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Lancia is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906, part of the Fiat group since 1969. During the 1980s the company cooperated with Saab Automobile, with the Lancia Delta being marketed as Saab 600 in Sweden. Saab also helped with the logistics and the model was actually better suited for colder climates and less prone to rust than other models. The 1985 Lancia Thema also shared a platform with the Saab 9000 and Fiat Croma.
In the United Kingdom Lancia increasingly suffered from image problems in the 1980s associated with rust (though in reality only the 1970s Beta model truly deserved this reputation), and pulled out of the UK in 1994. Since then no right hand drive models have been produced.
Lancia is famous for many of innovations concerning the automobile sector. These include the first V12 engine ever built, the first V8 engine and the first VR6 engine (initially used in an Lancia Aurelia)