auto. Those (ZF iirc) gearboxes were made from jelly and sticky backed plastic. Oh, and if someone does happen to buy it and the heater starts to malfunction, give it a thump from the passenger side. That used to sort things out.

[RiccardoG]

My parents owned one of these!

We purchased it brand new and kept it 17 years, eventually sold it to a collector of Italian cars as it was still in such great condition as it was used as a summer car, apparently its in Australia now. Great memories of crusing Italy and Austria at 200km/h back in the late 80's. It was actually a very good car although it did have its usual share of 'Italian' foibles (mainly electrical related).

I actually know the owner of the car for sale, we met years ago as it was the only other person I've known to have the V6 version which, by the way, was considerably better than the 2.0 Turbo as it didn't blow up. Shame they only did the V6s in auto for the UK , ours was manual.

As mentioned above, the engine is a 'PRV' (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) design and the same unit can be found in many other cars inclusing De Loreans.

[dxg]

Garlick said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

My word, that's a tempting proposition.

Or it's bd triplet that this thread refuses to acknowledge:

[R0B.]

SVX said:

Garlick said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

My word, that's a tempting proposition.

Is it me, or does that look like it's been front-ended?

That maybe something to do with it being written off CAT C in 2004

(The Saab that is not the Lancia)

[EvoDelta]

dxg said:

Garlick said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

My word, that's a tempting proposition.

Or it's bd triplet that this thread refuses to acknowledge:

The V6 Croma is the car I owned for the shortest period. I bought it a 10 am and the head-gasket went approximately 4 hours later on the M42. The cost of recovery and repair was more than the car was worth.

[soad]

Quite like the front, not so keen on the back - a bit dated.
Dash looks interesting, why no leather seats?

[I WISH]

This is the very worst sort of "badge engineering".

The fact that it has no stylistic redeeming features just makes things so much worse .... even the dashboard looks like the usual SAAB "cliff face" design.

Why anyone would ever have paid the huge premium for one of these when they were new is beyond me.

Lancias used to be wonderfully individual motor cars before the bean counters at FIAT got there hands on the design purse strings.

[Wing Commander]

AdeV said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

Because of this bit:

"Re-map by Motorsport Developments with Maptune re-map for 252BHP and rolling road proof!"

Translation: It's been ragged to death by an idiot, who's selling it because it uses more oil than petrol now.

Maptun are one of the main "official" routes to chipping these cars. Are you honestly saying that just because it's chipped, it is now shagged? 250BHP is well within the capabilities of this car without any degradation of reliability - hell, the aero came standard with 225. A standard spec 9000 is just as likely (or unlikely) to be using "more oil than petrol".

I presume you know all there is to know about 9000s and, for this reason, I would be interested to hear how you came to this conclusion!

Edited by Wing Commander on Friday 10th September 13:51

[FestivAli]

I'll take a 3.0 164 please, or a 9000. There is an old Top Gear review of this if you search on Youtube which is nice.

[Rusty-C]

FestivAli said:

I'll take a 3.0 164 please, or a 9000. There is an old Top Gear review of this if you search on Youtube which is nice.

11:17 quote edit delete
Wing Commander said:
Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm
And agree with this man, are you mad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRXxTCIp2_c

Er, this one?

[catcha]

Current owner 9 years and 5000 miles.....

That is enough reason to run away!!

[anonymous-user]

Wing Commander said:

AdeV said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

Because of this bit:

"Re-map by Motorsport Developments with Maptune re-map for 252BHP and rolling road proof!"

Translation: It's been ragged to death by an idiot, who's selling it because it uses more oil than petrol now.

Maptun are one of the main "official" routes to chipping these cars. Are you honestly saying that just because it's chipped, it is now shagged? 250BHP is well within the capabilities of this car without any degradation of reliability - hell, the aero came standard with 225. A standard spec 9000 is just as likely (or unlikely) to be using "more oil than petrol".

I presume you know all there is to know about 9000s and, for this reason, I would be interested to hear how you came to this conclusion!

Edited by Wing Commander on Friday 10th September 13:51

I think the fact that a poster above pointed out the fact it's actually Cat C 'might' have something to do with it

[Wing Commander]

St John Smythe said:

Wing Commander said:

AdeV said:

Wing Commander said:

Quite simply, why would you bother when you could have the much better looking (and cheaper, in this case) brother.

Currently £695

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1973226.htm

Because of this bit:

"Re-map by Motorsport Developments with Maptune re-map for 252BHP and rolling road proof!"

Translation: It's been ragged to death by an idiot, who's selling it because it uses more oil than petrol now.

Maptun are one of the main "official" routes to chipping these cars. Are you honestly saying that just because it's chipped, it is now shagged? 250BHP is well within the capabilities of this car without any degradation of reliability - hell, the aero came standard with 225. A standard spec 9000 is just as likely (or unlikely) to be using "more oil than petrol".

I presume you know all there is to know about 9000s and, for this reason, I would be interested to hear how you came to this conclusion!

Edited by Wing Commander on Friday 10th September 13:51

I think the fact that a poster above pointed out the fact it's actually Cat C 'might' have something to do with it

Ooops, missed that!

[DELTAHPE]

anther piece written by an idiot who doesn't do proper research the Thema was designed by Ital design not pininfarina, pininfarina just developed the station wagon version

[Snoggledog]

Wonder how long it'll be before the 8.32 comes into shed money. Queue complaints from Jayb.

[DELTAHPE]

I WISH said:

This is the very worst sort of "badge engineering".

The fact that it has no stylistic redeeming features just makes things so much worse .... even the dashboard looks like the usual SAAB "cliff face" design.

Why anyone would ever have paid the huge premium for one of these when they were new is beyond me.

Lancias used to be wonderfully individual motor cars before the bean counters at FIAT got there hands on the design purse strings.

can't see that it is full on badge engineering the thema is based upon the same basic design principles as the Beta which was very much a lancia even if built on a budget and under the Fiat regime arguably it is the fiat alfa and saab that are badge engineered, the problem with this car is that it has the horrible PRV V6 fitted as a sop to those who couldn't possibly buy an executive car with only 4 pots. oh and don't forget to remember just what the main manufacturers were serving us up at the time in comparison the Thema was brilliant, at least as a 4 pot turbo, the slippery slope for Lancia started with early Dedras which owed too much to the Tipo which in itself was rather a dumbed down car engineering wise

Edited by DELTAHPE on Friday 10th September 16:03

[Rusty-C]

DELTAHPE said:

I WISH said:

This is the very worst sort of "badge engineering".

The fact that it has no stylistic redeeming features just makes things so much worse .... even the dashboard looks like the usual SAAB "cliff face" design.

Why anyone would ever have paid the huge premium for one of these when they were new is beyond me.

Lancias used to be wonderfully individual motor cars before the bean counters at FIAT got there hands on the design purse strings.

can't see that it is full on badge engineering the thema is based upon the same basic design principles as the Beta which was very much a lancia even if built on a budget and under the Fiat regime arguably it is the fiat alfa and saab that are badge engineered, the problem with this car is that it has the horrible PRV V6 fitted as a sop to those who couldn't possibly buy an executive car with only 4 pots. oh and don't forget to remember just what the main manufacturers were serving us up at the time in comparison the Thema was brilliant, at least as a 4 pot turbo, the slippery slope for Lancia started with early Dedras which owed too much to the Tipo which in itself was rather a dumbed down car engineering wise

Edited by DELTAHPE on Friday 10th September 16:03

If the old topgear videos are anything to go by, it was the SAAB that was the most expensive of the three (Lancia Alfa and SAAB) and the Lancia the cheapest. I have to admit, I'd have probably have chosen the SAAB at the time, but now am more drawn to the Lancia an altogether rarer sight on our roads... For obvious reasons, of course...

[ellisd82]

Does worry me that the owner is giving a Haynes Volvo 740 manuel with the car. Are they based on a volvo at all? Hope he wasn't using it to help him fix the care lol
I tend to stick to German or Jap myself. mainly VW and Honda. although i am driving a pug 306 at the moment.
The only Lancia I would get would be the integrale, and thats because its iconic. but because its iconic it generally costs more than it should.

[carinaman]

Thank you. I wasn't aware this was the PRV V6, I assumed because of those inlet pipes it was the Alfa V6.

[peter450]

Looks rubbish, slow and unreliable, the only interesting lancia saloon of is the 8.32 imo

Edited by peter450 on Friday 10th September 19:34