Hi
I know it`s not quite a fiat but it is based on the 127,
I`ve got a strange yearning for one of these little beasties anyone know much about them?
I`ve had a quick google but cant seem to find much
Cheers
Adrian

neva heard of 'em! i should imagine that they cost an arm and a leg cus they must be rarer than than a dancing monkey. maybe ther is a website 4 an italian auto trader type company? thats about all i can think of.

Mechanically it's a Fiat. They used the 903cc engine as found in the 127, Panda, Uno, etc. They were badged as Lancias before the Y10 came out as well. They rust like 1970's Fiat/Lancias did as well.

As explained to me by another Forum member Lancia's rusted no more than any other car at the time it was for the simple fact that lancia addressed the problem and no one else at the time did that they got a name for rusting...

Think that's correct

That ones for you Aaron (See I do sometimes listen)

There is no way around it, Lancias rusted badly, especially the Beta. Some Beta's were rusting in the flipping showrooms! Alfasuds were their main rusting competitor. Fiat weren't quite as bad. All cars rust of course, but the Suds and Beta were better at it than most. I speak from experience about Suds...

Steve said:

There is no way around it, Lancias rusted badly, especially the Beta. Some Beta's were rusting in the flipping showrooms! Alfasuds were their main rusting competitor. Fiat weren't quite as bad. All cars rust of course, but the Suds and Beta were better at it than most. I speak from experience about Suds...

Click to expand...

That's what I always though until I was told otherwise...

Wait for him to come online and tell me I have it all completely wrong

The story I had heard was that Fiat/Lancia but a duff shipment of Metal from USSR

That's right, it was a 'technology for steel' deal with the Russians. That's how Lada ended up with the 124 moulds, etc. The Russians didn't keep their end of the deal and supplied reclaimed steel. By the time Fiat/Lancia realised it was to late.

Steve said:

That's right, it was a 'technology for steel' deal with the Russians. That's how Lada ended up with the 124 moulds, etc. The Russians didn't keep their end of the deal and supplied reclaimed steel. By the time Fiat/Lancia realised it was to late.

Click to expand...

Ahh so I was right

Anyway back to A112's don't bother Adrian get a Y10

the A112 was not based on the 127.it was the other way round.the front wheel drive system devised for the 127 was all new,so the autobianchi A112 was launched to assess all the running gear before it was launched in the 127.it was a success.
the rust issue of the 1970's was like this.lancia cars were beautifully made until fiat took over.indeed they were marketed as expensive sport sallons and coupes.when fiat took over,they were made along side fiat cars from recycled metal.the impurities in the metal would start to react and cause a ferous reaction which caused the metals laminate pieces to seperate.the metal would flake off in chunks.the cars had no underseal[not needed in italy],and so rusted badly.but so did the opposition.fords and vauxhall were terrible in the early 1970's.lancia to try and save there reputation,started galvanising there cars in the late 1980's.it was too late.the rust stigma stuck.fiat tried desperately to buy back as many betas as possible.they gave crazy p/x deals on betas.we had a compound full of the things.they were all crushed.i think on a whole at the time,alfas rusted worse then fiats.

Adrian I saw an A112 on eBay in the UK for sale about 12months ago as well, only had something like 40Ks on it as well, in red in need of some TLC as it had been stored for nearly 20years.

They do some up from time to time on German and Italian ebay, so import only if you really wanted one.

As for the rust issue, sorry they were no worse than any othe car at the time, feck I remember Granada’s, Escorts, Cortinas, Fiestas, Golfs, Vivas, Chevettes etc all being rot boxes, but they all sold in huge numbers, yet you are still unlikely to see one today, strange that.

Lancia threw a clanger by doing what it thought was good PR and took out a press add saying we know we have a problem we will fix it, bring your cars back blah blah blah all hell brook loose everyone thought they had dodgy cars, sales went down, resell values plummeted, so folk with lower incomes bought them, servicing was ignored so cars broke down eventually, vicious circle, feck Lancia Deltas were blooming galvanised in 1979 as it was built with the help of SAAB (Delta was SAAB500 or was it 600 ? in Sweden). Another problem was one AA man, one!!!! told a newspaper reporter that the engines feel out the bottom of Betas, you can imagine what happened then with there values, so much so Lancia offered to buy them back.

Now brings me to today, Merc have had major issues with rust now for past 4-6 years on cars as young as 3 years but rather than make a fuss they just fix them on warranty and even tho Merc are nearly bottom for reliability we still consider them quality.

The UK market is unlike any other in Europe in that we are all badge snobs, and much much more susceptible to the add man telling us what is good and what isn't, in Germany they don't think twice in considering a Lancia (Lancia sales up 44% this year) as an alternative to a Merc/BMW/AUDI yet I remember you couldn't give Audis away they were so crap, I could have bought a 4 year old Audi 100 13 years ago for £600 yet a similar age XR2 was £2k, yet half the price new, can you imagine that now.

My step dad was a car dealer for over 40 years, and I have seen thousands of cars in my time and TBH they were all pretty ****ty untill the early 90's, unless they were looked after and given rust treatment underneath, and even then I can't remember how many Grrrrusty Golfs, floorless Fords & manky Mercs & nackered engines in bummed BMWs I saw.

Aaron.

I saw a fairly decent one on ebay a few months back - went for about £400 i think. Not sure if there are any rhd models in the uk though, this one was lefthand drive.