Message from Matt Windle regarding Emira delays

Regards delays. Posted in another thread by @EM33RA
Thought it needed 'pinning' in it's own thread

 

[Porter]

Yeah, that's a good question. There are plenty [over-priced] pre-owned Caymans on the market, but not sure about delivery timeline for new purchases. I've been tempted many times these past couple years and was actually saving for a GT4 before the Emira was debuted. I'm getting really fed up with the poor Lotus comms and pretty much lost faith in things getting any better when it comes to ownership/aftersales support.

I'm sticking with the order for now, because I am incredibly stubborn. We'll see what continues to develop.

It's worth saying though, this "video message" from Matt Windle is lovely but it DID NOT go out to US buyers, or to anyone that I know of outside the UK. US dealers certainly didn't receive it. As far as non-UK buyers are concerned, communication from Lotus is still zero on this.

I hope someone in that company is switched on enough to point this out to whoever ended up being hired as "Head of Customer Experience". You would think it would be obvious to someone with that professional skillset, but in the interest of my own sanity I won't try to unpack that any further.

 

[VL3X]

Just saw this when opening the Cayman configurator... wouldn't hurt Lotus to convey messages like this to all potential customers landing on their configurator site.

Instead I gave them $5k for a car that's going to inevitably be delayed a full year past "Spring 2022" and gotten zero communication. Not to mention the First Edition having extremely limited colors, options, and features (and a detuned engine and/or lowered red line).

I'm stubborn too.. so I'm still here. I'm now wondering how much more I will take before I jump ship. Starting to envy those who bought an Evora GT to hold them over and watch how the Emira plays out.

 

[Corkdsp]

I have Emira Deposit down 7/13/21... but put a deposit down on M3 G80 Manual few months ago and a 911S 992 Manual. Eventually I will get a build slot from one of these 3 Manufactures and have some decisions to make only going to buy one car though.

BMW says - 1 year
Porsche says - 1 year
Emira Base V6 model - no communication

All agreed at MSRP in writing w/ refundable deposits before car locks

 

[Mctaff]

What would be interesting is if someone placed a 718 Cayman order today (not a GT4, just a normal one), whether they would receive it before or after their Emira order placed back in July of 2021.

I ordered a GTS June 21…. Was offered a build slot I think back in feb, so would’ve had the car April assuming no interim delays

I said no as I thought the emira was coming in June…. Schoolboy error there!

 

[fatjase]

Few months ago I was told the wait time for Cayman was about 12-15 months. At that point you place the order. Then 3 months for build and delivery... or something like that.

Not quite the same but my mate placed his order for a 718 Spyder (PDK) 2 years ago and still hasn't had his build slot confirmed. During his monthly phone call (he rings them) in February they said they had a GT4 (PDK) build slot cancellation he could have while he waited for his Spyder, and they would buy the GT4 back off him (splitting the profit 50/50) as long as he specced it with some choice head office options. His GT4 is due to arrive in August. He still has no clue from Porsche when his Spyder may be available.

 

[Sea4S]

I have Emira Deposit down 7/13/21... but put a deposit down on M3 G80 Manual few months ago and a 911S 992 Manual. Eventually I will get a build slot from one of these 3 Manufactures and have some decisions to make only going to buy one car though.

BMW says - 1 year
Porsche says - 1 year
Emira Base V6 model - no communication

All agreed at MSRP in writing w/ refundable deposits before car locks

I think this method has just become logical and acceptable to me at this point, and for us in the US, it seems this the only way to go these days to acquire things at MSRP..

I purchased my '21 Yamaha boat 18 months ago under the same circumstances: refundable deposit, no dealer markup on delivery.. in writing. Eventually got the boat even though it took 9+ months with little to no communication. Expecting the same on my base I4 Emira, albeit with much, much longer wait times.

I'm also rooting for you to get the 992 C2S!

 

[Concrete guy]

I underst there’s a global shortage for parts but every other manufacturer has been in non stop production and are running on low supplies , but lotus hasn’t been producing cars for a while so I don’t understand why they haven’t been stock pilling parts or was it a business decision not to buy anything until they needed them. I’m no expert and just wondering how these things work . Does anybody know

 

[donskibeat]

I underst there’s a global shortage for parts but every other manufacturer has been in non stop production and are running on low supplies , but lotus hasn’t been producing cars for a while so I don’t understand why they haven’t been stock pilling parts or was it a business decision not to buy anything until they needed them. I’m no expert and just wondering how these things work . Does anybody know

Good question and my thoughts exactly, with so many of us paying deposits nearly a year ago you would think they would have at least of planned ahead and had enough parts to satisfy the early orders without delays.

 

[emiraspain]

I underst there’s a global shortage for parts but every other manufacturer has been in non stop production and are running on low supplies , but lotus hasn’t been producing cars for a while so I don’t understand why they haven’t been stock pilling parts or was it a business decision not to buy anything until they needed them. I’m no expert and just wondering how these things work . Does anybody know

Not every, if very few manufacturers, have been running production full time, just in the UK for example, Landrover stopped for a fair while and defender deliveries are WAY way behind. Even Toyota stopped, I think they have all stopped at different times... they had to.
I am sure they have the right number of parts of certain items, but it would make no sense to order, pay for and keep 2000 seats when they only have 120 engines for example. They will in some way try to match things, just in time stocking saves them a fortune in overheads.... and thats the way most companies try to do it these days.
Its not easy for any of them and we are all xxxxxxx off by it, but as I have said before, everyone on this forum is extremely lucky compared to 90% of the world and so to complain about not getting my V6 on time, or my 992, or C8, or whatever multiple cars some people seem to have on order is well, you know..... when a fair % of our own country are using food banks.
its almost as tiring complaining about these delays as it was reading all the comments on the reviews, which I also got annoyed by and complained about, in some cases .

 

[Tonyshepp]

I underst there’s a global shortage for parts but every other manufacturer has been in non stop production and are running on low supplies , but lotus hasn’t been producing cars for a while so I don’t understand why they haven’t been stock pilling parts or was it a business decision not to buy anything until they needed them. I’m no expert and just wondering how these things work . Does anybody know

Stock piling parts takes space and capital. Most manufacturers work to just in time supplies for the above reasons.

 

[hagen111]

I just received notice my Yaris GR has arrived at the dealer...1 month ahead of communicated/expected delivery time. Nice surprise... once the newness of driving the Yaris will evaporate...the Emira will arrive at the dealer!

 

[VL3X]

Stock piling parts takes space and capital. Most manufacturers work to just in time supplies for the above reasons.

They have a brand new fancy $125 million dollar factory and the Evoras didn't exactly sell like hotcakes.. so I don't see any reason why the 20 year old V6 powertrain parts should be a scarcity.

 

[VL3X]

I just received notice my Yaris GR has arrived at the dealer...1 month ahead of communicated/expected delivery time. Nice surprise... once the newness of driving the Yaris will evaporate...the Emira will arrive at the dealer!

Sounds sound like Toyota isn't having too much trouble delivering then... I'm about to buy a fancy 3 pedal Supra for half the price of the Emira FE.

 

[Lotustoronto]

So if the waitlist for the Emira a few months back was at 18-24 months before all the reviews were out. Do we now think that waitlist for new deposit holders will be closer to 24-36 months? They pushed delivery from June to September and clearly are not producing at the same rate as they thought they would. It would be reasonable to me that some people placing deposits today would be getting a car in Q1 2025? There is a possibility that all V6 manual Emira's may be sold already. I have heard that most (not all) dealers are no longer accepting deposits in the US, anyone know if that is true?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

It's worth saying though, this "video message" from Matt Windle is lovely but it DID NOT go out to US buyers, or to anyone that I know of outside the UK. US dealers certainly didn't receive it. As far as non-UK buyers are concerned, communication from Lotus is still zero on this.

We got the video in Australia. Was sent out by Lotus Australia (who also owns two of the largest dealerships in this market).

 

[TomE]

I'm sticking with the order for now, because I am incredibly stubborn. We'll see what continues to develop.

It's worth saying though, this "video message" from Matt Windle is lovely but it DID NOT go out to US buyers, or to anyone that I know of outside the UK. US dealers certainly didn't receive it. As far as non-UK buyers are concerned, communication from Lotus is still zero on this.

I hope someone in that company is switched on enough to point this out to whoever ended up being hired as "Head of Customer Experience". You would think it would be obvious to someone with that professional skillset, but in the interest of my own sanity I won't try to unpack that any further.

I pointed this out to three key Lotus people at Goodwood. Reactions of "are you sure they didn't get it", "yes I know" and "in the US it's the dealers who need to communicate it"

 

[Nick in Sydney]

They have a brand new fancy $125 million dollar factory and the Evoras didn't exactly sell like hotcakes.. so I don't see any reason why the 20 year old V6 powertrain parts should be a scarcity.

AFAIK, Lotus has never said that the V6 engine/powertrain was a particular supply issue. Cars have an extraordinary number of individual parts in them . . . if just one factory in Shanghai making just one piece of plastic trim, or part of the wiring loom, or the carpet, or the Lotus badges (!) gets shut down for three weeks due to COVID then Hethel can't assemble and ship complete Emiras.

 

[TomE]

I underst there’s a global shortage for parts but every other manufacturer has been in non stop production and are running on low supplies , but lotus hasn’t been producing cars for a while so I don’t understand why they haven’t been stock pilling parts or was it a business decision not to buy anything until they needed them. I’m no expert and just wondering how these things work . Does anybody know

12 months ago Lotus revealed a car that was still in development and hadn't achieved type approval. But they'd still managed to sign supply agreements for a number of key components and had commitments from those suppliers, geared around deliveries to support production starting in Q1 2022 for first customers deliveries in May 2022.

The conventional approach is to deliver "just in time" (or 2-4 weeks of stock), as storing more than about 1 months worth of parts is a lot of space. That's 400ish cars equivalent of 1000s of bits.

Six months ago many people were complaining about having to commit to specs for Month 1 deliveries, such a long way ahead of car deliveries. But Lotus needed that in order to finalise supplies for the first batch.

Since then we've had another Covid outbreak and lockdown in Asia, Russia/Ukraine, an energy cost crisis, escalating inflation and big logistics issues with transporting components from Asia.

So despite 12 and 6 months notice, some of those suppliers have still not been able to get their components delivered in time.

That's how difficult manufacturing and supply chain is at the moment.

 

[TomE]

its almost as tiring complaining about these delays as it was reading all the comments on the reviews, which I also got annoyed by, in some cases .

You're one of the most prolific posters about these delays. You could post less, I think we're all aware of the delays

 

[TomE]

They have a brand new fancy $125 million dollar factory and the Evoras didn't exactly sell like hotcakes.. so I don't see any reason why the 20 year old V6 powertrain parts should be a scarcity.

The V6 engines aren't an issue. The V6 IPS gearboxes (from Aisin) are.