Is the 'Sunday drive' set for a big revival?

The classic Sunday drive is set for a huge revival in Australia due to continued international travel restrictions forced by the coronavirus.

So says Lotus, which is set to ramp up its Australian events calendar in the back half of this year in anticipation of a slew of new touring devotees who turn to sports cars in the face of ongoing international travel restrictions.

Lotus Asia Pacific regional director, David McIntyre, says the tradition of the ‘Sunday drive’ could be reinvented in an environment where people are generally less busy on weekends and expected to travel less.

“What we’ve been discussing with our partners in Australia is getting more events in the second half of the year and giving people an excuse to use their cars,” McIntyre told carsales via video conference.

“Typically our events are very much track-based or the Targa rallies, but why not do some more tour events where we go from one location in Australia to another, or even develop more with the local clubs across Australia?

“We know Lotus clubs are quite active and I think there’s opportunity to collaborate with them more as well.”

Though Lotus says it is content with selling one car a week nationally for the foreseeable future as the industry rebuilds in the wake of COVID-19, McIntyre says there are green shoots emerging.

However, in a trend that supports the thinking of more Sunday drivers, McIntyre says it is not new cars that prospective buyers are largely targeting, but second-hand deals.

“We’re getting a lot of enquiry on used cars, interestingly. So what happened towards the middle of last month was enquiries on used cars; people were looking for a bit of a deal, a bit of a bargain,” McIntyre said.

“That’s one thing that’s allowed us to sell some cars in Australia. The other thing are some pockets of opportunity in Australia, and Melbourne is one where we haven’t really maximised our potential.

“We now have a social media running across Melbourne that is very targeted at sports car owners across Melbourne, people who are looking and searching on sites like carsales.

“That’s quite active at the moment and we think Melbourne is a good potential growth opportunity for us.

“We do really well with events in Australia. That’s something we can’t really do at the moment so we’ve been really pushing social media and that’s driving enquiries.”

Sales of Lotus vehicles in Australia are currently down 54 per cent year-to-date. According to VFACTS data, April was a particularly tough month, with a solitary Elise the only vehicle – correlating with an 89 per cent slump compared with April 2019.