Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.


One of the most sensible posts I have ever read on PH.


It always annoy me the snobbish behaviour of some people when it comes to certain marques of cars which they seem so dearly protective of; yet haven't actually put their hand in the own pocket to support.

There surely has now to be some concern that manufacturing will be moved out of the UK.

Being fked.

Well that should help boost confidence in the brand

Like i said on another thread, where is lotus cars cash cow.

Porsche will stick it name on any tat (cayanne) and sell it to the highest bidder, lotus needed a car that could sell out the brand while concentrating on building proper cars, that is the only way to survive.

I bet porsche make a large chunk on there profit on the options that people will pay for, and this is the stuff that keeps the company going.

No patronisation intended, I genuinely assumed you didn't know. In my opinion, the Swizz Beatz connection is far too far removed from the brand to make any sense. I think many people who can afford these cars will probably never have heard of him anyway, so it smacks doubly of desperation.

EDIT: Just to add, having seen some of the other comments about snobbery, my opinion isn't based on that, it's based on the undertaking of the Swizz Beatz saga. Range Rover, Audemars Piguet, Burg al Arab, all end up being associated with hip hop artists because they genuinely fit that brand. The association evolves, it grows, it comes across as natural. Lotus, the race winning, technical experts, who build cars that are borderline track day specials, do not, as they stand, fit that section of the luxury arena. Perhaps if Bahar had developed his idea of the brand, successfully released his new cars, which then appealed to a new market such as the hip-hop crowd, then the link might fit, but even then, getting a record producer to help design the car is nearly as desperate as the press release I had in my inbox the other day where Girard Perregaux had given Archbishop Desmond Tutu a brand new gold watch...

Serves the fker right.

There's a difference between snobbish behaviour and brand syndication that clearly doesn't fit. Bahar is promoting Lotus as a luxury manufacturer with the whole Swizz Beatz thing, when it isn't. It's what he intended with his new line-up of cars, but he kinda has to wait 'til those cars are in show rooms before he tries to reposition the company as a luxury car manufacturer. The cart is firmly before the horse in his vision, but it seems like we will never see what would have become of it anyway.

I can see what Bahar is trying to do, particularly when hip hop is a big influence on Asian culture (where the money is), but he's over-egged the pudding somewhat.

EDIT: Plus I have owned Lotus products in my time, thank you

I'd say 'who is likely to buy a Lotus' would be a rather more relevant question than 'who should buy Lotus cars'.

Thanks for the answer. I actually asked the same question - who do you think should and more importantly will buy them? What I think you grossly underestimate is the influence some-one like Mr Dean and his ilk have on people around the world. If you can accept Asia is where the money is at and that hip-hop culture is accepted over there then how is the pudding being over-egged? Lotus are a business after all, a small business that needs people to buy the products much more than some-one like VAG. In my opinion, you're basing your ideas of branding on what you know hiphop to mean to you; that's not quite how it works.

Oversized chrome rims on cars were not popular until rappers put them in hip-hop videos.

Cristal was not the champagne of choice until rappers started drinking it in hip-hop videos.

No-one cared about what headphones they wore until Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Monster came up with Beats headphones and put them in hip-hop videos - catch my drift?

Trends don't make hip-hop, hip-hop sets the trends. Hence why, in my opinion, Mr. Bahar's plan is not as far-fetched as you'd think; if rappers say it's cool, are seen putting the cars in their videos or driving around in them a lot of people will think it's cool enough to actually want to buy one. Your point about the type of people who can afford a Lotus is somewhat moot to me, they're the same people who can afford a Mercedes Benz, Bentley, Ferrari etc and who buy into those brands precisely because they've seen people like him driving them! The way I see it all brands have to start somewhere for them to be recognisable and if the current demographic isn't enough to support the brand at present then it makes total sense to expand into new territory.