Lotus Emira

Rick, did the Emira have the touring or sport suspension. My order is touring but thinking I need to change to sport.

 

Agree that my Emira deposit was based on $95,000 and I would not be happy at $110,000, but the 296 started at $305 if I remember and is over $330. Is this opportunism or supply chain and inflation? Maybe a little of both.

 

any update / details?

 

I’ve rejected the car due to paint mismatch issues. Lotus are looking to see if they can source an alternative car for me.

 

I was contemplating canceling my order, but looks like I already made $15k!

 

Pretty sure it was the touring. Felt good and from all the reviews, that is the one I would get......if I was getting one.

 

I canceled my order on Friday. Too many delays, which to me translates into there will be problems in the first production run, and candidly, after 2 years I have lost some of my interest.

 

Bummer… I’m supremely frustrated as well but I’ll hang in there til end of year… really hoping they get this thing delivered soon.


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Hanging in as well and convincing myself that all these delays imply a positive result --eventually!

 

I'll hang too.... but I'm #54 on the list. So who the heck knows.

 

Yeah that is what I decided to do last year, it's now March, so I gave it another 80 days. I hope your order gets filled soon.

 

Now that you've rejected the car for "paint mis-match issues", the above makes no sense. It's not like a U.S. dealer would re-paint panels on a brand new car to solve paint mis-match issues. This is totally Lotus' fault...the car should have never left the factory.

 

Are the orders placed at the original MSRP ($95,000) price protected?
It doesn't sound like they are...don't go spending that $15K you think you made.
Easy for me to say, but I would buy a Stingray ...faster, probably (!!!) much more reliable, cheaper, more utility, etc...

The world's a better place with Lotus in it...but these guys better get their stuff together...Geely didn't buy Lotus to put up with this kind of sloppy work, and it is sloppy. Blaming delays on "bureaucrats"? Everyone else seems to be able to figure out emission standards...

 

I was giving Lotus the benefit of the doubt as their chosen preparation and distribution partner for this new direct sales channel in the UK is one of the largest commercial auction businesses in the UK who operate a large car remarketing business so have their own paint shop facilities. I therefore couldn't say 100% that the car left the factory in the way it arrived with me as it is possible this company damaged it at some point in their care and then resprayed the affected panel. It could also be that it did indeed leave the factory with one rogue panel produced during a different painting run.

I was pursuing my complaint through Lotus Customer Services (LCS) and their proposed resolution was to handle it as a priority warranty issue via a Lotus dealer and then have the paint rectification carried out by an approved bodyshop. This was completely unacceptable to me and under our Consumer Protection laws I started the process to reject the car.

The guy I was dealing with at LCS was supposed to be looking to find an alternative car for me but after a week I'd heard nothing on that front from him even though he'd told me they had some nice spec's available in stock - presumably cancelled orders. I was angry that I was losing out on a car I'd waited the best part of two years for so I decided to take matters into my own hands and contacted the Quality Director at Lotus directly. He has been fantastic and jumped on the issue straight away. He sent the covered trailer that they use to deliver cars to press events over to my home the following day to collect my car and take it back to the factory. He then put it through a forensic audit with one of his top Quality inspectors. Lotus have stepped up and taken full responsibility for the issues I highlighted and also found a couple more relatively minor items that I hadn't noticed. They are bringing a special team in to do the paintwork over this holiday weekend and I am then going to collect the car at the factory where the Quality Director will hand over the keys and give me a personal tour of the production line.

Thus far I can't fault their response as the Quality Director has given me daily email progress updates including sending me messages out of working hours so it is evident that there is a strong commitment to delivering a great product. The guy who collected my car prepares and looks after the press fleet and also does development work driving. I had an intersting chat with him and he was genuinely upset and apologised profusely for the way my car had been delivered. It was a source of great irritation to him after he said he had literally lived and breathed the Emira for several years now through it's development and said everyone at the company is fully behind the car. I've not read of other owners suffering similar issues to mine so hopefully this is a random problem.

Lotus have since changed their home delivery process for cars in the UK. All cars are now going through the main dealer network for PDI and detailing prior to be delivered by covered trailer to the customer so this change will prevent the situation I experienced from happening as the dealers will follow a much better quality process control than the 3rd party operator was able to.

 

My understanding is that they are...only the additional allocations are at the higher MSRP.

 

^^^
I’m happy for you that Lotus is going to handle this in house.

 

Get it in writing!!!
The C8 world is littered with people who had “understanding” of the price but NO paperwork.

 

Your earlier post helped me make the decision to cancel my order, if they can let such an obvious mistake make it to the new owner, what will the mechanics and electrical systems be like?. Despite the additional two years of waiting, I suspect the early cars will have gremlins in them, and I just don’t want to deal with bringing the car back to the dealer to get them fixed. I hope I’m wrong but I take the delay and your post as a bad sign. I’ll wait for the 2nd year of production.

 

isuk -
Nice to see Lotus is doing their level best to make this right.
nice to hear a ray of light!

 

They really like it:

 

No surprise here. Evora was great car that needed interior upgrade and new styling. Emira provides those things so its a winner.

Very difficult choosing between c8, Cayman, Elmira. Personally I would pick c8 to get open top w better price than the imports. All of which would be case for last 20 yrs. Nothings changed between these cars

 

I say bravo to Lotus. Why can they pull this off but Ferrari can’t? It’s simply because they won’t for some odd reason. Can you imagine how crazy everyone would be if Ferrari produced this car? Everything about its style and “idea” of it is what so many have been begging for for years. It looks amazing. For those that have an allocation, stay patient and wait.

 

Has *anyone* received their Emira?

 

because Ferrari has cultivated a brand and loyalty for decades, controlled supply, stoked demand, pushed boundaries, produced different products that a lot of traditionalists wouldn't normally be interested in (therefore bringing in new customers e.g. California, FF) while throwing red meat on the table for the traditionalists. Ferrari has sort of rewritten the rules of business. They are not unlike high end watches now.
why would Ferrari do the "Dino" again (smaller, lighter, less expensive)?
because they don't have to. They will just keep doing somewhat limited runs of existing cars and make 100's of thousands in profit on each car.

Lotus has been a 1 trick pony for many many years...

 

My comment isn’t about Lotus, one trick pony or not. It’s just too bad that Ferrari doesn’t do the same. And, I know everyone likes to reference the Dino. Again, has nothing to do with the Dino. It’s as simple as, offer a manual. Doesn’t need to be less expensive. Give the audience what they crave. There’ no reason you need to sacrifice pushing the edge.