Lancia Flavia II Cabriolet

With the exception of the Beta Spider of 1974, which featured a Targa-type body (coupé with removable hardtop), Lancia had not produced a cabriolet since the Flavia Convertibile, whose production ended in 1967 after more than 1,600 examples had been produced. The new Flavia II Cabriolet, which was a rebadged Chrysler 200, failed to meet with the expected commercial success, despite its prestigious historic name. In autumn 2013, the new Flavia was removed from Lancia's catalogue after selling just a few hundred units.

With Fiat taking an ever larger stake in the Chrysler Group, the history seems to be stalling... At Lancia, for example, the old names that made the Turin-based manufacturer such a success were returning. In the 2000s, for example, the names Flavia, Delta and Kappa reappeared in the company's catalogue. The purpose of these prestigious names was nothing less than to revive the past glory of the brand which was founded by Vincenzo Lancia in 1906.

NEW HOPE FROM AMERICA 

Lancia lost its former glory decades ago, a victim of the Fiat Group's failure to preserve the glorious brand image of the company it had absorbed in 1969. During the difficult period in which it was kept on life support, Lancia managed to maintain its identity as a manufacturer with a tradition of good taste and Italian elegance. This was not without its difficulties, as the progressive takeover of Chrysler by Fiat necessarily led to a unification of the two companies' ranges. As a result, a number of the American manufacturer's models are now sold in Europe under the Lancia brand. This transitory situation lasted until the final merger of the two groups leading to the creation of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in 2014. It was only then that the two manufacturers began to produce some genuinely new models. In the meantime, cars designed exclusively for the American market, featuring a very specific brand image, simply inherited the Lancia logo on their radiator grille, as was the case with the Chrysler 200. Clearly, this transplant, carried out in a commercial emergency, was bound to fail.

EFFECTIVE PROMOTION 

After being presented as a Concept Car at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011, the Flavia II cabriolet was revealed in its definitive form at the following edition of the notorious Swiss show. Despite being a commercial niche car for the Fiat Group, the Lancia Flavia was promoted extensively, with two major press presentations in particular. The first, more technical, took place in May 2012 at the Fiat Group's historic wind tunnel in Orbassano, south of Turin, to highlight the aerodynamics of the bodywork. The second, for photographers, took place the following June in the Sicilian town of Taormina. In September 2012, the Lancia Flavia II cabriolet was also used as the official car to take the stars of the silver screen to the 69th Venice Film Festival. For this prestigious occasion, the Flavia was made available in a luxurious Red Carpet Show Car version with a pearl-white body and original red leather upholstery (Pelle Frau Pieno Fiore) by Poltrona Frau, a prestigious Turin-based saddler who had been working regularly with Lancia since the 1920s.

AFTER EIGHTEEN MONTHS... 

For all its qualities, this model failed to find an audience, and even less so that of the Turin-based brand's enthusiast customers. Lancia's sales department targeted one thousand units for 2012 and two thousand the following year. For its first year, this target was a long way from being met, with just 218 cars sold in Italy (its main market) and 87 in France. Only 225 cars were sold in 2013... During the summer of 2013, Lancia tried to boost sales by offering a promotional discount of 13,000 Euros, which brought the price of the Flavia to around 24,900 Euros. Nothing happened, and at the end of autumn 2013, the Flavia II cabriolet was quietly removed from Lancia's catalogue after barely a year and a half of production. Several factors contributed to the lack of interest in this model, despite the enthusiasm of the trade press at the time of its launch. First of all, its large size (almost 5 metres) and slightly dated engineering, plus the absence of a diesel engine that was much appreciated on the European market. But the biggest drawback identified by purists was the model's origin: an American Chrysler Sebring convertible, based on a Japanese chassis, that of the Mitsubishi Lancer. Ultimately, for a brand as glorious and viscerally Italian as Lancia, and with a name as historic as the Flavia, this was the wrong approach.