Day: Mar 17, 2015

Chrysler Follows Lancia’s Footsteps Out of the UK

Our good friends at Autocar have reported that Chrysler is going to give up and flee the UK market. This will disappoint only those Lancia fans who had a brief chance to buy the Delta and Ypsilon.

A modern family hatchback designed to provide an unrivalled blend of style, space, technology and luxury. "With a host of impressive details, the Delta delivers on every level."
“A modern family hatchback designed to provide an unrivalled blend of style, space, technology and luxury. With a host of impressive details, the Delta delivers on every level.”

I was entirely unaware or had forgotten that Chrysler were selling the Delta in the UK and Ireland. There is one used Delta in stock in the UK, by the way. Sales of Chryslers were never impressive, 3000 in a good year. The cost of preparing these cars for RHD production must have meant they lost money on each of these unless they had huge success in some RHD market of which I was not aware… Japan? New Zealand? Continue reading “Chrysler Follows Lancia’s Footsteps Out of the UK”

The Lump

In the middle of a piece of automotive copy the Lump is often found: the engine performance figures. I really don’t care for it much and it’s time it retired.

1978 Dastun 200SX. Image from www.productioncars.com
1978 Dastun 200SX. Image from http://www.productioncars.com

Typically the worst case is when a model is revised to be even more “ultimate”. As your eyes wander across the lines you stumble across it like a hiker in a mire: “The unit develops 178 bhp, up 23 bhp from before, at 6500 rpm, 450 lower than the outgoing model, and produces 194 lb fb of torque, 23 lb ft extra”. I find this incredibly unpalatable.

It’s a line requiring a good edit and some interpretation to Continue reading “The Lump”