Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Is Lotus in real trouble

That's truly insane. I thought you'd doctored the picture until I looked the model up on the net.
Must say, I'm more enamoured of Morgan's styling department now, having seen the way things might have gone....as they have at lotus.
Presumably the lotus management are wondering why the things aren't selling......
The world has finally actually gone mad.

Sad to read this today:

https://www.evo.co.uk/lotus/emira/2...VREI8slVspaVE_aem_-sc1UyGimAYwnaa-ZMgxxg

Greets René

Very sad to think Lotus might be reaching the end, especially when you think of how successful cars like Elise (and to a lesser extent Exige and Evora) were. I have to confess to wondering why they didn't simply carry on making them rather than trying to come up with ever more exotic models? Was it the new owners trying to stamp their mark without necessarily knowing much about the business? I sense a parallel with TVR here.

That is the new world. Forget the history, forget the loyal customers, just sit round a table, or maybe sit round a fancy computer screen and spew out crazy ideas until they go with one. Even movies, and EVEN Doctor Who.
JaGUaR ire in the lead, but crazy ideas men are in our midst.

Are there any similarities with any other small scale British sports car manufacturers we can think off...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🤷🏻‍♂️😱
Once companies have been bought and sold a few times they just get further and further away from the essence of what made them the unique thing they were in the first place........
Big corporate buyouts, teams of designers and people who have a 'vision'...... usually f*ck it all up..............😆

🇬🇧🇬🇧

I do wonder if these "ideas people" actually research the market at any point. Are they arrogant enough to believe that customers will buy their dream? Who knows, but week on week we see news of this and that, where there is no demand, or diminishing demand, and the ideas people look shocked. Then blame the customers for not getting it........

This is the weird thing. The companies I worked in would not have released a penny for a new product development without a credible market analysis and a considered investment return.

I used to see some of the people trying to use the argument that in a fast-moving market there simply wasn't time to do a fully detailed analysis, but they were swiftly reminded that didn't mean a complete absence of thought was an appropriate alternative. In car manufacturing where vehicles should have at least a 5-year product cycle there's just no excuse at all.

The world has moved on, not saying I like it more than the 'old days' but its different.
Lotus started off making kit cars to finance their racing arm, they were basic and only appealed to hands on enthusiasts. Ferrari started off in much the same way, building road cars to help finance racing. Morgan have traditionally built cars that needed sorting by enthusiastic owners as they came from the factory because they were built to a price, and there are many examples you could find of 'characterful' car manufacturers who no longer exist.
As the capability of mass produced cars improved the number of potential buyers who were prepared to put the effort in to run these types of vehicles diminished, and to survive you either have the niche small volume players, like Pembleton, or if you have higher volumes, like Morgan and Lotus you have to go up market because the profit on a £100,000 plus car is considerably more than on one at half the price and the development costs of trying to get anywhere near the capability of a ferrari/porsche etc are huge.
Ferrari seem to be doing ok and Morgan may well thrive, lets hope so. Ducati is the closest comparison to Morgan in taking a fantastic bike, full of character but not exactly the most reliable or well built, and turning it into one of most capable and expensive bikes available. Morgan are I am sure looking to do the same but it won't happen overnight, as it didn't with Ducati.
I am happy with my Morgan, and previous ones, but spend far more time making sure they keep going than on any of the mass produced cars I have owned and most people just don' 'get it'
I do think that the traditional enthusiasts cars will always have a place, partly as an antidote to the mass market vehicles currently being produced, but unfortunately feel that most have already been built and we are unlikely to see their like again.

Agreed.

You buy it with an idea in your mind or you would not do it. If you go in thinking unicorns and peony's then you will find reinforcement to say unicorns and peony's are what's needed?

I also think some of this is either being covered up by "needs to be made in america" and "chance to shutdown the expensive bit" despite the fact that cult of Morgan is not really understood in the US, especially now with trucks and more trucks made in the US becoming the common discussion due to taco tariffs.

I still have Exige sized itch to scratch.

Buy it now while there are still spares available.