Elise of life

[calster17]

Ok, sorry for the bad title name, but its to do with lotus!

 

A few months ago, Lotus went all funny with its press releases, and now we know what they've been doing!

 

They have decided to go all upmarket on us! Now this can lead to one of two things...

 

1) It works, and Lotus manage to take on the Ferrari & Porche and make mega bucks

 

or...

 

2) It manages to kill of the brand and then then end up in money problems and then becomming owned by some low buget car maker who you only really know about because they own a good car maker.(Now i wounder where i've seen this story?)

 

So what the line up?

 

Well we now have a new Esprit, Elite, Elan, a replacement for the Elise and a four-door super-saloon called the Eterne.

 

Now The Esprit comback has been in the works for a while now, but the Elite & Elan are new news, and the Eterne is an all new idea!

 

I'm not sure how to look at this, but Surely it can't be that bad? As long as they keep the Elise cheap(Around £25K - £30K) and don't try to make them all up-market cars(An Elise with Leather seats, a Cup hold and all that...no thanks) then maybe this can work!

 

Anyways, too lazy to post pictures, so here they are on Pistonheads.com

 

Although i'll quote SniffPetrol for ending this off...

It’s not like we’re going to do anything crazy like try to compete with Porsche and Ferrari but find our quality standards are woefully short' date=' causing our business to repeatedly fail, struggling on through successive owners, eventually coming up with a front-wheel drive roadster which we then kill off after less than three years before ultimately deciding that the past 20 years have been a complete waste of time and getting back to doing lightweight sports cars which is what we should have stuck with all along. I mean, that would be silly.’[/quote']

*Sniff Petrol take take the mic out of suff, so that was't actually said by a Lotus Spokesperson!

[T1M]

Hmm, they do look very nice, if not a bit too alike. But i'm liking them! Although shouldn't the Elan be a cabriolet?

[CarMadMike]

I really love every one of them :drool: If they all come into production looking 98% like the concepts do, I think lotus will be in my top 5, probably 3 car brands :)

 

The elite is a convertible Tim, The hard top goes down, if the generated video on lotus' official website is anything to go by, the roof mechanism is rather clever, let's hope it stays like it :) As for the Elan, I'm not sure, I think they're trying to move away from the old Elan, it's most likely the Evora with the new front.

[Jazzi]

Crissiiissssss

[KoenigseggBG]

I love how beserk they have gone with the styling and I hope that the production versions will look as close as possible to the concepts. :)

[t.]

If anything it'll kill the brand. Despite being one of the finest chassis designers and manufactures ever (that is no joke btw) they just don't hold the brand appeal. Who cares about brand appeal? I hear you yell. You or I may not, but the people with the cash, they do.

 

This is however not bad, Lotus are taking the gamble and aspiring to shake things up and move on. It takes a lot to do that and I think their latest set of concepts look worryingly nice. (Worrying only as I've never been a Lotus fan)

 

Even if they fail and it all goes tits up, I'd much rather it that way than for them to carry on producing the same old same for years to come and drifting away off of the radar, or to just crash like TVR.

 

Get Lotus building engines again, or at least tuning something powerful to begin with.

[Camel]

They will fail, fall flat on their faces.

 

I hope they don't but that's what I see happening.

[T0M722]

I've never been too much of a fan of Lotus either. Their upcoming fleet of cars does look promising and they all look nice though. The main thing I'm worried about is how most of them look alarmingly alike each other. If I said the Esprit looked nice, I'd have to like the Elise and the Elan as well. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

[t.]

The main thing I'm worried about is how most of them look alarmingly alike each other. If I said the Esprit looked nice, I'd have to like the Elise and the Elan as well. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

Yep, they do all look very alike. I get brand identity but these are like clones. The two that I like most are the Esprit and the Eterne. Funny thing is the Esprit reeks of Gallardo and the Eterne is a total dead ringer for the Rapide..

[MephistoRacing]

They can not replace the Elise with that. I won't have it.

[Leadfoot[YT]]

This is a love/hate refresh, but we all know that Lotus could use a poster car, and to be a part of pop culture. Maybe us car guys hate it (Maserati GranCabrio anyone?), but it will do our company good.

 

But even if that's a gamble, there's also the gamble of the Esprit. It's a dangerous playing field out there, what with the MP4-12C, 458, LP560-4, GT2, GT3 RS, 911 Turbo, DB9, DBS, new Viper, ZR1, GT-R, and whoever else shows up in the next year. From my point of view, this is the car of most risk. Sure, the die-hard fans will likely abandon the Elise (as will the ghost of C. Chapman), but we should all hope for Lotus that a younger audience adopts this new style and brings them into the center of the ring.

 

-Leadfoot

[calster17]

As I said in the first post, As long as they at least keep the Elise Cheap and a Trackday toy, They should be ok.

 

The Elan is Going to be what the Boxter/Cayman is to the 911, So it'll be a Sort of Mini Esprit, With the Esprit beeing to top dog. So they wil be the Supercars for Lotus.

 

The Elite is going to be there GT, to take on the likes of the V8 Vantage, Jaguar XKR, Maserati GT and the likes. And the Eterne To take on the Panamara and the 4-Door DB9(Rapid or whatever)

 

Now the plan should work. Lotus does have a brand(albit, to most young people seem to think there rubbish as it doen't have a gazillion horse power) But does lotus have the build quality to take them on? Diehard fans can put up with not having the best, and most people know that Lotus are more track focused. But the Market in the East doen't really know that, and Will they really care about '60 years of history' and a 'Racing History'. If the cars don't fit to there likings, then they wont care!

 

So it'll come to the showroom? And what will they pick? This is where Lotus will have a go! As Mr Middle-Eastern Billionair Oil Barron Want's somthing diffrent from his Billionair mates who alreday have the Aston, Ferrari and Porche! Since its somthing new and diffrent! And if they are well built then They Should be onto a winner!:D

 

And As many of yous know(or may rember from ages ago on the Atrai fourms), I love Lotus's. And At first i was like 'No, Just No...sorry', I'm starting to really dig them new cars(My PC Desktop pic is the new Elise, Laptop one is the Elan, and PS3 is the Esprit). I just hope they can pull it off and still keep there Trackday side, and not be overpriced!

[Car Freak]

I really resent that new (ex-Ferrari) CEO of theirs for this new direction he's chosen to lead the company in. Look at Lotus' history: when have they ever made cars as big, heavy and complicated (Elite: folding hardtop? Seriously?) as these. It goes completely against what the brand has stood for ever since Colin Chapman started it.

 

Yes, Lotus should start chasing a few Ferrari/Porsche sales, and for that they do need a rubbish car - the Esprit (although they could be more imaginative and think of a new name). But to move the entire brand upmarket is definitely a poor move. There aren't enough people out there with that kind of money (i.e. people who buy supercars to show off) who'd choose these over the cachet of a Ferrari or Lambo. I hate to say it, and I really hope i'll be proven wrong, but I do think Lotus will flop with these.

 

Oh and they especially won't succeed if all the designers did was feed the same design into the photocopier and making them in different sizes...

 

[mod edit:] Please do not swear or use asterisk's to mimic swearing, thanks.

[calster17]

Oh and they especially won't succeed if all the designers did was feed the same design into the photocopier and making them in different sizes...

 

I would't Say that, I know of another British & a German Car Maker who do this...Aston & Porsche why do I think of you?

[blackhole522]

I would't Say that, I know of another British & a German Car Maker who do this...Aston & Porsche why do I think of you?

 

 

lol that's true

[Who]

Get Lotus building engines again, or at least tuning something powerful to begin with.

 

They could build electric motors, and power them by strapping magnets to Colin Chapman's body, which will be spinning in its grave so fast that he would have the equivalent power of 20 power stations...

 

'Simplify then add lightness' Yeah, that fancy metal origami that goes into the folding tintop really is both light and simple...

 

Lotus could have lived in its current market segment, maybe not building the Elise till the end of time but it did have an almost perfect niche, I mean, it was the same segment as Caterham, who have produced almost the exact same car for almost 60 years...

[hpluls]

They could build electric motors, and power them by strapping magnets to Colin Chapman's body, which will be spinning in its grave so fast that he would have the equivalent power of 20 power stations...

 

I'm sigging that :lol: