Anyone received their 30 day notification yet?

[Emiragirl]

So from what I'm picking up from here and FB apart from some anomalies it looks like pre and d7th and maybe some of the 8th deposits are now Jan delivery. Rest of 8th and 9th your looking at feb/March and this is best case scenario?

I was morning of the 9th so quite likely best part of a year late. (Not had my official call yet)

I'm not sure I have it in me to continue this charade, if I was given a locked in deal of price and Apr then maybe but I can see the monthly cost of buying this car rising significantly in the new year.

I was the 9th and spoke to CC yesterday. They apparently were passed a spreadsheet yesterday morning with updated production info on…was told Jan build for Feb delivery….we shall see.

 

[Emiragirl]

I was the 9th and spoke to CC yesterday. They apparently were passed a spreadsheet yesterday morning with updated production info on…was told Jan build for Feb delivery….we shall see.

PS Originally I was June…moved to Oct build and nov delivery

 

[prestonc]

So sorry of this pisses some of you off.

Looks like I'm getting delivery in the next couple of weeks, maybe three

 

[Billyidoliser]

So sorry of this pisses some of you off.

Looks like I'm getting delivery in the next couple of weeks, maybe three

New owners with lots of reviews, photos and vids is what will keep the rest of us motivated and interested!

 

[prestonc]

New owners with lots of reviews, photos and vids is what will keep the rest of us motivated and interested!

Then the second I receive, you'll see all!

 

[BeHappy]

So from what I'm picking up from here and FB apart from some anomalies it looks like pre and d7th and maybe some of the 8th deposits are now Jan delivery. Rest of 8th and 9th your looking at feb/March and this is best case scenario?

I was morning of the 9th so quite likely best part of a year late. (Not had my official call yet)

I'm not sure I have it in me to continue this charade, if I was given a locked in deal of price and Apr then maybe but I can see the monthly cost of buying this car rising significantly in the new year.

I’d hang on in a bit longer till at least demos start -as they may be quiet a few cancellations

 

[vision]

I’d hang on in a bit longer till at least demos start -as they may be quiet a few cancellations

Had call this afternoon, Im 10th July, my build is January, February delivery?

 

[SteveJ]

Evening everyone

I think I’m done.

Although quiet I have been an avid wall watcher of this forum and am on it multiple times everyday. I am eternally grateful to everyone, especially Tom E, for their knowledge and kindness to share with us all.

This will be my first new car purchase and had a lot of excitement at the prospect of it being from a british institution.

I’ve had a limited edition Prodrive Impreza for the last 15 years and wanted to continue to support british manufacturing but this is going nowhere and has completely taken the fun out of what was supposed to be an exciting opportunity.

There seems to be no end in sight and being a 17th July deposit holder seems like at least another 4 months until i’m likely to get the car based on those ahead of me who have managed to get the next estimate of build date.

I’ve started looking at other cars now, which is such a shame as being a 41 year old new customer surely I am exactly the demographic Lotus should be targeting for repeat business. Like Tom I was also thinking about the Eletre so they have potentially lost 2 cars from me at a minimum.

 

[New to Lotus]

I'm 8th of July deposit no phone call yet but had an email saying I'm going to get a phone call.

 

[Stealth_Yellow]

I haven’t been on here for a couple of weeks so I’ve just spent the last half an hour catching up. My i4 was due November. I don’t think I’ll see it until next summer now. So I have just collected this little beauty. It’s bloody awesome! I’ll keep my Emira order and just see how things go.

 

[BeHappy]

I haven’t been on here for a couple of weeks so I’ve just spent the last half an hour catching up. My i4 was due November. I don’t think I’ll see it until next summer now. So I have just collected this little beauty. It’s bloody awesome! I’ll keep my Emira order and just see how things go.

Congratulations you’ll her . It is bloody awesome you’ll be grinning like a Cheshire Cat every time you get behind the wheel - make sure you keep her on loud exhaust at all time if she has the special button
I still have withdrawal symptoms and a gaping hole in my that no other has been able to fill as yet but I live in hope

 

[JohnHoward]

Evening everyone

I think I’m done.

Although quiet I have been an avid wall watcher of this forum and am on it multiple times everyday. I am eternally grateful to everyone, especially Tom E, for their knowledge and kindness to share with us all.

This will be my first new car purchase and had a lot of excitement at the prospect of it being from a british institution.

I’ve had a limited edition Prodrive Impreza for the last 15 years and wanted to continue to support british manufacturing but this is going nowhere and has completely taken the fun out of what was supposed to be an exciting opportunity.

There seems to be no end in sight and being a 17th July deposit holder seems like at least another 4 months until i’m likely to get the car based on those ahead of me who have managed to get the next estimate of build date.

I’ve started looking at other cars now, which is such a shame as being a 41 year old new customer surely I am exactly the demographic Lotus should be targeting for repeat business. Like Tom I was also thinking about the Eletre so they have potentially lost 2 cars from me at a minimum.

If Lotus was run properly, they should be all over this, sadly it isn't and they don't seem to care.
You are 100% the person that Lotus are hoping will buy this car and I know this for a fact. I had a very interesting discussion with a senior member of the Lotus management team at the Manchester Airport launch almost exactly a year ago. He explained the new direct sales model and I said that I felt somewhat alienated from what he described.

I am 58 years old and perhaps considered a bit old fashioned by some or just old by others!
I said that for my generation buying a car was all about building a relationship with a dealer with haggling, banter and usually a lot of coffee and biscuits consumed in their showroom. He told me very clearly that Lotus wanted to move away from that, so all fixed price, an online relationship (whatever that means), no haggling on part exchange. I tried to tell him about people in my generation and older who have worked hard in careers or their own businesses and been fortunate enough to be successful and accumulate enough money to purchase this type of car. He said that they were not really interested in all that and the younger generation finance their cars anyway so it doesn't matter. I asked him if he wanted my £80K for a FE V6, he said that it was up to me if I wanted to buy one. I realised at this point that the buying experience was going to be dreadful, but I wanted the car, so decided to continue.

You may have read on another thread that I have purchased an Alpine A110 to tide me over until V6 autos become available. So, my deposit remains with Lotus until such time, whenever next year, I decide what to do.

Unfortunatley, I can't remember the guy's name, but he looked like he was in his 30's and was completely clueless with regards to what some people in my generation generally expect in terms of customer service and what we value in terms of building relationships.
Really sorry to read your post, I expect there are many more folk out there who will be in your situation but will not be on the forum.

 

[Cory]

If Lotus was run properly, they should be all over this, sadly it isn't and they don't seem to care.
You are 100% the person that Lotus are hoping will buy this car and I know this for a fact. I had a very interesting discussion with a senior member of the Lotus management team at the Manchester Airport launch almost exactly a year ago. He explained the new direct sales model and I said that I felt somewhat alienated from what he described.

I am 58 years old and perhaps considered a bit old fashioned by some or just old by others!
I said that for my generation buying a car was all about building a relationship with a dealer with haggling, banter and usually a lot of coffee and biscuits consumed in their showroom. He told me very clearly that Lotus wanted to move away from that, so all fixed price, an online relationship (whatever that means), no haggling on part exchange. I tried to tell him about people in my generation and older who have worked hard in careers or their own businesses and been fortunate enough to be successful and accumulate enough money to purchase this type of car. He said that they were not really interested in all that and the younger generation finance their cars anyway so it doesn't matter. I asked him if he wanted my £80K for a FE V6, he said that it was up to me if I wanted to buy one. I realised at this point that the buying experience was going to be dreadful, but I wanted the car, so decided to continue.

You may have read on another thread that I have purchased an Alpine A110 to tide me over until V6 autos become available. So, my deposit remains with Lotus until such time, whenever next year, I decide what to do.

Unfortunatley, I can't remember the guy's name, but he looked like he was in his 30's and was completely clueless with regards to what some people in my generation generally expect in terms of customer service and what we value in terms of building relationships.
Really sorry to read your post, I expect there are many more folk out there who will be in your situation but will not be on the forum.

I read an article about baby boomers, Gen X and millennials and their preferred banking experience. BB wanted to go inside and see a familiar face and chat with the cashier. Gen X want to use the ATM outside but have access to the bank teller if they have questions or need help with some other transaction. Millennials don’t even want to go to the bank and don’t understand why they can’t do everything from their smart phone. Millennials are the next largest generation so businesses will change their model or suffer in sales.

 

[SteveJ]

If Lotus was run properly, they should be all over this, sadly it isn't and they don't seem to care.
You are 100% the person that Lotus are hoping will buy this car and I know this for a fact. I had a very interesting discussion with a senior member of the Lotus management team at the Manchester Airport launch almost exactly a year ago. He explained the new direct sales model and I said that I felt somewhat alienated from what he described.

I am 58 years old and perhaps considered a bit old fashioned by some or just old by others!
I said that for my generation buying a car was all about building a relationship with a dealer with haggling, banter and usually a lot of coffee and biscuits consumed in their showroom. He told me very clearly that Lotus wanted to move away from that, so all fixed price, an online relationship (whatever that means), no haggling on part exchange. I tried to tell him about people in my generation and older who have worked hard in careers or their own businesses and been fortunate enough to be successful and accumulate enough money to purchase this type of car. He said that they were not really interested in all that and the younger generation finance their cars anyway so it doesn't matter. I asked him if he wanted my £80K for a FE V6, he said that it was up to me if I wanted to buy one. I realised at this point that the buying experience was going to be dreadful, but I wanted the car, so decided to continue.

You may have read on another thread that I have purchased an Alpine A110 to tide me over until V6 autos become available. So, my deposit remains with Lotus until such time, whenever next year, I decide what to do.

Unfortunatley, I can't remember the guy's name, but he looked like he was in his 30's and was completely clueless with regards to what some people in my generation generally expect in terms of customer service and what we value in terms of building relationships.
Really sorry to read your post, I expect there are many more folk out there who will be in your situation but will not be on the forum.

Really supportive post, thank you. I’ve been second guessing myself for the last two weeks on this.

I personally believe I’ve been looking at this through rose tinted glasses and trying to turn this into what I hoped the experience would be, rather than what it has been. The truth appears to be an arrogant company basing their offering from a position of us being lucky to be customers which I just don’t understand as being the basis for a commercial relationship.

I’ve tried so hard to keep the faith, but I cannot ignore the feeling of cheated and disrespected.

 

[JohnHoward]

I read an article about baby boomers, Gen X and millennials and their preferred banking experience. BB wanted to go inside and see a familiar face and chat with the cashier. Gen X want to use the ATM outside but have access to the bank teller if they have questions or need help with some other transaction. Millennials don’t even want to go to the bank and don’t understand why they can’t do everything from their smart phone. Millennials are the next largest generation so businesses will change their model or suffer in sales.

I remember my father saying to me that he didn't like the way everything was changing so fast. I could never understand what he was taliking about and I said to him it is progress and surely that is good. I now say to my son that I don't like the ways things are done these days and probably will say the same to my grandson when he is a bit older. I understand that it is progress and business models have to change, but I reserve my right to be a grumpy old man.

 

[SteveJ]

I remember my father saying to me that he didn't like the way everything was changing so fast. I could never understand what he was taliking about and I said to him it is progress and surely that is good. I now say to my son that I don't like the ways things are done these days and probably will say the same to my grandson when he is a bit older. I understand that it is progress and business models have to change, but I reserve my right to be a grumpy old man.

I don’t disagree that times need to change. If there is ever one constant in life, it is change; as the phrase goes.

Its the stringing us along in silence. Millennials are widely documented to have shorter attention spans than previous generations, so they wont tolerate it and just move on long before ‘us’ older folk.

 

[Leonard]

Evening everyone

I think I’m done.

Although quiet I have been an avid wall watcher of this forum and am on it multiple times everyday. I am eternally grateful to everyone, especially Tom E, for their knowledge and kindness to share with us all.

No shout out to me????
Joking aside I'm sorry you are throwing your chips in.
Ironically with that deposit date and current economic climate you may still be able to monitor the market and buy an Emira earlier than your build date off the secondary market for same price or less.
Whatever you end up with enjoy.

 

[Mctaff]

Let’s not conflate change with incompetence!

I’ve not been to a bank in years and can’t see why I’d ever want to - to me it’s a transactional relationship of a commodity service and nothing more

Buying a luxury car is wholly different.

Digital natives are going to slam this outfit on social media if the poor customer engagement continues and that will be a death spiral for onboarding new younger customers, and they’ve already alienated the older ones.

Whoever is leading marketing and comms are either too old to understand or not talking to each other. User centered what?! Design you say?…. Customer first?!…. Ummmm….

 

[Leonard]

Whoever is leading marketing and comms are either too old to understand or not talking to each other. User centered what?! Design you say?…. Customer first?!…. Ummmm….

Old Lotus for sure

 

[emiraspain]

I remember my father saying to me that he didn't like the way everything was changing so fast. I could never understand what he was taliking about and I said to him it is progress and surely that is good. I now say to my son that I don't like the ways things are done these days and probably will say the same to my grandson when he is a bit older. I understand that it is progress and business models have to change, but I reserve my right to be a grumpy old man.

As you know from yesterday, I have little respect for you now..... . Bloody praline....
I understand what you said and what you want and it does sound as if the Lotus employee was less than sympathetic, certainly not empathetic due to age differences, and even perhaps a bit pathetic...
All I would say, not being quite as old as you, but being a bit older than our friend, is that you cant have dealers up and down the country offering widely varying discounts, that leads to issues and customer dissatisfaction as you never feel like you got the best deal.
From experience, between Silverstone, and various other dealers, some who are now not dealers, for this very reason, the discounts you could get on a new lotus up until the cosmic change was anything from 0 up to about 10 %. The dealers also didnt like this as they were cutting their own margins in this bidding war.
Porsche, in the UK at least, do not give discounts on any new car, unless it is disguised as something else, but if you got 1k off a new car you did well. Porsche central controls this and they would be out on their ear if they did what some Lotus dealers did and this is partly why Lotus have moved away from their previous model.
I agree its nice to go in and have a chat though. Im not a big coffee drinker, but a few nice biscuits and I am anybody's......
So ultimately I can see both sides. I think Lotus are going in the correct direction, but the road surface they are putting down is full of pot holes of their own making and there is little excuse for them not having filled them in by now. However, I think the smooth surface is a few years away.... if ever.... as the final end game will always be a lot colder than the dealer approach. Eventually, the buying experience will become a thing again and it will change once more..... as the experience will be almost as important as the car.