My Emira Experience

[Ftype]

Kennyn thanks for sharing and glad you got your money back. It is feedback like yours that persuaded me to cancel so it is important that others do the same to allow depositors to make an informed decision over whether to continue. The growing number on Autotrader would suggest quite a few are having regrets.

 

[Niffty951]

Stories like this are always hard reading. The frustration and pain is clear as are the very obvious areas where improvements could be made.

Reason for my post though was how much this reminded me of my friends experience with his Mk5 Golf GTi. I bought a mk5 R32 new and loved it. One of my best new car experiences, this made a good friend of mine want one too. He choose a regular Gti (great car) but from day 1 the car just had fault after fault, warning lights, wind noise through seals etc etc. After 6 months of driving mostly VW hire cars while the garage replaced various chunks of wiring he made the decision to accept a full refund from the dealer and hand the car back.

Both his story and yours are stories that shouldn't have happened, but it is a reminder that these stories do happen and you don't always hear about them.

P.s. I don't work for Lotus, I'm a Porsche lover and Evora owner, but I will say my admittedly late Evora hasn't had any of the quirks you speak of and has really surprised me with how well screwed together it feels. I was expecting a lot more of the quirks you mention.

 

[ott]

Can you ask for a new one at this point, like OP was offered?

I afraid not possible in Germany. Still hoping they manage to fix it by end of June when another software release is promised.

 

[DJS]

Well i'm having a completely different experience, my car is amazing no faults no issues in fact its close to perfect, I know its still early days and I will report back if I have any issues or fixes that I can contribute. Ive read this forum carefully and followed the Ctek charger route ensuring it was plugged in from collection day and plugged in if the car is not in use for a period and plugged in if i'm only doing multiple short journeys.

This is working for me so far, in fact no alerts what's so ever so finger crossed.

I will keep you updated.

 

[Wake]

I cancelled my Emira months ago but have still be lurking and watching the market on autotrader, as I spent so much time watching/reading loving the car whilst waiting for it to arrive that it felt hard to just switch off from it.

I’m glad that I did cancel because stories like this and the volume of cars for sale seem to indicate there are lots of problems. Maybe mine would have been fine, but I’m happy with what I got instead.

It sucks that your car gave you so much trouble. Now that you have your refund, what cars are you looking at to replace it?

 

[kennyn]

There's really nothing else turning my head at the moment and I'm lucky enough to have other toys in the garage to keep me amused. To be honest, I'm just enjoying being free from the hassle of the Emira, it feels like a bullet dodged to some extent.

 

[BeHappy]

There's really nothing else turning my head at the moment and I'm lucky enough to have other toys in the garage to keep me amused. To be honest, I'm just enjoying being free from the hassle of the Emira, it feels like a bullet dodged to some extent.

I’ll just leave this here - I’m on an 11 week countdown for £65k think it delivers a great amount of Fun and tech go for a demo ? UK launch is this w/e ( so tempted if I go different colour could be driving one next week )

 

[kennyn]

My daily driver is a M2 Competition I hope that you enjoy the new M2. I've no doubt that I will go for a test drive at some point.

 

[Ftype]

I cancelled my Emira months ago but have still be lurking and watching the market on autotrader, as I spent so much time watching/reading loving the car whilst waiting for it to arrive that it felt hard to just switch off from it.

I’m glad that I did cancel because stories like this and the volume of cars for sale seem to indicate there are lots of problems. Maybe mine would have been fine, but I’m happy with what I got instead.

It sucks that your car gave you so much trouble. Now that you have your refund, what cars are you looking at to replace it?

I have a 718 4.0 GTS on order after cancelling. Drove one around Silverstone last week and it was truly amazing

 

[Wake]

There's really nothing else turning my head at the moment and I'm lucky enough to have other toys in the garage to keep me amused. To be honest, I'm just enjoying being free from the hassle of the Emira, it feels like a bullet dodged to some extent.

I was in the same position with other toys except the Emira was supposed to be my daily driver. I was lucky and managed to secure a GR86 from the second batch that went on sale a couple of weeks ago.

I have a 718 4.0 GTS on order after cancelling. Drove one around Silverstone last week and it was truly amazing

I did consider a 718 4.0, and then saw the spyder RS but Porsche’s attitude on “special” cars annoys me. So ended up getting a McLaren instead

 

[duff]

It is shame to see the ownership experience is still letting things down to the extent people hand the keys back and walk away.
Having been there myself I understand the happiness (relief?) felt when the Emira is finally taken back.
When the car just represents stress and frustration instead of the great drive it can be you resent seeing it on the drive.

 

[ott]

I was lucky to get GT4RS same time with Emira this spring. After 6k km’s and 4 trackdays no issues with it. It just works like my previous 981 and wife’s 718 4,0.

Sure every brand has its share of problems and there are also happy Emira owners with faultless cars. Still hope to be one of them one day.

 

[Evotion]

I can only hope that others enjoy a better experience than I have had and that their cars live up to the marketing hype.

I'm starting to think that Lotus gave me one of their better VIP cars

So far, have got away with only little things.
Still waiting for my full exhaust system but that is nothing to do with Lotus.

 

[Finbarqs]

Moral of the story: do not sell my 06 Elise for the emira…

 

[JayEmm]

I think what is most disappointing here is that quite a number of these issues were actually present on the Evora I picked up in 2016.

I had hoped re-using that platform and actually having some money to properly develop it would mean the cars were now solid. Apparently not.

Sounds like customer service is also actually worse than it was before. Perhaps because they now have customers to serve!

 

[Ftype]

I think what is most disappointing here is that quite a number of these issues were actually present on the Evora I picked up in 2016.

I had hoped re-using that platform and actually having some money to properly develop it would mean the cars were now solid. Apparently not.

Sounds like customer service is also actually worse than it was before. Perhaps because they now have customers to serve!

I went on a factory tour and was disappointed to see just ONE robot on the production line which was used to fit the roof. Everything else is done by hand which increases the probability of human error from the newly trained staff which is what is showing in some of the faults being reported. A lot of the parts are coming from China and are proving unreliable. The whole factory needs a major overhaul before there is likely to be any improvement.

 

[JayEmm]

Unfortunately you can throw as much technology and money at a company as you like, but if you fail to change the CULTURE then you'll not really change the results.

Lotus is filled with some incredible and very talented people - always has been - but they've rarely been in the right place, and the quality of the product has almost never been of actual concern. They've got all the kit needed to produce cracking cars, but it would appear that still the only real goal is "get 'em out the door". Sad - they had a golden opportunity here with Emira but apparently are quite keen to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

 

[Cutting42]

I went on a factory tour and was disappointed to see just ONE robot on the production line which was used to fit the roof. Everything else is done by hand which increases the probability of human error from the newly trained staff which is what is showing in some of the faults being reported. A lot of the parts are coming from China and are proving unreliable. The whole factory needs a major overhaul before there is likely to be any improvement.

I suspect the numbers produced do not justify the cost of a fully automatic or even mostly automatic production line. I have no clue how much a robotic station costs but I suspect 7000 cars a year is not even close to paying for them especially with a fairly short life span of the Emira.

 

[Rudolph]

A lot of the parts are coming from China and are proving unreliable.

* * * * *
That's a bad thing, especially with new developed cars like the Emira......
Involuntarily I must think to the previous statement of Lotus that the Evora was a "10" and the new Emira is an "11".....In the present situation the Emira seems to be a "7" or "8".......

 

[Porter]

* * * * *
That's a bad thing, especially with new developed cars like the Emira......
Involuntarily I must think to the previous statement of Lotus that the Evora was a "10" and the new Emira is an "11".....In the present situation the Emira seems to be a "7" or "8".......

I would take the China parts sourcing comment with a grain of salt. There's no evidence that the parts involved in the owner issues that we've seen are sourced from China at all.