What’s everyone’s opinion …

On the Lotus Emira? I’m going to go look at and drive one tomorrow as a possible daily driver. I know very little about them.


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I am seriously considering one. I am a lotus fan, and I really like the emira, I was going to put a deposit on one a while back until they had all the issues with delivery. Let us know what you think after the drive!


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someone i know is selling his with delivery miles on facebook market. houston area.

 

I’ll just have to see how it is tomorrow and let you know… there’s one with the right color etc right down the street from me…. More curious about if this thing will be worth half in a year, reliability, servicing etc


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Love it. I think it's the best car at 100k!

 

Let me tell you and this is just my personal opinion. Not trying to upset anyone here. The interior build quality is equal to an econobox
The car looks like a Walmart transformers toy.
Giant touchscreen sticking out of center console that will age terribly soon. Uninspiring driving characteristics. I had the opportunity to buy one at a great price and still turned it down. Sound system sucked. Any Ferrari under 100k would have this beat

 

I drove it… and my friend as well… I wasn’t impressed at all. I mean, I didn’t expect too much honestly…. I really like the looks, the interior was super nice and comfortable with lots of room, even for my 6’4” friend… but that’s about it. Didn’t like build quality, the torque was awful and realized I don’t want a manual transmission for my daily driver to N Miami Beach every day- anyway, ended up switching to a Cayman GT4 with 500 miles but this thing is 30k over sticker… I never liked Porsche but this car kinda caught my eye— I’m supposed to go back and do the deal but I don’t think I’m going to. Still deciding, even though now I am actually kinda liking the idea of Porsche. Maybe a Carrera T instead of GT4– anyway, no idea and thanks for the input.


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For several years I was shop foreman at a Ferrari/Lotus dealer. I understand car manufacturers change over time and this was 20 years ago but that experience taught me I should avoid at all costs having any exposure either personally or professionally to any of that companies total unmitigated junk. Never in my life have I seen so little engineering or interest in quality or desire to address known issues. The lack of technical understanding or expertise was just stunning. And for warranty repairs they thought nothing of recycling used parts from components returned for warranty. That being said I do have an affection for certain models from the Colin Chapman era but that was a very long time ago. The company should have died when he did.

 

I had deposits on both an Emira and GTS 4.0 before I got my GT4 allocation. Obviously, I went with the GT4, which I loved a lot before I traded it for my 458.

Anyway, at 30k over sticker its a hard pill to swallow for a GT4. There is as much fun to be had in the GTS 4.0 as it has the same 4.0L NA engine, but it has a much more comfortable ride, and more interior options can be spec'd. The differences between the GTS and GT4 are that the GTS front clip is not from the 911 GT3, it's down a bit on HP, and the suspension is not quite as stiff, but none of that matters since you are not going to track the GTS 4.0 and it will be your daily driver.

I wrote this very quickly as I need to leave my office for a bit, but I wanted to chime in about the GTS 4.0 as a suitable car for you, Todd, if you can find one for the right price. Considering the build quality of the Porsche and the interior comfort benefits of the GTS you will really like it if you liked the GT4 at all. Taking the small, lightweight NA Cayman to redline is more fun than driving the 911 and my opinion will not be changed

 

Interesting and thank you. I’m TOTALLY new to Porsche as I’ve never liked the looks of them etc… but now, since I liked the GT4, I’m considering liking a 911 or 911T as something like that could work nicely as a daily.. I’ve still never driven a Porsche so soon I’ll know I guess. But it’s aesthetics first for me.


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They are great daily drivers and if you move into sport mode they really come alive and are more sporty. Fit and finish is like a nice tailored suit. Since you have the F8, a base 911 would be plenty. No need to spend the extra money for S and 4S or anything above that. Take out the F8 when you want to go nuts and daily drive the carrera. The newest generation 992 have held their values and hard to find deals on them.

 

Give the Emira a test drive and then give a new Porsche 718 a similar test drive. That way you can compare two similar-market and -price cars and consider the daily utility and the maintenance support structures for the two cars to help you decide daily driver satisfaction and your tolerance for the differences between the two companies. I've had the pleasure of cars from both companies. Porsche will give superior performance, reliability, and support, while Lotus will give a sense of uniqueness minus some factors many people, but not all, consider essential. It is true there are tons of Porsches, and also Corvettes, for good reasons.

 

I have owned Lotus Evora 400, Porsches GT3s, 4, Spyder..
My Emira is inbound this summer.

I will chime in my thinking about Lotus using baseline of my previous 458, for the sake of this forum audience.

First, if we look at Emira by how much 100k should have net us, I think that will not be sensible, for lack of better words. What I meant is that we cannot justify how much we spent for our Ferrari, same as other people cannot justify spending 100k in a Lotus. (Did we all suck up the sticky button and orange peel of our 500k cars?)

Lotus suspension, chassis control, and steering feel with hydraulic system blew my 320k 458 coupe out of water. Especially the fact that Lotus does not have any active suspension control via a button. To me, Lotus is the last breed of pure driving joy and 100k is well worth it.

I just focus the aforementioned attributes and much ignore my Evora interior. Today, I am just so happy with Emira with such significant upgrades! That Toyota V6 engine is so bullet proof. That AP racing braking system outshines whatever brakes Ferrari put in the 458.

Last but not least, show me any 100k car that looks like a Ferrari. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I'm going to circle back to... Daily Driver? Really?!

I had Lotus Evora 400 - which is the Emira in a slightly less sexy dress and it *wouldn't* be a daily driver...

For a weekend "fun car" at the $100K price point, though - sure!

Kevin

 

I daily'ed my Evora 400, totally okay.

 

The clutch pedal was quite firm for a daily driver for me is all.. and not that I expected it to rival the Ferrari in any way, but it was REALLY slow— my friend stomped on it and whipped the backend out some and drove much harder than I did/do but it just seemed to have VERY little torque to the point where it was annoying. Pretty cool car other than that though… and the seals, rubbers, plastics being loose, misaligned, falling off etc.

I’m exploring Porsche in the 100k range… don’t think I need to be going to 150k for a daily but I’m just so f’ing picky with cars… I’m annoying myself

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I felt the same way. I really tried to like it. The stupid screen sticking out of the dash was the last straw.

 

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/lotus-emira.643408/

 

Yeah, DragTimes just had the Emira on there, and it took about 4.9 or 5.9 seconds to get to 60. It's not the quickest thing out there. The build quality is atrocious (check out the emiraforums), and the maintenance times are like owning an exotic (except it's not). I think it looks awesome, but if I were to get a Lotus for what Lotus once was, I would get an Evora GT, and it would be for the track.

As a daily driver, my money would be for Cayman GTS (cayman footprint is smaller than the 911, which has a useless backseat anyway for you)

 

I see. If you are a picky person, I would suggest bypass Lotus. For 718 NA engine, the torque is also quite conspicuously absent until you rev high, but the gear is so long too, that also annoyed me. My 718 Spyder also did not feel fast at all...

 

Evora 400 or GT horsepower and torque difference is almost negligible. They all use same engine, chassis and transmission. They all are low 4 seconds car.

 

Gearing is shorter in the PDK version than the 6 speed, but it could be even shorter.

You will love this though, Todd. Porsche has the same GPF as the F8, but get this. Porsche will allow you to take out, what is known as the Over Axle Pipes (OAP's) at the dealer and replace them with an aftermarket part without voiding your warranty. You could probably do it anywhere and not void your warranty, but I just asked my dealer to do it and of course they were happy for the labor. They just asked me to order the part myself and bring it to them. It does not throw a check engine light. The best part is that the SOUL OAP or flat-6 OAP's (common mods) are only about 2k. Increased sound!
Porsche is really great that way.


You can even do it yourself if you have some tools

 

Too late. Lol. Sold it at 7k miles. But I had the pdk in my Spyder and of course manual in GT4. The pdk gear definitely is shorter but still long.

 

Emira launch is a disaster that has been playing out in car crash slow motion for 2 years.. So many of the first deliveries are being flipped, with markups quickly becoming discounts.

The future of Lotus is EV (they just announced an atrocious looking sedan), and the 100% Tariff on EVs is gonna gut Geely.

Sure, buy an Emira if you want a memento of a company that is defunct in the next 6-12mos.

 

Daaaaaaang, sqweak - you are HARSH, brother… correct, but harsh!

Kevi