Say Hello to the New Lancia Delta

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I can afford either of these.
Looks like Fiat wants to bring Lancia back to credibility, so here's their idea.

Inside Line
TURIN, Italy — Lancia is an often-overlooked member of the historic Fiat family as it's not a muscular jock like Ferrari or smart and refined like Alfa. But with Fiat firing on virtually all cylinders these days, the company's top executives have felt the need to lavish some attention on their smallest child — and so, the Lancia Delta has been reborn.

The original Delta was in production in one form or another from 1979-'99, and even enjoyed a storied rally racing career in the late 1980s and early '90s. Now Fiat is relying on that heritage to pump new life into the Lancia brand.

Sitting on a variant of the Fiat Bravo platform and first glimpsed in the Delta HPE concept of 2006, the new Delta looks almost nothing like its ancestor, which was an exercise in boxiness. It bulks up with a menacing grille, a lower air intake and reshaped headlights that incorporate LEDs. Up top, there's a Granluce panoramic roof held up by two trapezoidal rear pillars. In back, there are more LEDs in the taillights and a wraparound rear window.

Inside, Lancia has actually made the giant sunroof soundproof, which greatly reduces road noise. The materials in the cabin include leather, Alcantara and a leather substitute made out of polyurethane called Benova. The seats are special designer leather from Poltrona Frau, and the rear seatbacks actually adjust, a one-of-a-kind feature in the hatchback class.

The Delta is also packed with all the latest in-car technology, including a USB interface, voice commands, SD card navigation and a hi-res screen. On the center console, the controls are fashioned to have an almost holographic look about them, and the entire dash is metallic, with sporadic chrome accents.

Lancia has kept its options open with three different choices of engine for the Delta, and two more to come down the road. There are 120-horsepower and 150-hp variants of the 1.4-liter Turbojet four-cylinder gas engine and a 120-hp 1.6-liter Multijet turbodiesel that will be combined with a manual/automatic gearbox. The two engines to be introduced later are a 165-hp 2.0-liter Multijet and a 190-hp twin-turbo Multijet.

What this means to you: Can Fiat resurrect Lancia? The new Delta should be a good litmus test.

lancia.front.500.jpg

lancia.back.500.jpg
Click to expand...

IMO, they killed it. It looks horrible from everywhere but the front.
 
GG, Fiat. Way to show the world how to take a great idea and fall flat on your face with it.
 
Looks good, but they need to lose those idiotic Tail light they have on some of their other models.
 
My past thoughts:

Lancia Delta. Ugly car; hellacious performance. The Delta was a car you don't want to mess up on the rally circuit. It's always been that boxy and ugly car... that can still rule the off-road. Even the classic Stratos is an ugly duckling that is probably the best mid-engined/RWD car in rally history dominating most of the early-mid '70s.

I look at this new age Delta... and I agree that the front isn't very lovely. Only thing I'd change would be the front grill. A minute Alfa Romeo-style grill isn't going to work for these Lancias. The taillights kind of remind me of a more rounded Kia (not sure which one and not sure if there's a Kia's taillights which resembles this car's headlights). Otherwise, the side profile looks amazing. It kind of reminds me of the latest Impreza five-door hatchback. Not sure if you want your storied car to look like another rally championship-winning car or not.

Either way, it's 80% approval of this car.
 
This is a mixture of a bit too fat and a bit too cute, two attributes that a Lancia Delta shouldn't have. :sick:
 
I dislike it. They stuck the Delta name on some ugly car meant for that Lancia "Family semblance".

However, all will be forgiven if a HF Integrale (read, Evo/STi Fighter) comes out.
 
So they took the Fiat Bravo...
fiat-bravo-2.jpg


And then made it ugly? Well done Lancia, that's the wrong way around. The Bravo is a very good looking car, I'm sure Lancia design cues could have been adopted without messing with it too much.

Anyone else think the back end looks like the Murano?
05_murano_rev_rearside.jpg


Again a pity, considering the Bravo looks like this at the back:
fiat-bravo-w2.jpg


If Fiat want to resurrect Lancia... HINT HINT
2003_fms_01+2004_lancia_fulvia_coupe_concept+front_left_view.jpg
 
Fiat already did a great job with carrying the classic 500 design over to a fresh, new, cute, yet original design.

fiat500-artikel.jpg


So what the hell went wrong with the Delta?
 
Jim Prower
I dislike it. They stuck the Delta name on some ugly car meant for that Lancia "Family semblance".

However, all will be forgiven if a HF Integrale (read, Evo/STi Fighter) comes out.
Click to expand...

Hey, so long as it has performance to KILL then all is forgiven
 
I would like to defend Lancia. Other than the fact that it won races, the old Delta was hardly the pinnacle of automobiles. I don't particularly like the new Delta, but it is unfair to compare it negatively to the old one. Furthermore, I don't think calling for retro styling is applicable for this car, as the Delta everyone knows about was pretty dated when it went out of production, and that was only 15 years ago.
 
The front does not look too bad, though I think the grill looks slightly odd. The back of the car does not look too bad other than the taillights; the taillights just seem somewhat weird. The second picture makes the vehicle look tallish, though it is probably just the picture playing with my mind. Overall, the car is not bad, but not good either; I just give it a meh, at least until I see a few more pictures of it.
 
homeforsummer
So they took the Fiat Bravo...
fiat-bravo-2.jpg


And then made it ugly? Well done Lancia, that's the wrong way around. The Bravo is a very good looking car, I'm sure Lancia design cues could have been adopted without messing with it too much.

Anyone else think the back end looks like the Murano?
05_murano_rev_rearside.jpg


Again a pity, considering the Bravo looks like this at the back:
fiat-bravo-w2.jpg


If Fiat want to resurrect Lancia... HINT HINT
2003_fms_01+2004_lancia_fulvia_coupe_concept+front_left_view.jpg
Click to expand...

That's unfair... the Murano's rear lights actually blend into the body. The new Delta rear lights look so badly tacked on, they could have been assembled in China.

While I'm digging the front end styling, the grille looks too much like an octopus beak for me to take it seriously.
 
I have to say that it looks like they Melted a Nissan Versa and threw fancy lights on the front for fun... Looks alone won't save it. But if anything, add a good engine, a capable chassis, and an overall attitude that's fun to drive, I'll be happy to give it a chance.
 
It doesn't matter if it dances like a butterfly... if it looks like a great horny toad, people ain't going to buy it.

Well... not a lot of people, anyway. I could be wrong... BMW has so far managed to sell almost anything with the double-kidney grille on it, no matter how hard they tried to turn the customers off.
 
YSSMAN
I have to say that it looks like they Melted a Nissan Versa and threw fancy lights on the front for fun... Looks alone won't save it. But if anything, add a good engine, a capable chassis, and an overall attitude that's fun to drive, I'll be happy to give it a chance.
Click to expand...

Without the motorsport connection and homologation of trick parts, which this Delta will never have, you just get left with an ugly hatchback. With the exception of the previous Delta (but only in Intergrale form) Lancia hasn't made anything which wasn't average at best within the past 30 years. Even the Thema 8.32 'Ferrari' was a crappy chassis saved slightly by a decent engine.
 
I've had a go at a bit of restyling:

From this...
lancia.front.500.jpg


To this...
lancianewdelta.jpg


Made the grill wider, shorter and lower on the front of the car. Makes the front look less "beaky" and more agressive, though for full agression I guess I could blank out the vertical chrome trims in the grill, and have honeycomb like the old Delta Integrale.
 
homeforsummer
I've had a go at a bit of restyling:

From this...
lancia.front.500.jpg


To this...
lancianewdelta.jpg


Made the grill wider, shorter and lower on the front of the car. Makes the front look less "beaky" and more agressive, though for full agression I guess I could blank out the vertical chrome trims in the grill, and have honeycomb like the old Delta Integrale.
Click to expand...

Your grille looks better. I liked the boxy shape of the old Delta, this new thing is pretty cruddy looking. I don't think even good performance would save this design. Bring back retro Delta.
 
Too right, it's not particularly pleasant, is it? Reminds me of the Rodius creation. *shiver*

And I think we've all just found out that translating the Zagato 'waistline flicks up to become the top edge of rear-screen' trick doesn't work for a pudgy, bulbous-arsed hatchback.

Ah well, for every Bravo, there must be a Delta, I suppose. We must trust that the universe will unfold as it should.

Edit:

My remix, compare and contrast. You are allowed to say 'Renault!'

lancia.jpg
lancia.front.500.jpg
 

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