Someone might be owed some money by Lotus

[Nikolai Petroff]

The news just in on autocar. Lotus cars is being shut down.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/group-l...

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Sympathies to all those employed there

[Nikolai Petroff]

What a shame. Bahar just wasted whatever was on life support. Great to drive cars but completely unsellable in the modern market. You can't sell a car where unless you take the roof off you can't get in or another that is priced against a Boxster.

[RGambo]

Very sad day in the history of motoring

[kambites]

Seems odd - I can understand ditching the car maker, but the engineering division has always turned a healthy profit as far as I know?

[Asterix]

Sad, again, but I doubt anyone is particularly surprised.

[GroundEffect]

BOOM.

I'll buy an S2 Elise at a reduced price later this year

[ewenm]

kambites said:

Seems odd - I can understand ditching the car maker, but the engineering division has always turned a healthy profit as far as I know?

I presume the group will be broken up and any profitable bits sold off.

[LouD86]

Such a shame! Another British car maker, gone!

[kambites]

ewenm said:

kambites said:

Seems odd - I can understand ditching the car maker, but the engineering division has always turned a healthy profit as far as I know?

I presume the group will be broken up and any profitable bits sold off.

I guess it depends on your definition of "liquidated". I thought it meant all capital assets sold off; selling of divisions intact is a rather different thing. I hope Lotus Engineering survive.

[W00DY]

GroundEffect said:

BOOM.

I'll buy an S2 Elise at a reduced price later this year

Funny, I was just thinking the used market will firm right up and now's the time to buy.


Not that I can


Incredibly sad if it really is the end.

[Nikolai Petroff]

It just shows you can't make money making only sports cars (I didn't say supercars :-)

I always said Lotus was stupid not to have made a small hatchback, either of based on the Elise chassis or a modified Mini. The fact that the Elise/Exige are unusable on a daily basis is also a huge problem. You can run a Cayman as your only car, but not an Exige. Heck, you need to be a Cirque du Soleil performer toget in and out.

[kambites]

I run an Elise as an only car and have never been able to understand why people say it can't be done. I really can't see how it's any more of a compromise than an MX5 or a Boxster.

Personally, I think I'd rather see Lotus cease to exist than sell their souls to become just another Porsche clone.

[SWoll]

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday?

Damn shame, but it's been coming for quite some time.

[danjama]

As they've just won the f1, what is the association between the two?

[Nikolai Petroff]

kambites said:

I run an Elise as an only car and have never been able to understand why people say it can't be done. I really can't see how it's any more of a compromise than an MX5 or a Boxster.

Can you imagine a woman trying to get in and out in a dress? Lotus also couldn't understand and now they are dead.

[simonrockman]

I ran a VX220 as my daily car - although my wife had a Scenic, but you need to really prefer handling over comfort in the winter.

This is a huge shame.

[kambites]

Nikolai Petroff said:

kambites said:

I run an Elise as an only car and have never been able to understand why people say it can't be done. I really can't see how it's any more of a compromise than an MX5 or a Boxster.

Can you imagine a woman trying to get in and out in a dress? Lotus also couldn't understand and now they are dead.

Um, yes. I've seen it happen lots of times.

Not a car suitable for the obese or elderly but other than that it's just a car, really. It's not particularly good in snow, but I doubt the MX5 or Boxster are exactly in their elements there either.

[TheLastPost]

danjama said:

As they've just won the f1, what is the association between the two?

None

[TaRD]

Such a shame.