How much !!! New Key

[Beachbum]

Bought my car from a non-Lotus dealer, who received 5 or 6 cars from Lotus, as a job lot. The car I bought only came with one key, so have been chasing the dealer for 3 months to source the other one
Dealers excuse all along has been Lotus being evasive and non-responsive to their requests for the 2nd key to be sent to them. Seems it wasnt just my car that only had 1 key.
OK, so my experience of Lotus matches with the Dealers, yes they can be anything but responsive when they feel there is little in it for them, but 3 months was too much

In the end had the dealer agree to pay for a new key, that I would source from my local Lotus Dealer, as it was just easier this way............... £250 !!! How much ?!?!? Its a key, with a few eletrics and a s/w program. Same sort of key from KIA is £75. OK Merc & BMW charge a lot more, but lets be honest, Lotus arent Merc or BMW

Glad I'm not paying for this and it now has ne thinking about putting Android tags on my keys so I dont lose them.

 

[675430VME]

Only 130 usd for the key in China and dealer programs it for free.

 

[NigeT]

Bought my car from a non-Lotus dealer, who received 5 or 6 cars from Lotus, as a job lot. The car I bought only came with one key, so have been chasing the dealer for 3 months to source the other one
Dealers excuse all along has been Lotus being evasive and non-responsive to their requests for the 2nd key to be sent to them. Seems it wasnt just my car that only had 1 key.
OK, so my experience of Lotus matches with the Dealers, yes they can be anything but responsive when they feel there is little in it for them, but 3 months was too much

In the end had the dealer agree to pay for a new key, that I would source from my local Lotus Dealer, as it was just easier this way............... £250 !!! How much ?!?!? Its a key, with a few eletrics and a s/w program. Same sort of key from KIA is £75. OK Merc & BMW charge a lot more, but lets be honest, Lotus arent Merc or BMW

Glad I'm not paying for this and it now has ne thinking about putting Android tags on my keys so I dont lose them.

They are showing on Aliexpress but they'll need programming

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006858127595.html

 

[DJManc]

Bought my car from a non-Lotus dealer, who received 5 or 6 cars from Lotus, as a job lot. The car I bought only came with one key, so have been chasing the dealer for 3 months to source the other one
Dealers excuse all along has been Lotus being evasive and non-responsive to their requests for the 2nd key to be sent to them. Seems it wasnt just my car that only had 1 key.
OK, so my experience of Lotus matches with the Dealers, yes they can be anything but responsive when they feel there is little in it for them, but 3 months was too much

In the end had the dealer agree to pay for a new key, that I would source from my local Lotus Dealer, as it was just easier this way............... £250 !!! How much ?!?!? Its a key, with a few eletrics and a s/w program. Same sort of key from KIA is £75. OK Merc & BMW charge a lot more, but lets be honest, Lotus arent Merc or BMW

Glad I'm not paying for this and it now has ne thinking about putting Android tags on my keys so I dont lose them.

You didn't by any chance purchase your Emira from Auto100.co.uk did you? They are purchasing a lot of nearly new Emiras. I got mine there and was told the same story as you, only they gave me two keys initially but one was for someone elses Emira. Make sure you also get the replacement key blade that goes inside the key fob. This is the most expensive part and has to be ordered from China apparently (local dealer said it takes minimum 6 weeks too!).
Incidentally, the price you mentioned sounds way cheap! My replacement was Total £386.65 - Key fob £96.86, Key blade £230.99 and programming £58.80!

 

[tankski]

I got mine from another 3rd party dealer, Adrenaline Collective in Leamington Spa, and ended up with the same situation. The dealer agreed to pay for the key off the bat and Lotus Silverstone are quoting a fair bit too. Key, blade and programming all in is somewhere around £500 if I remember correctly!

 

[DJManc]

I got mine from another 3rd party dealer, Adrenaline Collective in Leamington Spa, and ended up with the same situation. The dealer agreed to pay for the key off the bat and Lotus Silverstone are quoting a fair bit too. Key, blade and programming all in is somewhere around £500 if I remember correctly!

 

[Beachbum]

Yes Auto100. What were your opinions of them. Mine were pretty low. Haven't left a Trustpilot review yet, but will now I have the money for the 2nd.

No I didn't get the blade. Sounds expensive

 

[Davidexige]

Worth bearing in mind that your car insurance might cover you for lost keys, I’m with Admiral and they cover up to £500 for lost keys.

 

[DJManc]

Yes Auto100. What were your opinions of them. Mine were pretty low. Haven't left a Trustpilot review yet, but will now I have the money for the 2nd.

No I didn't get the blade. Sounds expensive

Yes Auto100. What were your opinions of them. Mine were pretty low. Haven't left a Trustpilot review yet, but will now I have the money for the 2nd.

No I didn't get the blade. Sounds expensive

They must have some sort of contract with Lotus as they seem to have been buying loads of pre reg'd cars from them with extremely low mileages. They somewhat seemed to have set the bench mark in the used prices (particularly the I4) in my opinion, they had so many of them compared to anyone else, even Lotus dealerships! Everything went ok initially for me and the car was prepared well until I discovered they gave me the wrong key. Then I made call after call and was fed a load of bull that they were looking for the key, then they were waiting for Lotus to send it etc etc. Everytime I called, spoke to someone different, who had a different storey to fob me off. Then I just started calling the same Sales manager every few days who eventually promised he would pay for a replacement but got quite hostile with me when I asked him to put it in writing in an email to me that he would cover the full cost.
I hate been taken for a mug. All want is fair treatment like anyone else and I work too hard to let other people try and have one over on me. This is not a unique experience with Auto100 though. Sadly, I have had many similar experiences with BMW, Mercedes, etc etc and is doesn't seem matter how much you spend with them!

 

[Nick in Sydney]

They must have some sort of contract with Lotus as they seem to have been buying loads of pre reg'd cars from them with extremely low mileages.

On the earnings call, Lotus said they are running a "destocking program" to get rid of inventory so they don't have discounted cars in the market when they launch the TYP 134 next year. I suspect that program involves selling blocks of cars to specialist dealers at very attractive wholesale prices.

 

[Beachbum]

Worth bearing in mind that your car insurance might cover you for lost keys, I’m with Admiral and they cover up to £500 for lost keys.

Not sure I could get away with that one. Weren't necessarily lost, I never had it

 

[virtualmacho]

I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing that someone out there has a working key to my car...