In a strange change of events, Lotus and Proton technicians are dismantling Lotus equipment here for shipping back to the UK. Production for the Lotus Esprit V8, supposed to be built here has also been moved back to Hethel where all Lotus cars have been built since the 60s.
Could this be related to the non-core asset dump previously announced?
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November 12, 2005 @ 12:27 pm
i believe proton do not make much money from the partnership. i had a friend who works as designer for lotus to design gen-2 cars for the interior parts. but the design turn out to be different as what they did. proton use the taiwan design which is more cheaper. all these is a waste of money. when are they (proton) going to really improve and prove to malaysian? savvy?… not impressive.. never sen the impact test. how can they claim that it is tough? after all this is my opinion…
November 12, 2005 @ 12:52 pm
it’s very strange to hear that. naturally, it would be much more cheaper to assemble the cars here rather in the UK. However, could this mean that a possible take-over of LOTUS could be well on the cards very soon? Letting LOTUS go would damage the credibility of Proton and will hinders any effort to re-establish the brand.
November 12, 2005 @ 1:17 pm
I also have a very good friend working in the Lotus plant. He tells me sometimes of the horror stories that ensue whenever some Proton bigwig saunters into the factory and tries to prove his intelligence, or should I say, non-intelligence.
This, in my humble opinion, was a golden opportunity for the idiots at Proton to learn from one of the top designers and automotive people in the world. Instead, they have decided to renege on their initial agreement. Pathetic! All I can say for myself is, I will never buy another Proton, so help me God!
November 12, 2005 @ 1:19 pm
the reasons are simple, proton now are losing money like hell, all thanks to mass declining sales and useless takeover over MV Agusta, cannot get back their ROI on development of gen2 n waja and spoonfeeding on crony suppliers. Lotus seldom makes money, as its for the niche market.
I read an issue frm autocar asean on the special report of Lotus, saying that they now plant to gain independant frm their mother company (who else….)
Proton will sell Lotus and lotus will become another unwanted child, unless some other manufacturer have guts to take over it again.
November 12, 2005 @ 1:51 pm
basically , lotus dont have a market here,its very simple…here as in asia not only in msia , all their markets are based in europ and US markets ONLY…so beside,thy want to concentrate onUS markets now instead of Europe..so thrs no point manufacturing the cars here and sacrifice the quality since thy are entering a tough Us markets…proton bought into lotus for ONE reason , Design and R&D , noting more…it doesnt involve manufacturing..thy did assemble few units of the exige here,for a trial n see how many units can thy sell here,bt only very few…so financialy makes no sence…n alot of ppl here simply say their fren who know a fren and work with a fren at proton n bla bla bla….C’MON….!
November 12, 2005 @ 2:52 pm
Who would wants to buy a Lotus, which is associated with failure (Proton).
November 12, 2005 @ 3:22 pm
seems POTONG can’t even fully utilized LOTUS technology…
is a mistake to left out LOTUS…
what a watse…
cheers…
November 12, 2005 @ 3:31 pm
if let go lotus, what’s selling point for next proton car? the hardest metal container?
Gen2 selling not bad in taiwan, because they use Proton-Lotus name, taiwanese think of lotus, if no more lotus, what the hell will go on?
November 12, 2005 @ 4:04 pm
mmm
proton should hire cartoonists or artists to design their cars.
ahaks
Malaysians have their potential but not getting any chances bcoz of cronies..
shame as we have been independent for 48 years but still with the same issues…
November 12, 2005 @ 5:07 pm
well, one can never know more unless you got a friend working inside proton or lotus or whatsoever. that will be the first hand news…. come on
November 12, 2005 @ 5:20 pm
of all being said, ultimately the success or failure of proton will reflects on PM Abdullah Badawi; its his turn now, for better or worst….
November 12, 2005 @ 6:09 pm
Ahah…as a Lotus employee,I’ll just keep quiet here seeing everyone else speculate and assume things hehe
don’t always believe what the media say…you never know, they might be used as a PR stint, just to let the global public to think what the PR people want them to think.
November 12, 2005 @ 7:24 pm
Haha… maybe Proton will sell Lotus to the Lotus Restaurant group here…. there, the one that bought out the State cinema in PJ and built it to a restaurant plus 2 new cineplexes now showing Tamil movies.
And then suddenly they can manage it better than Proton and all of us will be driving a Lotus Malaysian made car at cheaper price than a Gen2! w00t!
Mamak, teh Lotus special lagi satu! :p
November 12, 2005 @ 7:34 pm
Damn i was really so looking foward to buying a Malaysian Made Lotus in the Future.. After I buy my Evo
Wonder How the Proton Ultima will be like? (The name sound cheezy though)
QA is a very complexed thing but i really don’t understand why it cannot be achieved with proper discipline.
November 12, 2005 @ 7:34 pm
Dei, my one hor, not my friend of a friend who works in Lotus tell me one… it’s the mamak that serves my teh special tell me one…
He say his boss in the talks with Proton now… also mentioned something like very tempting to put the pink lotus logo as the new Lotus car badge!
MOU KAU CHOR!
November 12, 2005 @ 9:39 pm
I think Lotus should not or no need to be made in Malaysia.
)
Why??
First, the car components are not 100% made in Malaysia and maybe less than 1% I guess. (could be only tyres and glasses he…he..he
Second, most of the Lotus cars are not selling well in Malaysia or Asean. (the sales volume is rather small compare to Europe or North America, no points) Although the original plan is target in Malaysia. Some ppl thought …By assemble it in Malaysia it can bring down the car price (only tax not components cost) and also POTONG wish to try to test the new markets……but since the car was selling around RM200k and above, sales is rather bad. I would said it is not highly demanded by Malaysian or even in Asean on such kinds of small size sports car. Most ppl still prefer to buy Merz or BMW instead….theThird world mentality larger is always better…..apparently Merz or BMW is more confortable drive….luxury feels too. I had drove Lotus Elise before…..fun car but too noisy and you can’t hear your CD.
Third, Transporting is the BIGGEST problem I believed. Transfering the cars from Asia back to Europe and the USA is already Damn expensive nowadays. Don’t forget the High Oil price can KILL many Auto maker now. POTONG really lost the competitive if they keep on shipping the car from one Point to another recently.
I think in any cases, business is business. Company should find the best alternative to make PROFIT. Change of plant location is normal rights??
Lotus company is a none profitable compay since before and after POTONG bought it over. If LOTUS is Money printing machine do you think POTONG had chance to buy it, I think no even to touch it!!
YAU MOU GAU….CHOR!!!
Anyway, Good luck to POTONG!! I love LOTUS and POTONG too!!! please don’t Berpisah!! Find a good solution first before say GOOD BYE!!
November 12, 2005 @ 9:44 pm
Haha, who said Lotus has not market then it cannot build its car here. Do you people know that Honda Civic hatches are not built in Japan instead they are built in Europe. So the major factors is on their bloody trust of “heritage” and “pride”. That’s why we can see why British made cars are not popular. Think of Rover being cut into pieces (Mini sold to BMW and Land Rover to Ford). If Lotus wants to build its car here are export to other parts of the world, this is still logic.
November 12, 2005 @ 11:02 pm
yup… Lotue Elise is a really fun car to drive! Its like driving an oversized Tamiya car man! And the handling… FUUUUUU WARRRRRRR! Hou Lan Keng man!
you can lap corners like crazy! But for someone tall, you will suffer a bit la. And once they put in the seats, there’s no adjusting them with a simple lever.
November 12, 2005 @ 11:12 pm
I thought when the elise was being assembled in Malaysia, they brought in KITs only. Does that mean there was no actual factory producing the parts? There was a limited production run of the elise here only, and at that time the CKD lotus was actually much cheaper than the CBU one.
November 13, 2005 @ 2:22 am
gen2 selling in taiwan not bad? proton ada jual dekat sana ke?
November 13, 2005 @ 11:08 am
gosh! how can we compare a COLA TIN (proton) with a pure sports car?
November 13, 2005 @ 3:58 pm
Proton should shut down its operation and lay off those spoon feeding useless workers for good sake!
the world will be real great without PROTON!
everyone will be cheered!
Yeah! hurrah!! BRAVO! Omedetou gozaimasu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 13, 2005 @ 4:01 pm
Proton shd learn from Tata of india and seek alliance with indian auto industry in order to survive the post AFTA trade .
tata build better cars .tata is great
November 13, 2005 @ 6:49 pm
I thought production of the Esprit has stopped already anyway?
November 14, 2005 @ 4:19 am
We’re talking about the new esprit here…the new one is scheduled for S.O.P in 2008. Damn nice car.
November 14, 2005 @ 10:02 am
this is a sincere no sarcastic question.
are there proton in taiwan? i can’t search any info on the net.
only in africa, uk, turky, au, sg that known to me.
anyway, i support proton. with or without lotus.
November 14, 2005 @ 2:35 pm
I felt very sorry for common malaysian pple like me, working class who dream of having a car but always got cheated out by local car makers. You pay that amount you expect the same value for the goods. To put it simply Proton does not measure up, much to the dissappointment of me. All we ask is for a fair deal, is that so difficult to get ?
*if Proton can guarantee me 3 years usage of the power windows(defect free) I will go book a Waja immediately in 24 hours :p:p
*evil smile*
November 14, 2005 @ 3:04 pm
Actually proton doing very good financially compared to other people like mitsubitsi/gm. If sell lotus makes more profits for proton then why not?
November 14, 2005 @ 4:42 pm
Ayoi ….rainbow7jj…. arr!!
I think NONE of the AUTOMAKER in the world will GUARANTEE 3 years POWER wdo for you. Why?? Simple only, how can you guarantee back to POTONG you will not PLAY-PLAY on the system. I means Damage it with purpose.
I guess even BMW and Merz also cannot give you such kind of GUARANTEE. They can only give you a WARRANTY with CONDITIONs.
As far as I know in Auto design, JUST AN EXAMPLE (SHOUT very loud so that someone can not ARGUE it): Power wdo spec (Japanese spec) is about 15k to 20k cycles (Up and down is consider 1 cycle) which means if you use it 5 cycles/times a day means 1 year (365 days) is 1825 cycles so you can use it until 8.22 years in Theory.
So if you use it 20 cycles a day = Only last for 2 years!! (This calculation is based on estimation of daily usage but NOT consider Humidity and Temperature change and human Factors)
So, How often you use it??? 30cycles per day??? Calculate it by Yourself first before asking POTONG to warrantee your WAJA Okay?
YAU MOU GAU….CHOR!!! (* with Evil smile and Gangster shout*)
November 14, 2005 @ 5:03 pm
QUOTE : zongtwi a.k.a. speed junkie
We’re talking about the new esprit here…the new one is scheduled for S.O.P in 2008. Damn nice car.
UNQUOTE
Hey speed junkie…. shh… no leaking of P&C info
November 15, 2005 @ 12:16 am
Ahah…the info I gave is already a publicised fact maa…
November 15, 2005 @ 8:16 am
i would say transporting the cars would be the biggest problem. with the trusted Hethel quality, and closer to US, it might very well be a wiser step to move back to UK. and in the whole lineup of Lotus, it would NEVER beat the economies of scale of a Honda civic, try comparing Caterhams and TVRs.
November 15, 2005 @ 8:34 am
http://www.swindonweb.com/life/honda500.htm 500K civics
http://www.grouplotus.com/mediactr/pr_download.php?pid=187 as of 20th dec 2004 20,000 elise roll off production line.
November 15, 2005 @ 10:54 am
I read somewhere before that Lotus Cars only constitute something like 10% of their business. The rest is in engineering. And their list of clientele is impressive with engineering works done on powertrain, handling, etc.
I wonder why, if the entire idea of purchasing Lotus was to tap their resources, isn’t Proton making full use of their expertise? I mean, Lotus engineers can virtually design a complete range of cars for Proton in a snap. And call it Lotus Design for real! And people will believe it. Instead of the Savvy, we could have had beautiful cars coming out from Proton all these years. Can you imagine, cars that look great, handled well and with lasting qualities. I saw a 12 year old Esprit the other day and it still looked great.
We could have had all that and more but instead, we still get the Wira, Waja, Gen.2 and now, Savvy. I really wanted a Lotus but if it looks like the Savvy, then forget it.
November 15, 2005 @ 11:07 am
Transportation is always costly even before the cost of oil exceed USD50. This affects not only CBU cars but also car sub assembly parts. This is why CKD parts are much cheaper. Another reason auto industry concentrate on one area like detroit and rayong.
November 16, 2005 @ 12:37 pm
Nasimuddin of Naza: Kia/Naza is their bread and butter, Ferrari and other super sport cars are their niche and claim to fame, and Cagiva and other bikes the motorbike division.
So the former head of PROTON also wanted to kia-su la…
Tengku Mahaleel: PROTON is HIS bread and butter, Lotus is their niche and HIS claim to fame, and MV Augusta is HIS motorbike division.
So when the sworn enemy has something. I must have also lor…
Nuff said…
November 16, 2005 @ 3:21 pm
marmitecrab: sometimes things doesnt appear as it is on the surface. There are loads of things which can make your jaw drop if you were to be involved directly in this industry, and specifically in this position. I’ll leave that for you to ponder on why you still get the wiras, wajas, gen2’s and savvys when, like what you said, we could all get a lotus - all of us.
November 16, 2005 @ 3:43 pm
eh eh..proton gen.2 in taiwan. when did proton sell the model at there.. don’t make a rumours man..
November 17, 2005 @ 8:40 am
Baguz lah itu macam…jika itu lotus pasang di malaysia…nanti itu kereta rosak…..krekkkk…..sana….krokkk….sini….itu patah…ini pecah…suspension …absorber semua boleh patah dalam masa 1 minggu…nanti nama LOTUS juga yang losak……Maybe…PROTON should concentrate on designing new cars ….and ….outsource pemasangan kepada assemblers yang ada di malaysia ke atau maybe di cina….Save cost and can get rid of this crony supplier….and semua separuh masak punya pekerja yang memasang kereta di kilang proton. Biar mereka semua menganggur kerana sebab mereka tak buat kerja betullah quality kereta proton boleh di pertikaikan. Apalah nak jadi kepada orang malaysia……
November 17, 2005 @ 10:29 am
Teratai said,
November 12, 2005 @ 2:52 pm
Who would wants to buy a Lotus, which is associated with failure (Proton).
=========================================
FAilure of what?… their car still have high sales volume (in Msia ahakss),
engine’s working, Cos making profits,, share price r high Blue chip somemore.. FOREIGN Cos trying over to buy over…got to built its own Gen2 n Savvy.
Failure is the car is not accepted,, share prices RM1 n still going down, Losses big time, no developement.
Failure?????