Worst Car of the Year It might be too
harsh to call the new Lotus performance sedan as the worst car of the
year, but as I said a few years back in our 20th Anniversary special,
there are no more bad cars these days, so the worst car among
not-actually-bad cars is not that disgraceful, is it?
Anyway, the Emeya is probably the worst Lotus since... well, the beginning of the marque, because it works against all the principles set out by Colin Chapman. It is incredibly heavy at 2.5 tons. It is unnecessarily complicated and high-tech - who needs Lidar and the ability for upgrading to autonomous driving on a Lotus? Yes, it is quick, very quick indeed, but it does not connect with the driver, especially on the range-topping R model. Rear-wheel steering and active anti-roll bars fail to make the big electric car shrink around you. In medium-speed corner the rear axle steers inconsistently, like having trouble to decide to steer in sync or in opposite angles. Just when you lose confidence to press on, the body roll resulted from the soft suspension is suddenly countered by the active anti-roll bars, but in an abrupt manner and, worst of all, all four corners don’t work in sync. You sense they keep adjusting going into straights, very weird. Likewise, the electric power steering on Emeya R feels more like German cars than Lotus. It is precise but numb, delivering little feedback from the road ahead. In fact, so bad that we suspect the R's handling tuning was done in Germany without the input from Hethel. This is not a true Lotus. On the contrary, it is the anti-Lotus ! |
| Past winners 2024 Opel Astra GSe 2023 Lamborghini Countach LPI800-4 2022 Toyota Aqua 2021 Cadillac CT4 2.7 and CT4-V 2020 Opel Corsa 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Redeye 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo 2016 Fiat Tipo / Aegea 2015 Datsun Go 2014 MG 3 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo 2012 Nissan Sunny / Versa 2011 Scion tC 2010 Lexus HS250h 2009 Dodge Challenger 3.5SE 2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4 2007 Dodge Caliber 2006 Proton Savvy 2005 Proton Gen.2 2004 Rover CityRover 2003 Mercury Marauder |
