Lotus To Be Offloaded by Proton?

[limpsfield]

I just looked on the Bloomberg web site and saw this at the top of the UK news. Slow financial news day clearly, but a quick Google suggests it's been picked up by a few other places.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-26/lotus-sal...

But quotes like this

“Proton is better off without Lotus,” said Alexander Chia, a Kuala Lumpur-based analyst at RHB Capital. “There are no product synergies.”"

seem to suggest that this may be just an element of wishful thinking by investors.

[JR]

Maybe but looking doubtful from that article. Surprised that there's no mention of Lotus's suspension expertise.

[Carfiend]

Of course there are product synergies. Putting Lotus badges on Protons and writing "Lotus tuned" all over them for starters.

[Dave Hedgehog]

too much nostalgia for lotus, the elan was nice, the esprit too complicated and unreliable, the elise is just an ugly slow bathtub for hairdressers, the exige is about passable if your a midget and can actually get in one and the new stuff is silly money, so you may as well get the better porker option

[redtwin]

Carfiend said:

Of course there are product synergies. Putting Lotus badges on Protons and writing "Lotus tuned" all over them for starters.

Worked for Isuzu a couple decades ago.

[Gargamel]

Dave Hedgehog said:

too much nostalgia for lotus, the elan was nice, the esprit too complicated and unreliable, the elise is just an ugly slow bathtub for hairdressers, the exige is about passable if your a midget and can actually get in one and the new stuff is silly money, so you may as well get the better porker option

What a load of rubbish, especially about the Elise. 22k for a 118bhp 650kg car, (with added lightness) that was avery good car and sold extremely well.

Sure Porsche make great car but so what? Plenty of room in the market for all sorts.

[LHD]

This will be interesting.

For all i admire Bahar's balls i think Lotus itself is confused as to what it is right now.

They have appointed a lot of well known established engineering people.

They needed to be more than just the Elise derivatives to survive and be profitable.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Gargamel said:

What a load of rubbish, especially about the Elise. 22k for a 118bhp 650kg car, (with added lightness) that was avery good car and sold extremely well.

Sure Porsche make great car but so what? Plenty of room in the market for all sorts.

not rubbish at all my opinion of them, cant stand the elise, its a pretend sports car

you can get a faster, better handling caterfield thats also less ugly, and if you want a sports car to live with every day then go porker


what they needed to do was make a grown up exige about 10 years ago to raise the brand image, rather than just trying to see how different body shapes they can stick on the same bath tub, the vx220 was a mistake as well, probably too late now

noble are making the cars lotus should of been making

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 27th December 22:04

[Gargamel]

Your opinion is of course your own.

I disagree, hence I owned an Elise. Great car in my view, cheaper to put on track than a porker.

[Gargamel]

As for Proton, they have spent quite a bit of money on the design phase, is this the 'stick or twist' moment for them. I'd be amazed if the new esprit doesn't go into production.

[otolith]

Yes, have to agree, that take on the Elise makes no sense to me. I couldn't live with a Caterham and Porsche don't sell anything that interests me - they're too far the other way. For me the Elise is in the sweet spot for price, performance, tactility, rawness, running costs, usability and specialness. I quite understand that it isn't everyone's choice, but those comments look like simple trolling.

[Scrambled]

Dave Hedgehog said:

not rubbish at all my opinion of them, cant stand the elise, its a pretend sports car

you can get a faster, better handling caterfield thats also less ugly, and if you want a sports car to live with every day then go porker


what they needed to do was make a grown up exige about 10 years ago to raise the brand image, rather than just trying to see how different body shapes they can stick on the same bath tub, the vx220 was a mistake as well, probably too late now

noble are making the cars lotus should of been making

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 27th December 22:04

You are talking utter bks. You are in the tiny minority that does not think that an elise is a proper sports car. The elise saved Lotus and that 'bath tub' you refer to is a work of genius.

You don't know what you're talking about, so don't bother.

[Kolbenkopp]

Dave Hedgehog said:

not rubbish at all my opinion of them, cant stand the elise, its a pretend sports car

you can get a faster, better handling caterfield thats also less ugly, and if you want a sports car to live with every day then go porker

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 27th December 22:04

Well there are many that think the Porsches are to much on the refined end of things, the 7 type cars too raw. The Elise is somewhere in between. Sure there's a market for that. Problem they have I think is the latent "top trumps" mentality of buyers, so ideally they'd need to get a bit more power and the price down a little.

The S just doesn't look like value for money at the moment with 136 PS and almost 40k EUR.

[MrCheese]

Dave Hedgehog said:

Gargamel said:

not rubbish at all my opinion of them, cant stand the elise, its a pretend sports car

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 27th December 22:04

if the elise is a pretend sports car what on earth is the boxster....

[scotty_d]

The Elise is a fantastic sports car. Have you ever driven one? I would not call them under powered at all just a nice balance. A Elise puts a grin on your face and a out and out weekend toy. so to compare porkers and elise are like comparing a Bentley to a golf different tools for different jobs.

[Baz Tench]

Dave Hedgehog, presuming you're not trolling - have you ever driven an Elise?

Outright speed isn't what they are about (although I was pleasantly surprised in that department by the one I drove recently).

I don't think you understand the concept of a sports car.

And yeah, none of us can move for Nobles....

ETA; I did a driver experience day a few months ago involving a 997 and an Elise. The Elise was the car I was looking forward to driving the most as I own a Boxster and have driven a few 911s before. It didn't disappoint! Bloody great fun!

Edited by Baz Tench on Wednesday 28th December 08:44

[Special K]

Dave Hedgehog said:

Gargamel said:

What a load of rubbish, especially about the Elise. 22k for a 118bhp 650kg car, (with added lightness) that was avery good car and sold extremely well.

Sure Porsche make great car but so what? Plenty of room in the market for all sorts.

not rubbish at all my opinion of them, cant stand the elise, its a pretend sports car

you can get a faster, better handling caterfield thats also less ugly, and if you want a sports car to live with every day then go porker


what they needed to do was make a grown up exige about 10 years ago to raise the brand image, rather than just trying to see how different body shapes they can stick on the same bath tub, the vx220 was a mistake as well, probably too late now

noble are making the cars lotus should of been making

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 27th December 22:04

You've never driven an Elise have you ?

The bath tub that you refer to is also a design used by other sports car manufacturers.

[Rawwr]

Dave Hedgehog said:

the elise, its a pretend sports car

I'm curious; what's a real sports car?

[thinfourth2]

Rawwr said:

Dave Hedgehog said:

the elise, its a pretend sports car

I'm curious; what's a real sports car?

Probably the higher the price tag the better the sports car

[Dave Hedgehog]

Baz Tench said:

Dave Hedgehog, presuming you're not trolling - have you ever driven an Elise?

Outright speed isn't what they are about (although I was pleasantly surprised in that department by the one I drove recently).

I don't think you understand the concept of a sports car.

And yeah, none of us can move for Nobles....

ETA; I did a driver experience day a few months ago involving a 997 and an Elise. The Elise was the car I was looking forward to driving the most as I own a Boxster and have driven a few 911s before. It didn't disappoint! Bloody great fun!

I will concede its not my cup of tea, but that they could be for others, but I am not into "driving purity" for purity's sake. The elise is flawed logic for me and the main reason why lotus has struggled, its desperately slow as a road car by my standards, its not hardcore enough for a track toy and not refined enough for a road sports car, FOR ME. For the 30k cost of an elise I could get a much much faster and more focused driving experienced caterfield for track use, and 30k on a porker sports car would give a much easier to live with, but again FOR ME. But then I am not the only one that thinks like this, hence why lotus cars has and is struggling.

But I also find the BTCC very boring because the cars are so slow ..

I think the noble reference is correct, lotus needed a heavy hitting supercar, something that lived up to there superb history to carry the flag and raise the brands image, not to rely on the sale of the same tub re-skinned

To me this is everything a lotus should be

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Just need to make one big enough for my fat ass

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Wednesday 28th December 09:28