Buying a Lancia Integrale

Here starts a potentially hazardous process, finding the car that you are going to love and enjoy owning for years to come, or the car that you will be pleased to be rid of as soon as possible or even sooner if your banker had anything to do with it. Time and care taken at this stage will give great benefit later.


The main sources of supply available to you are:



1) To buy directly from a source in Europe, be it a via a Dealer or private person.

2) To purchase from a car trader.

3) To purchase by private treaty from an owner in the UK.

4) To purchase from one of the known Lancia Specialists in the U.K.

Benefits and drawbacks of the various supply sources.


1) Direct purchase from Europe

The attraction of this source of supply is price, but buyer be very aware, with the strength of Sterling, Europe is very willing to sell us their cars, or even in some cases, other peoples cars. Those of the specialists who buy from Europe will confirm that they reject 9 of every 10 vehicles offered to them on the basis of provenance or quality. Sadly, often the other 9 still arrive in the UK because they were cheap. Even though we are happy to repair them for their owners to bring them up to a reasonable standard, they will never become good cars. Typical costs, £1000.00 finding and bringing home, up to £1800.00 in repair and servicing costs. Remember it is very difficult to recover any costs from Europe should a problem occur. See also Vehicle History and Title below



2) Purchase from a Trader

Again the prices are attractive, most of the cars are imported from Germany or Italy. Remember that they are mainly the cars that have been rejected, by specialists and often they have not received any repairs to bring them up to standard except for cosmetics. Always have them inspected prior to purchase.


3) Private Treaty

Prices can be negotiated directly to the benefit of both the old and the new owner. More and more deals are being made this way with the aid of a known Specialist acting as a "Marriage Broker" and organising Inspections, Extended Warranties and even Finance. Be wary of the private owner who has only owned the car for a few weeks or months, either there is a problem with the car or he is actually a Trader in disguise.


4) Specialist Lancia Dealers

This is the supply line with the greatest protection for the buyer. All of the Specialists check the provenance and condition of the vehicies prior to sale. The vehicle is supplied in a ready for use condition, that is fully serviced and in a condition acceptable to the Warranty Companies so that full 12 month warranties can be set up. As specialists, we always try to avoid selling second grade cars and in doing so the prices will always be a little higher than other sources but in the longer term these cars will always give better value.



The most important points to establish prior to purchase are:

1) The Vehicles History.
2) The Vehicles Current Condition.
3) Body and Chassis Condition.
4) Legal Title

1) Vehicle History

The car must have proper history, this enables the mileage to be verified as well as being an indication of the way the vehicle has been cared for.

History is not just a nice service booklet all stamped and signed in the right boxes, but also a few (not all) pieces of paper to verify some of the stamps. If the car is of UK origin it may be possible to verify history with one of the servicing dealers, If the car is from Europe it becomes much harder.

In Italy, it has not been common custom to keep a service history on cars, this was caused by complex tax laws and standard evasion techniques from their Finanza Police, (cash payment, no invoice, thus no record in service book). Three years ago it was rare to find a car with a full history. It is not coincidental that since Sterling became a strong currency, service history is available on all cars offered for sale. Many service books are signed in the same ink by the same mechanic with no greasy thumb prints.

In Germany the cars are always serviced during the period that the warranty applies, after that period it is common for the car to only receive repairs on items that have failed, as the owners do not intend to keep cars for more than a year or so after the expiry of the extended warranty period.

The French cars very rarely have a service book, but often some of the service invoices have been kept so in some respects they are safer histories than some.

2) Current Condition.

The car should be examined and driven by a person familiar with the Integrale to establish its current condition and evidence of poor repairs. Most specialists can organise this for you, the AA or RAC can also examine the cars, but they do not have too much experience with them.

Items to look out for;

Cambelt condition, 16V requires change at 24000 miles.
Exhaust condition, front flexy pipe, lasts well, but is expensive.
Clutch, should not be wooden in feel, if it is it is nearly finished.
Suspension bushes and shock absorbers, these can affect the handling and if it doesn't handle well why buy it?

Typical cost of preparation for a European car overdue for service;
Cam Belts£270.00
Major service£350.00
Part of Exhaust£140.00
Suspension work£200.00
Two tyres£230.00
Clutch near end of life£640.00
Total£1830.00

3) Accident damage.

Many integrales have had paintwork repairs, they are cars that are driven quickly and often on minor roads, so that stone chips are common on the front of the car and lower areas of the doors. Caring owners often repaint these areas and this kind of repair is not a problem. Damaged wheel rims can give an indication of the driving style of the previous owners. Only a saint can avoid chipping the rims, but when deep gouge marks are evident give them some thought.


Some of the cars have had accident damage of a medium impact nature. If repaired by a competent bodyshop this should not be detrimental to the operation of the car, but it will affect it's value slightly.


There are however, cars about that should have been written off, but have instead been sold for salvage, they have then been repaired and sold on. These cars should be avoided at all cost. If repairing the car was not economic for an Insurance Company then it is quite likely that in order to keep costs down the eventual repair was not carried out in a manner that would have been acceptable to the original owner. There have been a number of salvage cars imported from Germany and Italy and then repaired in England using second hand body parts. In all cases, be wary of cars painted in a different colour to the original specified on the Chassis plate. To the inexperienced eye it is not easy to spot these cars, however a good accident repair shop can see the tell tale signs, so if in doubt ask.


4)Vehicle title

In the UK we have various methods for checking a vehicles ownership and legal title mainly through the services of HPI Equifax. There is no equivalent system available to a purchaser in the UK for checking European cars. It is possible, for us as Lancia Dealers, to check a vehicles data as logged with Lancia, although this can only give us details of build and first registration. This information alone however, has caused a number of stolen cars to be recovered. If buying privately you could find yourself without a vehicle with little chance of financial recovery. Vehicles bought through dealers give you protection against both the vehicle being stolen and against outstanding Finance Repayments, as in both cases the Dealer is held responsible (Dealers are supposed to make best efforts to verify these facts).


If you can supply the Chassis No., we can supply you with the vehicle's production and first registration details as held by Lancia's Computer in Italy. If you would like to use this facility we make a charge of £10.00 per enquiry to cover the cost of accessing the information. CONTACT: MR. JOHN WHALLEY ON TEL. (+44) 01279 654181



Please come and visit the Cars for Sale part of this site by clicking here

The condition of the car is not just the physical condition but also takes into account, History, Accident damage and if the Title is suspect in any way DO NOT BUY IT.


In an attempt to bring some assistance to potential Intergrale buyers, who today, are overwhelmed by the number and varying quality price of the Integrales available, we have designed the following questionare as an aid to valuing any vehicle that you may be considering buying. We offer this as a starting point for negotiation, not as a definative valuation system. Please always have your final selection inspected, prior to purchasing. We make no charge for condition inspections after purchase!!


Please click HERE for the questionaire so that you can print it easily....