Dealer Demo cars in Europe and UK

[Tonyshepp]

Not for the 1st time this all seems quite strange.
No UK dealers as of yet have finished cars, since B&C cars were not actually ready and have presumably been taken away. Other dealers, without looking at the spreadsheet/thread, are looking at 3rd week of October. Surely all dealers should get their cars before customers get their cars...RHD I refer to.
I always said I thought the Sept 9 / 13 whatever, would probably not get their cars in October, although I hope they do, but I think Lotus have simply made so many mistakes, them going back on their promises to these guys is not going to worry them one bit and it seems like they have already started to do so.
These guys dont deserve out business I have to say ...... they really dont.
There is no way the Boss, MW, cant know these details.... random test drives for anyone who wants them, 18 year olds off the street, all before customers dying to get a drive to decide if they spend the 80 odd thousand or not.
I've driven the damn car and I have to say Im starting to think its all a bit too much hassle....... this is not the next Messiah, this is not the first MX5, the first Mini, Jeep or 2CV, this is a decent car which looks good... but the looks are starting to wear thin on me.
Wont say more .... If no email this month, I doubt I will continue this charade..... There are other companies that do deserve our money and if not, there are lots of drugs and sex to be had with it instead....

80k used to buy a lot of that, sadly not now with inflation and cost of living. Perhaps 2 hours with Sandra and some aspirin!

 

[emiraspain]

80k used to buy a lot of that, sadly not now with inflation and cost of living. Perhaps 2 hours with Sandra and some aspirin!

I'd want sandra, casandra, alexandra and all their sisters for a month for that...... haha

 

[TomE]

This just gets crazier the more I read! so does anyone know how this 3 date idea works for those of us like me who are doing part exchange as part of the process? As despite asking still have no idea how part-ex will be handled, will it be done at same time as I collect new car or a few days / week before? who handles it? things like this need to be known / planned as obviously going to have a period potentially without a car I need to plan for.....

From what I’ve heard so far, PX won’t be organised around what helps customers. It will be geared around what’s easiest for Lotus and BCA, who are handling the pricing, collection and sale of PX cars.

For people going for dealer delivery (I know you’re not), the dealers aren’t even able to make an offer on the car or take it as PX into their stock. But they can bid on cars BCA have taken as PX.

So I could put my Evora in for PX, B&C can’t buy it from me, BCA give me a price and take it away (from B&C when I collect my Emira), then BCA advertise it, B&C offer on it and it gets delivered back to B&C for their used stock.

It’s probably easier to agree a sale direct with your dealer, particularly if it’s a Lotus or one of their other brands. But then you’ve probably got a cashflow timing problem.

 

[donskibeat]

From what I’ve heard so far, PX won’t be organised around what helps customers. It will be geared around what’s easiest for Lotus and BCA, who are handling the pricing, collection and sale of PX cars.

For people going for dealer delivery (I know you’re not), the dealers aren’t even able to make an offer on the car or take it as PX into their stock. But they can bid on cars BCA have taken as PX.

So I could put my Evora in for PX, B&C can’t buy it from me, BCA give me a price and take it away (from B&C when I collect my Emira), then BCA advertise it, B&C offer on it and it gets delivered back to B&C for their used stock.

It’s probably easier to agree a sale direct with your dealer, particularly if it’s a Lotus or one of their other brands. But then you’ve probably got a cashflow timing problem.

Thanks Tom, sounds like this is just going to add another degree of stress and hassle to the process for me which I really don't need to be honest.

I did try contacting my local Audi dealer to see if the were interested in buying the TTS previously but they couldn't even be bothered to respond let alone show much interest so not much hope with that route either.

All of this was so much easier when dealing direct with a dealer, so much for this new "model" making things better....

 

[andyss]

I hope this website and test drive invite is in deposit order ar least

I was told by someone from Lotus HQ who was down at the B&C event recently that the test drive invites were going to be a free-for-all, with no prioritisation at all. I pressed him on this and he confirmed it. But then, he also said the invites were going out on Fri 7th Oct ...

 

[BeHappy]

Hi received this yesterday which says they are still in discussion of how we are to book them - Seriously do CS just tell us any old BS or is it P P planning ??? I am hanging on by a thread till demo ride oh man if only I had knew this was gonna be the journey of trying to get a new car I would of swerved Lotus completely and saved myself a lot of disappointment and frustration

 

[1500 GT]

Hi received this yesterday which says they are still in discussion of how we are to book them - Seriously do CS just tell us any old BS or is it P P planning ??? I am hanging on by a thread till demo ride oh man if only I had knew this was gonna be the journey of trying to get a new car I would of swerved Lotus completely and saved myself a lot of disappointment and frustration

I emailed Oakmere / Christopher Neil yesterday for an update and Simon replied almost immediately with the following:-

I’m just awaiting for confirmation as to when our demo car will arrive. I’m hoping it will be in the next 2 weeks or so.
Once the car arrives, Lotus will be emailing all deposit holders with a link to book your test drive on line. The test drives will be from our Lotus Prestbury showroom.
Make sure you book as soon as you get the link emailed at test drives will be on a first come first served basis.

Nice bit of preferential treatment from Lotus for people who deposited over 16 months ago!

 

[Leonard]

I emailed Oakmere / Christopher Neil yesterday for an update and Simon replied almost immediately with the following:-

I’m just awaiting for confirmation as to when our demo car will arrive. I’m hoping it will be in the next 2 weeks or so.
Once the car arrives, Lotus will be emailing all deposit holders with a link to book your test drive on line. The test drives will be from our Lotus Prestbury showroom.
Make sure you book as soon as you get the link emailed at test drives will be on a first come first served basis.

Nice bit of preferential treatment from Lotus for people who deposited over 16 months ago!

If true this is just a joke at this point

 

[JohnHoward]

I emailed Oakmere / Christopher Neil yesterday for an update and Simon replied almost immediately with the following:-

I’m just awaiting for confirmation as to when our demo car will arrive. I’m hoping it will be in the next 2 weeks or so.
Once the car arrives, Lotus will be emailing all deposit holders with a link to book your test drive on line. The test drives will be from our Lotus Prestbury showroom.
Make sure you book as soon as you get the link emailed at test drives will be on a first come first served basis.

Nice bit of preferential treatment from Lotus for people who deposited over 16 months ago!

I spoke to Simon on Monday this week about the same, I was actually phoning about service plans, but got on to the topic of demo vehicles. He told me the same info, but he also said that Lotus will only be direct booking slots 3 days per week, so the other days will be down to Oakmere to allocate. They have a list of deposit holders in excess of 250, so they are going to be extremely busy, but hopefully they will have the good sense to try and allocate the slots they control to those with October/earlier builds.
I've always found Oakmere super helpful in my past dealings with them and I am sure they will do all they can to accomodate everyone.
The people of the little village of Prestbury will no doubt be delighted when they have the demo car tearing up the local roads everyday.

 

[TomE]

I emailed Oakmere / Christopher Neil yesterday for an update and Simon replied almost immediately with the following:-

I’m just awaiting for confirmation as to when our demo car will arrive. I’m hoping it will be in the next 2 weeks or so.
Once the car arrives, Lotus will be emailing all deposit holders with a link to book your test drive on line. The test drives will be from our Lotus Prestbury showroom.
Make sure you book as soon as you get the link emailed at test drives will be on a first come first served basis.

Nice bit of preferential treatment from Lotus for people who deposited over 16 months ago!

The shambles continues. Not just an odd way of doing it but also totally different to what was previously promised.

 

[JohnHoward]

The shambles continues. Not just an odd way of doing it but also totally different to what was previously promised.

I wonder if the 3 day a week Lotus booking (see my post above #509) will apply across the country?
Do you know how many deposit holders Bell & Colville have in their catchment?

 

[BeHappy]

The shambles continues. Not just an odd way of doing it but also totally different to what was previously promised.

Tom this is what I received yesterday

“HQ are still in conversations on how customers will be able to book viewings and test drives. We are due to be updated on this next week. “

Can’t believe these things are not sorted and in place by now - let’s face it they’ve had plenty of time ……
gives us no confidence that it will be handled in correct order so people can demo before going ahead with final commitment

 

[Mistral]

The shambles continues. Not just an odd way of doing it but also totally different to what was previously promised.

Indeed. I'm also hearing stories about Lotus being unable to supply parts for the late model E cars too. It doesn't bode well for the Emira.

 

[JohnHoward]

Tom this is what I received yesterday

“HQ are still in conversations on how customers will be able to book viewings and test drives. We are due to be updated on this next week. “

Can’t believe these things are not sorted and in place by now - let’s face it they’ve had plenty of time ……
gives us no confidence that it will be handled in correct order so people can demo before going ahead with final commitment

So they are only going to give folk a week's notice, if the demo cars do indeed arrive in couple of weeks. I am very fortunate in that I am retired and don't have any commitments apart from grandparent duties with the school run twice a week, so I can really pick and choose when and what I do. But, if I turn the clock back (quite a long way!) to my working days, planning in leisure activites was always very tricky. I would imagine that this is the case for the majority of people on here and they simply can't drop everything to be at the beck and call of Lotus.
It really demonstrates to me how out of touch and distanced Lotus are from their customers. Whoever is leading these discussions should be thinking 'How do we put the customer first', but to me they simply do not have a clue, they seem to continually fail basic tasks. It is a great shame, this is a chance for Lotus to build a fantastic brand, but they are letting the opportunity slip between their fingers.

 

[TomE]

I wonder if the 3 day a week Lotus booking (see my post above #509) will apply across the country?
Do you know how many deposit holders Bell & Colville have in their catchment?

I don't know the numbers but in the past they've sold the largest annual volume of any UK dealer. They had the largest single group of pre-reveal deposits and they have a waiting list of people who haven't placed deposits but want to do a test drive that's into the 100s.

So I expect they've got a lot of deposit holders and there will be a stampede to book test drives. I can foresee people not being able to get a test drive before their checkout window expires. Based on what I've been told that will result in people being dropped down the build list into 2023.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I can foresee people not being able to get a test drive before their checkout window expires.

I believe this is the whole point of them delaying.

 

[Magicman]

I don't know the numbers but in the past they've sold the largest annual volume of any UK dealer. They had the largest single group of pre-reveal deposits and they have a waiting list of people who haven't placed deposits but want to do a test drive that's into the 100s.

So I expect they've got a lot of deposit holders and there will be a stampede to book test drives. I can foresee people not being able to get a test drive before their checkout window expires. Based on what I've been told that will result in people being dropped down the build list into 2023.

I think realistically most of us first 500 will be 2023 now anyway.

 

[TomE]

It’s looking that way

 

[freefall_junkie]

If I remember correctly, someone (@TomE ?) previously posted that the UK showroom and demo cars may be swapped around so it will be the showroom spec cars we get to drive (to do with type approval?). Anyone happen to know if this is the case? I'm keen to drive the car on sports suspension which was my local dealer's demo spec originally.

 

[TomE]

That was me and yes it’s correct, confirmed to me by several dealers and Lotus HQ.

Some dealers are getting different cars to what they specified. Most are getting their showroom car spec delivered first as their driving demo.

Their demo spec car will follow some time (months?) later and will be the showroom car. They will return the first car to Lotus after about 6 months or 7,000 miles and then use the second car for demos.