Quote:
Originally Posted by nicanary
No offence intended John. Here in the UK public perception still rules - all French/Italian cars are supposedly unreliable and hence will have poor residual values. So unless the Delta has some astonishing redeeming feature, it will fare badly. The odd thing is, cars such as BMW and Audi are perceived as "quality engineering" when in fact their reliability records are nothing special.
I agree that it's not a bad-looking car, but when I spotted it I thought it was a Laguna or Kia - so many cars look like that these days. Lancia always managed years ago to produce something a little bit different.
I personally think Fiat/Chrysler have missed the boat - all the grief over rusting problems was long,long ago, and a new generation of buyers has come along who know nothing about those days. Brand awareness rules, and snobbery , and I reckon a fancy name like Lancia, especially if promoted along with their past sporting background and record of engineering innovation, would attract buyers - unlike the name of Chrysler.
But what would I know?
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No offence taken! I do get tired of constant unfounded criticism of Italian (particularly) and French cars, usually from people who have no experience of them. You only have to see the predictable tirade of knocking comments every time Alfa Romeo is mentioned on another forum (think you will know the one I mean!).
I have owned a succession of Fiat/Lancia/Alfa models continuously since 1971; all of them have been high mileage & all have been reliable. We also have a Peugeot 205 as second car, just a basic Junior. In seven years it has never let us down, lives outside, never failed to start all through the recent bad winters. There are still thousands of them running around here. Likewise other French cars such as Renault 5, 19, 21 & 25, Citroen 2CV, AX, ZX, Peugeot 305, 405 etc which rather puts the lie to the theory they are not built to last. The French market is very different to the British & does not have the same ridiculous levels of depreciation & consequently they get looked after & retain a decent value.