The New Lancia Ypsilon, the car that marks the first step towards the future of Lancia cars, has made its debut at the Venice Film Festival this week. The Ypsilon is designed for a sophisticated kind of customer who is in a continuous quest for unique products. It has renewed itself by building on an exterior look much appreciated by European motorists and an underlying nature that relies on innate good looks and style. The model has also developed by offering more performance, more technology and more customisation options.

The New Ypsilon offers a better-looking, more up-to-date style by adding some clever touches that reflect new market trends while making the car look bigger to appeal to male drivers. The New Ypsilon also comes with new petrol and diesel engines to cater for younger, more dynamic customers. These are all environmentally friendly with plenty of brio and power. The New Ypsilon is also a veritable style icon for its personality and charm, now enhanced by the most extensive colour palette in this segment: the very thing for the style conscious woman. The model also features a truly extensive range of very different products and also four specification levels (Silver, Oro Bianco, Oro Giallo and Platino), which will be able to satisfy premium customers of four types, each with own tastes and needs: men, women, the young and the not so young.

The New Ypsilon aims to become the alternative B Premium for all throughout Europe since it represents the state-of-the-art in the exclusive mini field. It is designed for sophisticated customers who love to stand out in a crowd and seek satisfaction above all when using their car. And, like all the best Italian luxury products, the New Ypsilon blends outstanding style with cutting-edge technology. This winning combination is complemented by highly sophisticated good looks that give a new feel to the famous Lancia shape, perfectly matched specifications and many customisation possibilities.

The New Ypsilon demonstrates yet again the great versatility of this pint-sized flagship. This successful model will take Lancia forward into a future where the product will not be the only premium selling point to set a car apart from its rivals and will not be the only motivating factor that arouses desire in a potential customer. For this reason, Lancia has developed major new sales and aftersales products to meet the desires, needs, tastes and aspirations of a host of different customers.

Revised style and more customisation

The New Ypsilon is typified by its original styling, based on that of the Ardea from 1939 and fully attuned to contemporary trends that demand a smooth, sensual design. It is also distinctive due to its compact size, high driving position and very elegant lines and detailing.

Prominent new features on the model include an original grille and special mouldings that are different for each specification. In detail, the sporty grille on the Silver version is in metalluro while the grille and side mouldings are chrome on the Oro Bianco and Oro Giallo specifications. The Platino version also offers a hot stamped chrome grille and chrome side mouldings. Another new aesthetic feature on the new model is a colour range made up of no fewer than 15 body shades (7 of which are brand new) and 9 new two-tone liveries: this is the most extensive range in the segment, and one of the most comprehensive: more evidence of Lancia’s attention to colour as a representation of style and Italian flair. As far as the Ypsilon is concerned, colour is not merely a matter of superficial looks but an integral part of a product philosophy based on elegance, glamour, personality, playfulness, skill, style and the widest potential for customisation.

The interiors also welcome the passengers and driver into an emotionally involving environment, but also a practical, up-to-date passenger compartment with sliding rear seat to assure maximum comfort. These sensations are aided by the particular care that has gone into the details, the use of top-quality deluxe car materials and the creation of sophisticated, stylish colour matches between the body shades and interior trim colours. These features are unique to the segment and make the “Ypsilon” logo a veritable designer icon.

Sophisticated technology and more performance

The New Lancia Ypsilon assures predictable performance at all times while also facilitating driving satisfaction. This is partly due to the five available engines that are now even more powerful and spirited with plenty of respect for the environment: the coming into force of EURO4 legislation will see the advent of a DPF device that adjusts emission levels by removing particulate altogether. In detail, the new engine range offers two Multijet power units (a 75 bhp 1.3 16v unit and a 90 bhp 1.3 16v unit), both combined with a manual gearbox or a robotised sequential unit known as the DFN (standing for ‘Dolce Far Niente’).

These two turbodiesel power units are joined by two feisty petrol engines: a 95 bhp 1.4 16v unit available with manual, 6-speed gearbox or sequential robotised DFN gearbox and the new 77 bhp 1.4 8v unit available only with a manual gearbox. The latter unit also boasts one of the best fuel consumption figures in its category: 5.5 l/100 km over a combined cycle. The last member of the range is the tried and tested 60 bhp 1.2 8v unit able to combine great torque and smooth operation with a relatively small cylinder capacity.

The most recent addition to the Lancia stable is no stranger to sophisticated technology and may be equipped with ‘Blue&Me’®, an innovative Windows Mobile based system created as a result of a joint venture between Fiat Auto and Microsoft, which changes the paradigms of in-car communication, information and entertainment to improve comfort and the quality of time spent on board. The easy to use device includes a sophisticated hands-free system with voice recognition that allows customers to make/receive phone calls and listen to music while driving easily and safely. Bluetooth^® technology also makes it possible to communicate with the outside world from the car through personal devices such as mobile phones and hand-held computers.
 

The Blue&Me^® device also allows customers to listen to their favourite music recorded on their mobile phones, smart phones, MP3 players or flash drives. This is achieved via a USB port on the tunnel that can be used to connect any digital device with a USB connection. This means that music audio files (MP3, WMA and WAV) can be played directly through the car stereo.

Four Ypsilons for four customers

It is no exaggeration to claim that anyone can find a New Ypsilon that ideally suits their requirements and tastes. Suffice it to say that the pocket flagship can come in more than 700 custom versions, obtained by combining 15 body shades, 4 specifications (Silver, Oro Bianco, Oro Giallo and Platino), 9 new two-tone liveries, 8 interior trims and 6 different alloys (including those available from the Accessory range). Whatever your choice and level of customisation, the New Ypsilon is always appealing and original, and oozes the Italian flair famed throughout the world.

In detail, the Ypsilon Silver is aimed mainly at the young, giving them an opportunity to buy into an accessible dream. The new version features an extensive range of bright single and two-tone colourways with powerful contrasts, plus a painted grille and satinised exterior panels. The passenger compartment is also a cool, pleasant place with two-tone hi-tech fabrics plus customisable eco-leather inserts. Features include body-coloured door mirrors, wiring for a car radio and, as options, a manual air conditioner and two packages designed for specific target users (Silver Plus and Tech). The second specification, Oro Bianco, is ideal for men who go for sportiness with style. Such customers will appreciate one and two-tone liveries in cool shades, a grille with a chrome frame, chrome exterior panels and chrome moulding on the sides. The same sporty feel is evident inside, with the use of hi-tech ‘Airtex’ fabric. The New Ypsilon Oro Bianco also offers the most powerful engines in the range: the 90 bhp 1.3 16v Multijet and the 95 bhp 1.4 16v Multijet.

The New Ypsilon Oro Giallo, a benchmark for women, offers a high level of customisation that confirms and reinforces the image of a mini with style. Beginning with an exterior style featuring one and two-tone liveries in warm shades and also a few chrome details: exterior panels, side mouldings and the grille frame. The interior also features ‘Centorighe’ fashion fabric while the engine range includes a 77 bhp 1.4 8v unit and a 75 bhp 1.3 Multijet 16v unit, both category leaders for their power/fuel consumption ratio. Another product particularly appreciated by customers is the sophisticated DFN gearbox that offers the greatest comfort in automatic mode, once you have experienced all the satisfaction of a sporty, dynamic drive in manual. The Oro Bianco and Oro Giallo specifications also offer: radio CD, manual climate control system and the optional Gold Plus and Tech packages.

The New Ypsilon Platinum reinforces its pocket flagship positioning by appealing to a more mature band of customers. This vocation is evident in elegant, sophisticated one and two-tone shade on shade liveries, new 15” alloys and some chrome details (exterior panels, mouldings on the side and grille), interiors trimmed in Starlight leather/alcantara and a range of equipment that is bound to appeal by any standards, including a radio CD with Bose^® Hi-Fi and Granluce sunroof, leather trimmed steering wheel and gear knob and, as options, Platinum Plus, Hi-Fi Pack plus all four new engines.

The New Ypsilon is quite definitely a model that can be said to come in four different versions for four different customers. Four different finance packages are also on offer. For example, the young thirty-something target group made up of many professionals and self-employed people can benefit, in Italy, from a product based on the LanciaPiù purchase system, i.e. a minimum deposit, low instalments for 25 months, the certainty of a guaranteed value at the end of the contract and a wide final choice (buy a new Lancia, keep the car or return the car). For young people aspiring to join the world of Ypsilon for the first time, ‘Lancia Più’ is also available without a deposit. Specific service packages have also been developed to meet the needs of a diverse and demanding range of customers: fire and theft insurance, fully comprehensive insurance, roadside rescue etc.

Young German customers can also benefit from long-term purchase packages with no deposit and low instalments plus a new special offer: payment in three stages (1/3 on purchase, 1/3 after one year and 1/3 at the end of the second year). Private customers in France can also benefit from a hire scheme with maintenance and roadside assistance included. All potential customers of the New Ypsilon – be they men, women, young people and the not so young – will be able to count on special service packages geared to their own specific needs.

A success that comes from the distant past and looks to the future

Any car’s success is the result of a lucky break, a flash of stylistic intuition backed by research into new taste trends, emerging customer needs and projections relating to market and rival model trends. And then this complicated equation is judged by the harshest yardstick: time. True success will stand the test of time: this was never truer than for the Lancia Ypsilon, a car that has notched up sales of one and a half million in more than 20 years of life and several different incarnations (Y10, Y and Ypsilon). And more. Since the launch of the Ypsilon in 2003, the tiny flagship has achieved sales of over 200,000, of which 35,000 in 2006 alone with an Italian market share of 8.3% in segment B (this percentage rises to 23% for three-door cars alone: its top position is unchallenged). This is therefore a model in its first flush that can comfortably take on new challenges and opportunities to stay abreast of market trends. It is also eager to win more customers by playing its ace cards of style, technology, iconic status and range.

To ensure success in the future, it is essential to be aware that the playing field has changed and the product is no longer the only premium element of sales strategies: the product must be backed by a new approach to the target, to sales and to aftersales, including innovative features that are offered in a form that is considered to add substance. Italian customers will also be able to benefit from ‘Lancia V.Y.P Service’ (Very Ypsilon People Service) for roadside rescue and a courtesy service for car collection and delivery when a service is due. More specifically, customers will not have to worry about taking their car in for service throughout the warranty period. Lancia will see to everything to keep their customers on the road. The cost of the scheduled services will also be included in the package. A mobile workshop will be on hand speedily to deal with breakdowns, punctures and cars running out of fuel. All in all, a revolutionary service to meet the true needs of premium customers.