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Originally Posted by PhlypSide
in the case of the M100 Elan, I think it was a mistake which resulted in an unprofitable outcome which in turn resulted in your car being turned into a Kia.
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My point is the higher ups could see that strategically the M100 and FWD didn't work out so well, so unplugged it and licensed the idea to the Koreans. (Thus the Kia Elan, which I'm thinking was more well received since it was considerably cheaper.)
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A couple of corrections.
The M100 was not a mistake in the design of the car. It was a mistake in the timing of the car. By the time the M100 reached production, the market had dropped. The cost of development meant that the price per car was too high.
The Lotus M100 Elan
is not the same as the Kia Elan. Lotus sold the rights and the tooling to Kia. Kia in turn, did major re-design work to the car, changing the engine/drive line/suspension to Kai parts to lower the production costs and to use their "in-house" parts. The Kia Elan does not handle or perform as well as a Lotus M100 Elan. Although they look almost the same, they are very different cars.
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