Leiters interview with Evo, Focus on Quality at McLaren, Positive Outlook Moving Forward

Iron5 said:

Really honest and critical words, and that usually pays off in the long run. But criticizing is one thing, doing it better is another. Leiters will soon be measured by his own results. I'm curious. I am also amazed at the clear words regarding the maturity of EV technologies for supercars. I'm very excited about what the future will bring us from Woking.

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ChrisK1982 said:

if its only quality issues in assembly that might work ... if its design issues or general problems bc a part does not hold the required strength (e.g., gorilla glass problems of the 720s), it might be a long way to go to get the production line running again

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ZombiePhysicist said:

Pretty pivotal quote IMO:

‘What I heard from my team here is that in the past we accepted a non-mature product and would launch it and deliver it to the customers. The Artura was the first project where we didn’t do that. We saw that the car wasn’t mature, so we stopped deliveries. We already had a significant delay in our production line at the time and we reduced [production] to zero [cars] a day to fix our quality problems.
...
‘Doing this risked the financial position of the company, but I think this was a very important change we made. A very important message we give to our dealers and customers: that we have understood that in the future quality will be our focus. No longer will we say “the car is driving so fast and is so engaging and whatever, so please forgive us some quality issues”. Not any more.’

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ChrisK1982 said:

GT as nice as it is, is still more supercar than most real supercars and less GT … don’t get me wrong it’s a great car to have if you don’t care about things like traveling with lots of luggage or more than 2 ppl but on the other hand it’s competing with cars like Bentley GT, AMG GT 4 door, Audi RS7 or BMW M8 while still being more of a performance car than an Audi R8 … it’s a niche car for rich singles or couples that don’t mind having a bit less comfort but more sportiness and don‘t want sth. traditional like a Bentley and don’t travel with big trunks …

As for the others what you suggest is kind of suicidal for Mclaren if they don’t just rebrand other manufacturers cars … R&D for 4-5 independent cars with nearly no shared parts would probably kill all abilities for profits … non of these cars would have any shared costs with the others …

I would say 2 engines for the time being:
V8TT and V6TT both Hybrid and a future EV …

Layout is a problem if you wanna keep McL DNA … not so much for the SUV but for all the rest …

a Mclaren is a light 2 winged doors mid engine car with cf chassis !!! 2 or 3 seats … they never did anything else and it’s probably quiet an act to get ppl into a front engine GT or some kind of sports cross over with limited off road capabilities given that tradition … problem is you don’t only need to design some car, but that car has to appeal to ppl willing to spend 250-500k and it needs to be in their eyes better than the competing products … I don’t really see how Mclaren could do that with front engine GTs that would be measured against iconic cars like the 812 …

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MarkNC said:

Yikes! I loved my "station wagon" so much (and now I'm missing it!) that I didn't think twice about signing up for that $500K crossover the minute it was revealed and thank goodness I did because now they're sold out for at least two years! I owned the FF for longer than any other Ferrari than either of the 458s I owned although now I've got a 458 SA and 430 Spider (manual) that I'll keep indefinitely.

I'm sorry but everything else you're saying seems pretty snobby. Who cares if people who can't execute track maneuvers buy a car? The fact that they're so desirable (regardless of whether that is as a fancy status symbol or a genuine drivers' car) actually make the company stronger and help the cars hold their value. McLaren has plenty of customers who can't execute track maneuvers who buy their cars too and thank goodness for them or McLaren would gone by now!

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New Britain said:

Mikey,
I'm not sure that it was ever a strategy, more a near-death spiral into which they unwittingly got themselves owing to naïveté, hubris, inadequate funding, a questionable decision to mass-produce road cars in Woking, Surrey, and a boardroom war that preoccupied and dislocated the most senior leadership.

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New Britain said:

That era is behind us. Let us hope that its consequences are behind us as well!

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