Lancia Beta Coupe. Info needed please.

[TypeR]

My very 1st foray into buying at Auction was in the late 80's when I acquired a Blue Beta Coupe from an auction site in Brentford.
Being very excited and with a few quid in my pocket 20 year old me was like a kid in a sweetshop.
I bid on and won the Lancia without really looking at it properly. It was only when I jumped in it to drive it home that I realised it was an automatic.
Having seen an identical car on one of the Top Gear/Grand Tour reruns recently, I idly wondered if it could be my old car.
So my question is, how many Blue Auto Beta Coupes did Lancia sell in the UK?
I would imagine that the Auto option was not a top seller.

[Rob 131 Sport]

TypeR said:

My very 1st foray into buying at Auction was in the late 80's when I acquired a Blue Beta Coupe from an auction site in Brentford.
Being very excited and with a few quid in my pocket 20 year old me was like a kid in a sweetshop.
I bid on and won the Lancia without really looking at it properly. It was only when I jumped in it to drive it home that I realised it was an automatic.
Having seen an identical car on one of the Top Gear/Grand Tour reruns recently, I idly wondered if it could be my old car.
So my question is, how many Blue Auto Beta Coupes did Lancia sell in the UK?
I would imagine that the Auto option was not a top seller.

Can’t really help you answer the question, other than to say all Beta’s were great cars and do much better than the competition. The Auto option would have been deeply unpopular on the used market, that may explain why your car was in the auction. The manual versions were always good sellers on the used market in the 80’s with people in the know as they were so much better than contemporary Manta’s and Capri’s.

[catso]

TypeR said:

So my question is, how many Blue Auto Beta Coupes did Lancia sell in the UK?

I think the pertinent question is, how many survived?

I went to view a blue Beta Coupe in the early 80's. I didn't know much about cars back then so I (luckily) took my Dad with me.

The car drove well and (orange interior aside ) was just what I was after and I was ready to buy it until we looked under the bonnet, at which point my Dad pointed out the corrosion all around the top of the engine bay - it looked like a 'dotted line' ready to break off and the whole bay fall out.

Considering this was a fairly new car at the time, 40+ years ago, I can't see it being still in existence.