Being held to ransom with my own car

[Pegasi]

I will probably get pounced for this but isn't buying a car like this "hope for the best but be prepared for the worst."?

First off all lemon laws and defects impact all cars and all brands. Everyone on this forum has a story or knows someone who went through a nightmare with a new car or service experience. I had the CV joints changes on my 2006 Honda Civic Si and when I left the dealership I could only go straight and turn left, the car would not turn right! They forget to connect something! I am talking Honda here. I had a myriad of other issues with the Honda and the dealership to the point that I will never buy another Honda. Ok, some of that has to do with not wanting another front wheel drive car.

So to me a part this process is hoping for the best and if you have problems with an exotic car... Yes, I consider Lotus an exotic. They only make a few thousand cars a year and they are high performance. That equals exotic to me. Their parts, service, and dealer network will not be consistent. It doesn't matter if the car is 50K or 100K, it is what it is. So if you buy an exotic car there is a risk. However, until Lotus releases (they never will) the totality of issues I am not gonna speculate on how well the car is or isn't doing. Further more as @Porter stated there is a difference between inital bugs and long term reliablity. We don't know the long term reliability yet.

So when I get my DV or Vivid Emira and break down on the road and come here and rant, somebody please come and through this post back in my face.

 

[SteveB]

My invoice was 685, so maybe around 700 delivered now?

My invoice number is 701 - collect from Hethel Monday! (1st deposit 8th Sept 2021). Really hoping initial teething problems have been sorted now. I’m a little surprised so few have been sold/delivered given the number produced. Does the invoice number just reflect direct UK sales?

 

[TomE]

Yes, invoice number reflects UK sold cars.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

My invoice number is 701 - collect from Hethel Monday! (1st deposit 8th Sept 2021). Really hoping initial teething problems have been sorted now. I’m a little surprised so few have been sold/delivered given the number produced. Does the invoice number just reflect direct UK sales?

Almost certainly UK only. Lotus is very unlikely to run their wholesale invoices to Europe, Australia, etc through the same numbering system as their retail invoices in the UK.

 

[Toomanyloti]

Don’t forget most people come to forums to discuss problems most of the times. And if I recall correctly an owner said he was invoice no. ~520 some weeks ago (but idk if they started to count from 0).

it was me and yes Sam said thats the UK supplied number, I think built March time this year?

I dropped my daughter at her Prom last night and left it idling for a while. Moving off it went into restricted revs/limp so I parked up turned off had a chat with a mate (doing same drop off) and it fired up and was fine 10 mins later.

I have the fuel level sensor to sort on Emira and the 18month old Taycan has 3 issues to solve. Taking it back to the stealer is least preferred than putting up with the problems. Thats £200k of new cars.....

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Long time lurker but the the fact your from Rugby and using Rybrook prompted me to reply.

Have been a long time Lotus owner but issues with my Exige and absolutely awful customer service, even after telling them I was looking at buying an Emira turned me away and I ended up picking up a Mac.

Rybrook are great and your car is in good hands from my experience. I dropped my car in for an aircon issue recently and one of the guys was telling me what a nightmare Lotus are to deal with. Dealing with Lotus Silverstone before with the Exige this was also apparent. From what both dealers have said they are kind of at the mercy of head office with everything having to go back to them and be approved. They are not allowed to just remedy things themselves anymore and you are now buying cars directly from Lotus with the dealerships just acting as storefronts.

I really want this company to thrive and grow. While there are teething issues with the cars the main issue is with their customer service.

I agree,Rybrook are great.
Silverstone were just rude and obnoxious hence why I changed to Rybrook.

It's HQ and CS that are the issue here

 

[Kentviking]

Sorry to read these posts. I agree that the rants on here, as valid as they are, may not be representative of the total universe of experience. I have only had one or two very minor niggles with my car, have never had to take it back to the dealer. done 3,000 miles in it and enjoyed every one. We are out there, we just don't come back on the forums quite as often as there is nothing meaningful to report.

 

[FlashingBlade]

Almost 50% of the cars on autotrader ( exc demo’s ) have mileage on them some owners are quickly coming out of these cars - obviously reasons will be varied - but yes noticed the HY car that lets says has “character” straight away with its distinctive spec

My brother said it looks like a trip to McDonald's on acid.

 

[brightoncorgi]

They should extend your warranty for the weeks it was down.

 

[Waggers]

Sorry to read these posts. I agree that the rants on here, as valid as they are, may not be representative of the total universe of experience. I have only had one or two very minor niggles with my car, have never had to take it back to the dealer. done 3,000 miles in it and enjoyed every one. We are out there, we just don't come back on the forums quite as often as there is nothing meaningful to report.

Me also (and this will jinx it) car running perfectly. A couple of the reported software issues (e.g. wipers) but no other issues and the car is truly brilliant. Only 1,500m in my case though, so everything remains crossed.

 

[Jimblob]

This is a valid argument.

Does anyone have estimated delivery numbers in the UK and elsewhere to-date of the Emira? Just to throw out some ballpark/wild guess numbers, If they are producing ~20 cars per day for the last ~6 months, that's around 3,600 Emiras produced.

Now Let's just say they have only delivered roughly half that number (2,000 for arguments' sake). If there are 20 people on the forum ranting about their horrible experience, that leaves 1,980 people out there either suffering in silence or thoroughly loving their car. I would hazard a guess that the 'suffering in silence' people are few in number and maybe account for the ~30-40 Emira listings online. Still, that's a very small minority (call it 50-60 failures/angry customers out of 2,000 deliveries or about 2-3% of deliveries).

Again, I'm surmising pretty much all of the numbers above but trying to make the point that we shouldn't necessarily make too many assumptions about ALL Emiras based solely on what we hear on this forum. Also, I'm not trying to belittle the agony of those who have had a bad experience, just trying to keep things in perspective, for my own benefit if nothing else

There are definitely plenty of happy/lucky owners of which I am one… I’ve had a few minor bits which will get done with the first service (due September this year) but the car has been brilliant - it hasn’t been off the road once since my December delivery day.

3,800 happy miles and rising.

 

[Kimmax]

Me also (and this will jinx it) car running perfectly. A couple of the reported software issues (e.g. wipers) but no other issues and the car is truly brilliant. Only 1,500m in my case though, so everything remains crossed.

Side note: It’s confirmed wipers can’t be fixed via software update, contact your dealer and schedule a replacement for the motors. It’s gonna be a while, as far as I know those are on backorder (of course, how could it be different).

 

[Waggers]

Side note: It’s confirmed wipers can’t be fixed via software update, contact your dealer and schedule a replacement for the motors. It’s gonna be a while, as far as I know those are on backorder (of course, how could it be different).

It’s really not an issue, affecting enjoyment of the car. Wipers work, that’s enough. Thank you for the information.

 

[Waggers]

It’s really not an issue, affecting enjoyment of the car. Wipers work, that’s enough. Thank you for the information.

Although Scott Walker did message me today saying there would be an update to fix the issue