Poll for Those with Paint Blistering / Bubbling Defect

[kitkat]

Ohhh, that's not good. October '23 is WAY after the date that this was supposedly remedied in the supply chain.

Who said it was remedied LOL? Some dude on the forums? A dealer?

 

[FlashingBlade]

Just to update on my paint blistering, my dealer is telling me that Lotus has changed its 'systems' which is making it more difficult for them to get warranty repairs authorised. My car went in for assessment in early December, and I'm still waiting for the authorisation to be given for the door to be replaced.

Still waiting for Hethel on this.

I'm starting to think they're deliberately dragging their heels now to avoid warranty costs. Changing systems or not, it shouldn't take nearly three months to get a dealer-acknowledged defect this long to get authorised and booked in.

I'm starting to think I'm going to have to get a solicitor involved, as Lotus don't appear to be honouring their warranty.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Maybe someone should email these guys who wrote the article / Teijin and show them this forum thread. There is a good discussion about how this product is made to prevent paint bubbling.... they say it is caused from micro cracks.

Teijin Supplies Eye-Catching Exterior Components of New Lotus Emira

The panels are manufactured using Teijin’s TCA Ultra Lite material, which is up to 43% lighter than traditional composites.

www.plasticstoday.com

 

[Hobiedick]

Still waiting for Hethel on this.

I'm starting to think they're deliberately dragging their heels now to avoid warranty costs. Changing systems or not, it shouldn't take nearly three months to get a dealer-acknowledged defect this long to get authorised and booked in.

I'm starting to think I'm going to have to get a solicitor involved, as Lotus don't appear to be honouring their warranty.

My car had it's first service on Monday and the dealer confirmed it had blisters on passenger door, apparently Lotus have no spare doors to sort this problem so there will be a long wait. The crap Customer Care continues!!!!!

 

[Porter]

Maybe someone should email these guys who wrote the article / Teijin and show them this forum thread. There is a good discussion about how this product is made to prevent paint bubbling.... they say it is caused from micro cracks.

Teijin Supplies Eye-Catching Exterior Components of New Lotus Emira

The panels are manufactured using Teijin’s TCA Ultra Lite material, which is up to 43% lighter than traditional composites.

www.plasticstoday.com

Do it!

 

[Wonza]

Do it!

I think they already know. Probably in dispute with Lotus. Do you think Lotus are sending all the dodgy panels back to the supplier. As a business man, the supplier probably replied that Lotus haven’t prepped the panels properly . Maybe that’s the reason why it takes so looong to get authorised. Don’t know who’s at fault but customers getting shafted after paying £80k on a brand new car. It’s not acceptable.

 

[Porter]

I think they already know. Probably in dispute with Lotus. Do you think Lotus are sending all the dodgy panels back to the supplier. As a business man, the supplier probably replied that Lotus haven’t prepped the panels properly . Maybe that’s the reason why it takes so looong to get authorised. Don’t know who’s at fault but customers getting shafted after paying £80k on a brand new car. It’s not acceptable.

I mean the journalist. Not Tejin. There's a story in there, and if there is a dispute with Lotus, bad press will incentivize Tejin to play ball and do what's right.

 

[981KMAN]

I mean the journalist. Not Tejin. There's a story in there, and if there is a dispute with Lotus, bad press will incentivize Tejin to play ball and do what's right.

Done.....

 

[Go Kart]

I don’t know if this poll will be of much use until North American owners have been driving their cars around for the next year or so. Their issues (if any) won’t pop up until then. The participants of this poll are appreciated, but it’s a very small number reporting the issue in comparison to the cars delivered globally. There’s not enough compiled data for the bigger picture.

Looking at the poll you’d think “oh, it’s just early cars that were affected”… I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion for at least another year after more data is collected.

 

[981KMAN]

Agreed...... 20% affected with more trickling in.
It will be interesting to see how the North American Market is affected.

 

[Yas.totti10]

Unfortunately my experience with Lotus has been an absolute fiasco.

I thought with geely involved they would have stepped up their game.

Let's be honest the issues my Emira has is embarrassing for an £80k car

Lotus are a treading a fine line on being investigated for exercising poor Quality Assurance.

It's hard to say these things being a Lotus fan.

But I have learnt the hard way that they are way off competing with their competitors in terms of customer satisfaction.

 

[Hobiedick]

Unfortunately my experience with Lotus has been an absolute fiasco.

I thought with geely involved they would have stepped up their game.

Let's be honest the issues my Emira has is embarrassing for an £80k car

Lotus are a treading a fine line on being investigated for exercising poor Quality Assurance.

It's hard to say these things being a Lotus fan.

But I have learnt the hard way that they are way off competing with their competitors in terms of customer satisfaction.

I totally agree, my car has been a disaster since it was built, if it wasn't for my dealer being top class the car would have been rejected by me, Lotus are the pits.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Agreed...... 20% affected with more trickling in.
It will be interesting to see how the North American Market is affected.

What's that quote? 'There are lies, damn lies, and statistics".

The poll only shows 14 cars with blisters. Yes, it's 19% of the poll responses, but it's only a tiny fraction of the thousands of Emiras that have been manufactured. You can't reasonably conclude that anything like 20% of Emiras have a blistering problem.

 

[981KMAN]

What's that quote? 'There are lies, damn lies, and statistics".

The poll only shows 14 cars with blisters. Yes, it's 19% of the poll responses, but it's only a tiny fraction of the thousands of Emiras that have been manufactured. You can't reasonably conclude that anything like 20% of Emiras have a blistering problem.

Well to correct your post, the Poll shows 16 positive responses for Paint Blistering.
2 more must have trickled in since your post.
Yet to make my statement more to your liking......

20% of the Poll responses are affected with more trickling in

The point is..... for the Poll taken on this forum regarding Exterior Paint Blistering, approximately 20% of the respondents indicated that they have the Blistering Condition.

Lotus should have ZERO Paint issues. Yet clearly they have a paint problem....
And why do you discount all the Emira owners that do not follow this forum that have Paint Blistering issues? I would estimate it's about 20% of them!

 

[Hobiedick]

Well to correct your post, the Poll shows 16 positive responses for Paint Blistering.
2 more must have trickled in since your post.
Yet to make my statement more to your liking......

20% of the Poll responses are affected with more trickling in

The point is..... for the Poll taken on this forum regarding Exterior Paint Blistering, approximately 20% of the respondents indicated that they have the Blistering Condition.

Lotus should have ZERO Paint issues. Yet clearly they have a paint problem....
And why do you discount all the Emira owners that do not follow this forum that have Paint Blistering issues? I would estimate it's about 20% of them!

I am affected by paint blisters and in the poll, you say it is a paint defect but the concensous is it is caused by defective panel moulding. I am no expert on the type of GRP/Composite used for these panels, polyester GRP boats often suffered from gel coat blisters caused by osmosis, despite what some people think water can infiltrate the GRP and cause these problems. As I say I am not an expert and would like to know why the paint is blistering on the Lotus doors.

 

[Go Kart]

In the other thread people are celebrating their Emiras entering port in the hundreds…

… I’m honestly hoping my wife’s allocation isn’t built yet. The longer the factory has to dial in all the problems reported with electrical gremlins and this paint blistering in all these different threads the better imo.

I read somewhere that someone visiting the factory saw a lot of unprotected, unbuilt chassis just sitting out in the rain. YIKES… I hope Lotus figured out the build schedule so that ALL our car parts are now stored indoors. I’d rather wait a few more months for the allocation arrival to have a better chance at higher quality control at the factory. The more experience and the longer those factory workers have building these cars figuring out what NOT to do the higher quality we will receive.

 

[981KMAN]

In the other thread people are celebrating their Emiras entering port in the hundreds…

… I’m honestly hoping my wife’s allocation isn’t built yet. The longer the factory has to dial in all the problems reported with electrical gremlins and this paint blistering in all these different threads the better imo.

I read somewhere that someone visiting the factory saw a lot of unprotected, unbuilt chassis just sitting out in the rain. YIKES… I hope Lotus figured out the build schedule so that ALL our car parts are now stored indoors. I’d rather wait a few more months for the allocation arrival to have a better chance at higher quality control at the factory. The more experience and the longer those factory workers have building these cars figuring out what NOT to do the higher quality we will receive.

I hear you and thought the same a year plus ago. Then as time passed, many of the initial problems with the Emira that we thought would be solved still remained. More wishful thinking and time passed and there are still too many issues for a car that has been in production this long. So I cancelled my order and will revisit the Emira as time passes to see if Lotus can fix the issues. I don't want to spend $120K USD on a car that has all the issues that folks are reporting with their Emira. Yes, some seem to have few if any issues, yet the risk is too high, as the closest dealers is a 2.5 hour drive from my home.

 

[Go Kart]

I’ve made my wife fully aware of the issues I’ve read about on these forums since finding this website a few weeks ago, and she’s still ALL in. I’ve also asked her multiple times in the last 2.5 years if she’s wanted to pull the deposit and go with something else, but she’s been immovable.

It has helped that a new Lotus dealer we were previously unaware of has opened up 45 minutes away from us. They popped up sometime after she put her deposit down, and THAT has eased her mind quite a bit with the possible warranty issues. The dealer we ordered from is 6+ hours away from us, so warranty claims there would have suuuuuucked.

 

[Eagle7]

I’ve made my wife fully aware of the issues I’ve read about on these forums since finding this website a few weeks ago, and she’s still ALL in. I’ve also asked her multiple times in the last 2.5 years if she’s wanted to pull the deposit and go with something else, but she’s been immovable.

It has helped that a new Lotus dealer we were previously unaware of has opened up 45 minutes away from us. They popped up sometime after she put her deposit down, and THAT has eased her mind quite a bit with the possible warranty issues. The dealer we ordered from is 6+ hours away from us, so warranty claims there would have suuuuuucked.

Sounds like she's definitely a keeper!

 

[Yas.totti10]

I have had a very good chat with someone who knows people high up at Lotus HQ.

It is a massive issue that is affecting dealerships and risking refunds nationwide in the UK.

Lotus Customer Service's strategy is the massive hindrance because they are trying to satisfy customers by offering budget repairs.

So in short.... Its a widespread problem which they still have not necessarily remedied.