Quote:
Originally Posted by lotusforsale
Lotus hasn't been fully it's own company since the 80's, when Toyota owned a big chunk (some Esprit tail light lens came right of a Toyota Supra), then GM owned them, then Artioli (who also owned Bugatti at the time, the Elise is named after his granddaughter), then Proton. May have been someone else in there somewhere, too.
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In 2005, Volkswagen was buying an interest..or maybe all of Proton ---the irony is that Porsche already had eyes on VW---Porsche eventually rcv'd approval for the VW controlling interest, and thus has VW, which has Audi, as well as Bugatti, Bentley, Lambo, and a few others (Seat, skoda??). In 2007, VW and Proton announced it couldn't come to terms...but reports keep trickling out that they are still trying to do a smaller deal (20-50% interest) deal. It would seem there are no more (mid sized) independent sportscar makers.