I went back to watch it since it's been a long time. Some nice things to say about looks, pricing, engine sound, and steering. The downsides were aging drivetrain, gear shift and front end grip. I think quite a few other reviews both from the press and test drives here touched on the same things and I don't feel like those are being vilified ...

, but maybe y'all are right and Lotus wants reviews with _only_ high praise.
Alright, I went back and re-watched it too. He
does indeed say a lot of positive things in the video, you're right. Funny that I didn't remember that, though; I only remembered his "so frustrating" verdict.
But after watching it again, I still don't understand how he arrives at that final verdict. Quoting him, throughout the video he says:
- "the whole drivetrain is basically the same as an Evora"
- "it's such a big step on from the Evora. [...] The feeling is so much better, the quality feels better"
- "For the money — for the first time ever — a Lotus feels like a bargain"
So then why is it "so frustrating"? If you liked the Evora (maybe he didn't), then the Emira should be even better, no?
Maybe his expectations were set too high. Even at the start of the video, he seems to be putting a lot of pressure on Lotus and this car:
- "a new dawn for Lotus, for which we need to make no excuses, no apologies"
- "Lotus HAS to deliver"
So basically, anything short of being an atom-for-atom clone of the Porsche Cayman was always going to disappoint him. And that puzzles me, because at the time that this review was filmed, the entire world already
knew that Lotus did
NOT spend millions of dollars developing a brand new gearbox and engine just for the Emira, and we all understood (well, not Jethro, apparently) that we were going to get basically the same drivetrain as the Evora, and that logically it would perform about the same as the Evora. This was not some big reveal or deception on Lotus' part. So then why the shock from Jethro that Lotus "didn't fix these parts" (my wording) in the Emira? Nobody (again, except for Jethro) was expecting that they would, so I'm not sure where the miscommunication happened at EVO...