Live from the Bell & Colvill launch

[BeHappy]

A quick walk round of the Nimbus car - people and the room layout stopped me doing a full 360

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Nimbus looking mighty fine in this clip especially with the red leather

 

[Jon_N]

Official launch today of the newly refurbished showroom.

B&C’s Nimbus demo Emira is here for the weekend (back to factory for some fettling on Monday). Lots of deposit holders popping in - nice to meet you all.

Also an Eletre show car and several other interesting Lotus cars.

Some pics for now, more news and views to follow later … or “soon”!

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Looks like a great day! Although the more I look at the Electre, the more I see a Kia!

 

[VTECMatt]

Looks great in that colour, might have change of heart when I see them in the flesh in 2050 at this rate

 

[Bradw]

We were allowed to open the doors to look at the interior but not able to sit in it. The interior materials look great and there are some nice details. I just can’t get past how huge the car is and the fairly small boot.

That was my exact take on it at Goodwood. How can you make an SUV which is so long (more than 5meters) buy with such a small boot. The interior for me also looked like the kids would demolition it within seconds. I'm starting to think it's not for me and waiting for the Polestar 3 and maybe EQS or EQE suv

 

[Gridgway]

I had a family emergency, so missed it. The showroom looks like it did before really!
I think that Jamie said they had a yellow car coming, I assume that was not in evidence?
Having binned the idea of the V6 in favour of an i4, I've got a long old wait.

 

[MrLee]

Hi everyone, I attended the launch today and enjoyed meeting some Lotus owners (or soon to be) and finally seeing the Emira in person. My first impressions were:
* Looks stunning in person - particularly in nimbus + black pack (which is what I’ve provisionally optioned)
* The red leather interior was surprisingly classy and not over the top at all (it’s a relatively deep shade) although I will probably stick with tan
* Compared with my Exige the forward visibility is not quite as good (e.g. the dash is higher and the front fenders are not as pronounced) so I had to adjust the seat height upwards which then felt slightly high. Probably won’t be an issue for most as I’m pretty short
* Gear shift felt similar to my Exige V6 but slightly less notchy and more damped
* Overall driving position, pedal position, switches and infotainment were fine/good
* The rubber weather seal in the bonnet was not particularly noticeable against the nimbus grey
* The boot didn’t seem much bigger than my Exige but perhaps a more convenient shape/wider opening. Although there’s a decent space behind the seats

Also had a brief chat with Jamie and it seems like B&C will only be getting the touring spec demonstrator for now. As mentioned by someone else on this thread, October demos will be invitation by Lotus.

I’m not interested in the Electra having recently owned and sold a ‘super SUV’. However, my impressions were:
* Exterior design did not look as good in person (perhaps because I’m not keen on yellow for a car that size). At launch, it looked a bit Urus-like but it’s quite different in person
* Interior is very nice and unique although the cameras instead of mirrors would annoy me
* My 6yr old son loved the rear seats and tech but I hope there is a way of disabling control from the back like can on other SUVs

I’ve got a long time to wait (perhaps around this time next year) and I won’t be 100% sure whether I’m going ahead with the purchase until I’ve driven it. But the looks alone make it hard to resist.

Also, someone needs to buy this Elan Sprint before I convince myself I need it:

 

[TomE]

I had a family emergency, so missed it. The showroom looks like it did before really!
I think that Jamie said they had a yellow car coming, I assume that was not in evidence?
Having binned the idea of the V6 in favour of an i4, I've got a long old wait.

B&C specified a Hethel Yellow car with Sports suspension as their demo and a Nimbus/Touring as their showroom car.

Lotus are giving them the showroom car as the driving demo and the yellow car will follow later and be the showroom car. The switch is to do with type approvals, parts supply and pre-building.

Other UK dealers will also most likely get the car they specified for showroom as their first demo.

 

[JohnHoward]

@TomE hope you had an enjoyable day and thanks for the info you have posted. Was there any mention of the autos and in particular anything about Type Approval for same.

 

[KusaKusa]

From the pictures it seems like there's a ton of excitement around the Emira but not many people around the Eletre. Was this how it actually was or was it just the when the pictures were taken?

 

[Jimblob]

From the pictures it seems like there's a ton of excitement around the Emira but not many people around the Eletre. Was this how it actually was or was it just the when the pictures were taken?

I think most of the guests were Emira customers or at least all the ones I spoke with were.

The Electra had people looking but initially the guy looking after the car didn’t want to open the door to it then when he eventually did he said we couldn’t sit in it!

 

[Lotustoronto]

I will say the Eletre interior is very nice. Exterior might look good in black....I hope. But the draw of Emira is doing its job to show case the "lifestyle" Lotus'.

 

[TomE]

@TomE hope you had an enjoyable day and thanks for the info you have posted. Was there any mention of the autos and in particular anything about Type Approval for same.

UK dealers have no info about the status of the auto, including type approval. It appears the type approval issues are also one reason the UK demo cars are delayed and why Lotus have switched the demo and showroom cars around for each dealer.

Several dealers have asked if Lotus could run some regional test drives for cars in the alternative specs, such as for the Auto, or provide dealers temporarily for the first 1-2 months with cars in alternatives specs such as Sports/Touring and Manual/Auto. The answer from Lotus was sadly no.

 

[kbhoz]

I presume it a "pre-production" car as it still has the misaligned panel on the boot. The later model seem to resolve this issue (or the boot wasn't shut properly). Look great though.

 

[TomE]

It's a production car. There was apparently a list of items from PDI to be sorted out, including some panel alignment items like this one. I also overheard someone saying the boot was only half latched - which may be the root cause of the misalignment.

 

[Tonyshepp]

It's a production car. There was apparently a list of items from PDI to be sorted out, including some panel alignment items like this one. I also overheard someone saying the boot was only half latched - which may be the root cause of the misalignment.

I thought Lotus has outsourced PDI before it hit dealers or is that on delivered to home cars only??

You'd have thought Lotus would have scrutinized the first few models leaving hethel.

 

[TomE]

Yes, PDI is done by BCA for all UK cars. Lotus have staff on site with them during the ramp up of deliveries.

This car was loaned to B&C for the weekend for the launch event, before it had completed post-PDI rectifications. It is going back to Hethel on Monday and will then be delivered back to B&C before 14 Oct, so they have it again at the same time as the other dealers get their demo cars.

 

[emiraspain]

I thought Lotus has outsourced PDI before it hit dealers or is that on delivered to home cars only??

You'd have thought Lotus would have scrutinized the first few models leaving hethel.

yeh, you'd have thought they would have gone over the car with a fine tooth brush even before sending it to the PDI, how on earth could this happen with their QC?
With everyone uptalking the 150 million in precision machines, robots etc I have to say this is a bit deflating and smacks of old lotus through and through.

I HOPE I am wrong..... and yes I understand no customer will get a car like this (we hope).... but its worrying it left the factory like it in the 1st place. My elise boot had issues from new... never got it fixed to my satisfaction.

I wont say more.... just hope and pray for Lotus's sake that these are teething issues and well, EU customers already have cars, so I guess any issues will come out pretty quick... IF there were to be any, we are sure there wont be.

 

[TomE]

When the car returns to B&C I'll be going over it in detail against my notes. I'm not going to itemise all the things I spotted, as Lotus know about them and it'll just spark further unhelpful debate. Let's see if everything is fixed on the car's return.

 

[SweptVolume]

It's a production car. There was apparently a list of items from PDI to be sorted out, including some panel alignment items like this one. I also overheard someone saying the boot was only half latched - which may be the root cause of the misalignment.

Boot wasn’t fully shut for that photo… we checked it shut and it was fine

 

[jamesbxxx]

I’m getting red leather buyer’s remorse now. Looks great