atlasapl

If the Cayenne and Touareg can use the same running gear, then a Lotus SUV can share the XC90 running gear also.

The more I think about this, the more I realise it could be a major turning point for the global motoring industry. I refuse to believe this is strictly a VW Group issue. This is something that has to be designed into the cars, not shoved in as an afterthought. Somebody had to come up with the idea, it had to be approved, funded, designed, tested and implemented. The real issue is that politicians the world over have gained a lot of political scoring points by jumping on the green bandwagon. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not an anti-green idiot, but they have done very well by this stance. If this proves to be a global industry problem, they will have no choice but to come down hard on all manufacturers guilty of this. If they turn a blind eye, or go easy on their own national motoring industry, it will only start a tit-for-tat response by other countries. As for fuel economy, we are all sceptical of the official figures given to us. If the lab tested co2 figures can be faked, so can the fuel consumption figures. I for one would like to see how they come up with the numbers. I bet car manufacturers all over the world are shitting themselves this morning, wondering if they are next. EDIT Been reading about this a bit more. Seems they tested a BMW X5 at the same time, which passed without any issues. The head of Vauxhall UK has resigned suddenly, after being present at the launch of the new astra. Obviously this has nothing to do with co2 emissions.

I doubt its just VW. I would be very surprised if it was, this could prove to be huge. I read somewhere today, cant remember where, that if they found VW to be cheating (somewhere in Asia I think) they would test all German makes of car. I wouldnt mind betting they are all at it. It could force them to change how they test for emissions. Maybe we finally find out just how much co2 cars actually emit. Bet they are having second thoughts about spending all that cash on buying Red Bull F1 now.

Cutting wages upsets the entire staff, letting some people go upsets only some of them. Once you start cutting wages you are on a slippery slope that goes only one way. Morale slips, quality slips due to a lack of morale, then the product slips. Plus you have the entire work force that starts to look over its shoulder and think 'time to start looking for other work'. Each member of a workforce has commitments financially, and once you start and cut their salary, it forces them to look elsewhere. Once those skilled people go, you cant just replace them. It takes years to train someone up to the quality required, and that costs a shed load of cash. However hard it looks, letting some go is a much better way of doing it than upsetting an entire workforce. However loyal a workforce is, real life always takes priority.

OK, just how many twitter notifications on Evora 400 reviews can you get in one morning. I think my phone is going to have a stroke. The MSN Cars review was pretty good.

Damn I forgot how much that article pissed me off. "Lotus will be left with a car that is more expensive than a Cayman GT4, has a fraction of the showroom appeal and looks far too similar to the model that's been on sale since 2009" More expensive than a GT4, well yes, you can actually buy an Evora 400. The GT4 had no showroom appeal because it never got to one. Too similar to the model it replaced, err, hello, Porsche have been doing that for 50 years. Anyway, I probably said all that back in Feb.

In his business you can’t afford to upset people. That doesn’t mean you can’t dislike their product or have a different opinion to them. I seem to have a different opinion to most people, but then again I have always been a bit odd, it’s never bothered me though. In order to do the job you need to be respected by the industry. If you go off like he did before seeing the car in the flesh or driving it, you can’t expect to get an invite. If the industry loses respect for you or doesn’t trust you to be neutral when reviewing a car then you are stuffed. You can have an initial opinion, but you can’t pre-judge a car/company to that extent and not get a reaction.

Rather good review from TopGear. http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/lotus/evora/400/first-drive

Without those ugly SUVs there wouldnt be a Porsche now. You got it the wrong way around, Porsche make ugly SUVs for a hobby so they can continue to make sports cars. It doesnt matter if you like Porsche or not, the death of any historic sports car company would be a tragedy. People can continue to keep their blinkers on and think Lotus will be fine without an SUV, and yes, keep believing we will see the Esprit return one day, but until Lotus build an SUV we will never see it again, and that really would be tragic. Back on topic again, really interested in how the motoring press cover the 400. I wonder how many pages they will grace it with. I wonder if you know who will give it a go.

The Tesla is a contradiction. Its trying to be this green technological halo car. In reality it isnt, there arent enough charfing stations, and then you have to wait 90 minutes to charge it up again. But what I want to know is:- 1) how long the batteries last with this Ludicrous mode switched on? 2) how many miles a new fully charged Tesla can go in mormal mode? 3) how many miles a three year old Tesla thats done 40K miles can go on a full charge in mormal mode? 4) Imagine we all had one, what would they do with all the old batteries once they were knackered?

I think I am in a minority here, but I prefer the 400. I am not keen on the larger rear wing or the front of the GTE. OK, I haven't actually seen either in the flesh, so that could change my opinion, but based on purley photos, I like the look of the 400.

Lotus have just tweeted a couple of pics of an Evora 400, in yellow with the black pack. Now that's more like it.

A Boxter only has two seats, that hasnt hurt sales. If its done right, looks right, and is priced right, only having two seats shouldnt hurt it. It maybe needs a N/A engine as a lower price entry model though.

Me too actually.

Cant think of a reason why not.