they bought it for $81 million. Bargain of the century. the British car industry is utterly worthless. i’d have given them a dollar.

first and second comment

I better stop your retardedness before comment number 4 comes along.

i wonder what they could sell that stake for now

^its probably even more worthless than it was, when they bought it

I think Tata Motors should buy this shït too.

^lol R head

Just curious why does everyone here hate Lotus

i think they should make cars again… the esprit was a car, elan, eclat, the lotus omega (or Lotus Carlton)…elise/exige is just a weekend toy IMO. they have the new europa but i never saw one.

at least $100 million is my bet

Why do you even like cars LP640? All you have is negative comments for everything. You must think Italian cars are the **** or something.

Well I think Lotus is brilliant and I look forward to seeing their new Esprit either this year or next year. Only Lotus could come up with a car so very right as the Elise. Light, sexy and constructed using innovative production methods..If it was American it would weigh twice as much..if it was Japanese, it wouldn’t have existed as they need to copy first. Such a rotten shame the British car industry is dead with so many great names mothballed. It saddens me we now live in a world of Kia’s, Hundai’s and now even Chery’s ugh..Where once we had Triumphs, MG’s and Austin Healey’s…..

lp640 is just a little kid that thinks hes badass because he reads car magazines and thinks he nows it all

GM is kicking themselves in the ass for divesting themselves of Lotus.

Lotus is the only one car manufacturer left in the world who does not cater to Britney Spears and Paris Hiltons of this world. This is unfortunate for driving enthusiasts. in the past Saab, Alfa and Volvo had offerings in the same spirit, since those were purchased by mediocre marketing machines the sport car spirit is gone. Regardless of who will own the brand I hope it will continue to lead automotive establishment.

LP640: Are you sober now? Guess not…

autonut: Do you think Lotus has a place in the BMW group?

I don’t believe so. There is nothing for either marquee to gain from the union. BMW went “corporate” route producing heavy, bloated with amenities vehicles. You need either Microsoft or Java certification to start BMW 7, for driving Lotus you need to know how to drive manual transmission. There are no power windows in Lotus, much less iDontDrive

No new articles on LLN? I was expecting the sales results for December and for the year.

I predict that Toyota beat GM in sales for the year (obviously)
And GM/Ford sales are down from decreasing fleet sales by 30%
Nissan is up, Honda is up a little, Toyota is down or the same

Pretty pessimistic huh?

I pretty much agree with your predictions, Commodore.

Honda is always the reliably profitable company, but hasn’t had one of those big sales booms in a while. Slight increase compared to last year there. Nissan has some improved models out, so I see a small increase there.

I think Toyota will take the top sales crown for 2007, though I think as you pointed out it will be more due to GM drastically cutting fleet sales (and ditching some models that are ancient and straight-to-rental now) rather than Toyota selling drastically higher. I think GM will be in a position to take it back in a much better way by MY 2010. And they’ll do it with significantly less rental fleet padding.

Ford and Chrysler will obviously post huge losses, that’s pretty well known. I don’t see much short-term hope for them.

Not much to say about some of the European guys. I think VW will show a slight decrease, they seem to be losing their way. Daimler and BMW will probably remain pretty much on par.

As for some of the smaller guys: Mitsubishi will be up from Lancer sales and PR from the Evo X, but not enough to move them off the Endangered Automakers list. Subaru will be down due to the fact that their design department has been on crack for years.

VW needs to let Porsche take over their management and make the same amount of profit ratio per vehicle as their own models.

Toyota is the best buyer for Lotus. Lotus needs Toyota build quality and Toyota needs Lotus handling.

Lotus already uses Toyota engines and transmissions.

Also their product lines do not overlap.

The last thing Lotus needs is to be bought by large corporate marketing machine especially one as shameless as Toyota.
Its almost a shame Prodrive bought Aston. Lotus seems much better suited to Prodrives’ focus of racing and cars for weekend racers. They are performance car guys, thats what Lotus needs. Not pressure to make more money every quarter.

Agreed, SwerveEarly. Lotus has bounced around in different ownership several times, and we can see that many partnerships just don’t work out. Lotus would drown under the banner of a large corporate system as exists under Toyota, GM, Ford, etc.

What Lotus needs is deep pockets and quality, two things that Toyota has. Toyota needs cars with soul, which is what Lotus offers.

I wouldn’t call Toyota shameless; they are sharply focused which is what every successful automaker is ie: BMW, Porsche and Ferrari.

You know, Proton eventually bought the remaining stakes in Lotus a few years back, and now owns all of Lotus.

Toyota would drain the soul out of Lotus.

Aston Martin would make good parent company for Lotus. This way Aston could make more sharper driving machines with Lotuses help and Lotus could be like smaller Astons with different designs and similar technology.

Let this overpriced go kart known for its appalling build quality and reliability go the way of the dodo and the rest of the British car industry and die. The world will be a much better place for it.

Aston Martin and Lotus is a great pairing, good thinking Stuart.

Why do some of you see Toyota as soul draining? I think they are just dull with a few flashes of brilliance.