No more US-street-legal Lotuses after this year

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/09/lotus-ceases-sales-road-cars-america/

Last chance...and great news for current owners. Dr. Hess, you better fix yours or keep the wreckage.

That makes me sad. I don't think I'll ever be in a place financially to buy one but I still want them to be available here.

Damn.

Stupid rules once again stop us from getting the good stuff.

93EXCivic wrote: Stupid rules once again stop us from getting the good stuff.

BS. Why should they get a waiver?

They shouldn't. We should remove the stupid rules.

Why. Its not a stupid rule

I wonder if it's smart to keep mandating safer and safer cars or if at some point we can call cars "safe enough." Today's mini-APCs are vastly safer than cars were when I was a kid, and by that point they already had seatbelts, dashes that weren't easy to crack your skull on, and collapsible steering columns. Accidents that would have turned people into a nasty stain just a couple decades ago are now totally survivable. I think in terms of crash safety, cars are safe enough.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: Stupid rules once again stop us from getting the good stuff.

BS. Why should they get a waiver?

People should be able to make their own decisions about safety and for that matter we are talking about a fairly low volume car not a car being produced in the millions. I mean I can go buy a Triumph Spitfire and daily drive that if I wanted. I know a Spitfire isn't as safe as a modern Lotus but I can still drive it on the road.

We can't get Morgans, Lotuses (Loti?), Ariels, Caterhams (well we can as kit cars I guess), etc. Europe considers them safe enough. Why can't our government? Plus no one is forcing you to buy a Lotus, Morgan, Caterham, etc.

Makes me sad, but I wonder if the airbag thing is a strawman? Lagging sales likely have more to do with them leaving. BTW, what is a "smart airbag"?

"A smart airbag is one that features a sensitive computer that monitors the size and position of the occupant of the seat in which the airbag will deploy. The reason for the development of this particular type of advanced airbag system is that standard airbags can actually cause more injury than they prevent if they deploy in front of small children or dimunitive adults. These specialized airbag modules aim to correct that by sensing how hard the airbag will need to deploy."

Source: http://www.carsdirect.com/car-safety/what-a-smart-airbag-is

Having two tiny female drivers in my household, I can appreciate the intent behind this rule. However, neither of them are likely to be driving Loti.

IMO, lighter cars are safer for everyone else.

Its the heavy vehicles that make everyone else less than safe. As a pedestrian or cyclist I'd much rather get hit with a sub-2000 pound Lotus than a 5000 pound "safe" SUV. Actually, same as a motorist.

And, I say let Darwinism prevail: I would much rather see "distracted" and/or "inattentive" drivers become "extinct" rather than "survive".... that in itself would make the roads much safer for everyone else.

Lighter cars are safer overall if everyone has lighter cars. The SUV craze of the late '89s/early '90s started a safety arms race that's still going on.

So now what will my mid-life crisis car be when I turn 50 in 2017? Hmm, probably a "gently" used Lotus from mid 2000's, only driven to church on Sunday?

I don't get it, I can go out and drive a huge RV without a CDL, that I could probably plow into a family in a 12 passenger van, killing everyone inside, and yet I can't own something that probably twice as a safe as most motorcycles on the road, which I may remind you, I can ride without a helmet.

Dumb.

I suspect that if their sales numbers were good, they could have easily just bought a "smart airbag package" from Bosch, TRW, or Takata, and put it in. The cost would be high to us but as part of federalizing a new generation of vehicle not that much.

I barely ever see Lotuses. I think they just don't sell very well, sadly.

Lotus is not exiting US market mainly because of the safety rules and regulations. Lotus is exiting US market because we (people of U.S.A.) do NOT buy enough light weight sports cars.

jstein77 wrote: Having two tiny female drivers in my household, I can appreciate the intent behind this rule. However, neither of them are likely to be driving Loti.

But if you had a Lotus would they be a passenger? If so then Smart airbags would be a great thing for them, which I think you agree with.

you want safer cars, ban automatic transmissions. Force the driver to be engaged in the act of driving opposed to being passive and they'll be more attentive to the act and less distracted.

In reply to captdownshift:

Nonsense. Some of the worst drivers I know drive manuals because the say it gives them more control when in reality shifting gears is just one more thing the are not very good at.

In reply to Wally:

I'm not saying that everyone who drives a manual is a better driver, I'm saying that they likely are paying more attention to the road though and are less likely to be eating a burger while posting a photo of said burger on instagram and then posting a review of said burger on yelp while simultaneously "liking" the establishment's facebook page.

there are too many systems in new cars that link to social media and email functions. I don't care if they are voice activated, those are distractions, people needs to unplug and drive or take mass transit.

GameboyRMH wrote: Lighter cars are safer overall if everyone has lighter cars. The SUV craze of the late '89s/early '90s started a safety arms race that's still going on.

This is why I feel there should be somewhat of a weight tax when registering a vehicle. Like truckers pay at the scales. Tax the fat SUVs into oblivion in the name of road wear and overall safety of society.

GameboyRMH wrote: I wonder if it's smart to keep mandating safer and safer cars or if at some point we can call cars "safe enough."

From a politician's / bureacrat's viewpoint, nothing is ever safe enough. If things were allowed to be "safe enough", how would legislators and regulators continue to justify their existences?

Silly boy. Think of the children.

I promise you people would pay alot more attention to what they were doing if knives would come out of the dash instead of nice cushy airbags.

chrispy wrote: Makes me sad, but I wonder if the airbag thing is a strawman? Lagging sales likely have more to do with them leaving.

Cause and effect. If they were selling more cars, they would be bothered to keep compliance.

See: The number of 1995 RX-7s sold, and Mazda's decision to not bother with OBD-II compliance for 1996.