Why Car Companies Shouldn't Pay Too Much Attention To Us Jalops!

"I love you but I've chosen hooning!" (obrut-2002) 01/13/2014 at 06:14 • Filed to: Lotus Tradition Cars Jalops BMW

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What are the characteristics of a Jalop's dream car? Lightweight, Diesel engine, reliable, driver-oriented/ less gizmos, easy to work on & (relatively) cheap to maintain, manual shifter... oh and it should be a wagon or hot hatch!

Jalops like to cry that there really is no modern car that matches all the characteristics of the one above and how this or that company has lost their way.

Pictured: What a Jalop's ideal car may or may not look like

Let me introduce you to a company that hasn't lost their way. A company that, to this very day, stays true to the credo of their founder Colin Chapman. I am talking of course about Lotus Cars.

Apart from not offering a Diesel option, or a hatch/ wagon (however they did once), Lotus checks about every box in the Jalopnik Dream car beauty pageant.

Lightweight? Yupp, more so than most comparable cars in the market anyways.

Reliable? They have Toyota engines for Pete's sake. They'll survive World War V.

Driver Oriented/ less Gizmos? You need some serious, serious ADD to get distracted by the interior of a Lotus.

Easy to work on & cheap to maintain? Say it with me, T-O-Y-O-T-A engine!

Manual shifter? There's also an automatic transmission available, but don't mention it. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.

Oh yeah, but do they look good?

No. They're fucking gorgeous. They look better than many cars that cost twice as much!

So yeah, these wonder machines, these gems of driving pleasure should sell like hot cakes right? Right?? RIGHT???

Nope!

Lotus is on the verge of bankruptcy, yet again.

But...but it's like they're doing everything right! Their cars haven't turned into luxo barges! There's no Lotus SUV! They haven't sold out (pun intended), unlike BMW, Honda or Porsche! They even kicked Dany Bahar out, who wanted to change the brand! So what's wrong here?

Maybe the brand has paid too much attention to the enthusiasts and forgot to look at what the market wants. Maybe they've put too much emphasis on tradition and forgot innovation.

BMW, the smallest of the big Germans, regularly shits on tradition. The M3 is now the M4, there will be front wheel cars, the nomenclature makes no sense and the cars have become so large, that if you park one next to the beach, Greenpeace will try to push it back into the ocean.

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Maybe car companies, especially smaller ones, need to pay less attention to the enthusiasts and pay more to the public that has different needs. Even if that means breaking with traditions. And once they've catered to the average consumer, they can come up with something like !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and say: "Hey kid, I haven't forgotten about you!"

Hoccy > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 06:39

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Good point. The guys that actually buy new cars are usually very little Jalop. That said, some markets (Europe) have a lot of lighter, diesel manual wagons/hatches. They might not be easy to work on anymore, but that's the price for all the new technology.

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 06:42

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"the cars have become so large, that if you park one next to the beach, Greenpeace will try to push it back into the ocean."

You sir, win the cake.

William Byrd > Goshen, formerly Darkcode 01/13/2014 at 06:51

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Agreed, that was a great day to start my morning.

davedave1111 > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 07:33

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Lotus's problem isn't really that they're focusing on the wrong area, because they've always been a niche manufacturer. Rather, it's that over the years the big manufacturers have got bigger and bigger, more efficient, with greater economies of scale, and so Lotuses have got more and more expensive relative to mass-market competition.That's pushed them further from the mainstream, because they simply can't compete head-to-head with anything from a major manufacturer.

It also explains the ill-fated recent push to take Lotus upmarket, because when you're selling premium, Porsche-priced cars the lack of economies of scale are much less of an issue - a £5k production-cost premium on a £25k car is 20%, on a £100k car is just 5%.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 07:35

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The problem is that they aren't targeting us Jalops, I doubt most of us are able to afford a $40+ 2 seater sports car (If I'm dropping $45k on a car it's going to have to do more than one thing). However, if they were to sell a $30k base model they'd probably wouldn't be able to keep up with production demand.

Makoyouidiot > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 07:57

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Go porsche route, make suv, ???, profit

I love you but I've chosen hooning! > Goshen, formerly Darkcode 01/13/2014 at 08:48

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Alternatively, the cars have become so large that someone from Texas paid $350,000 to shoot one

Brewman15 > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 08:54

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Actually, as a Jalop I don't expect car companies to make my perfect car, because they'd never make money if they did (possibly like Lotus). I just want to be able to buy a vehicle with the exact features I want and no extras.

I hate how features are grouped together and some options are restricted based on other options selected. I don't see why it's a big issue to offer all options a la carte. Just because I want a sunroof doesn't mean I need heated seats, or just because I want GPS doesn't mean I want blind spot monitoring, active cruise control, etc...

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 09:04

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I see what you did there .

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themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 01/13/2014 at 09:21

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But that car would be so uncompetitive to any other competition that it still wouldn't sell. Caterham's "30k" base model has a 1.0L engine......consider that for a second. They're still fighting a low economy of scale so where Ford, Toyota, GM, Mazda, and Hyundai can crank out RWD coupes/sports cars for ~25k with a full interior, Caterham needs at minimum 30k to get you a tub with wheels and a bike engine.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Makoyouidiot 01/13/2014 at 09:21

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I keep telling people that the Cayenne and Panamera are what funded the carerra GT, RS spyder, and the new LMP program.

Makoyouidiot > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 01/13/2014 at 10:48

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Truth

Robert > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/13/2014 at 18:06

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"Easy to work on & cheap to maintain"?

Cheap to maintain, but assloads to purchase apparently? Just looked on Autotrader for a rough idea of what used ones listed would cost because I know the brand's expensive. $20,000 for a 1991 confirms my initial assumption here.. 20k to buy your way in, IMO bars it from being "cheap to maintain".

Garland - Last Top Comment on Splinter > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/23/2014 at 21:42

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There are only two cars I'd consider buying new: the Lotus Exige and the Morgan Aero Coupe. Why haven't I done so? Because I don't have that kind of money.

americancarfanboi > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/23/2014 at 22:31

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I hear you, and I don't disagree completely, I don't want a perfect car from the factory, I like modding too much, but I would like a perfect platform. I think that toyota or honda could make a lotus at a 30k price point and they would actually sell, the mr2 was a great car, and even the brz/gt86 is a great car, but I don't think you can ever expect a car company to make only sports cars, thats not where they make money and so saying that its wrong to build what enthusiasts want because there arent enough enthusiasts to buy a large enough volume to make it worthwhile is sort of stupid, sports cars should be made for enthusiasts, and if you want to bitch that your minivan, excursion, 7er, or whatever luxo barge you drive understeers, or is too heavy then shut up, but its not stupid to be mad at a car company for selling cars built with a sporting pretense that weigh nearly 4000lbs.

SquirrelyWrath > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/24/2014 at 01:24

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And people ask why Ford doesn't make a hyper car, or GM doesn't make a lambo clone. Enthusiast cars are not profitable. You cannot float a corporation the size or GM when you are blowing cash on models that might in a good year sell 20 units. AMC had it right all along. A pity they couldn't stay afloat.

Freakusaurus-Rex > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/24/2014 at 01:49

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The problem is, is that there is no Lotus dealerships in my area, I never see advertising, and even though from time to time I do see a random Lotus running the streets around here, I basically forget about them... Whenever I think of cars in their price range, I never think of Lotus... it's pretty much because I basically forget about them.

Are there even new models ? If I search for them.. (granted a weak not to in depth search) All I come up with is the 2013 Evora.. Didn't they stop making the Elise and Exige ? The ones that I would actually prefer ? (based on looks). .

But also let's not forget that for the price the other cars in the range offer me a lot more comfort and gadgets and people that are spending that kind of money for a car want comfort and gadgets... The stripped out Lotus basically becomes a really good track car and nothing more, but at a high price.. And I know everyone here is Joe Racer, but how often do you actually go to the track ? How many of you actually own a car that is only for track use ? How many of you with track cars spent $70k for it . . . Don't tell me about how much I can buy a used Elise for, because buying a used car is not going to keep Lotus in business... Selling new cars is what keeps them profitable.

Conan > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/24/2014 at 02:23

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I actually think they have lost their way. I think they have priced and sized themselves away from lower end enthusiasts. Smaller and lighter and they might not be in this situation, but playing against the Miata and the Toyobarus with that elan that they have been known to possess. Add a ridiculous SUV or two onto that and they might be doing quite well.

bariki > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/24/2014 at 05:52

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The problem with Lotuses doesn't have anything with the fact that they don't sell huge numbers despite looking as good as cars that cost several times as much. The problem is that they are tiny, tiny cars that cost more several times as much as cars that don't look as good and are so impractical that they are only good one for one thing, which is being a track day car you can drive in the rain.

If they could build another front-engine rear-drive car at the Miata pricepoint they could at least sell enough cars to make up for the losses incurred from selling (relatively) expensive high-performance cars like the Elise and Exige.

They need to out-Miata the Miata that out-Elaned the Elan. At the very least, they need some car that balances practicality, performance, and price that they can sell a lot of.

Saf1 > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 01/24/2014 at 06:50

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They could make a new Elise...

Kanaric > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/24/2014 at 07:33

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they shouldn't pay attention to people on this site, however they should pay attention to enthusiasts

DomGuy > Brewman15 01/24/2014 at 09:47

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As nice as a la carte features would be, it would drive the price of your car way up. Essentially, manufacturers would have custom make your car, because how many people want exactly the same features as you? It ends up being more cost effective for them to make Packages A, B, and C and telling you to pick.

Now for cable providers, there's no damn excuse not to offer a la carte, but I can't get into that otherwise I'll have an aneurysm.

Masterify > Makoyouidiot 01/24/2014 at 11:11

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And the Jaguar SUV will fund the next F-type

Makoyouidiot > Masterify 01/24/2014 at 12:01

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Range Rovers do bring in good profits... :p

Younes > I love you but I've chosen hooning! 01/27/2014 at 10:12

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The funny thing is that many commenters that keep talking about tradition and driver oriented cars end up buying more boring and practical cars.... And i have a feeling that s its the majority of jalops. (At least I know I am )