Lancia Dedra SW (1994) – Into the Wild

First of all, we would like to express our boundless gratitude to AutoWeek forum member HarmenA for this nice spot. He shared it in this topic on our forum, where much more splendor can be admired. This Dedra was definitely worth photographing. In the first place because you will undoubtedly come to the conclusion that you hardly ever see such a Dedra again. The later hatchback brother, the Delta, seems to us a little less rare than a Dedra and certainly than the Dedra SW, which was only introduced in 1994. All relatively of course, because you also have to search for a Delta of that generation. Still, at the time, about 600 to 700 of these were sold per year in the Netherlands, while the Dedra in that period remained at about 300 to 400 units.

The Dedra – and the Delta of that generation – were relatively successful models for Lancia. With an emphasis on relative. After the turn of the millennium, sales plummeted, but in the 90s things were not bad. That was for the most part due to the Ypsilon, although the Dedra and Delta also participated nicely. The Dedra shared its Tipo 3 base with the Fiat Tempra and Alfa Romeo 155 and came on the market with a series of well-sized four-cylinder engines. Initially still eight-valve copies, but in 1995 sixteen-valves also made their appearance. Unfortunately, this was offset by the fact that the very potent HF Turbo and HF Integrale had to leave the field.

The Dedra SW that we have here in front of us has the most common engine of that moment in the nose, the 101 hp 1.8. Still an eight-valve, but with a 0 to 100 km/h time of 12.7 seconds and a top speed of 180 km/h, you didn’t have much to complain about. Apparently the owner thinks it is a top car in any case, because it turns out: he or she has owned the Dedra since 1995! So when the car was less than a year old, it already came into the hands of the current owner and he faithfully holds on to it. We can imagine that there may have been children in the back seat who now have their own children take the same back seat when they ride with grandparents. In any case, the Dedra still looks like the family can still enjoy it for the time being and the MOT is still relatively fresh. Fun!