M250 cancelled ?

[AndyToone]

> >Anyway - M250 cancellation blows a huge hole in Lotus car development - at this point it looks like they're destined to be a mainly roadster only company for the forseeable future.< >Roadster only, what about the vintage Esprit? They could easily rebody the Esprit with an up to date bodystyle (or let me do it.....) Aren't they just 'rethinking' the M250, rather than cancelling it? If you took Mr Proton CEO at his word, he wants it to be a bit more extreme - more cutting edge. He goes on to say that he prefers the earlier design of the Elise, so that makes me think he isn't talking about go-faster stripes and bolt-on naffness. Given that Porsche and co. are all beginning to jump on the 'low weight is good' bandwagon, Lotus need to stay ahead of the curve with materials and tech. I wish they'd get on with it though. It'd be a disaster if they put another body on the Esprit - nothing will change the fact that it is old tech, heavy and has a cramped cockpit. Not that I wouldn't love to own one, but more from nostalgia than anything. :-)

[fishnchips]

>Aren't they just 'rethinking' the M250, rather >than cancelling it? If you took Mr Proton CEO at >his word, he wants it to be a bit more extreme - >more cutting edge. Well he didn't bother to tell us what was so old fashioned about the prototype. What is he talking about? Assuming that it would be as good or better to drive than the Elise, would go faster, would handle far better at high speed, looks utterly fantastic, what more should a car deliver? Surely he's not just talking about composite brake discs here. And it's not just the M250.. The Elise S2 was also signed off under Proton management(but maybe not this particular CEO). That management should be seen to stand by the design - seeing as Lotus' future in the medium term as a car builder rests on it. Mr. CEO may have his views about the old and the new designs as do we all, but his comments are seen to undermine the attempts to move the company forward. Don't forget that the changes have been made in response to feedback from Elise owners - quality problems, expensive to fix after an accident, not enough downforce at the rear, not aggressive enough at the front, quality problems with rear windows, boot lids, roofs.... The original design might be 'prettier' - but it doesn't deliver in the driving department as well as the new one - and surely that should be what Lotus is about. Anyway - it's too late to change the S2 - so he should shut up about it if he doesn't like it, and instead stand behind his company decisions. What does 'rethinking' mean in practice? Rethinking its market focus? Its specifications? Its shape? Whether it should be replaced by a higher cost Esprit replacement now? Lets face it- the Esprit is the only road car they can sell to the states now - perhaps a reevaluation of the US market has led Lotus to decide that the next new car must focus on this market. Whatever, I don't hold out much hope of it just being a 'do a few tweaks' and then productionising begins. >Given that Porsche and co. are all beginning to >jump on the 'low weight is good' bandwagon, >Lotus need to stay ahead of the curve with >materials and tech. I wish they'd get on with it >though. The M250 *was* ahead of the curve as a concept. Those ideas are basically sound today. I am still sold on it today. I want one, today! We'll have to wait for the 'new vision' statement to understand what is so much more exciting than that dull old hasbeen of an M250 idea. >It'd be a disaster if they put another body on >the Esprit - nothing will change the fact that >it is old tech, heavy and has a cramped cockpit. >Not that I wouldn't love to own one, but more >from nostalgia than anything. :-) I totally agree. Replacing the M250 concept with some rehash would be disastrous for Lotus' reputation at this point. I really do think that there's a lot more to this story than a last minute decision that 'The M250 isn't advanced enough and they want to keep ahead of the game'. It could be big boy politics within Lotus. It could be that they feel that the world economic situation is going to become bad and that it would be better not to need to sell prestige cars over the next two years and instead design an M250 successor to emerge on the next economic upturn. It could be that the processes that they were hoping would deliver the structural specifications cannot be achieved yet. It could just be lack of cash. It might be that it failed crash worthyness testing in a spectacular and fundamental way. Whatever, I don't think it is simply a case of 'gosh, that M250 is really old fashioned'. Out of all the possibilities, the worst is the 'big boy politics'. I would hate to see the Hethel management and the Proton management fall out and end up with Lotus being 'managed from afar', but comments from Mr. CEO do seem to have a distinct whiff of 'I wouldn't have agreed to that If I'd been in charge...' which is a bit worrying, really. I should stop ranting about this subject now, shouldn't I It's great fun, all this mindless speculation. I wonder if Lotus just release these dribbles of news because they know we love to chat about them so much! Andy Cheers Andy

[AndyToone]

> I should stop ranting about this subject now, shouldn't I :-) It's great fun, all this mindless speculation. I wonder if Lotus just release these dribbles of news because they know we love to chat about them so much! It's a driver safety thing - if we're talking about their cars, we can't be crashing them. ;-) Anyway, don't get me wrong. I LOVE the M250 - the styling is near perfect, the spec sounds wonderful and I trust Lotus to deliver the driving experience. I agree - I want one now. The most frustrating thing is that (back of fag packet maths) lotus must have at least a couple of million pounds worth of deposit, and so far they appear to have told their customers and dealers absolutely nothing. They may have dug themselves out of a hole with the Elise, but management and marketing haven't learned anything. Now you've got me rambling on... Andy P.S. I do like the Elise 2 and understand that it fixes problems with the original, but those heavy plastic grills look a bit mass production to me.. ;-)

[Nightmare]

Andt, I cant agree more about not being told. They have the worlds best medium for creating an exclusive 'deposits down members forum' affair where they could tell us, the paying public, what is going on....but they seemed to have totally misse dthe boat on this one. They were advertising for a new Internet marketing manager about 8 months ago. I now wish Id applied...cos this is really beginning to p1ss me off. I accept the M250 may need rework, redesign or whatever, but its bad manners and frankly pathetic marketing not to let us know. I wonder how many have already defected to the Noble or similar?? cheers Night