Saying “Lancia Voyager” is going to take some getting used to, especially for the US market but luckily they get to keep the original. The Voyager model rounds out Lancia’s offering at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show after the Flavia Cabrio, Thema and the updated versions of the Ypsilon and Delta.

The new Lancia Voyager is much like the Thema in terms of being a rebadged Chrysler, and the Italian brand can once again be thankful that the American lineup is providing some essential models to their range - talk about throwing a lifeline. With minimal changes to the design and interior finishes, the Voyager comes with the 3.6-litre V6 Pentastar engine with 287 hp, and a 2.8-litre diesel with 163 hp.

The diesel gets decent fuel economy figures, stated to be 7.9 l/100 km and and the petrol comes with a six-speed automatic transmission. On the inside we get standard Nappa leather seats, heated steering wheel, LED lights and Uconnect multimedia system. An optional nine-inch screen is available for the rear passengers.

Continue reading: Lancia Voyager

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When you read that about half of all vehicles sold on the European car market are diesels you understand just what it means to launch something like a sedan model without a diesel variant on the old continent - like shooting yourself in the foot. So for this reason, according to Automotive News, the Lancia-Chrysler partnership has decided to leave the Chrysler 200 in the US and bring only the convertible model to Europe as the Lancia Flavia cabriolet.

The news builds on recent reports that the Lancia Flavia project had been postponed indefinitely - or at least until the 2013 model rolled around with some added European design input. According to the ANE report, it was too expensive to develop and fit a diesel engine in the Chrysler 200. So why does the cabrio get to travel when its hardtop sister doesn’t?

The answer to that is that the Lancia Flavia cabriolet should be good looking enough to still attract customers, according to Fiat insiders. Like the difference between a sister who wears a turtle neck and the sister who goes for cleavage instead… forget the diesel, it’s all about tops off and summer motoring.

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Converting the Chrysler 300 into the Lancia Thema hasn’t been an easy task and the Italians at least, not to mention Europe in general, are divided over how the transformation from American flagship to European luxury might occur. In this case we get a look at a rendering of a new Lancia E-segment flagship sedan.

The rendering comes from design student Alessandro Masera who has tried to create a “sweeter” and more international line to the car, giving it a coupé look with a Chrysler front end. The designer has taken the rear and sides of the new Lancia Ypsilon and adapted them to the larger model, and has kept a vertical rear light to stay subtle.

As our guys at Autoblog.it say, it’s not the Chrysler 300 per se that many were undecided over - the large American sedan has an individual style and an appeal all its own. The problem lies more in taking that, slapping a Lancia badge on the front and making a ho-hum reference to European styling.

The Lancia-Chrysler partnership still has a long road ahead and we’ll probably get used to the creations that come of it, and even learn to appreciate them more as they (hopefully) carve out a style of their own. In the meantime, this new Lancia Thema rendering might not be exactly the way to go, but any additional imagination on this front is welcome.

Lancia-Chrysler new sedan rendering

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Here is the breakdown of the new Fiat-Chrysler management in a chart which shows the regional Chief Operating Officers and brand heads which will make up what is being desbribed as a new, integrated management team. With Fiat’s stake in Chrysler now at 53.5 percent, Sergio Marchionne has said the dating period is over and it’s now time to fully integrate the two.

The chart shows Marchionne himself as COO of North America, in addition to his CEO Fiat-Chrysler role. Gianni Coda will manage Europe, Africa and Middle East operations, Cledorvino Belini heads South American operations and Michael Manley will have the task of managing Fiat’s Asian business.

Brand CEOs include: Olivier Francois for Fiat, Saad Chehab for Lancia-Chrysler, Harald Wester for Alfa Romeo-Abarth-Maserati, Michael Manley for Jeep and Reid Bigland for Dodge. With Chrysler executives looking well part of the Fiat-Chrysler team and the US likely to be an operational centre in the future, Automotive News quotes Marchionne:

We have gone through a pretty long dating period here, over two years to get know the organizations and we’ve established all the right relationships between the two organizations to now implement an integration plan.

More will come as Fiat broadens its stake in Chrysler to about 58 percent by year end, and this will be very interesting alliance to watch in the automotive industry in the near future.

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It’s early days yet, but in its home market of Italy the new Lancia Ypsilon has been a raging success over the last couple of months with 5,000 orders placed since mid-April. That’s taking into account that the new Ypsilon is having an open showroom day only the coming weekend of June 18-19, and so the company is expecting more sales for its compact, luxury vehicle then.

In a country supposedly still suffering acutely from a financial crisis that won’t go away, the luxury message of the Lancia Ypsilon seems to have been nothing less than a hit so far. Meanwhile, the new five-door look really provides an alternative in the Fiat Group to the highly popular, but more budget, Fiat 500.

With new Lancia-badged Chrysler models heading to the new Lancia-Chrysler sales outlets in Italy, that the well-known and purely Lancia Ypsilon model does well is an important PR step for the company, and with strong Ypsilon sales the company will be hoping that will spill over into the other Lancia (ie Chrysler) models to be refreshing the line-up.

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A Chrysler-badged Lancia Ypsilon won’t be making it to the US car market as it would compete too closely with the newly launched Fiat 500. While the Lancia is a different car with more luxury appeal, we think this is probably a very sensible decision. The Fiat 500 was a risky launch as it was on the US market, but with its retro looks it seems to have won over in initial sales. After which, there probably wasn’t a lot of room left for another Fiat group, compact model in a big car market, especially as a Lancia-Chrysler model.

The confirmation of plans for the Ypsilon to the US being cancelled comes from Olivier Francois and Car and Driver, subsequently reported in Leftlane. Car and Driver had originally indicated after the 2011 Geneva Motor Show that the new five-door Ypsilon could be upgraded to a slightly bigger Fiat model for the US, but reports are that a new Chrysler C-segment sedan for the US is under review.

We guess that while Lancia got full benefit from large Chrysler models overnight in Europe, getting a totally new range with none of the investment required to develop these cars individually, Chrysler won’t be needing the opposite; that is, the US knows its Chrysler models and probably has no need for pint-sized Lancias (re-badged with the American brand) on their market.

While Leftlane described the review of the new sedan as “bad news” and Car and Driver says that Chrysler will be “left without a chair”, we think the success of the Fiat-Chrysler deal depends on making savvy product decisions and not being carried away with a flood of products across different brands, just because they can. The Lancia brand might get a boost in Europe thanks to Chrysler, but it probably doesn’t offer anything the American market needs or wants right now - especially if something like the Ypsilon goes to compete with the 500. The Fiat-Chrysler project will likely provide us with more interesting developments in the future and the company will be one to watch as these new products and US market entries unfold.

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Lancia-Chrysler CEO Olivier Francois has talked of the new Lancia Thema and the direction the Italian brand is going, in an interview with German magazine Handelsblatt. It’s an interesting mix to have a French CEO heading a new Italian-American merger where the Italian brand has just borrowed heavily from its US cousin to update its fading range.

Francois is bullish about the new Thema. He says: “Whoever drives the new Thema will understand that it’s the best of the E segment. Lancia competition in Europe and America per Chrysler will be Audi, BMW and Lexus.” So just how much hope is being invested in the new Thema and are we talking Chrylser, Lancia or both?

On hearing this declaration on the new possibilities that Lancia will compete in the luxury field, there will be more than one raised eyebrow. It’s where Lancia has always wanted to play, but where of late, it has missed the mark. Francois explains his reasoning thus: “If our cars have excellent quality, performance and technology, and are less expensive than the competition, why shouldn’t customers take them into consideration?”

Continue reading: Olivier Francois: Lancia to compete with BMW, Audi through 300C/Thema

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We saw the interior of the new Lancia Thema at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, but here are the official Thema interior pics from the company. We can see some of the changes made to the model to give it a more European feel and it’s predictably luxurious, too. That luxury, and the Lancia badge featured prominently in the cabin, might go some way to convincing buyers that this is a European luxury sedan, despite its adaptation from a Chrysler model. As we’ve already said, despite all the fanfare live at Geneva, we’re not convinced by the new line of Lancias but we’ll have to wait and see for a final judgement.

Lancia Thema interior pics

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It’s hard not to be too cynical about the Lancia-badged Chrysler offerings to go on display at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, but here is the next in our line-up of posts, following the new Lancia Ypsilon and facelifted Lancia Delta. While these two can be considered genuine Lancia models, the rest that will go on display require introduction to some European audiences not familiar with the Chrysler line-up.

The Lancia Thema is none other than the Chrysler 300C with a Lancia badge and grille, except for the UK and Ireland markets which will keep the Chrysler marque. The Thema is Lancia’s new executive saloon, although not much changes from the Chrysler model, including the engine which remains the 3.6-litre V6 Pentastar with 288 hp. Key to success in any European market will be a 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel with 187 or 221 hp.

Does it seem like an exercise in slapping on new badges and changing names? Quite possibly, although it is aimed at giving Lancia a full model line-up in Europe. As we said about the new Ypsilon, that model has been the only real seller for Lancia which is hobbling along in a quasi-premium brand state with an apparent lack of direction as to future sales (except for the citycar). The new Chrsyler models will evolve the brand and add some needed extra models, but there’s no saying whether Lancia will be able to pull this off.

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The Lancia Delta restyling will appear at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and the title for this post refers to some of the comments from Italians regarding this latest Lancia offering. I feel that the Lancia Delta facelift borders on gaudy, but there are reasons behind the new design, most of which lie in the Fiat-Chrysler amalgamation of products.

The new Delta appears three years after the initial market launch of the model and indicates a further step in Lancia-badged Chrysler models and vice versa. The major change in the Delta style is the new front grille with horizontal strips designed to host the Chrysler logo in future. The main engine option will be the 1.6-litre Multijet unit with 105 hp and 300 Nm of torque. It reaches 100 km/hr in 10.7 seconds, and has a top speed of 186 km/hr. CO2 emissions measure 120 g/km.

Other engine options available on the new Delta are: 1.4 Turbo fuel and twin-fuel models (the latter with petrol/LPG set-up) with 120 hp, the 1.4 Turbo Multiair with 140 hp, 1.8 DI Turbo with 200 hp, another Multijet with 120 hp and a 1.9 TwinTurbo option with 190 hp. Going back to the comments from the local market, the clever engine range on offer doesn’t seem to be doing much for Italians who are currently lamenting the Americanisation of the model, in addition to an obsoleteness that had already entered the Lancia family long ago.

Continue reading: RIP Lancia? New Lancia Delta facelift at Geneva

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Fiat could look to sell the Chrysler 200 on the European car market to lure more fleet customers to its ranks. The Chrysler would be sold as such in the UK and Ireland, while it would be rebadged as a Lancia in mainland Europe. Lancia and Alfa Romeo are Fiat’s big sedan brands but Sergio Marchionne has stated that it could make sense to bring the Chrysler 200 to Europe as a fleet model for business customers in markets such as the UK and Germany.

The car would have to overcome some hurdles before it could be considered ready for Europe with a big drawback being the lack of a diesel offering. The 200 will go on sale in the US with two petrol options, and Europe is a huge diesel market compared to the US. Diesel options are particularly attractive to fleets who opt for the better fuel economy.

Olivier Francois, CEO of Chrysler and Lancia is not convinced there is a business case for the Chrysler 200 in Europe, saying: “We are running numbers to see if it could become a profitable business case.” Costs in developing a diesel model and doing some redesign work could prove prohibitive in making a profit off the 200 in Europe. While the Chrysler 200 could prove an attractive model in the US, its brand presence in Europe is minimal and even Lancia struggles outside of its local market of Italy.

Source | AutomotiveNews

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More Lancia than Chrysler, here are the first pics of the Chrysler Delta model seen at the Detroit show. We don’t have any official details of the Chrysler Delta as yet, although it looks very similar to the Lancia Delta with a chunkier rear and a changed front grille and bonnet. We’ll have more details to follow, but you can compare the Chrysler Delta to our gallery of the Lancia Delta after the jump. What do you think?

Source | Jalopnik

Continue reading: First pics: Chrsyler Delta vs Lancia Delta

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