u/Harley-Benton-420

How often do you see cars with mechanical fuel injections still working? Those two photos are both mine and I still own one of the cars.

Note: reposted from mobile because of a problem with the images when uploading from desktop. Sorry about that…

So here's the latest addition to my small fleet of shitboxes - a 1998 Lancia Dedra 1.6ie.

Bought it from an elderly widow. It currently has close to 213000km on the clock. According to the stickers in the engine bay, the last oil change was in 2023, when the car had 211500km. So, after her husband passed away the car barely got driven at all. The elderly couple has had it since 2013, so it doesn't seem to have changed many owners during its life. They also live in a village located on the main road inbetween two small towns, so it has been driven mostly on the open roads and probably hasn't seen heavy traffic and congestions for a very long time. It was also stored in a garage.

Technically, it's pretty much an upscale Fiat Tempra. The Dedra also shares its platform with the Alfa 155, Fiat Tipo, Lancia Delta, as well as a few other cars. The funny thing is that it also seems to have a galvanised body, which is pretty rare - I've only seen galvanised bodies on older Audis, mainly. There's not any rust, even in places where the paint is in a pretty bad condition. The engine is a common Fiat 1.6 MPI with the 8-valve SOHC reverse-flow head. Pretty simple design.

Currently, it's kind of a turd. It desperately needs some work on the suspension. There's also a small exhaust leak, which makes it sound nice, but it also smells up the cabin with exhaust gas whenever I am driving with the windows down, which is absolutely unacceptable. No smells when the windows are up, but the car doesn't have air conditioning, so driving with the windows down is an essential need. It also needs a Bluetooth radio... oh, and some rims as well! Or at least some hubcaps, lol.

Other than that it's fairly nice. The engine starts up with the twist of the key, revs all the way to the limiter and runs pretty smoothly for an old 4-cylinder. I pulled the plugs the other day and there was also no fouling.

My plans are to try making it a solid daily driver. Not entirely optimistic, because it's an old Italian car, but let's see where it goes.