Lancia is putting its money on Spain. It is doing so in full awareness of its identity and values and a clear view of the market it is operating in. We are seeing the emergence of a new elite, up-to-date, forward-looking customers who are able to reconcile apparently opposing values such as tradition and innovation, rationality and emotion, individuality and social awareness. Lancia is making the most of its strong roots to attract and win over such customers. It offers intelligent innovation, i.e. not innovation for its own sake, advanced technology that is always harnessed to the needs of driver and passengers, cars that stand out for the crafted attention to detail in every part. In a word, Lancia cars offer exclusivity with an all-Italian flavour and products that are outstanding for their comfort and crafted interiors.

Lancia embarked on its path to exclusivity with the Thesis and Phedra and now continues down it with the new Ypsilon. In keeping with its elite brand image, Lancia has decided to maintain the family relationship for the new model and thus transfer to it the innovative and exclusive content worthy of a flagship through a top-down process. This approach makes the Thesis the benchmark for all future models - and the process is again apparent in the appealing concept car, the Granturismo Stilnovo. The prototype, world premiered at the Barcelona show, is a distillate of the best Lancia can offer, with sophisticated technology subservient to design. 

They are relying on the new Ypsilon to relaunch the Lancia brand in Spain. Huge financial and human resources have been poured into this event as they plan to increase sales volumes and improve the sales organisation. The pocket flagship will go on sale in mid-October and will be introduced to Spanish customers by an innovative advertising campaign aimed at middle-upper class customers and an above-average percentage of women. 

The Spanish brand relaunch will need more than great investments in the product and advertising. It will also involve improvements to the current sales and service network. This will be achieved by using Lancia dealers currently operating in the major cities as nuclei to attract new motortrade businesses that wish to share in the opportunity. The aim is to achieve a sales network of about forty dealers distributed throughout the major Spanish cities and a service network capable of offering better coverage in all provinces.

Because customers demand full satisfaction before they will place their trust in a motor manufacturer, whoever it may be. When it comes to a Lancia, however, they demand even more. Quite simply, when it comes to a brand with a great tradition - a brand that has written many of the most important pages in motoring history while remaining faithful to its values of exclusivity and distinction - they expect to be spoilt. Lancia models will therefore be backed by exclusive, prestigious services that will accompany them throughout their lifetimes: from presale to sale and from final handover to aftersales service.

All in all, cars of great personality and an efficient sales and service network: these are the trump cards that Lancia is playing in Spain, a market that is a development priority for our brand. The Iberian Peninsula offers the best growth potential in Europe after Italy, where the brand already enjoys an excellent image and achieves noteworthy sales volumes. Part of the credit for this must go to the Latin temperament evident in the design, equipment and engines of Lancia cars. 

THE LANCIA STAND IN BARCELONA

Lancia offers visitors to the 32nd Barcelona Motor Show an original-looking stand divided into two areas. On one side is the new concept car, the Granturismo Stilnovo and the Lancia Style Centre studio. On the other side are the production models and the new Lancia Ypsilon. 

This show marks the world premiere of the Granturismo Stilnovo, a concept car of great stylistic appeal displayed on a rotating stand. The prototype, designed by the Lancia Style Centre, brings together two very different motoring concepts that were until recently thought to be irreconcilable: the practicality and flexibility of a conventional saloon, on one side, and the high performance of an out-and-out sports coupé on the other. This is the new frontier for motoring design. 

The Granturismo Stilnovo is the absolute star of an exhibition area that exudes advanced design engineering. Here you can see workstations occupied by Lancia Style Centre designers who work before the public using all their tools: from sophisticated computer software to run-of-the-mill pencils. 

These tools may seem worlds apart but both have played vital roles in creating the formal language that has typified Lancia models since the Dialogos. The sketch, whether made on paper or a screen, breathes life into a car able to combine innovation and tradition, sportiness and practicality. In expert hands, these apparently conflicting attributes come together to uphold the values written into the DNA of our Brand. A heritage that is worth preserving, a melting pot for the design of future Lancia cars.

This styling excellence is embodied in the second area of the stand devoted to current production models: the Thesis, the Phedra and the Lybra. 

The floor of the exhibition area devoted to the latest models is in Travertine marble and houses two Lancia Phedras, both in the Emblema specification: one equipped with the powerful 3.0 24v, the other with the muscular 2.2 JTD 16v. Prestigious as a big élite saloon but roomy and adaptable as an MPV. This, in essence, is the spirit of the Lancia Phedra, another expression of the Italian art of good living so ably demonstrated by the Lancia Thesis. The Thesis is represented at the Barcelona Motor Show by the 2.4 JTD Emblema and, at its world premiere, the special Thesis Protecta. This is the armoured version of the prestigious Italian flagship, designed and produced by Lancia in two protection levels: B4 e B6.

Visitors can see the 150 bhp Lybra Emblema SW 2.4 JTD, a new version devoted to customers who wish to add a touch of originality and breeding to an already-elegant model, plus parts reminiscent of great cars of the past. A single glance will tell you that the Lybra Emblema contains hints of the 1963 Flaminia Coupé: that unmistakable two-tone body, those seats in soft tobacco leather. To sum up: a legend reborn forty years on. The station wagon is flanked by a saloon equipped with a 1.9 JTD engine.

The area devoted to the Ypsilon is particularly eye-catching. Four cars are on show: two versions equipped with the new 1.3 Multijet 16v (one of these also features the Dualmode robotised sequential gearbox), an Ypsilon with the brand new 1.4 16v engine and another with the 1.2 16v. 

In the background, you can see the 'Via del lusso' and in front of you the 'Piazza italiana', with an innovative flooring made out of river pebbles embedded in resin. Here customers can stroll around and shop for all the world as though they were in an exclusive street in Rome or Milan. In the shop windows, car components such as the grille and steering wheel nestle alongside other valuable luxury items. The Lancia Ypsilon is the jewel in our crown. You can admire the car itself in another window (the Lancia Thesis was displayed in a shop window in Via Montenapoleone, Milan in the same way a few months ago). A film entitled 'Fascination Ypsilon' will be screened against this attractive backdrop. The film is destined for the public and will be projected onto a big screen on the wall. It is intended to exemplify the world of La Dolce Vita, with an ironic, post-modern slant courtesy of Lancia. The exhibition area also contains a glass case with the new 1.3 Multijet 16v engine paired with a Dualmode robotised sequential gearbox. 

In another area of the stand, visitors can linger on the exclusive 'terrazza Martini' to enjoy a privileged view of the area devoted to the Lancia Style Centre and learn about the designer's job by watching pictures projected onto a large screen. A fountain playing next to the 'terrazza Martini', with its flavour of a Roman street café, conjures up memories of the famous Trevi fountain. A New Dolce Vita thus takes shape through an ingenious interplay of quotations and memories.

> LANCIA GRANTURISMO STILNOVO
> HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES OF THE LANCIA GRANTURISMO STILNOVO
> LANCIA THESIS PROTECTA