New Lotus CEO to come from Ferrari?

[ggelise]

Just saw this on SELOC:

Ferrari brand guru Dany Bahar approached as new Lotus CEO?

Ferrari brand guru Dany Bahar poached as new Lotus CEO? — Autoblog

[alil'britdifferent]

".......Bahar moved to Ferrari...........to put those little prancing horses on everything from pencils to laptop computers.

..........get ready for Lotus baseball caps to flood the market."

Sweet. I think.

[ggelise]

Funny, we may go from no garb to Lotus ubiquity-funny world. Perhaps he can put Lotus back in F1 with all those Lotus laptops. Well, we can dream it anyway....

[Tpup]

I wish I could say that's a good move. There's a huge difference between leadership (what Lotus needs) and branding. There's also a big difference between running branding at companies where the brand is ranked as one of the top in the world (don't screw it up) and building brand awareness from a weak brand (Lotus today). I hope he is successful but I doubt it. My bet is it will be another in a long line of bad leadership decisions by Lotus's parent...

[Uncle Sam]

I nominate myself as I need a good job. Plus, I own the product! Please PM me Lotus BOD. I await your call.

[dwkoski]

Well, I guess I can follow the reasoning in hiring a marketing guy to head a company famous for ENGINEERING(!!!) Seems like a couple of US auto companies followed this line of thinking in the past couple of decades with spectacular(ly bad) results. And TWO WHOLE YEARS of automotive experience marketing automotive "memorabilia" for the most corrupt automotive company on the planet. WOW, I think we've been down this road before with Lotus Cars USA...Dave

[Vishus_1]

I don't know the guy and am willing to give him a chance...the experience isn't quite fitting with what I would expect of the positions requirements but what do I know. I'm just an owner of the product.

I do think the mold for the next couple of years has been set up by Mr. Kimberly. We have the Evora this year, the next Esprit should be well into its development by now and bowing next year along with the Evora convertible, then the Elise/Exige replacement.

I think he is fortunately in a position that he just has to keep things on track and stable for the company. I don't really see anything needed to help the portfolio in the near future unless they choose to explore alternative fuels/electric/hybrid models.

I do have a little worry about the styling direction Lotus is following. To me, the Evora's nose is awfully long looking (I admit I haven't seen one in person yet) and then there are those awful styling changes that were made to the Exige for 2010. I hope these are not adapted to the Elise or Elise SC before the platform change. Not to beat a dead horse, and I know it is completely subjective, but Lotus really did mess up the integrity of a beautiful and cohesive design on the Exige.

But hopefully the new fellow will push for some of the beauty and individuality to the design side, push for continuous quality control and find more ways to bring added power and balance to the brand.

[ggelise]

Well, I guess I can follow the reasoning in hiring a marketing guy to head a company famous for ENGINEERING(!!!) Seems like a couple of US auto companies followed this line of thinking in the past couple of decades with spectacular(ly bad) results. And TWO WHOLE YEARS of automotive experience marketing automotive "memorabilia" for the most corrupt automotive company on the planet. WOW, I think we've been down this road before with Lotus Cars USA...Dave

I agree. Lotus needed help in the marketing department but as you noted it is an engineering company. Bit worried about this, but with Lotus' history you can bank on perpetual financial distress. Predict that soon after the next oil spike Lotus will be owned by some Russian mobster. Remember where the name Elise came from. The next Esprit will be called the автомобиль.

[fitfan]

Hhmmm....

well, lets just say lotus has good product. but they are having a hard time penetrating into markets and moving product, or have a goal to reach ;x; productions #'s by gaining market share.

if that the goal - then maybe this guy could be a reasonable choice? i very seriously doubt he is going to be selling baseball caps... but ceo... top dog leadership.... mmmm.... i am not so sure, but i have no idea what he knows...

[comptalk]

Originally Posted by Vishus_1

I don't know the guy and am willing to give him a chance...the experience isn't quite fitting with what I would expect of the positions requirements but what do I know. I'm just an owner of the product.

I do think the mold for the next couple of years has been set up by Mr. Kimberly. We have the Evora this year, the next Esprit should be well into its development by now and bowing next year along with the Evora convertible, then the Elise/Exige replacement.

I think he is fortunately in a position that he just has to keep things on track and stable for the company. I don't really see anything needed to help the portfolio in the near future unless they choose to explore alternative fuels/electric/hybrid models.

I do have a little worry about the styling direction Lotus is following. To me, the Evora's nose is awfully long looking (I admit I haven't seen one in person yet) and then there are those awful styling changes that were made to the Exige for 2010. I hope these are not adapted to the Elise or Elise SC before the platform change. Not to beat a dead horse, and I know it is completely subjective, but Lotus really did mess up the integrity of a beautiful and cohesive design on the Exige.

But hopefully the new fellow will push for some of the beauty and individuality to the design side, push for continuous quality control and find more ways to bring added power and balance to the brand.

I am sure since you now had given your approval, the Lotus board can go ahead and hire Mr. Bahar. Since you had given your OK, the Lotus board has approved the appointment of Mr. Bahar within the last half hour.

Amazing how much weight you hold in Hethel, Vish.

[Simba]

Lets hope he doesn't bring his !#@$ing flappy paddles and dealer asininity with him.

(A few light, screechy V8's would be nice, though.)

[maz]

Looks like Lotus has a new boss

Welcome to DUPE city.

[DeanG]

Is it just me or does Dany Bahar the new Lotus Chief Executive Officer like Michael J Fox?

[...m...]

...nope, he looks like a younger sean bean...

[RENDERMAN]

Great news, now Lotus can work on their craftsmanship which I think to be very poor for an exotic....

[Cthulhu]

Does that mean we can expect prices to triple? Maybe we'll get tiny thumb-sized sequential shift levers.

[dwkoski]

.... and $60 per quart "special" Lotus oil with paper labels stuck over the Mobil One...oh, and $13,000 routine 12,000 mile service....DAve

[MikeinAlexandria]

Let's hope Lotus keeps pricing reasonable and continues to offer a relatively affordable, true sports car.

Honestly, I have always felt part of the problem is so few cars in the US, and so few dealers. Also, Until I owned my own Elise, I never had the chance to drive one. One of the reasons I bought it was that I got to test drive it first. Without that drive, I would never have made a buy decision, yet how often does a Lotus dealer setup demo drives and free food to get folks in to learn about their cars? Umm, never! So, the Porsche guy stays with Porsche year after year, and never tries a Lotus.

As to branding, yeah, Ferrari has gotten a bit ridiculous. The all-time crazy thing is beautiful Ferrari 1/43 models in their store on Oxford St... only $465 each!! Really? For a TOY CAR? Pretty crazy. Let's hope Lotus doesn't go that route and price their cars out of reach of the very engineers who actually understand the meaning and purpose of the car.

[Moto44]

Originally Posted by DeanG

Is it just me or does Dany Bahar the new Lotus Chief Executive Officer like Michael J Fox?

I was thinking he looked more like Billy Ray Cyrus with his "achey, breaky" car.

[Moto44]

All he needs is the mullet.