1980 Lancia Beta 2000 review from UK and Ireland

The indicator relay failed.

I've got flu I feel rotten and I have been cogitating about the meaning of life and reading car magazines (same thing really), and started thinking about days gone by.

It was 1977 I was 20 years old and I had been the proud owner of a Fiat 500L bought from my mother and like new. I loved that car and still do, unfortunately the saying " you always hurt the one you love" was true for me and I killed my beloved "demented lawnmower" early one Saturday morning.

I was disconsolate, but this car is not the subject of this story. After a short period of time my father decided to buy a Citroen CX and offered me his two year old yellow Lancia Beta. I bit his hand off.

It is difficult to appreciate now what an exciting car this was, in an era when a single overhead camshaft was a novelty, it had two, when two disk brakes were sometimes an option it had four. The styling was modern and interesting and the detailing exquisite. But the main delight was to drive it. Accurate steering and handling, and a smooth responsive engine {with a delightful snarl and kick as the second choke opened at 4000 revs} are things that we take for granted these days, but were rare back then; of the cars I have driven from this era only the Alfasud was comparable. I remember one of the bosses at work lending me his 1-week-old Rover 3500, I could not believe how disappointed I was by it in comparison. The steering feeling vague, the roll in corners being disconcerting and the engine lazy.

The car was reliable if properly serviced, but finding good quality service was not easy, parts were expensive and unfortunately rust was a problem. The car had been resprayed twice by the time I inherited it, and I became more and more worried about blisters around the window frames and the sills and the rustling noise that particles of rust made when I opened the bonnet. Even the headlights rusted and they were VERY expensive to replace. I sold the car {for a profit) before it was three years old and breathed a sigh of relief.

I missed that car a great deal, so much so that when I saw a two year old red example in 1982 at a Lancia dealer who had just reduced it's price by about 30% I could not resist a closer look.

After my previous experience you can understand it was a much closer look! The car was perfect and I bought it. I loved every thing about this car. In three years and fifty thousand miles only one thing went wrong with it, a relay for the indicators, I was quoted £80 for a replacement part as it was only available from Lancia with a chunk of wiring and other electronics attached, the relay had a unique pin layout, and couldn't be had elsewhere, so for a time I drove around without using indicators as I was reluctant to spend that much on the car. I wonder, do BMW drivers nowadays have the same problem?

By this time nobody had any desire to buy a Lancia Beta. If Tony Blair thinks he is having a hard time from the press, but is hoping that people have short memories he should look at this example. A five-year-old car with 60,000 miles was worth £300 despite being totally rust free and having only one small electrical fault because of media coverage years before.

I didn't realise then quite how much I loved the car, and replaced it with a Fiat Strada with the same engine, but a totally different character, Yes it was fast and fun, but not as nice as the Lancia, the Fiat was actually the only car I have owned in which people have refused to travel a second time.

I went to last years Frankfurt motor show and was mesmerised by the Lancia Fulvia, it brought back memories of how I had felt when I first held the keys to my own Lancia, this in turn made me ponder about how little fun there is to be had in cars today, for example we were offered an upgrade to a three series BMW by Avis on this journey, but decided to stick with a Mercedes A Class partly because of practicality and ease of parking, but also boredom with the three series.

I suppose it's really because I'm getting old; and maybe my memory is faulty, but I would love another drive in a mint Beta; as a second, but more likely choice I'll have that Fulvia, even though they say it isn't for production.