New Hires at Lotus?

[Andy B]

Is this good given GM's recent history?

Autonews.com July 28

Lotus Cars prepares to hire Lutz, Purves as advisers, sources say.
Lotus Cars Ltd. is poised to tap former General Motors Co. product guru Bob Lutz and retired BMW executive Tom Purves to advise the British niche carmaker on a five-year turnaround plan.
Lutz, who left GM as vice chairman two months ago at age 78, has had discussions with Lotus but hasn't received a formal offer, two people familiar with the situation said Purves, 61, said in a telephone interview.

[eurosport]

Originally Posted by Andy B

Is this good given GM's recent history?

Autonews.com July 28

Lotus Cars prepares to hire Lutz, Purves as advisers, sources say.
Lotus Cars Ltd. is poised to tap former General Motors Co. product guru Bob Lutz and retired BMW executive Tom Purves to advise the British niche carmaker on a five-year turnaround plan.
Lutz, who left GM as vice chairman two months ago at age 78, has had discussions with Lotus but hasn't received a formal offer, two people familiar with the situation said Purves, 61, said in a telephone interview.

[Brian Skeoch]

Bob Lutz ????? that may or may not be good... I have mixed emotions about Lutz..

[WayneB]

Hiring Mr.Lutz or Mr.Purves = Waste of money,but If anyone was to be consulted it surely should be MJK as he knows Lotus and its customer base like the back of his hand.
Its going to be very difficult to get the car building side of Lotus profitable,but a good start will be to produce a highly desirable niche vehicle as Lotus have done in the past with the Elan,Elite,Esprit and most reciently the Elise.
Lotus have kicked around building a kind of microcar in the past maybe now is a good time to actually start building a cheap to produce, well designed boutique electric or hybrid car with a large profit margin ?
Sexing up the Evora with a bigger horsepower output and more aggresive carbon body additions would be worthwhile also,but the company really needs to take some risks and start innovating again like in the Chapman era.

[Autocross7]

Sorry, I may be proven wrong, but this does not excite me at all. I have come to think that the Lotus of the past is gone.

[eurosport]

All I get out of Lutz is images of him flying his toy jets and giving us the Pontiac Solstice and the etherial Chevy Volt. For the life of me, I don't know why MJK didn't get a seat on the board after retirement unless he was offered and refused due to his health.

[Autocross7]

Originally Posted by eurosport

All I get out of Lutz is images of him flying his toy jets and giving us the Pontiac Solstice and the etherial Chevy Volt. For the life of me, I don't know why MJK didn't get a seat on the board after retirement unless he was offered and refused due to his health.

I expect typical corporate childish paranoid crap my self... we shall have to see what unfolds at Lotus. As stated, I personally am not a fan of the new plan... but that really doe not mean it will not be good for the company.

[Johnsean]

This is a statement of intent. These are global type execs. It will make people sit up and take notice.
As for Mike Kimberley. I hope his health is improving and he is enjoying his retirement.
I sincerely hope Lotus go from strength to strength.

[Mark Blanchard]

How much money is Lotus throwing around with all these new people! I'm not so sure Proton will be that keen on bailing them out again.

I recon they should save some money away to premote the new Esprit effectively (not facesless weirdo's in crowds) but to make sure the car appeals to the high net worth individuals.

[WayneB]

So is the Lotus car that is due to be revealed at the next Paris Motorshow actually going to be the next "Esprit" or is this just another in the line of on-off rumours like all of the others over the last 6 or so years?

My take on it was that it is also highly likely that it was a Hi-Po version of the Evora(supercharged) and/ or a new variant of the Elise/Exige.

It really is time for them to put up or shut up about the bloody "Esprit" though...........

[clockwork]

Well the Italian job appears to have gone ---`s up already,still their ability to keep their powder dry is awesome,faceless people driving shapeless cars,I bet the opposition are err curious ?

[proracer]

Lotus has always been a small company. I am not saying that that is a bad thing.

Lotus has built a number of good fast cars and they have also failed at trying something else.

Take the later Elan....this car was supposed to open the doors for Lotus to produce more cars.....Failure

Take a look at the later Elite....this was supposed to be a family car??...Failure

Take a look at the Elise....was to be a less expensive car but came in very very late and was put on the market at 35%++ above projected price.....

Now they want to bring in some BIG GUNS to help? For one Bob Lutz needs to enjoy his retirement and leave Lotus alone!!!! Give me a break....The Solstice??????? Even that car is having its trouble!!!!

Dany boy needs to look else where for some one who can talk Lotus and not just run of the mill Chevy look alike....I do not like the man....to young and not experienced enough to take on rebuilding??? Lotus

Jim

[WayneB]

The Elite S1 (type 75), Eclat and later the Excel were succesful cars for Lotus Jim, they pretty much outsold the Esprit 2 to 1 except in the USA where they were not all that popular (due to price more than anything)

The Elan type 100 also sold well in Europe , nearly 4000 were built so I wouldnt class that one as a turkey either.

I think the Elise has been a great success for Lotus but I feel now its getting long in the tooth and needs a pretty major body re design to re-invigorate sales as I dont think the recient minor facelift is enough.

The Evora would have been a great car 10 years ago but I personnally I feel its not at all as advanced in styling and powertrain engineering as it could have/should have been, and I wont even mention the Europa S as that one already has gotten an early bullet to the back of its head.

I only hope the new "Esprit" is an advanced design in both styling and powertrain engineering, building a Lambo Diabloesque looking copy with a cheapish Toyota Japanese V8 wont cut it IMO.

[proracer]

Wayne, yes from a small car company, the sales look very good.

My understanding may be wrong, does Lotus want to compete with the other large volume car companies? I hope not!

If so are we going to see cookie cutter cars? Nothing unique?

My point is, Lotus does not have to be like all the other guys.....just build desirable cars!!!!

Jim

PS. I have the results of Gerry Marshall's Lotus Esprit racing.....Very Impressive!!!

[WayneB]

No, I agree I don't want Lotus to be just like Ferrari or Porsche, I want them to continue building attractively priced low volume niche sportscars for the thinking man or woman, and leave all of the arrogance and gold chain stuff to the other brands.

The Esprit was a pretty wild looking and advanced sportscar for a pretty reasonable price in the 70's/80's so I would figure a modern equivilent would be able to do at least as well as the old car did.

[mario]

The Esprit Imho was most important and beautiful Lotus.

A new one will a succes for Lotus image imho.

[clockwork]

Well ,in their rush to become a smaller volume manufacturer they have "alledgedly" terminated their entire European dealerships from mid 2012.

[mario]

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au...uct_blitz.html

[Autocross7]

Seems they are dead set on turning into a more Ferrari style company. IMO, this sucks. I have owned Ferrari cars and I like them, but the service network, customer service, ability to get any answers from Ferrari, and the general idea of "care for your clients' TOTALLY TOTALLY SUCKS from Ferrari. Unlike Lotus of the past, Ferrari is only interested in the million dollar classic owners or the big check book don't really know crap about cars at all crowd.

The community that is Lotus stands a far set apart from the other marks in my experience, and the Lotus of old played a large part of that stance. I can only hope that the 'real Lotus' is kept and this Ferrari vision of the new Lotus is just me having a pessimistic knee jerk reaction! I will be more than happy to say I was mistaken as we move into the future.

[WayneB]

I think Mr.Bahar is making a big mistake playing hardball with the dealer network and will ultimately regret the stance he has decided to adopt with them.

My feeling is most will call it quits, especially the dealerships who have other car lines and dont solely rely on Lotus.

He must think he is holding all of the cards though and will be enticing them with nice renderings of proposed new models.