RE: M250 Binned
Discussion
Well I for one will no longer be supporting Lotus Cars Ltd. - I don't want some americanised tank. By the way they are not handing back everyone's deposits, not only did they cause Haydon Cars into liquidation by removing they 2001-2002 order book (there are rumors they are doing it to other dealerships), but according to my letter and I quote
'We would like to return the deposit held with lotus to you directly. However, we are in the process of taking legal advice to ensure that we can do this given the current situation with this particular dealership. Until we have this clarification we are unable to take steps to refund the money to you as the liquidator may decide to make a claim for that money.'
And just to add insult to injury they have offered M250 deposit holders a 3000 pound reduction on a new elise if they order within 3 months - what the f@#k would I want one of those for, espically as I probably wouldn't see it until about half way through this decade, by which time they will be producing super mini's with more sportiness.......
I used to think the Joke about Lotus' being Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious applied to their cars - but now I know it applies to the company - prepare yourselves for the potential downfall of Lotus.......
.... sorry no offence ment to anyone (other than Lotus) this small outburst in no way covers the rage I'm currently building up......
Noble Moy here I come -
I own a 111s and Lotus kept it off the road for 4 months once because they couldn't provide a rear clamshell after someone whacked into me. Additionally, they issued a safety recall (engine can catch fire!) in February and the current delivery forecast on the requisite parts is the end of May. They are not a credible manufacturer and I would have been asking for the return of my deposit on the M250 even if they hadn't binned it. They had good momentum following the success of the Elise. This will clearly have dissipated by the time they have a new car and they'll have all that work to do again. I feel feel sorry for the (undoubtedly) clever enguineers at Lotus.
quote:Actually I used to have an original Elise which was fantastic and I currently own an exige.... and i'm merely stating that I think that if i order an elise now, by the time I actually get my hands on it it will be out of date.
>>"They will be producing supermini's with more spotiness" Not a brand enthusiast then - sounds like your a bit of a garage jeweller to me and only wanted the M250 to pose in. Why not buy a T-Shirt with "look at me" it is much cheaper and probably suits more! It is no use posting "apologies if i offended anyone" and then making out you didn't intend to when you have blatently offended many people. I have had problems with Lotus but although i complained about them I never insulted others by criticising their own choice of car be it a Lotus Elise or not!
It is most likely the fault of my fellow lotus drivers and myself in the US that have caused this disaster. I think the world has to understand that while the rest of you have had the oppertunity to drive the elise, 340, exige, etc., we in the US have only had the Esprit since the demise of the Elan in 1992. We have been desperately looking for one of the newer Lotus products to make it here and saw the M250 as the anwser to our prayers. There are now rumors on this side of the pond that by Fall 2002 we will finally get the Elise II. In any case, I can assure many of you in Europe that we here in the US would rather see the M250 for Europe only than never built at all. At least we may have seen a race version of the car. Lotus as a marque is too important to us. So please accept our deepest appologies of this is our fault. I hope you understand our situation.
I had a romantic notion that I would be driving a M250 as my regular car in the United States. Lotus probably didn't have the cash to fully develop the car and pulled out of it before their investment was too great. It would have sold extremely well in the United States. I have had the opportunity to sit in an Elise. You have to be a contortionist to get into the car! I hope Lotus can do better for the world marketplace than the Esprit!
I can't say how sorry I feel to see this project go. I was looking forward to driving this car.
From the reports that Lotus are saying there will be no entirely new car for three years, and their occasional claims that they can develop a car in eighteen months, my guess is that the problems are entirely financial. Vauxhall's VX220 may not be as good as the Elise II, but Vauxhall's contract looks like it has severly damaged Lotus, at least in the short term. The suits have won this round.
quote:Are you a Haydon Cars/Daytune customer? I was and it seems very probably that Lotus hand a big hand in the downfall of Haydon - and it would seem by their own admission that they did - why would they offer me (I haven't found out about any other Haydon customers yet)a Haydon customer a 3k reduction on an Elise - maybe they are feeling guilty about making me loose my deposit....
I got the letter also - Didn't see anywhere anything about a £3K discount on a new Elise? Rich
quote:I will be speaking with Lotus and Haydon tommorrow - and posting my findings - mean while - I will be test driving an M12 sometime soon - I'm told If I order one today I should have by March next year by which time I will be fed up getting headache's in the Exige!
I am another Haydon Customer and have heard nothing from Lotus about my £3grand. Please post a reply if any Haydon Customers have heard any thing from Lotus. I will not be chuffed if they offer me £3grand off a new Elise, been there done that etc etc.
(although this time may decrease bcause they are thinking about increasing production)
M250 binned??? That's a crying shame!!!both for we Lotus fans and for Lotus itself. Though I now live in the US I studied engineering in England, and I most definitely would have bought the US-spec M250. For those of you who are hard or too soft on Lotus I have news for you. How you react to horrifying news like this determines how Lotus will react in the future. Most people who wanted the M250 did so for 2 main reasons 1)because we believe that the M250 would've been a larger (and better looking) Elise. 2) because in the last decade Lotus has demonstrated that it can grow enough to cater for the after sales needs of its clients (e.g. customer care, reliability, build quality, and most importantly stability). If you guys closely examine yourselves you'll see I'm right. In short its being feeling good to own a lotus in the last five years because it's no longer looked at as a large kit-car-sized company. But now by scrapping the M250, it raises the question of how about all the money spent on R & D that was suppose to be gotten back from the sales of the M250!!! Without money from the "M" what happens to the Espirit? With all the competition who says the Elise (at over 4yrs old!!) will continue to sell strong? So you see the confidence in Lotus is slowly drying up again. The bean counters at Lotus choose the wrong engine provider and the changed to Renault last minute....why would you buy the engine from a company that has no product currently in the US, if you want to sell in the US??? They should have bought the M250 Euro-spec engines from Honda Europe...and bought the US-bound
M250 engines from Honda-Americas. Then they should ditch that no-flexible name M250 for a real name that way the engine can produce less or more that 250bhp that the name signifies!! For years BMW has supplied the M3 to the US with a lot less power, but with the same excitement. The M250 can do the same. The US market is currently at 17m a year. Lotus can sell as little a 2500
for less than 50K and still make a major profit. RR sold less than 400 cars in the Yankee.. So please don't take it lightly when Lotus releases bad news such as this. It's an indication of the sad state that our British car industry is in. Call Lotus, infact contact Proton. I was really looking forward to showing Boxter owners a clean pair of shoes. Thanks chaps.
I really looked forward to the production of the M250. I have an 111s, a 340R and a esprit sport 350.
I went specially to the autosalon in Birmingham from Belgium to see the M250 because I find it a nice car and I would like to have one in my collection...
I hope that the new car won't be an "american" car because than the fun of a lotus will be gone and that I think would be very sad.........
So Lotus would you give it a second though of producing the M250........
Well, waited fro 18 months for my orginal Elise, have owned that for three years and enjoyed it greatly. And, unlike some of these posts, I am a very happy customer, the car has been reliable and the dealer (Bell & Colvill) excellent.
I got on the M250 band wagon early, thinking that I was not going to have to wait so long. But, now it is cancelled, I am not overly sad. I live in the US now, so I really needed it to be approved for use here.
I had my Elise here for a year on a temporary import, which was wonderful and drew in 1000's of admirers and Lotus do need a product here. With luck the Elise II will be approved, and may save their US market (and lets face it, who needs an Esprit).
I have a 340R on its way from England so spend a year, so that is some conselation, plus the fact that since there were not selling well, I picked it up dirt cheap.
So people ! Stop that windging and face facts, its gone but not forgotten, and there will be something new at some stage.
While you are all sobbing and waiting why don't you save yourself a big wadge of notes and get yourself a real sports car. Just 17,950 fully built and ready to drive. 150bhp, 5-speed, 670kg, either convertible or hardtop, gorgeous curves, built and designed by the Walkletts as it was in 1961. Yes, a Ginetta G4 by DARE(UK) Limited (not to be confused with the current Ginetta Cars company). It's the 40th anniversary of the G4 and it still blows Lotus's away just like it did then. Now it sees off the Elise (and Esprits, Elans, 911s, Morgan +8s etc)
Visit MOTORSPORT section on website if you find it hard to believe - WWW.DAREUK.COM
G4 won some races by over 20 secs in 750 Roadsports.
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