One of the most interesting things about life in Beijing is the unpredictability and spontaneity of the place – its honestly a city where you’ll rarely meet the same people or have the same experiences day-to-day. This also applied until fairly recently to the car-scene in the city, and what brings us to this Lancia Thema, one of the most interesting and unique cars I came across in China’s capital.
Lancia never sold any of their models officially in mainland China, but they did so in the 80s and 90s in the then British-governed Hong-Kong, which is where the owner told me this example was imported from. China kept until about a decade ago a policy where they would allow foreigners or foreign-owned companies in China to import and register vehicles individually, which led to cities such as Beijing having an unexpected and incredibly interesting car-culture.
Despite its simple but beautiful Giuogaro-penned design, the Thema wasn’t a sales success globally, and greatly underperformed in sales even compared to it’s platform siblings the Alfa-Romeo 164/168 and Saab 9000. This was even the case in Hong-Kong, where locals were actually snapping-up Lancia Delta Integrales, but largely ignored this underrated luxury sedan. Hence stepping into this example, and seeing the beautifully-preserved leather interior was a true privilege.
I saw this Thema several times between 2014 and 2016 near where I lived in Beijing’s Sanlitun district, and the last time I did I saw the car looking a bit more sorry squatting on its rear suspension. I talked to the owner, and he told me that he was being forced to scrap the car by the end of 2016 due to Beijing’s new emissions laws targeting older vehicles. Of course it didn’t matter that these older models only made up a tiny portion of the vehicles in operation in the Capital, or the fact that most emissions were coming from the horribly-maintained diesel public busses roaming the city, but anyways…
I did hear some rumours afterwards, however, that the car was purchased and saved by some local enthusiasts, so the story of Beijing’s solitary Thema might not be over quite yet!