Good or bad news? Supposedly they turned Volvo around fairly well.
Geely buying Lotus and Proton
Justin Smith
Luis Richardson
Has Lotus even done anything worthwhile in years
Owen Hernandez
Has Lotus even done anything at all in years?
Logan Thompson
I don't think they've done anything at all.
There's a Lotus dealership on my way to work and all they do is advertise/sell used cars lol.
Evan Gomez
Evora, provide the chassis for that hennessey abomination, race in F1, that's about it.
That did have a plan to resurrect a few nameplates and expand their lineup, but it seems nothing's come of it.
Mason Cook
Rebuilding the Elise for the dozenth time
Liam Gomez
A friend of mine had a 2005 Elise. I was actually surprised at just how agile the car was, but it really is just a car made for people who want to drive. The inside was completely barebones aside from an ac and a really basic cd player. You'd never know that it only had 190hp, the car can move. I wouldn't mind owning one but the thought of repair costs pushes me away.
Tyler Rodriguez
Goddamn midnight club 3 and every other game for making me fall in love with the lotus elise. All I want in my car is ac and a cd player. It just became that much more perfect. I WILL have my own one day.
Brandon Robinson
Lotus can now use:
>The 250hp T5
>The 320hp twincharged T6
>The 400hp hybrid T8
>Volvo's great interior designers
>Volvo's expertise at chassis design
>Several modular chassis architectures
>Most importantly: a big load of money
Seems like a win for them. Especially that T8 driveline could be nice: a 320hp twincharged I4 powering the rear wheels, and an 80 hp electric motor driving the fronts. Seems like that could get Lotus in the hybrid sportscar niche that the NSX could have started, if it weren't so expensive.
Chase Smith
Geely was one of those dirty car companies that tried other ways to break into the market. I guess their current method to obtaining physical dealership locations in the USA is to buy up various struggling makes. Once Geely gets enough physical locations, they can then put in their chinese cars and have enough service centers for them.
Andrew Robinson
>Rebuilding the Elise for the dozenth time
It can and has gotten better. Back in 1997, the Elise was outperformed on the slalom test by the Chevrolet Cavalier Sedan LS 2.4L.
Easton Mitchell
>Hybrid Lotus
Madness.
I would seriously consider a 2 or 3 eleven for a track ride..
Bentley Reed
>A friend of mine had a 2005 Elise.
What was all that talk back then about the 2005 Elise not meeting usa bumper safety requirements and needing a special exemption from the law?
Nathan Adams
Great news. The Brits seem to be unable to make good non-meme cars unless there's German/Indian/Chinese leather-daddy with a whip standing behind them. Aston Martin being the only exception.
Charles Wood
Even Aston Martin needed Ford in order to survive at some point.
Jaxon Perry
>Lotus is a Chinese brand now
Sigh.
Kevin Williams
Geely is probably the biggest copycat over there and they have no shame
John Foster
all of this could have been avoided if toyota bought them after they said they're after making more fun cars
or vw
Carter King
>Geely is probably the biggest copycat
You forget that a company doesn't make money inventing a car. It makes money selling them.
The chinese saved a lot of R&D costs by piracy. Then they underpriced the company they were pirating and took away enough customers to force the original out of business. They then swooped in to buy up the patents and branding for pennies on the dollar. Other competitors didn't buy because they couldn't stop the chinese piracy.
The Geely GE at the Shanghai motor show looked just like the Rolls Royce Phantom. The copy was complete with an imitation Spirit of Ecstasy atop its familiar-looking upright grille (only leaning forward rather than backwards). It also had a bizzare throne-style single seat for the rear passenger. The GE was designed with a retail price closer to £40k than the £250k you’d need to get into a real Phantom.
Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy:
en.wikipedia.org
Isaiah Adams
>or vw
VAG ruins everything it touches, with Porsche being the only (debatable) exception so far.
Anthony Morales
I'd say good. At this point, anything that changes for Lotus can't be worse than where they're at. Now they can access top tier Volvo tech to build a car that someone may even want to own. On paper it looks like a match made in heaven: Volvo refinement and reliability with Lotus handling and dynamics. If they get it right it could be memorable.
However, if they can't finally pull it off this time, I'm fairly certain that Lotus will end up dead. I really feel that this is going to be a last shot for them.
Grayson Garcia
I woudn't say that making Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, and Lamborghini profitable, resurrecting Bugatti, and keeping a hands-off approach with Porsche, is ruining stuff.
As much as I dislike VAG in general, all those brands would be long gone if they hadn't intervened.
Nathan Rivera
The Esprit was pretty nice