The Curse of Lotus
Discussion
I've just been having some (slightly silly) thoughts... please don't take this seriously but..
Every time Lotus launch a new model, we have an economic crisis.
Esprit - UK had six months of recession as the oil crisis played out.
Excel - Early 80's recession
Elan M100 - UK crashes out of the ERM
Evora - Global financial crash
Evija - Well...
Every time Lotus launch a new model, we have an economic crisis.
Esprit - UK had six months of recession as the oil crisis played out.
Excel - Early 80's recession
Elan M100 - UK crashes out of the ERM
Evora - Global financial crash
Evija - Well...
I hate to tell you this but there's another new Lotus coming in 2021 (though nobody seems to know anything about it yet)... There were a few articles about it in August last year but other than that no-one seems to know anything / have seen it since.
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/lotus/106611/new-202...
Relevant thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/lotus/106611/new-202...
Relevant thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
A mates pointed out an article today on Lotus media about a positive sales performance last year and mentioning along with the Evija is a new sports car to debut this year...they`d have a lot of egg on their faces if they didn't launch it this year...although we still have 11.5 months left this year!
Ryvita said:
Most kind! Be interesting to find out a bit more about it. I'm stuck between the exige and Evora at the moment. I love the exige, but really would struggle with the lack of places to put stuff when touring. That's why the Evora is the favourite. But if there's something coming in between, it might be perfect for me!Ryvita said:
That article states a 6% increase for 2020 Lotus sales in UK.
Does not match the UK new registrations figures though at 171 cars, a decline of 24% from the previous year.
2020 obviously a very difficult year for the motor industry, so sales declines have occurred for most manufacturers.
-24% is better that most makes.
Lotus sales are to their dealers, so have they been doing what Aston Martin did with their new Vantage?
'Channel stuffing' dealers with cars, which then remained unsold and unregistered.
https://www.am-online.com/data/manufacturer-insigh...
Edited by Jon39 on Tuesday 12th January 04:05
BertBert said:
So with 2019 being 225 new regs for Lotus, 6% growth takes that to 238 versus the 171 in 2020, that's 67 cars "stuffed" into the dealers. That's a lot, must be on very good credit terms.
To be fair Bert, we don't really know. I was making an assumption about the reason for the difference between the figures.
If they are pushing cars into dealer stock, then you might be interested to know how AML dealt with situation.
Towards the end of 2019, Aston Martin UK dealers had more new Vantage stock than they could sell. We wont go into the reasons, but you might have your own idea.
The way the cars were shifted, was a bargain basement PCP scheme.
Deposit ................ = £1,000.
23 payments ....... = £1,000
Free servicing and free first year Road Tax.
How about that for a £140,000 car ?
It cost AML about £35 million.
So, you never know, you might be offered Lotus bargaIns in the future.
BertBert said:
Sorry Jon, I was being very much tongue in check and not critical!
I'll go for the mega deal though!
I'll go for the mega deal though!
Hope it does not happen for Lotus sake.
Not only does the manufacturer lose a huge amount of money, selling becomes more difficult afterwards, because potential buyers who know about the deals, are reluctant to pay the original prices.
Oh, and the earlier buyers also lose a packet of extra depreciation.
A very short-term solution to a problem, caused originally by a manufacturer trying artificially to boost their sales to dealer figures.
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