Lancia Beta Coupé | Trip to Bangkok to buy the "Worst Car in the World"?

[@sittisansundaravej3973]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

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.

[@sittisansundaravej3973]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Great :)

[@rainemoilanen6821]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Yeah, I really like the Beta and maybe one day I will also buy one :)

[@Stevieboy130664]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Hopefully some of them will survive... I really like the Beta Coupé.

[@neutronalchemist3241]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Thanks for sharing this info! I really like the Beta :)

[@masashiiino6914]

Still he drove one in Botswana adventure.

[@MajorKlanga]

I wish people would stop taking notice of what Jeremy Clarkson has to say on anything.

[@masashiiino6914]

Ironically he drove one in Botswana adventure

[@rodneymurfitt2373]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Wow, the speed of rust is incredible. What a pity... I also like the Alfa Sud...

[@raymondlonghurst4655]

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

[@CubeofCars]

Thanks for these details :)

[@jofair]

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.

[@grahamwalker6395]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

The Lancia Gamma was such a beautiful coupé... I love its design!

[@grahamwalker6395]

@@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!

[@YbborNetsrek]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Cool! Hopefully it will be on the road again one day :)

[@Ziebenator63-jj9ej]

Wise decision to pass on this lump!! It’s an $800 car at best! (And that’s Canadian Dollars!)

[@CubeofCars]

The 280 TE which I finally bought in Bangkok, was surely the better choice ;)

[@bmw-e30]

Informative video--I also think the Lancia Beta is a very classy design.

[@CubeofCars]

Thanks :)

[@tjittekamminga5170]

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...

[@CubeofCars]

Wow.... nice ownership history! The Fiat Dino is also a great classic car!

[@samfungccim]

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!

[@CubeofCars]

Enjoy your Sprint Veloce! That's also a great fun car :-)

[@DubSe7en]

Awesome video, well put together and interesting. Loving the uploads, keep them coming.

[@CubeofCars]

Thanks for watching. I already have some ideas for my next videos :)

[@vladislavfeldman6562]

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.

[@CubeofCars]

Wow, seems it deserves its bad reputation...

[@vladislavfeldman6562]

@@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).

[@ericgeisen4090]

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...

[@CubeofCars]

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.

[@paulspindler5849]

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.

[@Barnekkid]

I used to have one of these. It almost put me in the poorhouse.

[@CubeofCars]

That would probably be my fate as well, if I had bought it in Thailand...

[@franzchong5889]

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.

[@BackSeatHump]

😊

[@giuseppe4909]

What the hell is crawling on the rear tire (near the start of the walk-around) !

[@CubeofCars]

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

[@dm5374]

The rear badges should be on the trunklid, not the rear fascia.

[@BackSeatHump]

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.

[@wschell4023]

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.

[@raymondlonghurst4655]

Should read doubling thickness of steel. And warranty not wants,l hate predictive texts

[@rimonsarker7106]

Very nice

[@markcollins457]

Good move not to buy, that paint job looked like It was hiding a nightmare.

[@CubeofCars]

That's also what I think ;)

[@Marie579]

it's missing the center light between the rear seats and the clock, was it a 1300?

[@dm5374]

The 1300 had a bench seat in back instead of two disctinct seats.

[@ericgeisen4090]

I am anxious to see how you go forward now...............

[@Desertduleler_88]

I did my apprenticeship fixing this car, it was a shit box.

[@CubeofCars]

... it needs love.... haha ;)

[@Desertduleler_88]

I later ended up getting a low mileage RX7 81' model. I've still got it and is far more reliable and durable.

[@CubeofCars]

An early RX7 would be a cool car for review! :)

[@mrfudd13]

Sorry: I don't like ad's interrupting a presentation. Thumbs down.

[@CubeofCars]

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....

[@mrfudd13]

@@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).