Doubt cast over Lotus' future

[F1 LOTUS]

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/lotus/default.asp?storyId=15286

[Doug]

found a cool link from that story

340R Hardtop

[TheBard]

Hmmmm, and barely a day later Lotus US announce that they've made a fleet sale to Enterprise... Enterprise Elise

Hmmm, why do I see a drop in used prices, a hike in insurance costs, plus a lot of almost new cars available for breaking for parts (some front end damage) in the near future???

Not sure if this is bad news, or good news...
Ian

[ailwyn]

Lotus may get sold, but that's the same as any other small car company. While Elises or any other model are going out the door, Lotus will continue to trade.

Ailwyn

[Scott J]

There is NO synergy between Proton and Lotus.

There is NO halo effect for Proton cos half the public dont know who Proton are and the other half dont care.

So why do they keep Lotus. Well engineering expertise and asian "face". As the Malaysian govt. has to open its protected markets to foreign vehicles which are superior, Protons market share in its homeland will disappear.

There is also a debate as to whether a relatively small country with a relatively small population should have its own major car manufacturer. Again back to asian "face".

DAF of Holland no more
SAAB of sweden- GM badge engineering
Austin-Rover - no more.
Seat - VAG badge engineering etc etc.

Its the global big boys that will survive, Toyota, Honda, VAG etc.

So Toyota buy Lotus, subsidise the factory for a fraction of the $500M they put into F1 every year, and get a Lotus-Toyota F1 brand. Or 2 F1 teams like Honda.

[ailwyn]

So Toyota buy Lotus, subsidise the factory for a fraction of the $500M they put into F1 every year, and get a Lotus-Toyota F1 brand. Or 2 F1 teams like Honda.

Either Toyota or Honda would get my vote, IMHO both could do with a tie-up of this kind, and neither really have directly competing marques at this time.

Just my 2p!

Ailwyn