JohnHoward
Emira Fanatic
What a day to get a new car! The weather has been terrible all day absolutely hammering down with rain relentlessly! So, sorry no photos today. Hopefully, if the weather improves, I will be able to post some tomorrow.
Home delivery handover – you get a text message the day before with an approximate delivery time and if you have WhatsApp, they send you photos of your car being loaded. I installed WhatsApp specially for this!
I got a text message an hour prior to delivery to confirm the time which was 9am and the transport arrived at exactly 9am. The gentleman who delivered the car made the day feel very special and had huge experience in car delivery having done the job for over 20 years. He delivered an auto to Scotland earlier this week and mine was the second he delivered.
Despite the awful weather, he took me through some important information, but as we were chatting, I think he realised that I had spent the last 2 years reading these forums and there wasn’t much that I wasn’t aware of! There is no doubt that he would have stayed with me as long as I wanted to ensure every single question was answered. He was very knowledgeable about the Lotus brand.
The car was presented in pristine condition, it was a shame to have to take it out of the covered trailer. When he opened the driver's door, my heart sank – I could not believe what I saw. I asked why the car had so many miles on it. He said “That’s quite normal”, I was lost for words. Then I realised I was looking at the fuel remaining at 285 miles!
The actual miles was 15!
I was very pleased with the home delivery and handover experience my rating 10 out of 10!
Before I tell you about my first drive, my previous cars, Alpine A110, Evora 410 Sport, Jaguar F-Type 5L V8 and an Abarth 124 Spider (not really in the same class, but we had a lot of fun in that car)
First impressions from a few short drives in atrocious weather conditions
Fit and finish
The Emira is in a different class to the Evora, there is no direct comparison, everything is better from the comfort of the seats, the tech and everything feels premium quality, it is a massive step up from the Evora.
Seats
Super comfortable, huge amount of adjustment plus steering wheel is adjustable. Fantastic leather smell. My wife described it as intoxicating!
Steering
It is pure Lotus, the Alpine A110 had a Lotus feel to it, but only Lotus can do Lotus steering
Sound
Compared to the Evora, it is a little more muted in the cabin, but I think that is down to additional soundproofing in the cabin. If you open the window you are quickly reminded that you have a 3.5L engine and a supercharger a few inches behind you. The supercharger whine seems more noticeable than the Evora (no bad thing), but I think you heard more exhaust noise in the Evora that drowned everything else out (again different/more sound proofing)
Compared to the Alpine you can hear a lot more in terms of airflow behind you (in a good way)
The auto gearbox
The gear changes are very sharp, I think they are quicker/better than the Evora, no complaints here whatsoever. Once this car is run in it will sound epic on downshifts, just like the Evora. If you change down manually a bit early, you don’t half get a crack from the exhaust. Obviously, I am being very careful at the moment, but just from driving it today, the future potential is obvious.
Of course, the big advantage of the auto is no clutch pedal and that added lightness has got to make a difference!
Driving in Sports mode – auto box
As the Evora, Sports mode holds the gears longer and of course the valves are open on the exhaust. There is a noticeable difference with the sound as you would expect.
Driving in track mode – auto box
Wow! – this is really something quite different, I mean dramatically so. Gears are held much longer and the soundtrack changes significantly because of this. There is a sudden urgency to push the car and make it shout at you. I was very surprised by this. Bearing in mind, terrible weather, a brand new car, being run in, I was ultra careful and only scratched the surface.
There is some electronic stability control still switched on in track mode, there is a further option to switch it off completely, so you are not completely on your own, unless you deliberately turn it off.
I don’t think there is a massive risk driving around town in track mode if you want to enjoy the soundtrack and then switching to Sport on the country roads if you want to keep your no claims bonus!
Other
The only thing I can’t seem to get right is the windscreen kept misting up with the terrible weather. Usually if you have the blower on the windscreen it stays clear (on all other cars I’ve owned anyway). But it would stay clear and then suddenly mist up like you were in dense fog. It is difficult trying to sort it out when you aren’t used to the controls and you don’t want to drive into the back of the car in front whilst you are distracted. I am sure this is operator error and I will figure out how to set it up.
Infotainment
Didn’t really try it properly today. I did put the radio on to test it and it sounded good. I only tend to have the radio on in the background anyway when I am driving.
Android auto worked perfectly straightway (wirelessly)
Most impressed by (so far)
Track mode – wow!
So, really today was almost like an extended test drive because of the bad conditions. A bigger adventure is planned for tomorrow with some motorway miles to do.
I will post over the weekend with more early impressions including motorway driving and some photos. Sorry no photos today, it is still hammering down with rain (5:30pm)
Home delivery handover – you get a text message the day before with an approximate delivery time and if you have WhatsApp, they send you photos of your car being loaded. I installed WhatsApp specially for this!
I got a text message an hour prior to delivery to confirm the time which was 9am and the transport arrived at exactly 9am. The gentleman who delivered the car made the day feel very special and had huge experience in car delivery having done the job for over 20 years. He delivered an auto to Scotland earlier this week and mine was the second he delivered.
Despite the awful weather, he took me through some important information, but as we were chatting, I think he realised that I had spent the last 2 years reading these forums and there wasn’t much that I wasn’t aware of! There is no doubt that he would have stayed with me as long as I wanted to ensure every single question was answered. He was very knowledgeable about the Lotus brand.
The car was presented in pristine condition, it was a shame to have to take it out of the covered trailer. When he opened the driver's door, my heart sank – I could not believe what I saw. I asked why the car had so many miles on it. He said “That’s quite normal”, I was lost for words. Then I realised I was looking at the fuel remaining at 285 miles!
The actual miles was 15!
I was very pleased with the home delivery and handover experience my rating 10 out of 10!
Before I tell you about my first drive, my previous cars, Alpine A110, Evora 410 Sport, Jaguar F-Type 5L V8 and an Abarth 124 Spider (not really in the same class, but we had a lot of fun in that car)
First impressions from a few short drives in atrocious weather conditions
Fit and finish
The Emira is in a different class to the Evora, there is no direct comparison, everything is better from the comfort of the seats, the tech and everything feels premium quality, it is a massive step up from the Evora.
Seats
Super comfortable, huge amount of adjustment plus steering wheel is adjustable. Fantastic leather smell. My wife described it as intoxicating!
Steering
It is pure Lotus, the Alpine A110 had a Lotus feel to it, but only Lotus can do Lotus steering
Sound
Compared to the Evora, it is a little more muted in the cabin, but I think that is down to additional soundproofing in the cabin. If you open the window you are quickly reminded that you have a 3.5L engine and a supercharger a few inches behind you. The supercharger whine seems more noticeable than the Evora (no bad thing), but I think you heard more exhaust noise in the Evora that drowned everything else out (again different/more sound proofing)
Compared to the Alpine you can hear a lot more in terms of airflow behind you (in a good way)
The auto gearbox
The gear changes are very sharp, I think they are quicker/better than the Evora, no complaints here whatsoever. Once this car is run in it will sound epic on downshifts, just like the Evora. If you change down manually a bit early, you don’t half get a crack from the exhaust. Obviously, I am being very careful at the moment, but just from driving it today, the future potential is obvious.
Of course, the big advantage of the auto is no clutch pedal and that added lightness has got to make a difference!
Driving in Sports mode – auto box
As the Evora, Sports mode holds the gears longer and of course the valves are open on the exhaust. There is a noticeable difference with the sound as you would expect.
Driving in track mode – auto box
Wow! – this is really something quite different, I mean dramatically so. Gears are held much longer and the soundtrack changes significantly because of this. There is a sudden urgency to push the car and make it shout at you. I was very surprised by this. Bearing in mind, terrible weather, a brand new car, being run in, I was ultra careful and only scratched the surface.
There is some electronic stability control still switched on in track mode, there is a further option to switch it off completely, so you are not completely on your own, unless you deliberately turn it off.
I don’t think there is a massive risk driving around town in track mode if you want to enjoy the soundtrack and then switching to Sport on the country roads if you want to keep your no claims bonus!
Other
The only thing I can’t seem to get right is the windscreen kept misting up with the terrible weather. Usually if you have the blower on the windscreen it stays clear (on all other cars I’ve owned anyway). But it would stay clear and then suddenly mist up like you were in dense fog. It is difficult trying to sort it out when you aren’t used to the controls and you don’t want to drive into the back of the car in front whilst you are distracted. I am sure this is operator error and I will figure out how to set it up.
Infotainment
Didn’t really try it properly today. I did put the radio on to test it and it sounded good. I only tend to have the radio on in the background anyway when I am driving.
Android auto worked perfectly straightway (wirelessly)
Most impressed by (so far)
Track mode – wow!
So, really today was almost like an extended test drive because of the bad conditions. A bigger adventure is planned for tomorrow with some motorway miles to do.
I will post over the weekend with more early impressions including motorway driving and some photos. Sorry no photos today, it is still hammering down with rain (5:30pm)
