Hi all, first post here as not yet in an Emira but really want to be…

[Man.v.Cars]

You’re running out of things to fall off / break why not keep it

I know, it seems crazy but its just taken its toll and I'm now just wanting rid. Just how I feel at the moment.

 

[911toEmira]

I know, it seems crazy but its just taken its toll and I'm now just wanting rid. Just how I feel at the moment.

Completely understandable !

 

[cwfg]

Unlike everyone on here, I didn't buy/lease my car, I won it via 7 Day Performance last April. It belonged to Mark McCann (check out his YouTube channel) who bought it from Tom Hartley cars and then sold it to 7 Days Performance.

It had 24 miles on the clock when I picked it up last April, I added 250 picking it up and getting it home. I've done a further 200 miles ish back and forth to the dealers with issues, it's now on 1060 miles. I've estimated that in the 10 1/2 months of owning it its spent 5 months at the dealers and another 2/3 months sat in my drive waiting for parts (the parts, under insurance, would make an accident non claimable).

Parts either replaced or sorted in another way:
Seat belts, main screen, tail light, all brake pads, A pillar airbag fasteners, HVAC cover, wiper motors, reversing camera, coil packs, spark plugs, engine ECU, engine wiring loom, SOS battery, both doors (replaced and painted) and numerous updates that have and haven't worked.

Currently booked in for armrest USBs not working and paintshop repolishing due to a moron washing it with a grit ridden cloth after the sprayed it.

The car looks like nothing under £100k and always gets looks and people want to ask about it. It drives fantastic, manual, sounds great (better now I've had the 3rd cat removed) and is more than fast enough for the UK roads, especially winding country roads.

Unfortunately, my experience means I'm less raving of it due to the problems I've had. This is the reason I'm selling mine once the USBs/polish has been completed. As a selling point I'm going to point out that literally every problem encountered by owners has been fixed to my detriment.

Sounds like a horror story. One I would certainly like to avoid given a limited year of warranty remaining on whatever car I buy. I could go new and have 3 years of “reassurance” and I’ve considered it but I’m not a fan of going new and it doesn’t mitigate the potential issues either.

Your post has raised another query for me though. It’s just a thought but, is there a mileage number that would suggest the majority of the known issues would have already presented themselves if they were going to? A lot of the bad stories I’ve seen started at very low miles so it would stand to reason perhaps that a car that has done say, 5000 miles is likely ok, given the owner has spent their time driving it rather than fixing it. A car with <500 miles in contrast, may still be hiding all sorts of gremlins. The paint being the exception here.

 

[Man.v.Cars]

Sounds like a horror story. One I would certainly like to avoid given a limited year of warranty remaining on whatever car I buy. I could go new and have 3 years of “reassurance” and I’ve considered it but I’m not a fan of going new and it doesn’t mitigate the potential issues either.

Your post has raised another query for me though. It’s just a thought but, is there a mileage number that would suggest the majority of the known issues would have already presented themselves if they were going to? A lot of the bad stories I’ve seen started at very low miles so it would stand to reason perhaps that a car that has done say, 5000 miles is likely ok, given the owner has spent their time driving it rather than fixing it. A car with <500 miles in contrast, may still be hiding all sorts of gremlins. The paint being the exception here.

It may well be those with 'high' mileage are less prone, but last time mine was in there were 2 emiras having new clutches having done approx 20k miles, both less than 18 months old and no track use. Neither were allowed under warranty, engine out job so I believe labour is booked at 22 hrs + cost of clutch, £6k?

My previous car was a 3.4s Cayman, got written off, and I'd have that over the Emira any day. Lotus have missed a trick in not offering extended warranty and service plans after purchase, unlike Porsche. Then again, they perhaps knew in advance the problems coming their way. To be honest, I'd buy something like this GT4 and spend £1500 on the 2 yr Porsche warranty.

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I'm just hanging on a bit as used prices appear to be rising, webuyanycar have upped their offer by 10% in the last few months and there are fewer Emiras on Autotrader than 6 months ago. As I said, because I didn't buy mine I have no 'dog in the game' just my honest opinion. As the saying goes, looks aren't everything, even though the Emira has it in spades.

 

[BeHappy]

How on earth does a 2yr old car only have 127 miles on it?
My concern would be it has sat around too

Unlike everyone on here, I didn't buy/lease my car, I won it via 7 Day Performance last April. It belonged to Mark McCann (check out his YouTube channel) who bought it from Tom Hartley cars and then sold it to 7 Days Performance.

It had 24 miles on the clock when I picked it up last April, I added 250 picking it up and getting it home. I've done a further 200 miles ish back and forth to the dealers with issues, it's now on 1060 miles. I've estimated that in the 10 1/2 months of owning it its spent 5 months at the dealers and another 2/3 months sat in my drive waiting for parts (the parts, under insurance, would make an accident non claimable).

Parts either replaced or sorted in another way:
Seat belts, main screen, tail light, all brake pads, A pillar airbag fasteners, HVAC cover, wiper motors, reversing camera, coil packs, spark plugs, engine ECU, engine wiring loom, SOS battery, both doors (replaced and painted) and numerous updates that have and haven't worked.

Currently booked in for armrest USBs not working and paintshop repolishing due to a moron washing it with a grit ridden cloth after the sprayed it.

The car looks like nothing under £100k and always gets looks and people want to ask about it. It drives fantastic, manual, sounds great (better now I've had the 3rd cat removed) and is more than fast enough for the UK roads, especially winding country roads.

Unfortunately, my experience means I'm less raving of it due to the problems I've had. This is the reason I'm selling mine once the USBs/polish has been completed. As a selling point I'm going to point out that literally every problem encountered by owners has been fixed to my detriment.

that car that Mark MCain had - there is a backstory to it the people that has been on this forum a long time may recall it was a members car on here - he got one of the early cars with the potential issues he didn’t want to keep it - he sold it Mark, then Mark also got cold feet on the car and he actually made a U Tube video of selling it to Tom Hartley at a so called profit which was BS. I believe that video was since deleted . Tom Hartley had it for seems like and long time and it didn’t sell, maybe it was on sale or return. Mark got car back and then put some carbon pack on it. ( from my memory, if you go back a while the original owner did include what happened in this forum

 

[Man.v.Cars]

that car that Mark MCain had - there is a backstory to it the people that has been on this forum a long time may recall it was a members car on here ( he’s no longer active on this forum ) - he got one of the early cars with the potential issues he didn’t want to keep it - he sold it Mark, then Mark also got cold feet on the car and he actually made a U Tube video of selling it to Tom Hartley at a so called profit which was BS. I believe that video was since deleted . Tom Hartley had it for seems like and long time and it didn’t sell, maybe it was on sale or return. Mark got car back and then put some carbon pack on it. ( from my memory, if you go back a while the original owner did include what happened in this forum

The only issue it had when I picked it up was the main screen not working, the wiring had been sliced when the dash had been fitted, everything else came later.

My understanding is McCann bought it from Tom Hartley, paid overs on it, held onto it and finally decided to sell along with a few other cars he had. He did a video where he was selling a bunch of cars like a dealership would and the Emira was there minus the bodykit. He mentioned he'd paid over the odds for it in the video. He's sold cars to 7 Days Performance before, the fitting of the kit video was good for McCann, 7 Days Performance and CT Carbon.

The 1st owner and McCann had done 24 miles before I got it, which suggests 1st owner flipped it for a small profit as he could have rejected it and got what he paid for it. No-one knew about the problems in the cars in January '23 so flipping for a profit seems more likely. Others on here haven't got early production cars but still have similar, and worse, problems.

 

[cwfg]

So I finally got around to speaking to the dealer. I decided to scope out a second car they have on the forecourt while I was talking, which is a 23MY Nimbus vehicle with 3500 miles. My reservation was that it has had 2 owners in 2 years so I asked the dealer about it. They had to “investigate” which I thought was odd as these are supposed to be “approved” cars. Anyway, turns out the Nimbus car was bought used from them 10 months ago and then rejected by the owner and returned due to a wiring issue. This car apparently has no ETA for when Lotus will fix it yet it’s sitting there on their forecourt as an “approved” car. Kind of shocking tbh. Unless I asked I’m pretty sure they would have just let me buy it. Anyone looking to buy a used Emira who hasn’t done their homework is entering a minefield and the dealers seem to be passing the problems on to future owners where they can. That’s two out of two cars now that have issues unresolved sitting on a Lotus forecourt.

I had suspected that most used cars available now are the problematic ones that the first owners got shot of before the warranty expired. Finding a good one will be a mission. Might have to consider new at this point

 

[Beardedbradley]

All very concerning

 

[Orchardbike]

So I finally got around to speaking to the dealer. I decided to scope out a second car they have on the forecourt while I was talking, which is a 23MY Nimbus vehicle with 3500 miles. My reservation was that it has had 2 owners in 2 years so I asked the dealer about it. They had to “investigate” which I thought was odd as these are supposed to be “approved” cars. Anyway, turns out the Nimbus car was bought used from them 10 months ago and then rejected by the owner and returned due to a wiring issue. This car apparently has no ETA for when Lotus will fix it yet it’s sitting there on their forecourt as an “approved” car. Kind of shocking tbh. Unless I asked I’m pretty sure they would have just let me buy it. Anyone looking to buy a used Emira who hasn’t done their homework is entering a minefield and the dealers seem to be passing the problems on to future owners where they can. That’s two out of two cars now that have issues unresolved sitting on a Lotus forecourt.

I had suspected that most used cars available now are the problematic ones that the first owners got shot of before the warranty expired. Finding a good one will be a mission. Might have to consider new at this point

After my experiences, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

 

[Man.v.Cars]

Doesn't fare well for when I put mine up for sale in June, or before. 1st owner didn't even take delivery of the car when he sold it to a dealer who sold it to the 2nd owner who then drove 24 miles to another dealer and flipped it. 2 owners in 1 month and 24 miles done.

Literally every problem sorted including both doors, I'm hoping it's a selling point.

 

[RPM06]

We are experiencing the same as you! I am now looking at getting another Porsche.
Lotus ownership seems too much like a gamble.
We have emailed Lotus with our concerns because that was what they asked me to do when I spoke to Lotus and guess what?
No reply from them after 6 days.

 

[Orchardbike]

We are experiencing the same as you! I am now looking at getting another Porsche.
Lotus ownership seems too much like a gamble.
We have emailed Lotus with our concerns because that was what they asked me to do when I spoke to Lotus and guess what?
No reply from them after 6 days.

Again, from my experience, there’s absolutely no surprise for me that you’ve had no reply!

 

[Man.v.Cars]

We are experiencing the same as you! I am now looking at getting another Porsche.
Lotus ownership seems too much like a gamble.
We have emailed Lotus with our concerns because that was what they asked me to do when I spoke to Lotus and guess what?
No reply from them after 6 days.

If looking at used, a 981 GT4 would be my choice at similar prices to a used Emira and £1500 ish for a Porsche warranty for 2 years. I'd have my previous Cayman 3.4s over the Emira in a shot. Emira leaves it standing in looks but everything else the Cayman wins in my view.

 

[cwfg]

I was after an AM6 Vantage until I came across the Emira. I’d been looking for the right car for some time and was set on it. The Emira was the first car - other than maybe a 992 911 - that pulled me away from it. I can’t look at the Vantage now after seeing the Emira, it just looks bland and the interior is awful! The most recent facelift cars are stunning but out of my price range.

I may still consider the original car that I started this post with if they’ll drop the price enough and also handle the door work as part of the deal - at least I know it’s been done then. 1 owner for 2 years, 4500 miles, 1 year remaining on the warranty - suggests lower risk of a problem car in my mind. Failing that, I might go to Porsche and see what’s what. Massive shame. I wish there were more 2024 cars about but it’s too soon.

 

[RoryBellows]

I think for all you Britain folks the rule of thumb should be to avoid anything MY23 and probably the first half of MY24. Its generally good practice to avoid the first year of any all new car but that Lotus FE1 pricing was pretty sweet so I see how people jumped on it.