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When I first saw the advert for the Chrysler Ypsilon I was confused. The voiceover talks about an affordable luxury car so I was expecting a cut price 5 Series or maybe a low rent C Class wannabe. Instead I saw a remarkably unattractive small hatchback which looked horribly familiar. What on earth could it be?
The answer is that the Ypsilon is actually a Lancia rebadged as a Chrysler. It makes sense if you think about it; it is almost impossible to sell a Lancia in Britain because too many people remember the terminally unreliable, badly built rust buckets that last left these shores in 1993. Fiat, owner of Lancia, has now bought Chrysler and can make use of the brand to sell a niche model in the UK. The Ypsilon is based on a slightly stretched version of the platform shared by the Fiat 500 and Panda. However, it has five doors and is more roomy than the 500 in particular.
Visually, the car is hard to like. The designers have done their best and I must give them credit for the rear lights, the sculpting of the side panels and the concealed handles on the back doors, but the proportions are all wrong. It is too tall and too narrow and the wheel arches are too small for it to look anything other than ridiculous. Never mind, perhaps things will improve when I get inside.
Not really. Admittedly there is a reasonable amount of head and leg room, particularly in the back, and if you specify the leather option it does look faintly luxurious, but the centre mounted instrument pod just looks wrong and the plastics used are cheap and nasty. The fit and finish is pretty shoddy too; hit a bump and everything rattles – that shouldn’t happen in a new car. At least the equipment levels are pretty good and include air con and alloy wheels on the SE model.
The engine line up is the same as the Fiat 500 but without the 1.4 litre Multi-air unit. There is a 1.3 litre diesel which is frugal and reasonably powerful but lacking in charisma, a 74bhp 1.2 petrol which is good fun and the award winning Twin-air, a two cylinder 875cc petrol that apparently produces as much CO² as a sleeping baby. This was the engine in the car I drove and it’s actually pretty good, remarkably peppy and responsive though it does make a strange noise and always sounds like it’s working harder than it actually is. It’s also less economical than the diesel, though hardly a gas guzzler. Given the choice, I’d go for the 1.2 petrol.
It is only when you drive the Ypsilon that it finally makes a good impression. The ride is compliant for such a small car and certainly much less bouncy than a Fiat 500. Although it feels like you are sitting on top of the car there is minimal body roll and the steering turns in sharply without any of the understeer you associate with a small front wheel drive car. The Ypsilon is very light, it weighs less than a tonne, so it is responsive and lively, even if it is not particularly fast. After a couple of hours driving I found myself warming to the funny little thing.
To sum up then, this is not as bad a car as I first imagined and it’s nice to see Lancia back on Britain’s roads, even if it is masquerading as a Chrysler. At around £13,000 it is good value for a 5 door supermini too. The only thing is, a Fiat 500 has most of the advantages of the Ypsilon and is cool and stylish too, yet it costs a couple of thousand pounds less. I know which car I’d rather buy.
Kit Johnson
Car as tested Chrysler Ypsilon Twinair SE £13,195 OTR
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