Lotus for the Masses Lotus/Kia Elan

www.virtualroadtest.com/kiaelan1.htm

Read the full article. Lotus with their financial troubles sold the dies, pattern, everything that is Elan to Kia. KIA ought to hurry up and get the Elan to market, to compete with the Miata.

Cmotif <><

Verrrrrrry interesting. Maybe this could lead to mass produced Elan lookalikes? Hopefully so, as that might boost the value of a Lotus Built one, as it is bound to be better quality.

A Kia built Elan would be built by robots. But I think that this works out good for Kia, because aren't a lot of the new Lotuses extremely spartan. Kia can make spartan cars. The engine would be a warmed up Spectra or Sephia unit. Maybe a little more advanced than the original Isuzu derived unit. I think that they could be competitive with Miatas.

Lotus and Kia have been working together for a while on the suspension of new KIA vehicles.

Cmotif <><

Who htinks this is a good thing?

Kia did build it for a while, although it was never sold in North America. I think production ended when Kia went into bankruptcy and was sold to Hyundai.

Kia even showed a concept version of the production car at the Detroit Auto Show in 1996. I believe it was the KMS-II.

Where are the cars now?

Korea

Sold or in storage?

Kia actually sold Elans to the public.

oh ok... all LHD though I suppose. :o