Europa in Top Ten worst selling cars of 2008
Discussion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/mrmo...
I've already posted a comment about the shameful use of the 'V' word.
I've already posted a comment about the shameful use of the 'V' word.
"Because the superior Audi TT and Porsche Boxster can be bought for similar money and, beneath the skin, the Europa is merely a Vauxhall."
Who the hell bought a Chrysler Neon, Daihatsu Charade, Fiat Croma, Hummer H2, Hyundai Terracan, Hyundai Trajet, Rover 75, CityRover, Smart Cabrio or Tata Safari last year. And why?
Who the hell bought a Chrysler Neon, Daihatsu Charade, Fiat Croma, Hummer H2, Hyundai Terracan, Hyundai Trajet, Rover 75, CityRover, Smart Cabrio or Tata Safari last year. And why?
"Because the superior Audi TT and Porsche Boxster can be bought for similar money and, beneath the skin, the Europa is merely a Vauxhall."
Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
cyberface said:
"Because the superior Audi TT and Porsche Boxster can be bought for similar money and, beneath the skin, the Europa is merely a Vauxhall."
Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
Exactly, its just a bloody jumped up journalist, to be honest i cant stand the bloody press in general what they dont know they make up. Although he would love a TT the cock.Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
Get him on the track, then we would have some fun and he can drive a G-wizz for being such a ****
Probably drives a Volvo!
Probably drives a Volvo!
TOENHEEL said:
cyberface said:
"Because the superior Audi TT and Porsche Boxster can be bought for similar money and, beneath the skin, the Europa is merely a Vauxhall."
Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
Exactly, its just a bloody jumped up journalist, to be honest i cant stand the bloody press in general what they dont know they make up. Although he would love a TT the cock.Obviously someone who has never driven said Vauxhall, which still is a bloody good car, and quite obviously just a Lotus with a Vauxhall badge. There's more Lotus engineering in those Vauxhall engines anyway, it's not as if Lotus built their own engine for the Elise or Exige. May as well complain that the Exige is mostly Toyota.
Europa SE looks amazing as per the motorshow, Bell & coalvile are showing it off this month...
Saturday 21st March we are hosting a focus event for the Lotus Europa. The day will feature a static display of the Diamond Europa SE created by Lotus to celebrate their 60th anniversary last year and a factory test driver will be on hand for your test drive and demonstration in the Lotus Factory Europa SE Demonstrator.
And sorry Mr telegraph you are banned and a G-Wizz day has been arranged instead for you !
Saturday 21st March we are hosting a focus event for the Lotus Europa. The day will feature a static display of the Diamond Europa SE created by Lotus to celebrate their 60th anniversary last year and a factory test driver will be on hand for your test drive and demonstration in the Lotus Factory Europa SE Demonstrator.
And sorry Mr telegraph you are banned and a G-Wizz day has been arranged instead for you !
Edited by Stu_00 on Friday 13th March 18:07
Three words at the start of the Telegraph article should be a warning against reading any further: "By Mike Rutherford"
Having ignored my own warning, I foolishly read the whole article (due to being a Charade and Europa owner), and would like to point out that the article claims that only 4 Smart City Coupes were registered in the UK last year. Considering the feasiblility of that claim, can anyone trust any of the other figures stated!?!
And relax.
Movano.
Having ignored my own warning, I foolishly read the whole article (due to being a Charade and Europa owner), and would like to point out that the article claims that only 4 Smart City Coupes were registered in the UK last year. Considering the feasiblility of that claim, can anyone trust any of the other figures stated!?!
And relax.
Movano.
Good point! Probably from the DVLA and same people that put the stupid rule of expiry of photos on the driving license !
Movano said:
Three words at the start of the Telegraph article should be a warning against reading any further: "By Mike Rutherford"
Having ignored my own warning, I foolishly read the whole article (due to being a Charade and Europa owner), and would like to point out that the article claims that only 4 Smart City Coupes were registered in the UK last year. Considering the feasiblility of that claim, can anyone trust any of the other figures stated!?!
And relax.
Movano.
Having ignored my own warning, I foolishly read the whole article (due to being a Charade and Europa owner), and would like to point out that the article claims that only 4 Smart City Coupes were registered in the UK last year. Considering the feasiblility of that claim, can anyone trust any of the other figures stated!?!
And relax.
Movano.
Exclusivity then!
We brought a Europa purely because it was VX220T underneath. With all that torque and light weight chassis I have not driven anything close to the Turbo powered Lotus chassis cars. It’s got a great feel that few brands seem to be able to recreate. When are manufactures going to wake up and realize less is more? These cars are great on the road with all that feedback, agility and power. After 1 month of ownership and very little experience I was driving rather cautiously and had what I thought was a well driven Mini chasing me at night? Only when I turned at a junction did it get close enough for me to realize that those round lights were actually from a Boxster. And as for comparing it to a TT. Just don't.
Why are some journalists such t
tts? Atleast the guys on Top gear know it’s just an opinion and it’s all done tongue in cheek. A Lotus isn’t going to suit someone who buys Lexus now is it?The thing is that there are a bunch of Lotus 'fans' who seem perfectly happy to slate the VXT because it had a Vauxhall badge rather than a Lotus one. I agree with you, the VXT is a superb car, and I absolutely loved mine. The funny thing is that the Europa *is* a made-over VXT, and that's a *good* thing to anyone who had owned or driven a VXT enough, but can often be used as an 'excuse' by some of the Lotus fanboys.
Personally? Well the usual insults from the Lotus 'extremists' involved the fact that the VXT was heavier than the Elise and Exige. Funnily enough, my current Exige S is heavier than my VXT used to be... yet, as an 'Exige', is meant to be the high-performance Lotus variant. It's great, I love it. But it ain't lighter than the VXT, and has nowhere as much torque, nor power in the version I had...
The cool thing is that Lotus rolled the Europa out without adding a huge amount of weight to the original VXT design. Yes, it's around 1000 kg, but the VXT was 930 kg (allegedly, in reality often lighter) and the Europa has a nice air conditioned interior and comfy seats, like the Exige. It's too heavy for the S1 fans, obviously - but that was never in doubt.
It sounds to me like whatever the Europa does, it's either damned if it does or damned if it doesn't. Highlight the best parts of the VXT heritage and get slammed for being 'just a Vauxhall'. Highlight the Lotus comfort improvements over the VXT and Elise / Exige cars and get slammed for being too fat. For me, at the end of the day, the cars were simply too expensive (at the time), otherwise I'd have seriously considered one instead of my Exige S. Perhaps Lotus ought to look closer to home, some of their cars are simply overpriced...
Personally? Well the usual insults from the Lotus 'extremists' involved the fact that the VXT was heavier than the Elise and Exige. Funnily enough, my current Exige S is heavier than my VXT used to be... yet, as an 'Exige', is meant to be the high-performance Lotus variant. It's great, I love it. But it ain't lighter than the VXT, and has nowhere as much torque, nor power in the version I had...
The cool thing is that Lotus rolled the Europa out without adding a huge amount of weight to the original VXT design. Yes, it's around 1000 kg, but the VXT was 930 kg (allegedly, in reality often lighter) and the Europa has a nice air conditioned interior and comfy seats, like the Exige. It's too heavy for the S1 fans, obviously - but that was never in doubt.
It sounds to me like whatever the Europa does, it's either damned if it does or damned if it doesn't. Highlight the best parts of the VXT heritage and get slammed for being 'just a Vauxhall'. Highlight the Lotus comfort improvements over the VXT and Elise / Exige cars and get slammed for being too fat. For me, at the end of the day, the cars were simply too expensive (at the time), otherwise I'd have seriously considered one instead of my Exige S. Perhaps Lotus ought to look closer to home, some of their cars are simply overpriced...
I think cyber is spot on again, i nearly bought a VX220 T a few years ago but unfortunately insurance costs put at an end to that..what a bloody great car though. Funny enough on the test drive we actually had some tool in a TT thinking he could mix it with a "proper" performance car only to blown away.
If my memory serves me correct the salesman was called Mark at network q in newcastle hes a member on here and actually introduced me to pistonheads cheers for that mate if you read this.
This Rutherford fella whats he know..left uni with a journalism degree and now he knows all about cars all of a sudden...
If my memory serves me correct the salesman was called Mark at network q in newcastle hes a member on here and actually introduced me to pistonheads cheers for that mate if you read this.
This Rutherford fella whats he know..left uni with a journalism degree and now he knows all about cars all of a sudden...
Have to giggle at people jumping to the Europa's defence
It got slated everywhere - including here - because it was the wrong thing at the wrong time which tried to sit between two stools and fell squarely between the two
Despite it's intended target, it's just not in the same class as Audi & BMW etc at what they do - in just the same way as those guys don't deliver Lotus levels of raw purity
We only knew of what, three or four sold here in the first year after launch..? It's no surprise that it features in such a list - hardly anybody 'wants' one, simple as that
It got slated everywhere - including here - because it was the wrong thing at the wrong time which tried to sit between two stools and fell squarely between the two
Despite it's intended target, it's just not in the same class as Audi & BMW etc at what they do - in just the same way as those guys don't deliver Lotus levels of raw purity
We only knew of what, three or four sold here in the first year after launch..? It's no surprise that it features in such a list - hardly anybody 'wants' one, simple as that
This is just journalism.
If MR was a Lotus fan he could have written along the lines:
Audi and Porsche sales of the TT and Boxster fell by X & Y% and furthermore gave away Z sales to the Europa which sold A units despite being launched in the face of the worst economic climate for decades...
As for the Vauxhall comment, that's just wilful igorance.
If MR was a Lotus fan he could have written along the lines:
Audi and Porsche sales of the TT and Boxster fell by X & Y% and furthermore gave away Z sales to the Europa which sold A units despite being launched in the face of the worst economic climate for decades...
As for the Vauxhall comment, that's just wilful igorance.
Janitor said:
Have to giggle at people jumping to the Europa's defence
It got slated everywhere - including here - because it was the wrong thing at the wrong time which tried to sit between two stools and fell squarely between the two
Despite it's intended target, it's just not in the same class as Audi & BMW etc at what they do - in just the same way as those guys don't deliver Lotus levels of raw purity
We only knew of what, three or four sold here in the first year after launch..? It's no surprise that it features in such a list - hardly anybody 'wants' one, simple as that
Don't you hang out with a sIt got slated everywhere - including here - because it was the wrong thing at the wrong time which tried to sit between two stools and fell squarely between the two
Despite it's intended target, it's just not in the same class as Audi & BMW etc at what they do - in just the same way as those guys don't deliver Lotus levels of raw purity
We only knew of what, three or four sold here in the first year after launch..? It's no surprise that it features in such a list - hardly anybody 'wants' one, simple as that
t band? They must be if no-one 'wants' to listen to them. Give it up and make friends with Bono 
I really thought the Europa would be a good addition to the Lotus stable and I'm saddened it has sold so poorly. To me, it seemed well pitched to those who want driving purity, but not necessarily rawness; for those people who want to get into the Lotus ethos without having to compromise so much on cabin access, luggage space, interior noise/toys etc (and being able take fat friends for a drive!).
Must admit I have never taken notice of its price though, and that seems to have sealed its fate - much too high compared to its alternatives, I reckon.
Brad
Must admit I have never taken notice of its price though, and that seems to have sealed its fate - much too high compared to its alternatives, I reckon.
Brad
braddo said:
Must admit I have never taken notice of its price though, and that seems to have sealed its fate - much too high compared to its alternatives, I reckon.
Brad
Very true indeed. But used one are very good value, like mine which I'm selling now. Brad
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/941744.htm
Bought it for its exclusivity. Everyone knows the Elise but not the Europa. During the year ownership. Never saw another one on the road! And it's a much better car than the Elise on a day to day basis, usable torque, lower sill, bigger boot, no leak and more forgiving ride. Never regret the decision over an Elise and still love it to bits.
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