Lotus no longer accepting part ex

[JClem]

So in dealing with customer care and the escalation team over the last 3 weeks in an effort to resolve my defective auto v6, I have discovered that in the UK dealers/Lotus HQ are no longer accepting part exchange or making offers to buy cars. This applies to Lotus cars as well. This is making my particular situation difficult as I’m proposing to buy a new v6 using the defective one as part ex. It’s also complicated by lotus abandoning the central sales model and returning to dealers.

I can think of only one reason why you would stop part ex and offers to take cars off your hands and that’s shortage of cash. That coupled with the 0% financing at a time of high base rates would suggest that Lotus is desperate for cash.

Happy to be told otherwise.

 

[LuckysDad]

That's concerning!

 

[Time2Fly]

That coupled with the 0% financing at a time of high base rates would suggest that Lotus is desperate for cash.

And yet they won't extend those rates here.

But yes, that's concerning. Particularly since my state's lemon law requires buy back

 

[JimH]

Following the U-turn back to a dealer model in the UK, surely dealers (who, after all, run their own businesses) are able to take part-exchanges? Later Lotus models should still qualify as Lotus Approved Used too, surely..... Under the direct sales model the PX price was only got from British Car Auctions and they dealt with the disposals too. My guess is that the (re)transition hasn't fully happened yet....

Other localities may differ, of course.....

 

[JClem]

Following the U-turn back to a dealer model in the UK, surely dealers (who, after all, run their own businesses) are able to take part-exchanges? Later Lotus models should still qualify as Lotus Approved Used too, surely..... Under the direct sales model the PX price was only got from British Car Auctions and they dealt with the disposals too. My guess is that the (re)transition hasn't fully happened yet....

Other localities may differ, of course.....

It all sounded a bit of a mess to be honest.

They ended their agreement with BCA months ago and returned to the dealer model, all except Bell & Colvill who Lotus have a semi-central sales model still in place.

But it was made clear that no Lotus dealers or B&C would take PX, Lotus or not. It is strange because how can you impose that on Hendy, JCT600 etc and why?

 

[freefall_junkie]

It all sounded a bit of a mess to be honest.

They ended their agreement with BCA months ago and returned to the dealer model, all except Bell & Colvill who Lotus have a semi-central sales model still in place.

But it was made clear that no Lotus dealers or B&C would take PX, Lotus or not. It is strange because how can you impose that on Hendy, JCT600 etc and why?

I think it is a very good thing they have binned the agency sales model as it was disaster for customer relations, but I agree this all sounds pretty bizarre. How can the dealers sell new cars without offering px?

As an aside, at the Emira launch event in Glasgow way back in November 2021 I got chatting to someone senior in Lotus about future supply and demand, and he said they were very conscious to avoid 'doing a Mclaren', ie build too many cars, saturating market (720s residuals were dire, although they have recovered somewhat). Really annoying that a couple of years on Lotus have done exactly that - there are too many V6 Emiras in the UK, both new from cancelled orders and used, royally shafting residual values. Maybe this is why they are not interested in pxing your Emira?