RE: Lotus Evora 400 :Driven

[SidewaysSi]

All Lotuses hold onto their value. Much cheaper to run than many, if not all Porsches when you account for overall costs.

[Ozzie Osmond]

DonkeyApple said:

Porsche's range of cars for wives and men who can't afford a proper Porsche.

Ha-ha! It sounds as if "Sir" is a little challenged in the trouser department.

[braddo]

Spotted/posted by XBOW in a Porsche thread:



The Germans seem to be able to work out which Lotus and Porsche match up for comparisons.

[leglessAlex]

For all their supposed Porsche bias, the Exige S tied for EVO car of the year in 2012, beating the two Porsches on test and as someone else said, in 2009 the Evora won. It seems the magazine that celebrates 'the thrill of driving' quite likes Lotus.

I'll be getting an Evora 400 in a couple of years I hope, although sadly the automatic version. Damn being on prosthetics.

[Eosman]

Great car but have never taken to the Evora's looks and panels

[kambites]

leglessAlex said:

For all their supposed Porsche bias, the Exige S tied for EVO car of the year in 2012, beating the two Porsches on test and as someone else said, in 2009 the Evora won. It seems the magazine that celebrates 'the thrill of driving' quite likes Lotus.

Indeed, which makes the tone of that article all the more baffling.

[braddo]

I am not a fan at all of the 'Sports Racer' look with the black roof and wheels etc. Pinched from the seloc Lotus forum, here are some photos from testing in the US without the sports racer styling and with nicer wheels.



https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=...

[Europa1]

NJH said:

I can only talk about the styling but contrary to most on this thread I much preferred the original inside and out, it was and is a unique looking car with a clean design. Sorry to make a Porsche analogy but I fear Lotus are doing like they did after the 996/986 cars by moving away from a clean design and listening too much to closed minded enthusiasts on one hand and magpies on the other.

Also like a previous poster it is amazing how well these cars have held value, its probably the only car I would consider chopping in my race/track car and Megane R26 combination as a do it all one stop shop but £30k is just too much for me.

I think I'm with you on the styling. I was lucky enough to own a MY2012 Evora S (the one with the various mechanical tweaks and upgraded interior) for a year or so (until the chill wind of redundancy blew through), and it was, in the flesh, a very well resolved design. To me some of the aspects of this are a bit too fussy and bit too "me too". I do agree with those who said the "GTE" styling was the right mix of clean and unfussy with a touch of aggression.

This was my beauty, and even 2 years later I still really miss it:

[XBOW]

dvs_dave said:

I think the Porsche comparisons are meaningless. The sort of person that buys a Porsche just isn't the sort of person that would ever buy a Lotus.

Hmmm I've owned a 3.2 Carrera, a 996 and a 997 GT3 . Since then I've owned a Lotus 2-11, Evora S, now have an Esprit GT3 and will probably get another Evora soon. Porsches are great cars ..... Personally I find Lotus to be exceptional.

Edited by XBOW on Saturday 1st August 21:18

[IsItACatInAHat]

Currently own a 2010 NA Evora, have a deposit on a GT4 RS. If nothing comes up on the RS front by the time the Evora 400 Convertible has shown up I may be tempted to change over. The 400 is a stunning car, and I'm glad a couple of people in here recognize that you can't compare base Porsche prices to other marques

[dvs_dave]

XBOW said:

dvs_dave said:

I think the Porsche comparisons are meaningless. The sort of person that buys a Porsche just isn't the sort of person that would ever buy a Lotus.

Hmmm I've owned a 3.2 Carrera, a 996 and a 997 GT3 . Since then I've owned a Lotus 2-11, Evora S, now have an Esprit GT3 and will probably get another Evora soon. Porsches are great cars ..... Personally I find Lotus to be exceptional.

Yes, but you're clearly bonkers. The XBOW is proof!

[blueg33]

There are a couple of threads where people have had both an Evora and Porsche and havd decided that they didn't need both. In each case they kept the Evora and sold the Porsche....,,,

Edited by blueg33 on Sunday 2nd August 16:29

[Quickmoose]

blueg33 said:

There are a couple of threads where people have had both an Evora and Porsche and havd decided that they didn't need both. In each case they kept the Evors and sold the Porsche....,,,

Well that's that then case/thread closed

[XBOW]

dvs_dave said:

XBOW said:

dvs_dave said:

I think the Porsche comparisons are meaningless. The sort of person that buys a Porsche just isn't the sort of person that would ever buy a Lotus.

Hmmm I've owned a 3.2 Carrera, a 996 and a 997 GT3 . Since then I've owned a Lotus 2-11, Evora S, now have an Esprit GT3 and will probably get another Evora soon. Porsches are great cars ..... Personally I find Lotus to be exceptional.

Yes, but you're clearly bonkers. The XBOW is proof!

Say the man with a TVR

Thank god for mad cars and with that I'm off out in the KTM to get a tan

[OleVix]

those led strips are so 2012. I want to like it, but the design is st. An mk1 Elise still looks great!

[ptopman]

NJH said:

I can only talk about the styling but contrary to most on this thread I much preferred the original inside and out, it was and is a unique looking car with a clean design. Sorry to make a Porsche analogy but I fear Lotus are doing like they did after the 996/986 cars by moving away from a clean design and listening too much to closed minded enthusiasts on one hand and magpies on the other.

Also like a previous poster it is amazing how well these cars have held value, its probably the only car I would consider chopping in my race/track car and Megane R26 combination as a do it all one stop shop but £30k is just too much for me.

I wasn't very sure about the new interior when the first set of pics showed up (definitely didn't like the LOTUS text) but seeing the dash from different angles, I too find it a step back. Surely spending the cash on improving build/quality processes and perhaps throwing some of it at Alpine or somebody else to address the ICE (not that I would care if I had the money for an Evora) would be more sensible. If they were dead set on changing the interior, they had a much better looking one in the Elan concept they showed when Bahar was around.

In fact, given all the changes done to the car, I'm left wondering how much more it would cost to actually build the Elan. I did like the S1 Evora exterior more than the Elan, but given how so few share that opinion (and again, I'm not really a buyer anyway), I fear that's a missed opportunity for Lotus. Hopefully many more like this Evora 400 over the S1. Lotus deserves to do better.

Somebody brought up Samsung regarding ads attacking the competition and commented how it's not usually helpful to run attack ads. I doubt that's the case. If Samsung is somewhat underperforming in the phones market now, it's because their phones are some of the worst choices for an Android phone, yet they are AFAIK still the best sellers with the highest prices at the top end. That's the case even wth so many established players and new entrants offering credible alternatives at every price point.

Few people have any clue what's out there in the marketplace (partly because there is so much out there in the first place), let alone form proper opinions as to how well their needs/desires would be served by any given product. It's safer to go with what's popular. If one finds they don't like it, they can always shift it.

And they have no clue what they are missing, so why be disappointed enough to shift it?

Edited by ptopman on Monday 3rd August 02:39

[LasseV]

I don't understand the hate what Lotus gets in this site. Why? If you want to have shiny knobbles and so so handling, you can always buy GGC (german generic car). New car market is full of that kind of cars. But If you want to have a true sports car with low weight and awesome handling there is only a very few choises...

I wan't n/a Evora so badly, that i could even change my Supra for it. I wish i could get test drive it someday, but they doesn't import Lotus to my country. It is a shame.

[Ozzie Osmond]

LasseV said:

If you want to have shiny knobbles....

Perhaps something you have on your Toyota which we can't get on European cars?

[LasseV]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Perhaps something you have on your Toyota which we can't get on European cars?

I put shiny knob in google search:


To be honest, i reaaaallly don't care about interiors. My only "must have" is spot on and low driving position. I prefer well made spartan spec interior with good seats.

[ESOG]

First off, before anything, let it be known I am a die-hard Lotus fan who geuinely believes practically every Lotus produced old to new with the generous exception of the new age Europa are truly rolling art.

With that said, many Loti are not photogenic and look FAR better in the flesh. I also think that the front black plastic "mesh" inserts on the Evora 400 are hideous. If anything, the front should look like this;



Just as well, I too think Lotus is pricing their cars too high by just a bit. I beieve if Lotus can lower the price particularly on the Evora 400 by a margin that will be more acceptable and attractive to consumers, if just for a few short years, long enough to where they can attract more buyers that will and or should undoubtedly prove and transition new consumers to the Lotus brand, it would secure their future more so. I am slightly baffled as to how Lotus manage to even come up with such a figure for the 400 when the engine/drive train comes from a Toyota. I am sure Lotus get a significant discount on those Engines, so how much could it possibly cost for the rest of the car?

Lastly, I agree 100% to others comments here pertaining to Lotus NEEDING to produce another Esprit, and get it to market ASAP! To have in their offering such a emboldened line-up which includes the Exige S and its variants, the Evora and its variants, and we need an Esprit here. But I worry a bit because if an Evora can reach the price it's at, would it be safe to assume an all new Esprit will be priced upwards of a quarter passed 100K?

I dont know, but I do want to see Lotus succeed and I would LOVE to see an all new Esprit in a shoot out with the likes of McLaren and the long awaited revival of TVR!!