RE: Lotus announces partnership with Mansory

[kambites]

Thorburn said:

Think the Esprit is pushed out to next year and some have been cancelled now though?

I think the Elan has been "postponed indefinitely". or something similar.

[mattbvw]

If only they'd have got, say, I dunno, maybe Mickey Rourke, Brian May and Naomi Campbell to announce this deal then it would have made more sense...

[lazystudent]

DanSimmonds said:

I was going to write a long post

But instead, you just wrote it three times!

[ellisd82]

LOL - Funniest thing I have read since I read the book '101 worlds funniest jokes'...
Seriously...

[johnpeat]

Nick Mason tweeted this earlier (unrelated to this story but so fitting)

http://9gag.com/gag/3537961

[anonymous-user]

Once, Lotus made cars like the one pictured below.

Having said that, Mr Chapman lerved cash, so maybe he would have approved of getting in to bed with a comedy bling merchant to take money from the tasteless rich. In a world where taste in cars, clothes, watches, and so on is set by oligarchs, footballers and princelings, there's no place for simple and light, alas.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 27th March 04:47

[anonymous-user]

PS: I have a picture in one of my old Lotus books of a pimped up Elan S2 prepared by some mid 60s tat shop for none other than jim Clark. Padded leather covered dash board, and mucho bling. Bear in mind that he was just a poor boy from the Scottish boonies before he hit it big. Graham Hill, however, although a tad spivvy, like Chapman himself, had better taste. He had a pretty good tailor, too.

http://therollingroad.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/shes-...

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 27th March 05:59

[Frimley111R]

I don't get what all the bleating is about? Mansory may have some questionable designs in the past but they have proven to produce quality work and as long as its not too OTT I fail to see what's wrong with them. They seem to be an up and coming styling company and Lotus is an up and coming brand.

And if one more person goes on about colin chapman, the good old days and added lightness one more bloody time.....!!!

[MCBrowncoat]

I don't understand the idea that to sell in Asian markets they need to bling everything up? I thought a large sector of the Asian market were anglophiles anyway? Or do we mean middle east? And what's with this whole 'following Ferrari' argument? Is this what were reduced to now? This island of engineering innovation and expertise? Surely there's a happy medium?

Also, if they feel they need a styling division maybe they should've got the Evora right in the first place.

This is all at once a) sad b) pathetic c) darkly humourous

[Turbo Harry]

(little bit of background for those wondering where the new cars are)

Lotus has a 50:50 chance of survival under its new ownership, claims Dany Bahar, the company's CEO.Last month, the Malaysian Government sold Proton (Lotus' parent company) to local private investors who are doing their due diligence to the company.Talking to Evo.co.uk, Bahar said that he was taken aback when the deal was announced. According to regulations in Malaysia following the sale, the company went into a 3 month 'lockdown' period.

During this period, all activities (and some production) in the company is stopped or temporarily halted.Therefore Lotus' development plans for five new models that were unveiled at the Paris Motor Show 18 months ago have now been suspended. The delays in development will cause the cars' respective launches to be delayed as well.Bahar is not sure whether the new owners will be interested in retaining Lotus. He says he flies every week to Malaysia to talk to the new investors and to persuade them to keep on the project.

"This difficult period for Lotus finishes at the end of March and that's when we will know then whether DRB-Hicom will want to continue with our business plan," Bahar said. "I really hope they will but I cannot call it at the moment, it's still 50:50."

[egomeister]

Ex Boy Racer said:

Teaming up with a styling company doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me is that they have chosen Mansory, with complete disregard (or perhaps ignorance) of the reaction this would get from Lotus enthusiasts. It would be like England reinstating Sven as manager - not necessarily wrong but offensive to everyone.
Do they just not care or are they that far away from 'our' mindset that they don't know?

So which styling company would you have chosen?

To be honest, this deal is not so important to the future of Lotus. Mansory seem to make good stuff, even if it is of questionable taste - it's easy to tone down the designs so no worries there. If Lotus make a few quid from the deal by providing customised versions of their cars then it serves its purpose.

[kambites]

egomeister said:

So which styling company would you have chosen?

Pininfarina? ItalDesign? Bertone?... someone who actually has a history of designing the aesthetics of good looking cars from scratch.

[DonkeyApple]

Turbo Harry said:

(little bit of background for those wondering where the new cars are)

Lotus has a 50:50 chance of survival under its new ownership, claims Dany Bahar, the company's CEO.Last month, the Malaysian Government sold Proton (Lotus' parent company) to local private investors who are doing their due diligence to the company.Talking to Evo.co.uk, Bahar said that he was taken aback when the deal was announced. According to regulations in Malaysia following the sale, the company went into a 3 month 'lockdown' period.

During this period, all activities (and some production) in the company is stopped or temporarily halted.Therefore Lotus' development plans for five new models that were unveiled at the Paris Motor Show 18 months ago have now been suspended. The delays in development will cause the cars' respective launches to be delayed as well.Bahar is not sure whether the new owners will be interested in retaining Lotus. He says he flies every week to Malaysia to talk to the new investors and to persuade them to keep on the project.

"This difficult period for Lotus finishes at the end of March and that's when we will know then whether DRB-Hicom will want to continue with our business plan," Bahar said. "I really hope they will but I cannot call it at the moment, it's still 50:50."

I wonder just how much money DB has spent on not developing just one halo model to announce, build, deliver to market and start generating revenue? I wonder how much time and money has gone instead on splitting resources on 5 models and creating news fluff?

[andy_s]

kambites said:

egomeister said:

So which styling company would you have chosen?

Pininfarina? ItalDesign? Bertone?... someone who actually has a history of designing the aesthetics of good looking cars from scratch.

Mansory aren't designing cars from scratch though - are they? It's a customisation house, for add on bits o bling and some styling showcase runs - Lotus have done this for years anyway haven't they, the odd Harrods LE and the like. This is no different except putting it in the hands of people who are probably better known than Lotus in certain market segments.

Are Mansory involved in designing new Lotus cars? No. Are they designing anything for the mainstream? No.

I really find it hard to see why there is so much hand-wringing here. Maybe I've misunderstood something...

[g3org3y]

peter450 said:

Except that kinda proves the point does it not, because behind all that hidiousness is a very rich customer who paid them a absoulute ton of money to have that done

Clearly these guys know how to prize £££ from rich wallets, and i think lotus will benefit a lot from having them on the team

Edited by peter450 on Monday 26th March 20:06

But do the kind of people that buy Mansory festooned Bentleys, RRs, Fezzas etc really want a Lotus? Unfortunately I don't think they're expensive enough or bling enough to appeal, added Mansory tat or not.

Seems an odd decision given the type of car manufacturer Lotus is and the typical potential customer.

[NAS]

Car companies are in the game to make money.

Lotus Cars hasn't been profitable for a long time doing what they did in the past. Always bening passed around. Ageing line-up following ageing line-up. Maybe DB will turn in around, maybe not. But at least he's willing to try different things. I'm not unconvinced it might be such a bad idea.

As people have said : Asia & the MIddle East are the new markets. Europe is by far not the key anymore for these brands. If Porsche can sell SUV's with a straight face for over a decade now, so can Lotus sell chinzted up Evora's.

It's about 1 thing : money. Nothing else.

[steveq135]

Personally I find the fact the Mr.Bahar flies out once a week to beg the new owners not to abandon Lotus of more concern than an association with a customisation company.
This doesn`t look too bad ......

http://fr.autoscout24.be/Details.aspx?id=208958890

[kambites]

DonkeyApple said:

I wonder just how much money DB has spent on not developing just one halo model to announce, build, deliver to market and start generating revenue? I wonder how much time and money has gone instead on splitting resources on 5 models and creating news fluff?

Well if Proton had stated that they were willing to fund another few years of R&D with next to no revenue generation there is nothing especially wrong with that approach; or at least there wasn't before Proton were sold to someone who might want a shorter-term profit.

[Captain Muppet]

PascalBuyens said:

... and then to hear that they want to scrap the type of cars that has been keeping them alive for the past ten years....

One of the five cars they announced was the new Elise. Quite how this is "scrapping" the Elise I'm not sure, seems more like committing to build another one to me.

Their plans seem to be to expand in to new markets, not to move in to new markets. It's a very important distinction.

[Mermaid]

NAS said:

Car companies are in the game to make money.

Lotus Cars hasn't been profitable for a long time doing what they did in the past. Always bening passed around. Ageing line-up following ageing line-up. Maybe DB will turn in around, maybe not. But at least he's willing to try different things. I'm not unconvinced it might be such a bad idea.

As people have said : Asia & the MIddle East are the new markets. Europe is by far not the key anymore for these brands. If Porsche can sell SUV's with a straight face for over a decade now, so can Lotus sell chinzted up Evora's.

It's about 1 thing : money. Nothing else.

Everything has changed, and money is the glue that keeps things going. If petrolheads were willing to pay high prices for super raw cars, surely a manufacturer will oblige. That market, IMO, is small. The fashion market is bigger, with the nouveau money.