Start with what the Lancia Ardea is: a 4-door sedan (car) / saloon / 2-door pickup truck / pickup (Camioncino) / 3-door van (Furgoncino) / 4-door taxi (Tassì Roma) with 903 , built from 1939 to 1953, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer.
Where it came from
The Lancia Ardea is a small family car produced by Italian car manufacturer Lancia between 1939 and 1953. Its unusually short bonnet reportedly contained the smallest V4 engine ever commercialized in a small family car. Nearly 23,000 of the Ardeas produced were standard bodied saloons but between 1940 and 1942 approximately 500 Ardeas were manufactured with lengthened bodies and a squared off rear cabin for use in Rome as taxis.
After the war more than 8,500 commercial adaptations of the Ardea known as 'furgoncini' (light van versions) and the 'camioncini' (car based light trucks) were also produced. The third series Ardea, produced from 1948, was the first mass-produced car with a 5-speed manual transmission. Ardea was named either after Ardea town (Lazio), or Via Ardeatina, Roman road leading from Rome to that town.
Under the skin
The engine is 903 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 780 kg. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual (1939–1948) / 5-speed manual (1948–1953). The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2440 mm / 2500 mm (pick-up/van) / 2950 mm (taxi). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Lancia line-up the Lancia Ardea has a clear place: it replaced the Lancia Augusta; it handed the line to the Lancia Appia; the factory was Turin. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lincoln Continental, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Chrysler Saratoga. Nearby in the Lancia catalogue sit the Lancia 037 and the Lancia 2000.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Lancia Ardea has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.