Thanks xen. The FE thing I could learn to live with if the circumstances felt fair. It’s hard to swallow that someone could put a deposit down a few weeks ago at a dealership in the USA about 100 miles from where I put my deposit down a year ago and they get a FE but I don’t. That sticks in my craw. Fairness matters to me, and that seems unfair. Again, happy for the other guy, but pretty deflated for me and others.
The dent in my enthusiasm is one of the reasons I’ve been absent from the forum for a while. It had felt like I joined this great community with this magnificent car at the center of it all, and a cool group of folks unified by excitement about the car. But the way lotus has taken us for granted makes it hard to maintain that enthusiasm. At least for me. I want to be excited about this new relationship with lotus but they are giving me little reason to be. Excited by the car? Sure. But buying a particular car is about more than just the car itself. It’s about the community, with the manufacturer at the center of it all. Lotus is not acting like they want to occupy that center. They are acting like they are selling a commodity item….just like so many other car companies. Maybe that’s what happens when you transition from being a boutique manufacturer to a global one. You may sacrifice elements of your identity to compete with the big boys. For me that feels disappointing. There are lots of great cars out there. I am looking for something more. Whether lotus can deliver more than a car remains an unanswered question for me.