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Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:55 am
by SAJ
So pulled this from a thread on Seloc, makes for grim reading:
http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=354951
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:38 am
by ryallm
115 million loss
Well, at least they won't have to pay any corporation tax
Sadly you really wouldn't bet a lot of money on Lotus being around in five years time
How long before the owners decide enough is enough and pull the plug? Bahar has a lot to answer for.
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:48 am
by Sanjøy
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:11 pm
by H8OAG
A bit..........
It's certainly a braver move than pumping your savings into a new Boxster S
I would be more concerned about the value of your shiny new vehicle if Lotus cease trading?
You could subscribe to the view it will be a future classic as it was produced in small numbers..........or it will " pill" considerably.
Go back a few years when TVR closed, prices initially dropped like a stone........ then settled down to what they are today when the market realised they were still fragments of specialist support to keep the vehicles running
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:30 pm
by H8OAG
Stop Press
Looks like your investment is safe ...............till 2015 at least
http://www.seloc.org/2013/01/drb-hicom- ... o-be-sold/
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:34 pm
by Justin
Just out of interest.. Say Lotus went under, and someone bumped their new V6 Exige needing a new bumper etc. What would happen? Daft question probably.
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:45 pm
by Shug
Depends who got the moulds when they did go under. There's a company, for example, that bought everything useful from the receivers when Jensen went under and you can now buy practically every panel from them. Similarly a company bought tooling from BL for the MGB, so you can probably build 95% of an MGB from new parts these days.
The advantage with fibreglass is that it doesn't necessarily need a huge industrial process to replicate panels (unlike steel pressings) A good mould of a clean panel and you can replicate it, with some skill on the fibreglass tech's part...
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:52 pm
by Justin
Interesting cheers!
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:52 pm
by Sanjøy
340r group own moulds for clams. My £50 stake will make me millions over the next 100 yrs.
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:58 pm
by Dark
From the press release: "The £270 million received in loans has been spent, and will be paid back when the loan matures".
Paid back with what exactly? It doesn't say when the loan matures but it doesn't look like Lotus are going to sell many cars or generate much cash in the next few years!
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:19 pm
by Rich H
Later Esprit moulds are owned by TheLotusForums
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:21 pm
by SAJ
Thanks. Bit more reassuring to read something like that but then I guess anything can happen. Could take the view that if they went under and I had the car then could be lucky and it would go the same way as the TVR Sagaris which seems to have rocketed up in value in recent times.
Perhaps Lotus should be looking to concentrate on countries like China, I'm sure that would boost their sales.
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:42 pm
by Lazydonkey
i think the main impact of them going under would be short term....as Shug says medium to long term the specialist industries tend to support the product.
Case in point is that my sister had an accident in her Saab 9-3 the other month (thankfully she's ok) and they've had to write the car off as they can't get all the parts. Give it another 6-12 months and that sort of thing won't happen with Saab's but at the moment they are exposed.
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:50 pm
by douglasgdmw
From someone who has a V6 on order the concern I have is the management indicating they will replace the Exige/Elise in 2015/2016.
I understand that car can depreciate but after 3 years it means that when a new model comes out that the V6 may drop substantially: due to potential owners shopping in V6's for the new model and the V6 looking like an older model.
Obviously dependant on how radical the change is but all this news does not give me a warm comfortable feeling from an ownership perspective.
George
Re: Would this concern you if you were buying a new Lotus?
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:09 pm
by robin
IRTA "The £270 million received in loans has been spent, and will be paid back when the bacon flaps"
They know they will never get the money back - to make 270m profit I'm sure Lotus would have to sell 100,000 cars - in the next 5 years nobody is going to lend Lotus a significant amount of money, so they cannot roll over the loan (except with the original lender who will be stuck between a rock and a hard place). So I imagine the loan will not actually mature any time soon.
The only hope they have is hyper inflation in whatever currency they borrowed the money in - if that's GBP then that'll solve our national debt too. Now's a good time to invest in money printing presses ... the BoE will be printing 24/7 soon
Cheers,
Robin
