Having now read this thread again, I have had a long a frank conversation with Paul and Liam at Exo. I felt it prudent to do so given that I may well be placing several thousand of my hard earned pounds into their bank account in exchange for some metal tubes and a few bits of GRP.
Even though I am new to this forum, I have followed the RTR/MEV/Exo story for a long time (kit car builders tend to do this) and it's interesting to note that Exo/RTR have some very loyal supporters as well as serious detractors.
Firstly, I asked them why they took little part in forum activities during the last few months of trading as RTR. They told me that they had been unable to post on the forum during that period and as such, had not been allowed to put across their side of the story once it had been announced that RTR were having problems.
Secondly, I asked them how many kits they had sold since 2009 (when RTR started) and they quoted a figure of approximately 300 kits in total which I have no reason to disbelieve.
I also asked about quality issues and they were open and honest about mistakes that were made and that there were products that left the factory that had some minor issues, most of which have been detailed on this forum and corrected in due course.
However, (and this is a big however) let's look at how few complaints there are in relation to the amount of metal shifted and put this into some kind of perspective. Let's also bear in mind that the complainants are on the whole still really enjoying their RTR manufactured products. So, why do they still berate this company?
Mawdo keeps talking about Companies House and the "Truth". The truth is very simple and is a matter of public record.
I feel it only right to quote Paul and Liam in respect of this as they are unable to do so on this forum (so I am led to understand).
RTR employed 12 members of staff and did it's utmost to keep their staff in work even though kit car sales had plummeted for the entire industry. Six kit car shows a year had become one show (Stoneleigh) and times were tough, but families were being fed by RTR wages so they hung on as long as possible.
They were advised early in 2015 by their accountant that their company RTR was no longer viable.
They therefore 'voluntarily liquidated' their company. Quote from companies house website, Mawdo,
"13 Mar 2015 Appointment of a voluntary liquidator"Instead of giving up, they incorporated Exo Sports Cars and had to use their own money to buy their own equipment back from the liquidator so that they could start again (they also had to deal with the announcement on this forum that they were bankrupt/bust which was clearly not true).
They had spent 6 years of hard work promoting the Rocket Kit Car as an entity and with the licence for the original Rocket returning to Stuart Mills, they announced last year that they would be producing a Rocket II. I am on their mailing list (as are many others here) so I know when this happened.
Stuart Mills had already sold the licence for his Rocket to a Czech company
"We were very busy with Replicar and Exocet sales so we offered the project for sale internationally. We sold the "Rocket" licence to a large Czech firm." (Quote from this forum).
Another quote from Mills is as follows:
"despite us using the name Rocket since 2006 the Light Car Company managed to slip in a registration for the trade mark Rocket in 2008 but are powerless to stop us using it" This clearly means that nobody has any more right than anybody else to the Rocket name.
Having spent the latter part of 2015 developing their car, Exo launched their Rocket II in January 2016 at Autosport. They manufactured the Rocket Classic (as they have now dubbed it) from 2009 to 2015 so feel totally justified in calling their car the Rocket II.
Brimoto bought a Rocket Classic kit from RTR in 2014 (according to RTR) and this is displayed on his website along with many other images of RTR manufactured cars. He is also launching a Rocket II having bought the original Rocket I moulds and jigs.
Brimoto can pool all of RTR and MEV's experience and should undoubtedly produce a decent product, but it will be interesting to see what moans they receive after they have made 300 kits.
I feel RTR/Exo have been truly misrepresented here, this forum would be a very dull place without the vehicles that they have manufactured which include every Atomic, Tr1ke/Triabusa, Mevabusa/Exobusa on this forum, every Rocket manufactured from 2009 onwards and every Sonic manufactured from 2010 that are on this forum (and every other forum for that matter).
Take away all of those vehicles and all of the build threads related to those vehicles and there would almost nothing here (other than the MX5 based vehicles), thus the reason for this somewhat lengthy posting. This may be the 'MEV' forum but RTR/Exo have contributed enormously to it's content.
So, ladies and gentlemen of this forum, you should think again about your attitude towards Exo Sports Cars. I've spent many years working in the USA where enterprise is truly valued. These guys have picked up the pieces of a company that was caught out by a rapidly shrinking market and have invested their own money into getting started again as a manufacturer and as an employer. They would be saluted in the US...
Time for some balance in this debate in my opinion.
I have throughly researched all that I have written here and unless I am told otherwise, I clearly believe everything I have written here to be true.
If this thread is moderated, (or put in the wastebin) it will stand as proof that there is something very undemocratic and anti-Exo happening here
Bobmick.
Read more:
mevowners.proboards.com/thread/7798/rocket-history#ixzz44l35O62ERead more:
mevowners.proboards.com/thread/7798/rocket-history#ixzz44kyeN7O8
