>Frustrating, isn't it? Well I think it comes with being in the minority.
> We who would dearly love to take full advantage of the design intent of
>the Elise are a minority in the larger scheme of things.
>
>After all, what do you think that average marketing consultant drives?
>Certainly nothing without all that luxo stuff, right? Maybe even *two*
>phones!
>
>What I really don't understand though is why Lotus would treat the
>marketing of a low production, very specialized sort of car as if they
>were aiming at the Porsche/300ZX/Corvette market.
>
>Well, you know, I just remembered, most marketing people, and even many
>car magazines completely missed the fact that the 3rd gen RX7 was
>something apart from the high speed sporty cruiser market. They
>complained about it being "tail happy" and said the ride was too rough?
>Tail happy for whom? Too rough for whom? It was pretty much left to
>individuals to discover a great drivers car for themselves.
No offence to the OFC, but too many autowriters are a wee bit too over the
hill for my taste. Sorry, I don't mind a little scrambling to get in a car
that is so much fun to drive! Locally, in the Boston Globe, the auto guy
always bitches when he drives an Audi or Volkswagon, because they have red
dash lights, and he is color blind or something.
>
>The Elise would have to be marketed in the US in a way that would say
>what it is in no uncertain terms. They would have to unabashedly appeal
>to a market that is small in comparison to the high production sports car
>market but, I would have to assume, easily large enough to consume all
>the Elises Lotus could produce. It's too bad that they can't be
>encouraged to just explore that potential. Ah, I see a flaw. That would
>be done by more marketing consultants without a clue. They'd ask stock
>brokers what their ideal car would be and we'd be back to square one.
>
>Maybe the problem is that, even with a small company like Lotus, there
>are too many layers between us and the engineers.
As you know, I've ranted at great length about this on the lotus list, I
can't agree with you more. Maybe they are still punishing us yanks for the
revolution ;)
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