[Simba]

Originally Posted by bueno

1. The relatively low cost maintenance of the Toyota lump is inspiring enough.

If reliability and cost of maintenance are your chief priorities, might I suggest something other than a sports car? While it's certainly a not insignificant aspect, it's pretty far from the primary one for most enthusiasts.

The 2ZZ is boring. The Toyota V6 in the Evora will be boring. The V8 in the Esprit is not boring. A rev to mars BMW turbo engine would not be boring. And so on, and so forth. The engine should reflect the purpose of the car to some degree.

2. Porsche engines are "somewhat" reliable but Toyota's are much more.

Having built, raced and exploded with extreme prejudice several Porsche and Toyota engines, I would say that you're quite mistaken. On the whole, Porsche's current engine are just as reliable, and probably more refined than Toyota's current offerings. This was not the case 10+ years ago when Toyota was still in their over-engineer and over-build to the point of silly mentality, however it is these days.

3. Of course not, with only 600-800 cars planned for the US, there's no way Lotus would make a dent to Porsche's market but then again, Lotus does not want to and with so few coming, there's no doubt all will sell.

You mistook my point. I was not attempting to suggest that Porsche would be at all concerned about Lotus sales nibbling at one of their cars. I was attempting to suggest that Lotus should be trying to attract people who would otherwise buy a Porsche than an Evora. I'm most decidedly in that market, and I'd buy (another) Cayman S before an Evora any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

4. A few enthusiastical people will still gravitate to the Evora because of looks and exclusivity without starting off the gate with a 350+ hp version but marketing wise, you are always better off to come out with your lower hp version first as is the practice with every manufacturer including Porsche.

Enthusiasts, at least as I meant the term, will probably not do so. They care more about how it works than how it looks. The car is simply not fast enough in base trim to come in at the price point Lotus wants. While it's true they'll probably "fix" that in later years as they did with the Elise/Exige, it'd peak my interest a lot more if they came out of the gate with something fast, and then went faster in the coming years.