Close but no cigar, just yet

Long story short, having previously had an S1 Elise and S1 Exige I left the Lotus fold and went off to try something Italian, I didn’t think I would be back in a Lotus as it was a case of having been there and done that, it was time to move on, roll on the Launch of the Emira at Goodwood, WOW, my deposit for an i4 was placed that day, well after almost two years of waiting I became a bit disillusioned with the whole thing and cancelled my order and went off and bought something else. I did still have a bit of a thing for the Emira though. Anyway a few weeks a go I was browsing Pistonheads classifieds and was quite surprised by some of the deals on offer for new cars, so on the spur of the moment I had a conversation with my local dealer which ended up with a deposit placed on an Emira that was the exact spec that I wanted, the car was in stock and would be available in a couple of weeks, so far so good as I work away from home and only had a three week period to be able to collect the car, a couple of days latter a phone call to say they’ve found a couple of marks on the car that would require it to go to the body shop, good news though we’ve sourced another car almost the same spec, however this had the sports chassis and I wanted the touring, oh well I suppose I could live with that so lets go ahead with that then, another couple of days go by and another call to say they’ve sourced another car but with the touring chassis, though it did have different colour wheels and calipers than what I wanted but OK lets do that then, so the car arrived at the dealers and a date was made to collect it, which would be a couple of days before I was due to go away again, all getting a bit tight on time but still achievable, anyway another call off the dealer to say whilst carrying out the PDI they’d found there was a recall outstanding, something to do with the Charcoal filter? It would have to be removed and weighed and depending on that it might need replacing, anyway it did turn out that it would have to be replaced and the parts would have to be ordered in, which meant I was out of time to be able to collect the Emira this time off, so that was all a bit disappointing, but on a more positive note the cars all ready now and will hopefully be picked up in a couple of weeks. So something to look forward to. Here’s the obligatory picture.

Congratulations. That's quite the story.

I came very close to cancelling my i4 order too what with the delays and price hike. I stuck with mine in the end and took delivery in March. Is this a new i4 (cancelled order) or a used V6? I haven't been following the prices recently but it would be interesting if new i4's are now getting discounted too.

Anyway - I'm sure you'll love it. I was initially concerned about the reports of sluggish shifts and disappointing soundtrack but I've had no regrets about my choice of touring i4.

Andy H said:

Congratulations. That's quite the story.

I came very close to cancelling my i4 order too what with the delays and price hike. I stuck with mine in the end and took delivery in March. Is this a new i4 (cancelled order) or a used V6? I haven't been following the prices recently but it would be interesting if new i4's are now getting discounted too.

Anyway - I'm sure you'll love it. I was initially concerned about the reports of sluggish shifts and disappointing soundtrack but I've had no regrets about my choice of touring i4.

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Good to hear that you've no regrets, I did see a few reviews mentioning the gear change and that was the only niggle, but decided to stick with the i4. I was told my car had been ordered as a dealer demo but they were happy to let me have it, it's been preregistered, so I'll be the second owner but it's still only got delivery mileage on it. There's quite a big discount from new, I'm looking at just under 68K for mine.

So, uh.. was it a Ferrari, Lambo, or Alfa?

VL3X said:

So, uh.. was it a Ferrari, Lambo, or Alfa?

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This replaced the Exige, kept it for quite a while and only sold it to make way for the Emira, which then didn't happen. Well until now

Never owned an F-car but not certain I would have departed with that beauty.

benjh1028 said:

Never owned an F-car but not certain I would have departed with that beauty.

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It certainly was a great car, I owned it for about 13 years but found I was using it less and less, therefore decided to sell, the only thing was I couldn't think of what to replace it with and then the Emira was launched, so that was that, well almost.
I was also very lucky I had this to play with as well while I was waiting for the Emira, which then didn't happen.

Confirmed that it does not suck to be Davidexige!

Davidexige said:

I was also very lucky I had this to play with as well while I was waiting for the Emira.View attachment 51120

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4.3 or 4.7 liter? My Emira's companion is a 2013 Vantage, absolutely love the combo that these two cars offer!

scc.131.fe said:

4.3 or 4.7 liter? My Emira's companion is a 2013 Vantage, absolutely love the combo that these two cars offer!View attachment 51129View attachment 51130

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That's a great combination you've got there, mine was a 4.3 which was a great stable mate alongside the Ferrari. In hindsight the only two cars I ever regret selling are the Exige and the Vantage and even my wife agrees with that as they were her two favorite cars as well.

It sounds like quite a journey with lots of twists, but it’s great that you're finally getting the Emira, especially in the spec you wanted. Despite the delays and changes, it seems like things are working out in the end. Hope the wait is worth it, and enjoy the new ride!

Well to bring this to a conclusion, collected the car today and it’s great to be back in a Lotus, things have definitely moved on from the S1 Elise and Exige I had. Anyway here’s the obligatory photos.

Always nice to get a positive end to a story. Now you'll have to decide if you want to keep 3 shades of yellow, or replace the "bonnet" emblem and "tyre" centre caps, with black/silver to match the steering wheel. It'll look great either way. Congrats!

netsinah said:

Always nice to get a positive end to a story. Now you'll have to decide if you want to keep 3 shades of yellow, or replace the "bonnet" emblem and "tyre" centre caps, with black/silver to match the steering wheel. It'll look great either way. Congrats!

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Now that’s a great idea, never thought about black badges, but that could work really well

Davidexige said:

Now that’s a great idea, never thought about black badges, but that could work really well

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I have a similar spec on order (should be produced this month) except for the brake calipers; I went with silver. I almost went with red but it looked like a hamburger

Speaking as an owner of a Vivid Red Emira and on behalf of hamburgers everywhere, I find that analogy (pardon the pun...bun?) to be in very poor taste (lol).

Davidexige said:

Now that’s a great idea, never thought about black badges, but that could work really well

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Attached is a photo of my red hamburger....errr Emira, with the replacement black/silver badging to give you some idea. Check out prices. I purchased from Bell & Colvill but (for me in Canada anyway) it would have been cheaper from GRP (Greg's Race Parts; a Forum sponsor) and cheaper yet if you combine shipping with other items you might like from GRP. There may be other options now for OEM replacement badging. Good luck!

netsinah said:

Attached is a photo of my red hamburger....errr Emira, with the replacement black/silver badging to give you some idea. Check out prices. I purchased from Bell & Colvill but (for me in Canada anyway) it would have been cheaper from GRP (Greg's Race Parts; a Forum sponsor) and cheaper yet if you combine shipping with other items you might like from GRP. There may be other options now for OEM replacement badging. Good luck!

View attachment 52133

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That looks great, much better than yellow badges. Thanks for posting

Congrats on the car - looks great. I was very torn between Seneca and Hethel yellow and I was admiring a couple of Hethel cars when I was at Lotus Glasgow last week. One of them might have been yours!

Another black badger here. I see that black badges are now an official option on the new configurator.

freefall_junkie said:

Congrats on the car - looks great. I was very torn between Seneca and Hethel yellow and I was admiring a couple of Hethel cars when I was at Lotus Glasgow last week. One of them might have been yours!

Another black badger here. I see that black badges are now an official option on the new configurator.

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I know these things are personal, but wow, that looks great, I wouldn’t have that that such a small change would make so much of a difference, think I’ll be putting an order in for them now.