New Lotus models Including 7 and Esprit.
Discussion
Just seen the front cover of Auto express. Some shots of new Lotus models, seeing the pictures had me buying the mag, but reading the article made me a bit sad.
Initially very excited to see a new lotus 7, but then read its going to be £60K. I was thinking more of a back to basics MX5 rival, but no, it’s a Spanish designed vehicle and likely to be built there. Esprit looks nice, talk of a 4-seater hybrid GT is interesting, but my concerns are a lack of engineering substance. Lotus came up with a great manufacturing process in bonding aluminium chassis, but lets face it fibreglass bodies are for kit cars and other than the range extender I cant see that “special something” of engineering substance to compete with markets it intends to rival.
It also states the 1.8 SC will not be made anymore, I guess we will see a SC 1.6 or something, but do get the impression the current range is a bit of an embarrassment to the new Lotus brand.
Anyway Lotus obviously needs to move on, given they haven’t been making money in recent year, but fear the Lotus we know and love is about to be made history.
Initially very excited to see a new lotus 7, but then read its going to be £60K. I was thinking more of a back to basics MX5 rival, but no, it’s a Spanish designed vehicle and likely to be built there. Esprit looks nice, talk of a 4-seater hybrid GT is interesting, but my concerns are a lack of engineering substance. Lotus came up with a great manufacturing process in bonding aluminium chassis, but lets face it fibreglass bodies are for kit cars and other than the range extender I cant see that “special something” of engineering substance to compete with markets it intends to rival.
It also states the 1.8 SC will not be made anymore, I guess we will see a SC 1.6 or something, but do get the impression the current range is a bit of an embarrassment to the new Lotus brand.
Anyway Lotus obviously needs to move on, given they haven’t been making money in recent year, but fear the Lotus we know and love is about to be made history.
It will be interesting how it turns out. I wish them the best of luck but build quality will need to be 5 times better than it is now, and they will need to benchmark themselves the top players in terms of warranty, customer service and innovation.
After sitting down with six Lotus owners last month inc Evora, 2-11, Exige, and Elise owners, the generall feeling was Lotus build is shocking and some stupid design features e.g. lights falling out, radio in Evora not working, air conditioning failing in Evora .......etc. All other cars are better e.g. BMW, Austin Martin, Audi etc (All these guys had second pretige cars)BUT "You cannot beat the feel of a Lotus, nothing matches the pure magic"
This is the key, if Lotus loses that then basically they have lost there USP. Let's face it all the other makers have more development money, and quality is mostly under control. If you going to spend £60K plus you probably want to be certain that it will not fall apart and you wont spend hours at the dealers!
Not sure what the solution for Lotus is, but they will really have to think out of the box and become Innovative again!
Personally my ultimate would be a hatch back that would handle like an Elise, 2 seats and a boot big enough for a snowboard or bike! [and looked good !]
After sitting down with six Lotus owners last month inc Evora, 2-11, Exige, and Elise owners, the generall feeling was Lotus build is shocking and some stupid design features e.g. lights falling out, radio in Evora not working, air conditioning failing in Evora .......etc. All other cars are better e.g. BMW, Austin Martin, Audi etc (All these guys had second pretige cars)BUT "You cannot beat the feel of a Lotus, nothing matches the pure magic"
This is the key, if Lotus loses that then basically they have lost there USP. Let's face it all the other makers have more development money, and quality is mostly under control. If you going to spend £60K plus you probably want to be certain that it will not fall apart and you wont spend hours at the dealers!
Not sure what the solution for Lotus is, but they will really have to think out of the box and become Innovative again!
Personally my ultimate would be a hatch back that would handle like an Elise, 2 seats and a boot big enough for a snowboard or bike! [and looked good !]
Herman Toothrot said:
wacattack said:
The new CEO seems desperate to ruin Lotus, he doesnt have a clue
Agreed, Lotus has it's place and the elise in it's early days demonstrated that it's the mid £20k sports car area. Even £40k is too much and best left to others.Lotus can't keep failing. You may all like this cheapy/lightweight car stuff (as I do) but the money is made (and hence success) in premium quality and performance cars. If you doubt Lotus can do it may I direct you to: Skoda, SEAT, Alfa Romeo, Dacia. All brands that were at the bottom of the 'social scale' and yet which are now vastly improved. Lotus could easily exceed any of these with the right management and money. Sticking with doing the same is a recipe for more of the same. Lotus desparately needs to drad itself away from its old school manufacturing and step up into the new world. The Evora may not be perfect but its a long way ahead of and Elise and a definate step in the right direction.
All indivdual brands that are now generic White goods the same as all the other mass Market stuff.
People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
The elise in some form should stay, what about all the people who have bought the cars for the last ten years or so, you could say that we helped in a small way to keep lotus going we all know that if the elise was not a success it would have been the end most likely, so to say its just going to end with no replacement just tells me the new management are not interested in elise buyers they think 80 to 100k cars is the way to go? to me its the wrong way to go wont be many rushing to the dealers to pay that sort of money for a lotus.
Herman Toothrot said:
All indivdual brands that are now generic White goods the same as all the other mass Market stuff.
People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
People dont buy lotus, at least not in the volumes required, thats the problem. There's no money to be made were lotus are now, look at the Elise, despite being a massive success and sales hit selling many many times the amount originally predicted, has it left the company rolling in wads and wads of cash?People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
So if they design a breakway car thats a massive sales hit and still dont make hardly any money? better to rethink the game plan and move into a market segment were the company can make better returns.
Edited by peter450 on Monday 2nd August 20:57
Listen to the 'experts' on here 
you know absolutely bugga all, Lotus have always lurched from one crisis to another generally positioing themselves on the very edge of the financial precipice of failure, but do you know what, thay are still here 
- my money is on them still being around long after you lot have departed lol
you know absolutely bugga all, Lotus have always lurched from one crisis to another generally positioing themselves on the very edge of the financial precipice of failure, but do you know what, thay are still here - my money is on them still being around long after you lot have departed lolpeter450 said:
Herman Toothrot said:
All indivdual brands that are now generic White goods the same as all the other mass Market stuff.
People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
People dont buy lotus, at least not in the volumes required, thats the problem. There's no money to be made were lotus are now, look at the Elise, despite being a massive success and sales hit selling many many times the amount originally predicted, has it left the company rolling in wads and wads of cash?People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
So if they design a breakway car thats a massive sales hit and still dont make hardly any money? better to rethink the game plan and move into a market segment were the company can make better returns.
Edited by peter450 on Monday 2nd August 20:57
You said it your self the Elise has been a sales sucess, if they've not made money out of it then that's a problem with production costs etc as it shows it was correctly pitched for what it was at that price point.
Frimley111R said:
If you doubt Lotus can do it may I direct you to: Skoda, SEAT, Alfa Romeo, Dacia. All brands that were at the bottom of the 'social scale' and yet which are now vastly improved.
They're all brands which sell other people's engineering with their badges stuck on them, VW, FIAT or Renault. They are essentially the automotive undead.Lotus's in-house engineering is the good bit. I don't want a Proton with a Lotus badge on it, even if it does mean that it doesn't leak or rattle.
Herman Toothrot said:
peter450 said:
Herman Toothrot said:
All indivdual brands that are now generic White goods the same as all the other mass Market stuff.
People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
People dont buy lotus, at least not in the volumes required, thats the problem. There's no money to be made were lotus are now, look at the Elise, despite being a massive success and sales hit selling many many times the amount originally predicted, has it left the company rolling in wads and wads of cash?People buy Lotus as they want simplicity at a sensible cost. If current Lotus owners wanted prestige with sat navs, aircon, heated seats etc then they'd never have bought a Lotus in the first place and would have got Boxsters or M3's.
I certainly don't want all that sort of stuff and absolutely not the additional cost. I suppose that's why I now look towards Ginetta, Zolfe etc
So if they design a breakway car thats a massive sales hit and still dont make hardly any money? better to rethink the game plan and move into a market segment were the company can make better returns.
Edited by peter450 on Monday 2nd August 20:57
You said it your self the Elise has been a sales sucess, if they've not made money out of it then that's a problem with production costs etc as it shows it was correctly pitched for what it was at that price point.
Boggy
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