Anyone received their 30 day notification yet?

[SteveJ]

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.

Haha, I was trying to come up with something for your contributions, but couldnt come up with anything witty! They have definitely kept me smiling throughout, so thankyou!

Am prob going back to familiar territory being the used car market. Off to see a prancing horse on Tuesday

 

[Lotustoronto]

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.

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.

Being younger than both you old guys, I completely understand where Lotus is going with the sale model. I fully agree it is the right choice. Any marquee that stays with the current sales model will quickly be surpassed by the ones that evolve quicker. Millennials and future generations will have no problem buying a car on their phone while having lunch at a cafe. I explained this to a friend of mine the other day as such;

When I was in university and needed to write an essay on a topic this is what would happen
1. Get dressed
2. Drive/Bus/Walk to the library
3. Go through the catalogue system to find the required reading material
4. Hopefully the book wasn't checked out - if so I would have to go to a different library or find alternate sources
5. Read / research and write the essay.


Today - roll out of bed, make a coffee in my pyjamas, turn on the laptop and google the subject, and write the essay.(not exactly but you get the picture)

The archaic dealer network causes many more issues for the customer than solves. Don't get me wrong, do I enjoy the process and chatting with the people at the dealer and making relationships. Yes, I do. But that is because I went to the library as a young person. The buyers of today/tomorrow could care less about building those types of relationships and more importantly the new employees at the dealership have no idea on how to curate those relationships either. Socially it is worse. Economically and financially it is far better.

On the other side, I recognize that luxury brands i.e. rolls Royce etc. will always maintain the relationship aspect of doing business. It is important too few, but not the masses. It is unfortunate, but the relationships you talk about will soon become a luxury item for the very few.

 

[Leonard]

Haha, I was trying to come up with something for your contributions, but couldnt come up with anything witty! They have definitely kept me smiling throughout, so thankyou!

Am prob going back to familiar territory being the used car market. Off to see a prancing horse on Tuesday

Nice, doesn't sound like you will be slumming it

 

[Mctaff]

Being younger than both you old guys, I completely understand where Lotus is going with the sale model. I fully agree it is the right choice. Any marquee that stays with the current sales model will quickly be surpassed by the ones that evolve quicker. Millennials and future generations will have no problem buying a car on their phone while having lunch at a cafe. I explained this to a friend of mine the other day as such;

When I was in university and needed to write an essay on a topic this is what would happen
1. Get dressed
2. Drive/Bus/Walk to the library
3. Go through the catalogue system to find the required reading material
4. Hopefully the book wasn't checked out - if so I would have to go to a different library or find alternate sources
5. Read / research and write the essay.


Today - roll out of bed, make a coffee in my pyjamas, turn on the laptop and google the subject, and write the essay.(not exactly but you get the picture)

The archaic dealer network causes many more issues for the customer than solves. Don't get me wrong, do I enjoy the process and chatting with the people at the dealer and making relationships. Yes, I do. But that is because I went to the library as a young person. The buyers of today/tomorrow could care less about building those types of relationships and more importantly the new employees at the dealership have no idea on how to curate those relationships either. Socially it is worse. Economically and financially it is far better.

On the other side, I recognize that luxury brands i.e. rolls Royce etc. will always maintain the relationship aspect of doing business. It is important too few, but not the masses. It is unfortunate, but the relationships you talk about will soon become a luxury item for the very few.

Agree… but an 80k car is a luxury item that 99.999%+ of the world can only dream of.

I’m not buying a mini whilst on the loo…

 

[SteveJ]

Nice, doesn't sound like you will be slumming it

Grumpy purchases are never a good idea

 

[JohnHoward]

Today - roll out of bed, make a coffee in my pyjamas, turn on the laptop and google the subject, and write the essay.(not exactly but you get the picture)

You reminded me of something that makes me think I am not as behind the curve as I perhaps think. In 1999 I was the first person at York University to write a Masters dissertation without setting foot in a library. My entire research was done online and my bibliography was a huge list of URL's. Looking back that was probably a significant achievement as the internet was unrecognisable from then to now. But at the time, with a busy job and a young family, it was the only way I could get it done.

 

[Cory]

Interestingly (or not) I bought a luxury watch online this week.
I then went into a watch store on a whim the day after and the experience was noticeably night and day. The additional feel good factor of going into store was tangible. Without the 'experience' human interaction from fellow enthusiasts and perceived alignment of values to the brand, the buying of luxury goods will just become the same as going out to buy a loaf of bread....
No customer experience. No luxury brand.

My experience with dealers have universally been negative. They want to sell you what they have, not what you want. It’s high pressure to buy something, anything now. I much prefer building cars online to my preference and watching YouTube reviews. I see the human interaction as a negative. I’m 41 so on the leading edge of millennials.

 

[Leonard]

My experience with dealers have universally been negative. They want to sell you what they have, not what you want. It’s high pressure to buy something, anything now. I much prefer building cars online to my preference and watching YouTube reviews. I see the human interaction as a negative. I’m 41 so on the leading edge of millennials.

I'm 48 so seen it all. Shame that has been your general experience tho.
Its not the exception to the rule but as I've been lucky enough to get into nicer and nicer cars that luxury experience has always followed (up until the New Lotus experience unfortunately)
This experience is very Telsa without the reassurance. It hasn't even been close to my recent Toyota experience which was very basic but reliable.
The trouble with Millennials is the willingness to forego human interaction in the purchase experience for convenience and instant gratification. There is of course an element of not knowing how to talk and negotiate with other people also (which is part of the fun of a purchase, or was...)
Anyway moving on, don't want to sound old before my time.....

 

[Tonyshepp]

You reminded me of something that makes me think I am not as behind the curve as I perhaps think. In 1999 I was the first person at York University to write a Masters dissertation without setting foot in a library. My entire research was done online and my bibliography was a huge list of URL's. Looking back that was probably a significant achievement as the internet was unrecognisable from then to now. But at the time, with a busy job and a young family, it was the only way I could get it done.

Janet??

I can’t see Porsche and BMW moving to a direct model. I don’t think it suits Lotus either. It suits brands that want no customer interaction.

 

[Stealth_Yellow]

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

Thank you. It does feel very special. The engine and gearbox is perfect, and that noise! I thought my exige was loud! I’m looking forward to some fantastic drives ahead. I think I’ll just pop into the garage and sit in it for a few minutes.

 

[EspritGuy]

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.

All well and good I suppose, until it comes to service and repairs. Digital relationships don't compare with car club comeraderie. Social interaction is almost a lost art.
In one word, engagement.

 

[Leonard]

Janet??

I can’t see Porsche and BMW moving to a direct model. I don’t think it suits Lotus either. It suits brands that want no customer interaction.

Lotus want to be the Sporty Tesla. Or should I say Polestar +
There will never be that interaction.
Ironic giving they had that dealership model in place and chose to get rid of it before implementing any kind of D2C customer experience.
They have a lot of catching up to do and fast. Otherwise scorned dealers will soon get fed up of covering for their incompetence and then it's a falling house of cards from then on

 

[lion shf]

I'm 48 so seen it all. Shame that has been your general experience tho.
Its not the exception to the rule but as I've been lucky enough to get into nicer and nicer cars that luxury experience has always followed (up until the New Lotus experience unfortunately)
This experience is very Telsa without the reassurance. It hasn't even been close to my recent Toyota experience which was very basic but reliable.
The trouble with Millennials is the willingness to forego human interaction in the purchase experience for convenience and instant gratification. There is of course an element of not knowing how to talk and negotiate with other people also (which is part of the fun of a purchase, or was...)
Anyway moving on, don't want to sound old before my time.....

I pegged you for 65

 

[Magma]

I pegged you for 65

younger than I expected as well! Just 3 years ahead of me.

 

[Leonard]

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.

A fair example. But banks are far from a luxury experience. Stressful yes, fun no....
I've banked with First Direct for over 10 years and the experience is second to none, not just for a bank but for ANY company in any sector. If I don't want interaction I can do 99% of transactions myself. However if I want help there is someone in the UK 24/7 to assist and first person you speak to can solve yourbissue 90% of the time. Plus they keep me informed and are constantly ahead of the curve with security, innovation and offers.
I'd happily have the same experience from my car dealer. That isn't what we are getting here though.....

 

[Leonard]

I pegged you for 65

I'm a VERY YOUNG 48 more so than @emiraspain to be sure

 

[lion shf]

I still get in pits at soon 59 beat that

 

[Leonard]

I still get in pits at soon 59 beat that

I'm so young I don't even know what that means

 

[lion shf]

Saw these cats at Heaven London a few years ago
Witness :

 

[BeHappy]

Thank you. It does feel very special. The engine and gearbox is perfect, and that noise! I thought my exige was loud! I’m looking forward to some fantastic drives ahead. I think I’ll just pop into the garage and sit in it for a few minutes.

That doesn’t stop in a year in two in three you’ll still find yourself wondering into the garage to admire her and of course % the long look back every time you park her up and walk away. That roar is addictive - Super car ! keep us informed how you find her ……. I used to think how lucky am I owning such a dream car
Only one problem you can’t ride her how she wants to else you literally wouldn’t have a licence