I live in Bangkok and I just bought a barn find and abandoned all original Beta coupe from its original first owner for 80,000 baht. I am in the process of having it restored by a dedicated Fiat/Lancia/Alfa specialist here in Bangkok. Nice to see your video. You’re absolutely right the car you’re reviewing here has been heavily modified and not worth the price at all. I’m really surprised they dared asked 220k! Even an 83 Volumex Beta coupe series 3 in good shape was recently sold here for less than that.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Congrats for finding your Beta in Bangkok! Please keep it as original as possible :) The Beta which I have reviewed, is really too much modified. It hasn't been sold for many months already... not surprising.
@sittisansundaravej39736 жыл бұрын
Cube of Cars I’m almost done with restoration of my Alfa Duetto Spider which is now 100% stock with NOS parts. The Beta will follow the same approach.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Great :)
@rainemoilanen68213 жыл бұрын
I think Lancia Beta Coupe is one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Its lines are just simply perfect from any angle. We have one, rather heavily modified, with my brother.
@CubeofCars3 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I really like the Beta and maybe one day I will also buy one :)
@Stevieboy1306646 жыл бұрын
A brilliant handling car in its day - its rear suspension design was largely copied in 1990s Ford Mondeo, Toyota Celica etc. I had one for several years but the rust got it eventually - the old double skinning of the inside rear wheel arch again.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Hopefully some of them will survive... I really like the Beta Coupé.
@neutronalchemist32416 жыл бұрын
One of many times Clarkson should have kept his mouth shut. The Beta was a beautiful car (see what other cars came out of the '70s), with an exceptional handling and advanced solutions not only for his price range. The first serie had rust issues that were severe, but not worse than those of several popular cars of the period. Lancia reacted better than many competitors (they rebuyed the cars that shown the problem, even from the second or third owner) and so the British press treated it worse than any other that simply ignored the problem. The subsequent series were rust-free and guaranteed, but British press, preferred to straight-out lie about them.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Thanks for sharing this info! I really like the Beta :)
@masashiiino69144 жыл бұрын
Still he drove one in Botswana adventure.
@MajorKlanga4 жыл бұрын
I wish people would stop taking notice of what Jeremy Clarkson has to say on anything.
@masashiiino69144 жыл бұрын
Ironically he drove one in Botswana adventure
@rodneymurfitt23736 жыл бұрын
I bought a Beta Coupe new from Charlie Oats Garage at Carnforth, and within 18 months the bonnet and both front wings had rusted through. The car was returned to the garage and they replaced said panels no charge. Needless to say I part x'd it before the rest of the car fell apart. I believe an import of" bad" steel from Russia was the cause of the premature corrosion problem, with the Alfa Sud (pepperpot) being affected worst of all.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Wow, the speed of rust is incredible. What a pity... I also like the Alfa Sud...
@raymondlonghurst46556 жыл бұрын
The only ones that had s problem were series one beta saloon all were recalled by lancia.coupe was never affected after 1978 all lancia were heavily treated with rustproofing wax after advice from Volvo and were from that point on one of the best rustproofed cars on the road they had a six year anti corrosion wants. The original problem withe saloon was a design fault with the subframe fixing this was rectified by bobbling the thickness of steel on the next version of saloon.only a few hundred cars were affected lancia did the honourable thing but in doing so have lost their reputation.pity ford or bmw with their rust problems couldn’t do the same
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Thanks for these details :)
@jofair5 жыл бұрын
Raymond: I fully agree with you concerning the handling aspect, and I had a Beta (trevi) for 11 yrs. and rust was not the biggest problem. The main problem was the susceptibility to all kinds of bad mechanics who progressively made the car worse. They fixed one thing, but broke two in the process. This happened all the time, as here in Germany mechanics are under such time pressure to complete a job, that they can't possibly do a good job. This was just before the wide-spread use of the Internet, so you didn't have that exchange of knowledge, which if I had had it, I would have felt supported rather than isolated as an oddball with such an exotic car. This guy who made the video used such a cheap title "the worst car" title, just to attract attention to his stupid video, which seemed to concentrate on the bloody dashboard. I would have at least started the car to see how it runs. I mean he wants to travel around s.e. Asia, not go to Pebble Beach; who cares about the dash. "German guy! you need to reconsider your attitudes and values." Beta is not for you.
@grahamwalker63953 жыл бұрын
I had 2 Beta saloons, first one killed by black ice, then a Beta HPE, killed by a series of people hitting it in the rear than a Gamma Coupe. The Gamma only parted with because of divorce! I loved my Lancias.
@CubeofCars3 жыл бұрын
The Lancia Gamma was such a beautiful coupé... I love its design!
@grahamwalker63953 жыл бұрын
@@CubeofCars So did I. Sad story: I had to sell the car because of divorce, then tracked it down 10 years later and bought it back from Practical Classics magazine. Then a second divorce and had to sell it again. I've tried to find it but I'm pretty sure it's baked bean tins now!
@YbborNetsrek6 жыл бұрын
My father had one while i was a kid, I bought one while i was 18 ... 30 years later.. i still have it. Although not operational at the moment.. I just never sold my first car.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
Cool! Hopefully it will be on the road again one day :)
@Ziebenator63-jj9ej4 жыл бұрын
Wise decision to pass on this lump!! It’s an $800 car at best! (And that’s Canadian Dollars!)
@CubeofCars4 жыл бұрын
The 280 TE which I finally bought in Bangkok, was surely the better choice ;)
@bmw-e304 жыл бұрын
Informative video--I also think the Lancia Beta is a very classy design.
@CubeofCars4 жыл бұрын
Thanks :)
@tjittekamminga51703 жыл бұрын
nice! I once drove a Lancia Beta Coupe 1800 brown metallic/brown leather interior; quite nice but corrosion! horrible. Before I drove a Fiat Dino 2400 and a Fiat 130 Coupe, much better... afterwards chose for German; Porsche, much better quality but different, that well...
@CubeofCars3 жыл бұрын
Wow.... nice ownership history! The Fiat Dino is also a great classic car!
@samfungccim5 жыл бұрын
To me the Lancia Beta Coupe was the best handling car at that time. I know I traded in my Fiat Bravo to a new Beta 1979 model year in Boston MA while I was in college. Six months later a drunk driver smashed into the front end and totaled it. I used the insurance money to buy a 79 Alfa Sprint Veloce still have it at 75k miles! I still have that spare tire of the Lancia Beta if anyone want to buy it!
@CubeofCars5 жыл бұрын
Enjoy your Sprint Veloce! That's also a great fun car :-)
@DubSe7en7 жыл бұрын
Awesome video, well put together and interesting. Loving the uploads, keep them coming.
@CubeofCars7 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching. I already have some ideas for my next videos :)
@vladislavfeldman65623 жыл бұрын
I used to have the same series 1 car 1974, same colour interior, but shit brown on the outside a part from the slight design problem of the engine/gearbox cradle falling off the body shell, jamming the accelerator and gearbox and making the steering useless, thus causing a serious damage. I can walk on my own now and recently Ive been of the air respirator. Otherwise the car was good , Ive even had it running for 24 days straight, without anything falling off, once in the mid 80's.
@CubeofCars3 жыл бұрын
Wow, seems it deserves its bad reputation...
@vladislavfeldman65623 жыл бұрын
@@CubeofCars Unless you are mechanically minded (they are not hard to work on)stay away. In the three years I owned one, In the late eighties, it cost me A$18,000 in repairs (a new Ferrari was about A$98,000).
@ericgeisen40907 жыл бұрын
Excellent model of Lancia! I prefer the Lancia Beta Spider model which is also a very handy daily usable shopping classic. Saw a nice one near Munchen for 7.500 Euro. Good choice to spend the winter in Asia! It is fucking cold here already...
@CubeofCars7 жыл бұрын
Yeah.... that's why I prefer Thailand this time of the year. But the classic car market in Europe is so much better... Here it's really so difficult to find any interesting and reasonably priced classic car.
@paulspindler58493 жыл бұрын
I’ve seen press photos of a very early spider with pillarless doors and quarter bumpers but I don’t know if any were produced like this or still exist.
@Barnekkid6 жыл бұрын
I used to have one of these. It almost put me in the poorhouse.
@CubeofCars6 жыл бұрын
That would probably be my fate as well, if I had bought it in Thailand...
@franzchong58896 жыл бұрын
my old man had one of these new in 1977-1978 then onsold it for a fiat x1/9.he bought another one used in 87 had it for close to two years then was traded for a new series 5 mazda rx7 in 89.
@BackSeatHump4 жыл бұрын
😊
@giuseppe49092 жыл бұрын
What the hell is crawling on the rear tire (near the start of the walk-around) !
@CubeofCars Жыл бұрын
Wow, I see that now for the first time!!! Looks extraterrestrial... If anyone wants to check and identify, here it is in the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWq3aaV5d8-Vmac
@dm53744 жыл бұрын
The rear badges should be on the trunklid, not the rear fascia.
@BackSeatHump4 жыл бұрын
The paint on the Beta is screaming, "Under the skin is lots of rust and cheap plastic filler!" That car won't make it to Samut Prakan without the engine and wings falling off.
@wschell40232 жыл бұрын
Misleading title...i expected you to actually buy the car and provide more insight. Should be titled "went to look at". While there was some decent content, for the most part it was a pretty superficial look at the car.
@raymondlonghurst46556 жыл бұрын
Should read doubling thickness of steel. And warranty not wants,l hate predictive texts
@rimonsarker71063 жыл бұрын
Very nice
@markcollins457 Жыл бұрын
Good move not to buy, that paint job looked like It was hiding a nightmare.
@CubeofCars Жыл бұрын
That's also what I think ;)
@Marie5794 жыл бұрын
it's missing the center light between the rear seats and the clock, was it a 1300?
@dm53744 жыл бұрын
The 1300 had a bench seat in back instead of two disctinct seats.
@ericgeisen40906 жыл бұрын
I am anxious to see how you go forward now...............
@Desertduleler_885 жыл бұрын
I did my apprenticeship fixing this car, it was a shit box.
@CubeofCars5 жыл бұрын
... it needs love.... haha ;)
@Desertduleler_885 жыл бұрын
I later ended up getting a low mileage RX7 81' model. I've still got it and is far more reliable and durable.
@CubeofCars5 жыл бұрын
An early RX7 would be a cool car for review! :)
@mrfudd134 жыл бұрын
Sorry: I don't like ad's interrupting a presentation. Thumbs down.
@CubeofCars4 жыл бұрын
Cool.... and you probably also expect free meals in the restaurant and give a thumbs down if I don't get it... well, do whatever you want....
@mrfudd134 жыл бұрын
@@CubeofCars And you expect me to jump through your hoops like a lab rat allowing you to force me to watch a commercial. Know why am, fm radio and broadcast and cable tv, are losing audience - have been for years. It's because there's too much advertising. Show some respect for your viewers, put all your ad's at the front so I can mute them. You get paid, and I don't get interrupted (gotta admit the free meal sounds pretty good, though).