Factory Tour Thread

[Cachaco131]

Darn it. I'll be in London on a Friday and factory tours only run M-Th! Ugh.

Other than car watching in London , any ideas of good diecast / collectible shops or auto art in London?

 

[FrenchBred]

Darn it. I'll be in London on a Friday and factory tours only run M-Th! Ugh.

Other than car watching in London , any ideas of good diecast / collectible shops or auto art in London?

Didn't the lotus dealership only just open in Mayfair...

 

[Cachaco131]

Didn't the lotus dealership only just open in Mayfair...

Seems like it will open in the fall

Lotus Mayfair: landmark London location for first ever global store and digital showroom - Lotus Cars Media Site

media.lotuscars.com

 

[FrenchBred]

Seems like it will open in the fall

Lotus Mayfair: landmark London location for first ever global store and digital showroom - Lotus Cars Media Site

media.lotuscars.com

Ah I feel less upset about missing it when I was there last month now then

 

[CraigO]

I was there for a tour yesterday afternoon and I must say, I was hugely impressed. I cant really add a huge amount to the already really great feedback from the earlier posts, but just to mention Nick, the host was brilliant and extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Quality seems to have been the word of the day, and the Emira is certainly built to a whole new level compared to previous models. I was also surprised by the number of i4 engines waiting in production to go into subframes. I counted 18 or so all lined up, but only 4 or 5 V6's. Most likely a phasing thing, as the cars in the full production hall were all V6's. All in all a great afternoon.

 

[Citizen]

I was there for a tour yesterday afternoon and I must say, I was hugely impressed. I cant really add a huge amount to the already really great feedback from the earlier posts, but just to mention Nick, the host was brilliant and extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Quality seems to have been the word of the day, and the Emira is certainly built to a whole new level compared to previous models. I was also surprised by the number of i4 engines waiting in production to go into subframes. I counted 18 or so all lined up, but only 4 or 5 V6's. Most likely a phasing thing, as the cars in the full production hall were all V6's. All in all a great afternoon.

How was the colors in live? what about nimbus ?

 

[Billyidoliser]

How was the colors in live? what about nimbus ?

I saw Nimbus with full black pack last week, looked fantastic nearly changed my config!

 

[Citizen]

I saw Nimbus with full black pack last week, looked fantastic nearly changed my config!

Thanks Billy! With silver or black wheels?

Asking about silver to see if match with nimbus or not

 

[Kentviking]

Seems like it will open in the fall

Lotus Mayfair: landmark London location for first ever global store and digital showroom - Lotus Cars Media Site

media.lotuscars.com

Nice...on the corner just a few tens of yards from Bugatti, Rolls Royce and Stratstones Land/Range Rover (or along Piccadilly from the more questionable MG store)...and I can go visit every time I trek into our London office to see what historical beauty they have on show.

 

[emiraspain]

Its so strange to see some people coming from the factory who give hope of builds starting in June and others who really dont see it, although I understand both sides.
What I dont understand is that next week is June and any factory providing the parts for the builds that are missing know if they have them or will have them or in some cases should already have shipped them *these things dont generally arrive by plane! I appreciate in some cases the factories dont know, but if you are in China and its June (almost) and you dont know, ie you have not got the bits yourself to manufacture, then as Lotus, you yourselves DO know that you wont be getting cars out in July, apart from to Harry and a few others high up the line if you chose to do that.
My point is, Lotus must now know with a high degree of certainly if they can start production in the first half of June and if they cant, then we are looking at August realistically OR worse.... And from my point of view, bad news is always best served early.. .not late.
Im now seriously in my head imagining an August delivery and not July at all. As has been stated, sales is apart from Production and in my experience sales are working from home, at least the ones Ive spoke to have been and hence even more removed from the site... so I dont trust too much any "the information we have is your previous communication is correct"... as they simply haven't been given any more info than we have, I guess.
Anyway, thats my annoyance for the day, but I will be much more annoyed if the delay ends up being September, even though I understand it.......

 

[Billyidoliser]

Thanks Billy! With silver or black wheels?

Asking about silver to see if match with nimbus or not

Black wheels, really did look special and sort of menacing....caught the light really well to create a range of shades, a great choice for those that have configured this colour and worked well with the black pack that I have omitted from my Magma spec.

 

[roundincircles]

Its so strange to see some people coming from the factory who give hope of builds starting in June and others who really dont see it, although I understand both sides.
What I dont understand is that next week is June and any factory providing the parts for the builds that are missing know if they have them or will have them or in some cases should already have shipped them *these things dont generally arrive by plane! I appreciate in some cases the factories dont know, but if you are in China and its June (almost) and you dont know, ie you have not got the bits yourself to manufacture, then as Lotus, you yourselves DO know that you wont be getting cars out in July, apart from to Harry and a few others high up the line if you chose to do that.
My point is, Lotus must now know with a high degree of certainly if they can start production in the first half of June and if they cant, then we are looking at August realistically OR worse.... And from my point of view, bad news is always best served early.. .not late.
Im now seriously in my head imagining an August delivery and not July at all. As has been stated, sales is apart from Production and in my experience sales are working from home, at least the ones Ive spoke to have been and hence even more removed from the site... so I dont trust too much any "the information we have is your previous communication is correct"... as they simply haven't been given any more info than we have, I guess.
Anyway, thats my annoyance for the day, but I will be much more annoyed if the delay ends up being September, even though I understand it.......

It's easy to underestimate the complexity of syncing 3000 parts at the start of new build.....all within spec. Especially with covid lockdowns, wars and material shortages. But I know nothing.

 

[CraigO]

How was the colors in live? what about nimbus ?

The colors all looked great. Far better in reality than in pictures. Nimbus is one of my favorites too. Not a simple grey at all with hints of copper in there too. Very nice.

 

[emiraspain]

It's easy to underestimate the complexity of syncing 3000 parts at the start of new build.....all within spec. Especially with covid lockdowns, wars and material shortages. But I know nothing.

thats not my point though, I know its VERY tough, although the systems are set up for this and the logistics staff are trained do do their jobs, just as you or I are. My point is, if I am painting my living room and I am going to go to buy the paint in BnQ today, I know I can probably get it done by tomorrow, IF they have the paint..brushes...etc.
However, if BnQ tell me they dont have them and wont have them until at least "a few more days", and they are the ones who know, I dont, then I know I cant do it until they tell me they have them and so I at least DO know I cant get it done today or tomorrow, so I can let me 3 wives know it wont happen until at least next week.....

Hence, I just wish if it wasnt going to get built in June, they would now tell us...rather than keep us hanging on... and the knock on effect again for all others of course.
At the same time, the waiting is often the best bit After a week or two of owning the car, not many of us will be quite as excited if we are honest. At the end of the day, they have not invented the wheel.... its a good looking car that will get beaten by an M2 .... But we can say we are lotus drivers, and not BMW drivers, thats worth something.. hah

 

[emiraspain]

It's easy to underestimate the complexity of syncing 3000 parts at the start of new build.....all within spec. Especially with covid lockdowns, wars and material shortages. But I know nothing.

in any case, ignore me, im just bored.. and a bit negative that we will hear anything positive in the next 14 days...

 

[Bradw]

in any case, ignore me, im just bored.. and a bit negative that we will hear anything positive in the next 14 days...

From the call I just got from them like most recently it seems they are aiming to achieve the delivery time frames they have recently emailed to all which is good news. Even if they do not start production in the next few weeks and are a few weeks behind that time then they must be upping production to meet these delivery dates

 

[emiraspain]

From the call I just got from them like most recently it seems they are aiming to achieve the delivery time frames they have recently emailed to all which is good news. Even if they do not start production in the next few weeks and are a few weeks behind that time then they must be upping production to meet these delivery dates

thats what they said to me, but again, I spoke to someone with a baby crying in the background from home, who I dont necessarily think has the latest info on production...
fingers crossed

 

[roundincircles]

in any case, ignore me, im just bored.. and a bit negative that we will hear anything positive in the next 14 days...

Well the pre production cars will have proven the tooling and other assembly issues.....and that's a big step.....so its now about incoming supplies arriving just in time,lol.

 

[GetawayDriving]

in any case, ignore me, im just bored.. and a bit negative that we will hear anything positive in the next 14 days...

We will definitely hear something positive in the next 14 days because the review embargo lifts in 12 days

 

[digilotus]

We will definitely hear something positive in the next 14 days because the review embargo lifts in 12 days

That will be exactly 3 months after the prior media embargo was lifted (Monday 8th March).

And three months after Monday 7th June (Monday 6th September), the Emira configurator will have Base Edition options in it. See a pattern here?