NOOO!! LOTUS!!! They won’t sell??? It sounds like they’re holding it at ransom. (not that I would necessarily want to sell it either)

They should sell Lotus to Ford, so they have one more brand for rebadging one of their cars.(ex. Ford fusion)JK

someone good better buy this, id love for it to be VW

Andre Neves – You beat me to it!!

Sounds like piss poor management. Whoever’s doing the negotiations is doing a poor job. Some of these guys want all of the benefits of a partnership, but simply won’t give up what it takes, $$$. I’ll never understand some business leaders.

I think the world will survive without Lotus.

someone will buy lotus. the name has gotten huge in the last few years. didnt they sell more cars last year then ever in their history? someone dropped the ball.

Whatever it takes to get the GX3 on the road in the US.

That’s too cool of a vehicle not to be built.

VW would be a good steward for Lotus.

BMW would be good as well. Both companies have done very well with their management of their old British marques

Toyota should snag Louts and turn it into a showcase for both companies’ mutual engineering talent. Toyota has little sexiness (until recently) and then it is sex without soul.

Besides, VW has its hands full restructuring themselves. Lotus has technologies that Toyota needs and vice versa.

^^ That’s true. That would be nice. Just as long as Lotus lives…I mean they haven’t even built the next Espirit yet.

As much as we’d all hate it, Toyota and Lotus *could* be a smart match.

Hate the match? Toyota quality and efficiency paired Lotus handling and technology. Bring it on.
I just don’t want to see a black bescooped Camry with ‘Handling by Lotus’ on the side.
When the Elises got those Toyota engines and transmissions I groaned at first, then I realized its one less thing to worry about.

Don’t Lotus’ already have Toyota motors in them… I’m pretty sure of it.

Just answered my own question… Yes, the Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine…

Porsche should buy it and throw a mid engine boxer engine in there…Cayman S’ 3.4L 295hp 6 + Lotus Elise = Ultimate sports car.
Porsche & Lotus would be incredible…but it’s only a thought that would most likely never happen. Heh, get’s ya thinking though doesn’t it?

Now that I think about it…Imagine the new Espirit being based on the 997 Turbo, but retaining a Twin Turbo V8…take the one out of the Cayenne Turbo and slap it right in lol. Now you have a 450HP(520HP TurboS Cayenne) supercar.
Im getting ahead of myself. Just think of the possabilites though.

Porsche is allready owned by VW group.

The Espirit would probably be powered by the Gallardo V10…they seem to be pimping that around lately (detuned versions in both the S8, S6, modified version in R8, and plans of using half of it in a TT!).

The hallmark of Lotus has always been being light in weight. I hope whoever gets it, will maintain that philosophy.

mbftw,
What makes you think VW owns Porsche? Where’d you get that info from?

Porsche has just recently increased their stake in VW to 25%.

Actually mbftw, Porsche has been trying recently to increase it’s stake in VAG, not the other way around.

“As of June 2006, Porsche AG’s stake in Volkswagen had risen to 25.1%, giving Porsche a blocking minority, whereby Porsche can veto large corporate decisions undertaken by VW.”
-Wikipedia

Lotus under Porsche or VW ownership would be a disaster.. under VW the next Elise would be nothing more than a reskinned TT! Toyota seems to be the best match, since they use their engines already, but I get the feeling that HyunKia has been lusting for Lotus for a long time (remember the home-market Elan rebadge by Kia?) and this might be their opportunity to take it.

Lotus should be bought by a flamboyant rich playboy with as much enthusiasm as any of us. Enough with these big corporations buying and merging. Look at TVR, Koenigsegg and Ascari. These companies are owned by people like us, who love cars, who dreamt and doodled cars in class and their cars all reflect that passion. Lotus has so much potential, they need a guy who thinks big. Shove a 500hp V8 in the Elise and make a car that goes around Nurburgring faster than anything out there. The suits know jack about cars- look at Ford and GM.

No, the suits know about cars alright (well, some of them at least), but money is the only thing they’re interested in.

Lotus really seems best suited as a ’boutique’ type marque anyway. I just can’t see Toyota taking it under it’s wing IMHO.
Whoever ends up with it should just stay mostly hands off and let them do what they do best which is purpose built light weight great handling impractical cars for enthusiasts. Having always been a huge fan of the Esprit I would love to see it make a comeback but would rather see Lotus live on if it meant not having the Esprit.

I wouldn’t read too much into the words of a racist wanker like Mahathir. He’s currently engaged in a big fight with his successor, who had the sense to realize that it was a waste of public money to go on supporting Proton. Build quality of their cars is literally 20 years behind Japan or Germany. They probably bought Lotus because it was the only sports car company they could find whose quality standards were as low as their own. Porsche/Toyota engineers will die laughing when they dissect a ProtonLotus.

The new owners of Aston should buy it to put under ston Martin. It could also help make Aston better at handling and take porsche on directly.

Toyota would only ruin the company.A better bet would be Honda. Put that 2.0 type r engine from the civic in there and watch it fly.

elise + VWs 2.0T = =^D

Well this doesn’t look good..

YourNameHere –”elise + VWs 2.0T = =^D”

Thought the same thing. Great little lightweight motor.

gm should take them under there shoulder that would be kool if gm owened lotus!!

a lot of companies could use lotus engineering expertise/soul/image. not gm, it has too much on it’s plate now. not porsche, it really doesn’t need it. but toyota, might be a good bet.

GM? Noooooooooo! Look what they did to Saab! Imagine the nightmare of a Lotus-badged GMC truck, because that’s exactly what they’d do with it. The ghost of Colin Chapman would haunt the halls of Detroit for bearing this abdomination.

Toyota, Honda, the Koreans, BMW, even Ford (nice historic ties), any of these would make sense. I could easily see the next Lotus with Honda’s K20, MINI’s turbo, or a Ford/Mazda MZR engine.

I just hope lotus lives on long enough for me to buy a few of them. Like 3 or 4 of them.

Lotus lotus lotus is what all you guys are saying, but the company that holds it together is Proton a car company Americans would not know about, you should want Proton to Survive in order for lotus to go on.

Ummm, GM already owned lotus once. They bought them in ‘87. Stephens era Esprits and the early 90’s elans use a lot of GM parts and Lotus designed the ZR1 Corvette engine.

How old are you guys, like 12?

how old are u like 45 are u like married to ur hand u petafile!

global_lighting if u think that gm would make a truck with the lotus name ur retarted, and thats the last thing ford needs right now they are loosing big time how could they handle another coumpany if they cant evan handle there own!

the idea of lotus-tuned VAG products would give BMW and Mercedes the willies, not to mention VW-powered Lotuses…

2.0T would go great with the elise/exige and the RS4’s V8 woulod spice up the Esprit nicely

The hell with Lotus. Proton rocks and must survive at all costs!

Chevy490, the idea of a Lotus truck is as retarded as a Saab V8 RWD SUV, which fails to explain the Saab 9-7x. Given GM’s mantra that SUVs and trucks will save the company, and their cross-platforming of *everything*, nothing is sacred. IF they do acquire Lotus, I really, really, really hope I’m wrong.

As for Ford, I agree right now they’re in trouble, but from a technical perspective there could be some benefits, particularly with Mazda, Jaguar, Volvo, or Ford-Europe. Ford also controls Rover, Land Rover, Jaguar, and Aston-Martin; adding Lotus to the mix would sweeten a package sell-off of their English marquees.

I do not believe Toyota would ever buy Lotus, but it would be ideal. And there needs to be some level of ‘involvement’ since both firms have qualities that the other needs.

Porsche and Lotus are competitors, maybe not in price, but in goal and being driver oriented. Aston/Lotus is interesting since they don’t compete against each other and are both British, sharing a dealer network, etc…
I just want Lotus to build the same dynamic cars that are beautifully built and accessible to buy.

^ Porsche & Lotus are definately NOT competitors.
Here at work(Porsche/Aston dealership) we get product guides on the introductions of each model that’s released. They talk about each vehicle, the competition, and comes with some comparisons in between them. I’ve never seen a lotus in there

Weird. I just guessed since both set out to make the ultimate sports car, that they would be competitors.
I assumed an Exige or Elise buyer would look at a Cayman or Boxster…

Do think Lotus’ numbers are too small to be perceived as competition?

Here’s a vote for Toyota to come bail out Lotus – this would fit into their product/brand portfolio perfectly.

Lotus Elise/Exige is a hard car to compare to the boxster/Cayman or or any other car for that matter. I’ve been in an Elise and I can tell you, it’s basically a fast production “Go-Kart”. Your only creature comforts are a Climate system & a stereo. It’s kinda like a “mass-produced”(somewhat) specialty vehicle. Honestly, I would consider the, no longer produced, Espirit a Competitor to the 911. But Porsche focuses more on the GREATER competition(Mercedes,Aston Martin,Jaguar-XK-,Chevy-Z06-,BMW,Dodge-Viper-,etc.).
And guess what, not only are those taken from the Product guides, but are also the ones you see parked infront of the Dealership more often.
Meanpants555, It’s just a different market I guess.