Poor old Lancia. Vincenso Lancia has been rolling in his grave since the Fiat take over in the 1960s, and it still gets worse......
Lancia is, in fact, still around these days, though the company seems to be operating in relative obscurity. Perhaps the fact that it currently produces only one model—a hatchback called the New Ypsilon that’s partly related to the Fiat 500—may have something to do with that.
A few years ago, however, there was another model that was sold alongside the Ypsilon: the Thema. And yes, the Thema should look very familiar as it is, in fact, a rebadged Chrysler 300.
There are a few differences between the 300 and the Thema, but the largest may be that a V8 was not available in the Lancia. Instead, a 3.0-liter, turbodiesel V6 (built by Italian firm VM Motori, which also builds the current EcoDiesel engines found in some Dodge, Jeep and Ram products) was the optional engine in Europe.
Besides that and few different badges, the Lancia Thema was pretty much identical to the Chrysler 300.
We’ll let you decide whether or not a Lancia badge made the Chrysler any more interesting—though you could always put some Lancia badges on your 300 and have an excellent conversation starter at your next cars and coffee.
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Poor old Lancia. Vincenso Lancia has been rolling in his grave since the Fiat take over in the 1960s, and it still gets worse......
They should have offered a slightly detuned Ferrari V8 option as a tribute to the original Thema.
Ive owned a 2017 3.0 diesel Ram since new and they are actually pretty great motors. They were also in Maserati Ghiblis as well.
I've gotta admit, a Chrysler 300 would be among the last cars I would associate with the Lancia nameplate.
Colin Wood said:Lancia is, in fact, still around these days, though the company seems to be operating in relative obscurity.
Colin Wood also said:
A few years ago, however, there was another model that was sold alongside the Ypsilon: the Thema. And yes, the Thema should look very familiar as it is, in fact, a rebadged Chrysler 300.
That second sentence explains the why the first sentence is so very, unfortunately, true.
1988RedT2 said:I've gotta admit, a Chrysler 300 would be among the last cars I would associate with the Lancia nameplate.
How about this one?
In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :
Okay. Next to last.
Man, what the berkeley happened to Lancia?
I lived in Italy for a while. It's a country where just because you can afford the car doesn't mean you can afford the fuel. Prices were eye watering even by European standards. Drive to any neighboring country and the prices for fuel and pretty much everything were substantially less. Hence the VM Motori diesel in lieu of the V8. My guess is that a 3.0 liter common-rail would move this along quite well.
I remember back to my first time in Italy and riding up into the mountains near the border with Austria in a Chrysler minivan. Just an ordinary old everyday Mopar van except I immediately picked up on a slight clatter (diesel) and it had a gear lever jutting out through the dash (5 speed). The elderly gentleman in control was an absolute pleasure to ride with. Even loaded down with several people he drove those mountain roads at a very spirited pace and that diesel always had the power right where he needed it.
This is nowhere near as interesting to me as the older Themas, but i do have a small drawer somewhere in my brain where i keep ideas about oem-quality 'rebadging' of USDM cars, so i'll file this there.
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