It's a long road to ...MMC

[J-Man]

Exciting times and erudite comments abound!
But what impact will this throwaway comment have for us all here, and for MMC?

"For a premium brand, we have far too many dealers," Mr Prillmann said.
In the UK, its network of 23 dealerships will be sharply reduced, perhaps to as few as three...”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11440488

[robin]

Graeme sells a lot of cars (relative to the other UK dealers); if the market were reduced to just three dealers, I think MMC in Edinburgh would be in with a strong chance of keeping the dealership open, assuming they wanted it. If it were my business I would be thinking about handing it back to Lotus, though, as I am very skeptical about the plans to try and sell 100K+ cars alongside Aston, Ferrari, Porsche, etc., I think they'll get eaten alive ...

Cheers,
Robin

[j2 lot]

MMC are either 1st or 2nd highest sellers in Europe so as Robin says I guess the franchise will be theirs if they want it. Given the potential clash with Aston and the existing low margins I guess their decision may be swayed by what demands Lotus place on dealers as to investment in showrooms. I doubt they will settle for a facility co-located with Suzuki.
Only time will tell but I do hope Graeme is still selling Lotus post revolution. He should be for what he has done for them to date.

[Ferg]

I doubt they will settle for a facility co-located with Suzuki.

Looking at the cars that they are launching, thats the first thing that jumped to mind here too. But given the site, MMC could undoubtedly do something to make it work.

[Doc883]

I wouldn't be overly impressed with a 500 mile round trip to complete an A service if the 3 dealers is to be believed

[Shug]

One assumes in that scenario, they intend an Aston style service, where the car is picked up on a truck at your convenience and dropped back with you...

[Doc883]

One assumes in that scenario, they intend an Aston style service, where the car is picked up on a truck at your convenience and dropped back with you...

Yeah right you can just see a suited and booted driver turning up in New Old Deer to pick up a tatty yellow Elise to take it away for an oil change. Imagine the horror on Tut's face when it came back clean

[RDH]

I wouldn't be overly impressed with a 500 mile round trip to complete an A service if the 3 dealers is to be believed

There may only be 3 dealers, but I'd imagine they'd have more "approved service centres".

[Shug]

One assumes in that scenario, they intend an Aston style service, where the car is picked up on a truck at your convenience and dropped back with you...

Yeah right you can just see a suited and booted driver turning up in New Deer to pick up a tatty yellow Elise to take it away for an oil change. Imagine the horror on Tut's face when it came back clean

Imagine his proper despair when they went to the wrong village to pick it up

[J-Man]

^LOL
At least Mr Prillman had the grace to indicate "..3 in the UK.." as opposed to 3 in England. A pointer?
It also perhaps explains the shocking level of service that some have experienced at least one well kent franchise in England of late (beginning with L), as reported on SELOC.
I would speculate that this aspect of their new business model will be seen in the flesh sooner than the new model range?
Not sure how much enthusiasm I would have for an "approved service centre" and would miss the opportunity to dribble through the showroom!

[j2 lot]

^I would speculate that this aspect of their new business model will be seen in the flesh sooner than the new model range?

Current dealer line-up is out of contract in June/July 2012, so you're bang on. New cars are 'within five years'

[Doc883]

I wouldn't be overly impressed with a 500 mile round trip to complete an A service if the 3 dealers is to be believed

There may only be 3 dealers, but I'd imagine they'd have more "approved service centres".

Wouldn't be so sure unless Lotus offered training and the necessary equipment free of charge. Since Edinburgh Audi spent £30 trillion opening their showroom in Sighthill they put the squeeze on both Western VW/Audi and Witherspoons who previously carried out servicing and warranty related work. They were telling the garages they needed to spend 1000's on Audi related guff to enhance the appearance of the dealership. In reality they were turning the screws and the end result was both garages resigned from the Audi network therby allowing only Edinburgh Audi to carry out warranty work They had to pay for their clinical slightly up their own backside showroom somehow.

[j2 lot]

I guess the independant service guys will pick up the business of existing customers as the servicing costs at a dealer targetting £135k cars are likely to be higher than the current deals we get at MMC or indeed any of the current dealers

[Doc883]

I get the impression Lotus are going to alienate the very customers that helped the company survive. The UK customer base for a £135k car is pretty small and very competitive so the majority of their planned 6000-8000 annual sales will come from abroad. Whatever they do they still need to produce an affordable sports car in the sub 30k bracket and I dont mean that re-badged Electrolux Washer of an electric City Car either

[robin]

Lotus don't sell many Elises in the UK right now (well even fewer now that there is only the 1.6, but even before that I believe UK sales had tailed off significantly). With the VVTLi engine gone, and with no replacement identified for the Exige at present (somebody please correct me if I am wrong), I'm not sure what the dealers will be selling anyway ... Evoras?

So the choice is stay where you are (and invest a lot of cash in revamping once more the middle aged Elise/Exige with yet another new engine and the next set of EU/US emissions and safety rules, perhaps?), go back to basics or go up into (junior) super car territory.

I think the 30-45K bracket for ever more powerful Elise/Exige type cars still exists, albeit that it is squeezed by the Z4/Boxster/Cayman type cars at the upper end. I don't think that this niche, even if it was well exploited, would yield Lotus much more than what they currently sell. So as a source of growth it isn't strong.

If it were possible, with current production technologies, to build a 750kg car with ~180bhp from a 1.8 or 2.0 engine, where that car was as minimalist as the '96 S1 Elise was, priced at no more than 30K, would it sell? I would like to think it would and that if built to original Lotus core values Lotus could sell that car by exploiting their brand, even if, say, Mazda or 3 men in a shed from Blackpool could not sell a similar car.

The other option is to go up market and try and sell much more expensive cars; this is the direction Lotus have chosen it seems. Unfortunately the current management appears to have nothing in common with Lotus as we know it, and I rather think they've taken over control of the wrong company with which to fulfill their super car/playboy ambitions; we'll see, I suppose ...

I had to laugh at the prospect of being chauffeur driven in a Lotus. You might as well suggest being chauffeur driven in a Fiat - you'll need a small chauffeur that comes with a complete set of spanners

Cheers,
Robin