Thursday, February 17, 2011

Lancia brings rebadged Chrysler models to join facelifted Delta in Geneva



web630 lancia thema 450x268 Lancia brings rebadged Chrysler models to join facelifted Delta in Geneva
Once upon a time, it used to be that an automaker would debut one, maybe two new products at a car show. Then Lotus came along and blew ‘em all out of the water with five new concept cars. Now Lancia is preparing to roll across the Alps and into Geneva with – how many? – six new debuts. Is the quasi-premium Italian automaker following the path set out by Lotus? Well, not quite.
In addition to the new Ypsilon – a genuinely new vehicle debut – Lancia is also lifting the veil on a subtly refreshed version of the Delta. But that’s not the end of it – they’ve also got the new Thema, Flavia, Flavia Cabrio and Grand Voyager. In case that last bit (or the title) didn’t tip you off, these four are little more thanChrysler models we already know (and in some cases love), albeit with Lancia grilles and badges.
The Flavia and Flavia Cabrio are Lancia-ized versions of the Chrysler 200 sedan and convertible, and are officially dubbed as “concepts” – a little backwards from how the usual path concept cars take to production, but globalization occasionally does strange things. The Thema is the Lancia version of the Chrysler 300sedan. And the Grand Voyager, well…we hope we don’t have to fill in the blanks on that bit.