Re: READER REVIEW: 2002 Lancia Thesis 3.0 V6

Interior
I´ve mentioned the features but I haven´t described how they all work together. It´s no use loading a car with toys if they are not well assembled or made of the best materials. Are they? The Lancia´s interior uses leather, metal, wood and the finest plastic. And they are handled well. The interior is well sculpted and classic without being too retro. The wood strip gracing the dashboard and doors is thick and very evidently real tree. It´s the kind of substantial slab of wood not seen since the solid door cappings on 1970s Ford Granada Ghias. All this adds up to lashings of comfort, warmth and quality. It is an effect very, very different from the cold, hardness achieved by Mercedes and Lexus. Even a Jaguar XJ seems a bit glacial in comparison while the similarly priced S-type is embarrassingly Crown Victoria.

The driver´s seat – handstitched parchment hide- is beautifully supportive without being too firm. The Thesis passes the door slam test, by a factor of five. Pulling the door shut required a well-judged degree of effort, just enough to make you notice the heft. When the door clunked home it felt as if each element of the closure was machined to a fine tolerance. It made me think of a Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3, in fact. In front of the driver is a classically styled instrument pack. The lettering is redolent of the labelling on a bottle of fine Italian wine and indeed it´s all in Italian. Rather surprisingly, there is an analogue gauge to display fuel consumption, scaled from 6 liters per 100 km to 20 liters per 100 kilometres. It isn´t more readable or effective than a digital LCD display but it is incredibly amusing as it sweeps from left to right like a deranged pendulum.

The rear of the car is a similarly fine place to reside. The legroom is plentiful, more than enough to sprawl out during a long trip from Rome to Cap Ferrat. The centre console features the display and buttons for the climate control so while the driver might require 17 degrees, passengers can opt for more or fewer independently. The stereo system can be operated by a remote control unit. Each of the finely trimmed doors has an ashtray of pretty respectable size and the door cards are unusually handsome, made of precisely the same high quality materials as those at the front.

In short, whether you´re up front twirling the steering wheel or being cossetted in the back, the Thesis is a terribly agreeable place to find oneself.

In motion
We´re 1200 words into this review at which point it really does become very necessary to start revealing what the Thesis is like to drive. Putting it very bluntly, the Thesis is singularly unobtrusive, resembling nothing so much as a really talented butler. I drove the car in a variety of different modes, ranging from tasteless dashing along narrow country lanes at one extreme and, at the other, driving like I had a hung-over primo ministro slumping in the back. Whatever it is asked, the Thesis does what it is told. If you stamp on the accelerator pedal, the vehicle takes a tiny pause and then leaps forward. Very little vibration is felt and little noise heard. The Skyhook suspension coupled with the sheer weight of the car do a remarkable job at smothering bumps and potholes. The ride is impressively smooth without being floaty. Bad surfaces are simply ignored by the Thesis while changes in direction do not provoke annoying body roll. This is comfort-orientated suspension that respects the needs of handling to a commendable degree. Presumably the benchmark for Lancia was Jaguar not BMW.

Re: READER REVIEW: 2002 Lancia Thesis 3.0 V6

Concluding ruminations
Mr Robinson´s determination to avoid offering hostages to fortune failed at the first hurdle. By aiming for classicism the Thesis was immediately marked down as retro-design as were Rover´s 75 and Geoff Lawson´s Jaguars. I mentioned that the car was slightly smaller in most dimensions when compared to the 1999 Mercedes S-class. The Lancia is unfortunately taller, to the benefit of headroom but to the detriment of appearance. The car looks slightly too short which is a huge pity as the car is in fact, actually very big indeed. The very plain side elevations (the c-pillar is the weak link) and the odd proportions evoke the 1960s Flavia but this is such an odd reference. I doubt it was intentional. When shaping the bodysides I presume the designers were hoping for cool restraint but instead achieved banality. How you feel about the car´s appearance depends on which angle you view it from and whether you are sitting inside it or or outside it. From the inside it´s simply lovely and says "Latin luxury" without making you think of 1980s Maseratis or the Renault Safrane Baccara. But to get inside the car you have to get past the exterior, which presumably many people failed to do, even if they were only shown the front, its best aspect.

It´s the inconsistencies that puzzle: the striking front and rear contrasting with the Hyundai bodyside; the cast magnesium cover for the CD loading slot, not four centimetres above the fiddly flimsy lid of the tiny ashtray; incredible thought was put into the lovely details like the rear lamps and grille but the car´s proportions are just noticeably wrong. Perhaps this is because as a statesman´s car the need for maximum interior space trumped the requirement for supreme elegance. But if it was packaged as a statesman´s limousine why are there are no reading lights in the rear c-pillars and why is there not one single cigar lighter for the rear passengers?

Dynamically, the Thesis offers very good refinement and a generous turn of speed. And thus it lands between a few stools. It´s not as refined as a Mercedes E-class. It´s not as sporting as Jaguar S-type. Volvo´s S80 catered very well to the driver unconcerned with dynamics. For Lancia enthusiasts expecting sportiness, the Thesis is too smooth and aloof and not fast enough. For Lancia enthusiasts expecting the cerebral satisfaction of a car with palpable mechanical character the Thesis is too distant and inscrutable.

And finally
Perhaps it would have been better if the Thesis had been a car in the Mondeo class, rather than trying to offer S-class size for a less than E-class price. Think of it like this: if you want a better class of Mondeo, you are forced to choose a sporty German saloon. But what if Lancia had offered a more comfortable, more pleasant alternative? For the Mondeo driver, half the refinements of the Thesis would have been enough, so long as the car was at least as good to drive. And taking five percent of the C/D market might have been a lot easier than trying to take sales from the sector dedicated to serving Europe´s richest, least imaginative and least interesting people.

Considering the car as it is, rather than what else it could have been, it is a fine thing: well made, extremely comfortable and very well equipped indeed. It is even charming in many of its details. It´s when you triangulate the car against its peers and betters you realise that Lancia simply did a very fine job of making the wrong car.

Re: READER REVIEW: 2002 Lancia Thesis 3.0 V6

Great review B&N, illustrated with very good pictures. Did you take them yourself?

With regards the exterior, this sentence sums up the impression I had when I saw one in Paris two weeks ago: 'When shaping the bodysides I presume the designers were hoping for cool restraint but instead achieved banality'.

As for the interior, it looks well crafted and very nicely understated indeed. A night pic with lit instruments would have been nice (though not essential).

Question for you: is it a CD changer eating most of the space in the glove compartment? Good idea to have it in the cabin rather than the boot, but not wehn it comes to the detriment of day to day practicality.

Re: READER REVIEW: 2002 Lancia Thesis 3.0 V6

Bertandnairobi, thank you very much for that excellent review. I gained a much greater appreciation for the Thesis having read it, and if Luxo magazine really did exist I could only hope that their road test features would be as elegantly-composed as this fine work of yours.   

What was it about the turn of the 21st century, that the leadership of Jaguar, Rover and Lancia (if not also Rolls Royce/Bentley with the Silver Seraph/Arnage) all decided that the way forwards was with retro design?  It's as if the future was deemed to only offer hard-edged, aggressive sports saloons and anyone who didn't want that had to make do with the visual signature of their father or grandfather's car.  I wonder how much more successful the S-type, 75 and Thesis would have been if they'd been less-obviously inspired by the past, but remained determined to offer a sense of comfort-oriented luxury versus the premium/sporting crowd?  

Re: READER REVIEW: 2002 Lancia Thesis 3.0 V6

Yes, those wheels. following Berts link to the other review, its clear why the owner of Berts Thesis had these fitted.Without a sporty wheel, this car looks positively odd, and especially from a frontal view tall and narrow.For me, the aftermarket wheel is the making of Berts reviewed Thesis.