New member from UK - Emira on order

[digilotus]

Thanks yes I have looked there, and considering options.


I was told yesterday by 2 different Lotus CS staff no V6 delivery until 2026. One did say production would re-start end 2025. But neither knew anything certain. It could very well change backwards or forwards.

Personally I find it unbelievable that Lotus won't build V6 Emiras in the latter half of 2024 and all of 2025. That's 18 months of no V6 builds.

My bet is the reverse. Lotus will churn out as many V6 cars as they can across 2025 and into 2026 before Toyota stop making new V6 2GR-FE engines.

 

[JimH]

Personally I find it unbelievable that Lotus won't build V6 Emiras in the latter half of 2024 and all of 2025. That's 18 months of no V6 builds.

My bet is the reverse. Lotus will churn out as many V6 cars as they can across 2025 and into 2026 before Toyota stop making new V6 2GR-FE engines.

No more V6's FOR THE UK MARKET until 2026 - other territories may differ.....

 

[Beardedbradley]

No more V6's FOR THE UK MARKET until 2026 - other territories may differ.....

Oh well looks like I won’t be parting with any money then, I was told twice by CS that final orders of First Edition V6 would be completed in 2025.

 

[JimH]

Oh well looks like I won’t be parting with any money then, I was told twice by CS that final orders of First Edition V6 would be completed in 2025.

Plenty here with no wait…….. https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/car-locator?model=Emira

 

[Beardedbradley]

Plenty here with no wait…….. https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/car-locator?model=Emira

They’ve been trying to pass one of those off onto me, they’re flexible on price.

 

[Speedy Emira]

Oh well looks like I won’t be parting with any money then, I was told twice by CS that final orders of First Edition V6 would be completed in 2025.

You can never believe anything they say because I was told V6 orders were stopping later this year.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Toyota sold the rights to manufacture the engines.

 

[Beardedbradley]

You can never believe anything they say because I was told V6 orders were stopping later this year.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Toyota sold the rights to manufacture the engines.

They may have already stopped for good who knows, customer service has been great for me personally but I feel they don’t know what’s happening. On two separate occasions they have told me Lotus is committed to completing the First Edition V6 orders in 2025 one stated it might be sooner

 

[Lauren]

Hi.

I've had an Emira on order since last August (2023)

As a first post this is probably not a particularly positive one but I suspect I'm not alone in my experience. Here's my timeline:

Order placed August '23 (V6 Auto, Nimbus Grey, Black pack)

Received an email from Lotus in September stating that my car build would start in Q1 2023...which was slightly odd as that was in the past ;-)
Customer service confirmed that this was an error and should have been Q1 2024.

Received a text at the end of October with a link to finalize my spec. Unfortunately the link was incorrect. A few exchanges with customer service sorted this and I confirmed my spec (precisely as I had ordered in August) on 5th November.

In January '24 I contacted customer service to see if they had any news on my car's production date. They didn't.

I did the same again in late March. Customer service have yet to reply.

In hindsight I (rather foolishly) moved money around and even removed a private number plate from another car (to eventually go on to the Emira) so that I was absolutely 100% ready to go at the end of March ie the end or 1Q when Lotus said the car was being built.

On Tuesday this week I did the factory tour (which was absolutely fantastic)...but would have been even better had I known that my car was soon to be making its way along the line! The factory tour guide attempted to find a production date for my car but, unfortunately, was unable to find anything....tbh, I wasn't looking for a date...just a month or even a quarter would have helped.

The most recent annoyance is that I can no longer get to my order on the My Lotus website. Up until a few weeks ago there was a special link on the page for anyone who had placed their order prior to November '23. That link appears to have been removed. I have contacted customer support about this but have yet to receive a reply. I'll try a live chat tomorrow.

Today I paid a visit to my local dealer - Hendy Performance, Southampton. I have used them for test drives and planned to collect the car from them. The sales manager kindly agreed to do some chasing on my behalf so I'll see how he gets on shortly.

Apologies for this being a rather negative first posting! I still love the car and can't wait for mine to arrive but, eight months since ordering and, having had that 1Q 2024 date dangled in front of me, it would be great to get some idea of the production date.

Nick

Hi Nick, I've had a pretty awful experience too with Lotus Customer Services... You are not alone! I ordered my Emira I4 in January 2023 and only just had delivery of it (July 2024). Fingers crossed it won't be long for you. It's definitely worth the wait!!! I've had the Lotus Elise, Lotus Europa and Lotus Evora (Sports Racer) and by far the Emira I4 is my favourite

 

[JimH]

The UK direct sales "experiment" has now been the subject of a full 180 degree U-turn and all new orders for ALL Lotus product (including EV's) are being processed by dealers again. I suspect you'll get much more customer service from Hendy Southampton - I bought their V6 Auto Demonstrator last October (after cancelling a long-delayed i4 order and a drive in a factory press i4) and they were great....

 

[Nick P]

The UK direct sales "experiment" has now been the subject of a full 180 degree U-turn and all new orders for ALL Lotus product (including EV's) are being processed by dealers again. I suspect you'll get much more customer service from Hendy Southampton - I bought their V6 Auto Demonstrator last October (after cancelling a long-delayed i4 order and a drive in a factory press i4) and they were great....

Hi Jim.

Yes - I'm aware of (and very pleased about) the demise of the agency model.

Your post made me laugh. I had a test drive booked for Hendy's v6 auto last September/October for my wife....I'd concluded that it would be good if she experienced the car before ours arrived. When we arrived for her test drive (this was the time when dealers were still doing escorted test drives) we were informed that, unfortunately, my wife wouldn't be able to drive the car on that day as it had just been sold. The (very apologetic) salesman we had been dealing with had been off sick for a few days and wasn't aware of the sale until the day he returned which just happened to be the day of my wife's planned test drive.

So now we know who the mystery buyer was ;-)

Fortunately, Hendy obtained a new auto demonstrator a few weeks later so my wife was able to experience it.

Assuming it was the yellow one, I'm guessing that I took your car out for a test drive in about the July/August timeframe last year. You have an awesome car!

Nick

 

[JimH]

Hi Jim.

Yes - I'm aware of (and very pleased about) the demise of the agency model.

Your post made me laugh. I had a test drive booked for Hendy's v6 auto last September/October for my wife....I'd concluded that it would be good if she experienced the car before ours arrived. When we arrived for her test drive (this was the time when dealers were still doing escorted test drives) we were informed that, unfortunately, my wife wouldn't be able to drive the car on that day as it had just been sold. The (very apologetic) salesman we had been dealing with had been off sick for a few days and wasn't aware of the sale until the day he returned which just happened to be the day of my wife's planned test drive.

So now we know who the mystery buyer was ;-)

Fortunately, Hendy obtained a new auto demonstrator a few weeks later so my wife was able to experience it.

Assuming it was the yellow one, I'm guessing that I took your car out for a test drive in about the July/August timeframe last year. You have an awesome car!

Nick

Yes - last September/October - spec as below - sorry.....

Went down by train and drove it home to Norwich in the pi33ing rain for 3 hours - that killed the HVAC fan resistor pack!

 

[Speedy Emira]

Hi. Not really. Up until a couple of years ago I've always driven older, cheap cars and maintained them myself. I'm at a stage in life now where I have the option to buy new and, illogical though it may be, in my mind there's still something special about having a car made specifically for you.

I totally agree with you regarding the great feeling when buying a brand new car no one has owned before.
I bought mine at 8 months old which is the first car for about 20 years that wasn’t new and it turned out pretty good.
At least getting a 24 or newer car you hopefully won’t get blisters.