There are many well-considered analyses of the Emira reviews on this forum, which gives a great breadth of perspective - what a tremendous resource for us all to have! A bit like the reviews themselves, there is pretty much one to align with your preconceived view - whatever that may be...
I am curious about Lotus's perspective on the recent round of reviews and if I was part of Lotus and had been involved in the product design and management for the Emira, I'd be comparing the review findings against the targets I'd set for the car - so, what do we think those are?
My guess at what Lotus set themselves as key objectives, not necessarily in priority order:
1. The Emira needs be a true Lotus where it counts, to have the Lotus DNA and handle and perform like a Lotus. __/10
2. The Emira needs to have a much broader appeal as it needs to greatly increase sales volumes. This means improving quality, reliability and usability. __/10
3. The Emira needs to benchmark much more strongly against its key competitors if it is to achieve 2. above. No secret that Cayman and Alpine were top of that list with base 911 and a few others in there too. __/10
4. The Emira needs to represent a better value proposition when you consider all its attributes together - purchase cost, practicality, desirability, ownership experience, feel-good factor, quality, reliability, total cost of ownership including depreciation. __/10
5. The Emira needs to shift the perception of Lotus in order to pave the way for success for the new wave of Lotus models.
This means:
- Reinforcing the sporting credentials while making them more accessible. __/10
- Demonstrating that Lotus can now make a high quality product. __/10
- Creating a more rounded and better defined brand with broader appeal but only to a select, self-defining group of people. __/10
6. Create a base car that will enable winning race-cars to be developed from it in order to strengthen the sporting credentials, especially among those new to the brand. __/10
7. Create a new design language that is recognisably Lotus while moving the game on and appealing to a wider market. __/10
8. Deliver a car with an "X factor" __/10
Total __/100 e.g. how close Lotus got to their own target.
Why not have a go at evaluating what the "Professional" reviews and our own analyses here are telling us about the Emira and applying your score based on how well each of the notional objectives above have been met? This is about assessing how well Lotus achieved these notional objectives; while some of the review outcomes may be superficially disappointing (overall I think they are pretty good and pretty fair) Lotus will be assessing the review against their own objectives rather than what the reviewers may deem important based on their own preferences and biases.
Just a bit of fun but let's see if if tells us anything interesting?
PS apologies everyone for the hiatus in the Emira paintings and update photos, 5 days away at the Heineken Cup final (lots of fun!) followed by a week of looking after elderly parents (clearly not quite as much fun) have kept me away but I'm back! Look out for next round of progress shots tomorrow.
I am curious about Lotus's perspective on the recent round of reviews and if I was part of Lotus and had been involved in the product design and management for the Emira, I'd be comparing the review findings against the targets I'd set for the car - so, what do we think those are?
My guess at what Lotus set themselves as key objectives, not necessarily in priority order:
1. The Emira needs be a true Lotus where it counts, to have the Lotus DNA and handle and perform like a Lotus. __/10
2. The Emira needs to have a much broader appeal as it needs to greatly increase sales volumes. This means improving quality, reliability and usability. __/10
3. The Emira needs to benchmark much more strongly against its key competitors if it is to achieve 2. above. No secret that Cayman and Alpine were top of that list with base 911 and a few others in there too. __/10
4. The Emira needs to represent a better value proposition when you consider all its attributes together - purchase cost, practicality, desirability, ownership experience, feel-good factor, quality, reliability, total cost of ownership including depreciation. __/10
5. The Emira needs to shift the perception of Lotus in order to pave the way for success for the new wave of Lotus models.
This means:
- Reinforcing the sporting credentials while making them more accessible. __/10
- Demonstrating that Lotus can now make a high quality product. __/10
- Creating a more rounded and better defined brand with broader appeal but only to a select, self-defining group of people. __/10
6. Create a base car that will enable winning race-cars to be developed from it in order to strengthen the sporting credentials, especially among those new to the brand. __/10
7. Create a new design language that is recognisably Lotus while moving the game on and appealing to a wider market. __/10
8. Deliver a car with an "X factor" __/10
Total __/100 e.g. how close Lotus got to their own target.
Why not have a go at evaluating what the "Professional" reviews and our own analyses here are telling us about the Emira and applying your score based on how well each of the notional objectives above have been met? This is about assessing how well Lotus achieved these notional objectives; while some of the review outcomes may be superficially disappointing (overall I think they are pretty good and pretty fair) Lotus will be assessing the review against their own objectives rather than what the reviewers may deem important based on their own preferences and biases.
Just a bit of fun but let's see if if tells us anything interesting?
PS apologies everyone for the hiatus in the Emira paintings and update photos, 5 days away at the Heineken Cup final (lots of fun!) followed by a week of looking after elderly parents (clearly not quite as much fun) have kept me away but I'm back! Look out for next round of progress shots tomorrow.
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