The back catalogue - 70% still exist - really??

[MPx]

I'm one of those impressed with the growth and ambition going on at Lotus, and totally underwhelmed by the hardcore corporate twaddle spouted today.  Took me back to "away days" and "strategic reviews" from my days in management and almost made me laugh out loud at how impressive saying nothing is in consultant speak.  But aside from the fluff, there was some real information and the odd fact.  The one I cant get my head round came in the sustainability pitch where they claimed 70% of all Lotus cars ever made are still out there (indeed I think they implied still running). 

Now I know that lotus have only made surprisingly few cars in 73 years, but even so that stat doesn't seem to be backed up by what I've seen/heard/read.  From the kit car days, many were poorly put together and would have died young.  Many others were poorly driven and would have died younger!  There's been serious attrition amongst the ranks of Sunbeams, Carltons and M100s during my period of ownership - maybe slightly less for Esprits.  For years I've seen adverts along the lines of "becoming increasingly rare", "not many left on the road", "find me another...you can't".  So all that's wrong?  There's showrooms full of Lotus cars through the ages somewhere?  I'm finding that hard to believe. 

Or maybe its just a statistical anomaly?  Eg Perhaps the vast majority of Lotus cars ever made are less than 20 years old so nearly all of them do still exist?  

I'd love to see the evidence behind that statement.

Thoughts?

[r3nault]

Aren’t the vast majority of Lotuses ever made the Elise or Exige? I wouldn’t be surprised if many survive, given how rarely they are actually driven (at least in Australia).