RE: Lotus jobs at risk
Discussion
Re: the post which vanished blaming PH for talking the talk but not buying Lotus cars.
Not really fair. I've bought a new one. Many others have too. Yes loads more will buy a cayman. Loads more yet will buy a Golf. Loads more yet will buy a diesel whatever. That is just the way the market is split up.
The trouble is even the enthusiast who like Lotus products can't necessarily afford to get into a new one. Buying used is great, but bugger all use to Lotus. So unless you get new and constant bums on new seats they have no future. You either go high end and hope your badge is good enough, or you go much cheaper (if possible) to get the sales that way. Or just scale the hell right back like Caterham and change nothing. Then accept you will always be tiny, niche and expensive.
Not really fair. I've bought a new one. Many others have too. Yes loads more will buy a cayman. Loads more yet will buy a Golf. Loads more yet will buy a diesel whatever. That is just the way the market is split up.
The trouble is even the enthusiast who like Lotus products can't necessarily afford to get into a new one. Buying used is great, but bugger all use to Lotus. So unless you get new and constant bums on new seats they have no future. You either go high end and hope your badge is good enough, or you go much cheaper (if possible) to get the sales that way. Or just scale the hell right back like Caterham and change nothing. Then accept you will always be tiny, niche and expensive.
kambites said:
LotusOmega375D said:
Link to your quoted source about Lotus Engineering only please...
You're already posting in it. 
They certainly have been recruiting for car jobs recently.
Vernz: the Evora's problem is that 5 years on many potential customers still don't know it exists! Seen this?
http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/08/28/lotus-announces-...
Its not the sales of the cars that is the problem - the problem is whether they are making a profit.
I wonder how many of Lotus staff are actually involved with building/engineering/selling the cars ? Lots of companies these days seem to employ many expensive 'change facilitators/efficiency champions/process administrators' etc who add little to the bottom line.
I wonder how many of Lotus staff are actually involved with building/engineering/selling the cars ? Lots of companies these days seem to employ many expensive 'change facilitators/efficiency champions/process administrators' etc who add little to the bottom line.
I think a lot of business are the same. Our design consultants went from a very lean small workforce producing all the work and winning tons more clients. It expand many times over, until the place was half full of people just talking the talk but not doing any real billable work. Companies seem to get to a size where wasting time and money appear acceptable. Very odd imho.
Meteor Madness said:
Its not the sales of the cars that is the problem - the problem is whether they are making a profit.
I wonder how many of Lotus staff are actually involved with building/engineering/selling the cars ? Lots of companies these days seem to employ many expensive 'change facilitators/efficiency champions/process administrators' etc who add little to the bottom line.
I think they've just recently announced a lot of these types will be going. Unfortunately some think that means everything's a disaster and a rebodied MX5 is the only way forward.I wonder how many of Lotus staff are actually involved with building/engineering/selling the cars ? Lots of companies these days seem to employ many expensive 'change facilitators/efficiency champions/process administrators' etc who add little to the bottom line.
I am absolutely confident that if Lotus made a decent modern sportscar* at a sensible price, people would buy it. I know I would.
(* no I don't want a 2+2 coupe with compromised styling and zero rear visibility. Nor do I want a trackday special. Sportscar = 2 seater road car with elegant styling and decent performance.)
(* no I don't want a 2+2 coupe with compromised styling and zero rear visibility. Nor do I want a trackday special. Sportscar = 2 seater road car with elegant styling and decent performance.)
kambites said:
hondansx said:
I guess they need to keep making it, but the Evora is not good looking enough or ground breaking enough to sell.
It's better looking and more ground-breaking than the 911, and that seems to do alright (OK, I'll admit that's not saying a great deal 
). The 911 doesn't need to be ground breaking, it's best of class. It does everything Evora and V6 does, and more. It's a bit of a head scratcher as to why they can't sell more Exige V6s though. Too pricey, i guess.
hondansx said:
I am biased towards Lotus, but if you think the Evora is better looking than a 997 or 991, you need your eyes tested.
Hmm, maybe I should book an appointment at the local opticians then. To my eyes the Evora is moderately ugly - it's too top and rear heavy and some of the details are rather dubious (much like the Elise, in fact). The 911, however good it is, is one of the worst proportioned coupes on the road.
hondansx said:
Say the two Lotus owners...
What's that got to do with anything? I own a Lotus. It's ugly. I don't see why that has any bearing on the fact that the 911 is also ugly. I'd happily buy a 911 if I needed back seats, but I'd be doing so despite the looks not because of them.
StottyEvo said:
It sounds to me like they are just getting rid of the s
t.
And now we are getting down to the nitty gritty.t. Not so long ago these boards were full of, "Lotus has more engineers than Jaguar/LandRover"!
Brilliant, at that time Lotus sold less than 1% of the cars Jag/LR did, and since then the latter's sales have skyrocketed, while many of Lotus Engineering's staff jumped ship to Caterham, where they have done the square of nothing but show their expertise at sucking on a sponsor's teat.
Selling 1800 cars while employing 1800 staff was never going to work, so Bahar's idea of increasing the former was at least attractive on paper, but reducing head count while keeping the current line up has always been the more practical option. As painful as it is, this news is good news for Lotus.
I think K-ink makes a good point about the type of purchases that are being made in the market place.
It's easy (and misplaced) to shoe horn people into a category based on their car choice. Take colour for instance......we all have a view on what we like and dislike and shouldn't be dismissed because we want a 'black Mercedes' or a 'white Porsche'
At the end of the day people will make the final decision on Brand, looks, performance, specification and price (not necessarily in that order!)
It doesn't really matter what the 'true enthusiasts' think of someone's car choice, but inevitably it matters to the manufacturer (Lotus)
There are obviously a lot of members with some very exotic machinery on this site, but ultimately apart from the very few, the final decision on a brand new purchase at least, is usually heavily influenced on price!
It's easy (and misplaced) to shoe horn people into a category based on their car choice. Take colour for instance......we all have a view on what we like and dislike and shouldn't be dismissed because we want a 'black Mercedes' or a 'white Porsche'
At the end of the day people will make the final decision on Brand, looks, performance, specification and price (not necessarily in that order!)
It doesn't really matter what the 'true enthusiasts' think of someone's car choice, but inevitably it matters to the manufacturer (Lotus)
There are obviously a lot of members with some very exotic machinery on this site, but ultimately apart from the very few, the final decision on a brand new purchase at least, is usually heavily influenced on price!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff