Arregueti

Hi Steven, Scary news but good that it is back and in one piece. I hope you will get to the bottom of it. Anyway, enjoy spring in the Esprit.

Maldonado or the emoticons?

Good to hear and glad for you, Richard. Ready to be enjoyed in spring, congratulations. Just look at the bright side of it (Lotus Silverstone) and I hope you won't hold strong feelings against Lotus: "Errare humanum est", which applies to all of us.

@ forge197 Very clear! Many thanks! When I started hunting for a toy, I went first to a Subaru dealer to try the BRZ, but they didn't pay much attention to me, so I decided to go to the (close enough) Lotus dealer. They gave me the keys of an Evora and I just did not go back to the Subaru dealer. :-)

Oh, that must have been dreadful. Good to hear you are ok and ready to fight back, though.

May I "steal" the thread, just for a while? @ Forge197, now that you have the Elise (and while I fully understand that they are very different cars), could you please comment on how does the Elise compare to the GT86? A good friend of mine is interested in one of those and would like to hear from a "qualified driver" how it compares to a Lotus. Many thanks in advance.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-national-chemical-corp-to-buy-controlling-stake-in-pirelli-1427065364 Should we be worried?

He is building interest. Give us more, please.

I can only say good things about Mr. Turner... He has solved with A marks the two "situations" that I had with my car. If you haven't done it yet, I would definitively try discussing things with him directly. Things may have changed recently in the factory but, to be honest, his involvement and the way in which Lotus handled my niggles/complains convinced me that I had bought the right car. They managed to keep me. Hope you will find a good solution, too.

Maybe that person wants a "Panamera by Lotus" à la Carlton . Good luck with the bidding!

^ Fully agree on that last paragraph. There is arrogance and lack of elegance in that comment from AMG's man. There is probably a hidden agenda or intention to destabilize in all that. Stupid way of doing it, IMHO. And numbers are also what engineers do after all, isn't it? I was in my dealer yesterday for some minor work in my car and I had a pleasant chat with the owner. It is the first time in over three years that I heard optimistic comments, specially about the sales incentives support by Lotus. Call it numbers but those incentives to sell more cars and bring people to the dealers was exactly what they were in need of.

Hi Joe, I must be the same height as both of you, given that I use the same technique to get in & out and also drive way forward... I have driven the car with a helmet on. There have been taller persons sitting in the passenger's seat also with a helmet and none of us had any issue.

To give you a reference, I bought my car (a manager's car) two years ago in the UK from an official dealer and got 4% off the sale price initially proposed (it was probably just to get rid of me and my recurrent questions and requests for additional pictures). That was the dark age of 2013, though the conditions above sound better. Do they really offer 6k off a new Elise?

Interesting thread and views, Nigel. I am curious now about what will you go for, at the end. Thomas, I think you are quite right, once again. Actually, IMHO even the way these Porsches are presented now looks increasingly like the videos to which we keep referring when the Evora was launched and in which Mr Becker(s) talked us through the car. It was probably "cheap" marketing at the time but it was very effective as it managed to create intimacy between the car and the prospective owner because you could see all the passion put into it. Porsche seems to try to replicate the "small manufacturer" approach to talk to the enthusiast. Will they be able to copy the quality of ride and the magic steering, though?

No, but I will look for it. It is gorgeous! Subarus, EVOS and Integrales are quite popular here, too. The current German WRC event is around the corner (in Trier).

Hi Diego, There is indeed a big car culture here. This is not central London but you do see Lamborghinis, Cobras and other exotica quite often here (or people doing the sunday shopping in a Ferrari 308). If you enjoy wine and happen to be around this area I would suggest to try the German "Eiswein" or similar "Vendanges tardives" in French. It is the northern European reply to those Portos and Jerez that you enjoy so much in the UK. Probably you know them, though. Sorry for going offtopic. I was just trying to build JMG's credibility as a car nut!

I do happen to live in Luxembourg, actually... The demonym is Luxembourger but every one here says Luxembourgish (blame it on a poor English). Their language is a dialect based on German. Actually, they are (at least) trilingual almost all of them, being fluent in Luxembourgish, German and French. Which explains all the accents (or lack thereof) White wine is (reasonably) good, fuel is cheap(ish) and we live one hour away from Spa and Nordschleife, four hours away from the Alps and twenty minutes away from the Autobahn... With around 75% of its surface covered by forests and water, and an amazing network of B-roads, it could be called Lotusland... You are all most welcome to spend some time here in one of your trips to the Nordschleife...

I am afraid that in Euroland it is going to be tough to sell Evoras in the short term. I bought my car two years ago and, if bought today, I would have paid 8,000 euros more, simply because of the exchange rate GBP/Euro.

Good luck with your new venture, Guy. Would be good to follow your stock through TLF or your website (when in place). And please don't rule out hunting for good LHD cars too (and Excels in particular. I may be tempted by one of those!). In Europe we would appreciate some guidance on how to pick a good-old-one. Best of lucks, Jorge

^^ Indeed. Which makes me think that Mika should get the 2015 TLF award for the Trip of the year. @ Moderators, Seriously, I think it would be a good idea to collect/encourage threads about trips of our Lotus cars in the forum and make a poll to decide who did the best trip each year (preferably the older cars but also the newer).

You can have a look at the full list here. It is completely crazy, IMO. http://lautomobileancienne.com/resultat-vente-artcurial-collection-roger-baillon/

^^ Please do. A strikethrough where appropriate may be enough for heart sensitive people. Regarding the article, I did like it. And the Sunday Times is a good place to get to a broader audience, I would have thought. The tone of Bahar's comment about his game-changer plans makes me realise how unrealistic and pretentious that man is. I prefer the "ant" approach that JMG seems to be applying. It is true, though, that weight saving and pressing the suppliers will not be enough to save Lotus. It is ok to shake the pieces-box for now but the fist "JMG-era" cars need to be really good if they want to stand a chance. I also liked the fact that JMG's first Lotus "dream-car" was the Elite. It may sound as heresy and I know it is highly unrealistic but I still dream of a new Lotus four-seater in the lines of the Excel (rather than a SUV). Improve the Evora, get a very good new Elise / 211 and launch a beautiful, reliable and good handling 4-seater. There goes my vote (if he is reading).

Just found this thread now! All my respect (and couriosity). I did a much more humble version of your trip when I bought over ebay my unseen (and in poor shape) Mk1 Rx-7 in Germany some years ago. We drove 400 + kms. to pick the car. My (then pregnant) wife escorted me back to Luxembourg. Luckily everything held together and we still laugh at the story. I do not quite understand how she did not kill me at the time, though. I enjoyed the experience so much that we bought the Evora in the Uk, just to bring it home. This time I did the trip with my son (the same that was in the belly when we bought the Rx-7, lol). Obviously, there was no concern on reliability this time round. All this just to say that you can give me a heads up if you plan to visit Luxembourg on your way through the Ardennes and Eiffel. You could even fill your tank and take some (cheap) alcohol with you. :-) Wish you the best of luck. Jorge

There is not much left, IMO... Oh Gosh, I fear the worse now... Is Mini going to build a 7-seater based on the countryman? or even worse, the next TVR will be a Hummer-like 7 seater?

Hmm... A newly developed taxi cab...or a new defender...or a new Aston Martín SUV developed by Mr Becker?