Poll: Lotus Emira Discussion

Who is going to buy one?

  • Yes V6 FE Manual - 5k paid

    Votes: 11 28.9%

  • Yes V6 FE Auto - 5k paid

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes i4 DCT FE - 2k paid

    Votes: 2 5.3%

  • Still thinking about and NO deposit paid

    Votes: 19 50.0%

  • 2k Deposit paid but making no decisions yet, holding out.

    Votes: 6 15.8%
  • Total voters
    38
Looks like a lot has changed since I last visited the factory in 2017. I got invited to see my car being built - saw it on the line - and also they wanted to show me the paint as I was one of the first or perhaps the first to order a car in Elise Signature Blue. Very great experience, I got loads of time there and to see your actual car being built was so cool. They didn't even charge if I remember correctly, although I would have happily paid a bit. If they can offer a similar experience to Emira owners it will continue to generate the amazing brand loyalty they have, hopefully with totally new customers to the brand.

Appreciated the write-up Gibbo, great stuff.
 
alex24 said:
Looks like a lot has changed since I last visited the factory in 2017. I got invited to see my car being built - saw it on the line - and also they wanted to show me the paint as I was one of the first or perhaps the first to order a car in Elise Signature Blue. Very great experience, I got loads of time there and to see your actual car being built was so cool. They didn't even charge if I remember correctly, although I would have happily paid a bit. If they can offer a similar experience to Emira owners it will continue to generate the amazing brand loyalty they have, hopefully with totally new customers to the brand.

Appreciated the write-up Gibbo, great stuff.
Click to expand...

Same me and my partner got a free invite which was nice, but even at £95 it is fair, I think the official tour is 3hr long, but ours went on for around 4.5hrs as it was a more personalised tour as one of the directors was with us to answer any questions.

The yellow car I posted photos off from the BBC (not my photos) is a pre-production car but built to production standards, so production ride height, specification etc. The only none production items on said car was silver exhaust tips as those would normally be black on a car that has the "upper black pack" option selected, I prefer silver tips. This car also had no vanity mirror for passenger, however production cars will have vanity mirror with lights, it was also LHD for the keen eyed. Stunning car in person!

I was able to sit in it which I think is a first been a production spec car and the seats were easily 1-2" lower than the roadshow car, they were also comfier and the materials felt much higher quality, as did the rest of the cabin, I could not find any hard scratch plastics, everything was soft touch or carpeted, even the door bins. So Lotus are really aiming to knock a quality product out the door, hence the millions of investment in automated machinery to build the car and then machines to check tolerances are acceptable, so good panel fit/gaps etc etc plus all the other important stuff.

Though I did not have the keys to hand I was able to turn the side lights on and turn the hazards on, the external light setup on the car looks amazing, I also like how the headlight how Emira written inside them and the LED lights look powerful, unlike my Exige which I swear uses candles for headlights.
 
It really looks like all the investment in design and production is paying dividends in the final product. Did you notice a lot of 'Geely' sourced items in the vehicle, or was it still quite bespoke to Lotus at this point? Obviously Lotus have a history of borrowing, quite effectively, from others, but wondering if some hardware from the other brands (Volvo/Polestar, Lynk & Co, Proton, etc?) has found its way in. Not necessarily a bad thing, the last Volvo interior I experienced was very good.
 
alex24 said:
It really looks like all the investment in design and production is paying dividends in the final product. Did you notice a lot of 'Geely' sourced items in the vehicle, or was it still quite bespoke to Lotus at this point? Obviously Lotus have a history of borrowing, quite effectively, from others, but wondering if some hardware from the other brands (Volvo/Polestar, Lynk & Co, Proton, etc?) has found its way in. Not necessarily a bad thing, the last Volvo interior I experienced was very good.
Click to expand...

Not the best person to ask really as I've no experience of those cars. All I can say is from looking in bins of parts I spotted following:
- Toyota V6 engines, heavily modified manuals to fit the V6.
- Bilstein dampers
- AP calipers
- KEF Audio

They said the dash and interior is made in Germany for the cars, the rubber door shuts are same as Porsche for the better looks and quality, so hence a lot of that stuff comes out of Germany and the quality of the interior seemed very good.

All the lights were LED and looked very good. Even the sun visors were suede, so quality seems very good. :)
 
Not a production car but lots of footage of the shadow grey (my least favourite colour):


After seeing Nimbus grey at the factory it is the best colour for showing of the lines and angles of the car, looks great with the red interior too and red calipers.
 
alex24 said:
It really looks like all the investment in design and production is paying dividends in the final product. Did you notice a lot of 'Geely' sourced items in the vehicle, or was it still quite bespoke to Lotus at this point? Obviously Lotus have a history of borrowing, quite effectively, from others, but wondering if some hardware from the other brands (Volvo/Polestar, Lynk & Co, Proton, etc?) has found its way in. Not necessarily a bad thing, the last Volvo interior I experienced was very good.
Click to expand...

Volvo stuff has to be an improvement on Vauxhall Nova indicator stalks and Peugeot 205 buttons used in the Series 1 Elise.
 
Alibaba99 said:
Volvo stuff has to be an improvement on Vauxhall Nova indicator stalks and Peugeot 205 buttons used in the Series 1 Elise.
Click to expand...

Indeed, that's the hope. My Series 3 Elise even still has those horrible things, not that it bothers me much in that. It would bother me in an Evora or Emira though. I think the Evora uses Ford ones, so a little bit of an upgrade but I would hope for more in the Emira.
 
alex24 said:
Indeed, that's the hope. My Series 3 Elise even still has those horrible things, not that it bothers me much in that. It would bother me in an Evora or Emira though. I think the Evora uses Ford ones, so a little bit of an upgrade but I would hope for more in the Emira.
Click to expand...
They are actually quite ergonomic stalks though I find. Plus they are very light ofc :D I find the buttons for the lights etc much better quality in the S2 than the S3, they feel more solid.
 
Just received a response from Lotus on my 3rd request to have the front number plate holder not fitted to the car - request denied... they will drill the front bumper and fit the ugly number plate holder despite my requests not to. Sighs.
 
"
A number plate holder will be fitted to the car at factory. This is a part of the production process and is not optional. The number plate would then be fitted to the car at PDI.
Please do let me know if there is anything else I can help with in the meantime. "
 
shaank said:
"
A number plate holder will be fitted to the car at factory. This is a part of the production process and is not optional. The number plate would then be fitted to the car at PDI.
Please do let me know if there is anything else I can help with in the meantime. "
Click to expand...

To be fair, it's better than what Audi did to my etron and used those god awful foam sticky pads. The plate fell off a few months later lol
 
shaank said:
Just received a response from Lotus on my 3rd request to have the front number plate holder not fitted to the car - request denied... they will drill the front bumper and fit the ugly number plate holder despite my requests not to. Sighs.
Click to expand...

As you have found out, this is not possible as the number plate holders are fitted at the factory, I don't see it an issue to be honest.

For me the bigger issue is the communication issues Lotus are having with customers and sending emails in batches.

Had a call from one of the directors yesterday evening due to how I was told on the phone my car was delayed until July and then over email told August.
They need to get the communications spot on because directors cannot be expected to call customers to apologise for communication issues, they really need to sort it out and just be open and honest.

Porsche have been very open with the problems they are having, such as ceramic brake options been removed and other delays due to wiring loom issues etc. Just be honest then people will be happy it is just the lack of transparency that is creating some issues.

I am happy to wait, all that matters is they get it right and build a top quality product without issues, if that means they can only build 200-250 a month to begin with to get it spot on whilst getting upto speed then that is fine as I'd rather my car was a month or two late rather than a Friday afternoon rush job with errors.
 
It looks rather smart on the track

safety.jpg
 
Hi there

BOBT just gave an Emira away:


That is the car I sat in a couple of weeks ago, the exhaust revs are with the car in its default mode, so valve closed and hence why you can hear the SC whine. :)

In the other modes the exhaust valve opens and it sounds very good then, Christian unfortunately did not realise whilst filming this and as such left it in the standard mode.
 
Lotus knocked it out the park with the looks, one of the guys I know got to drive one at the event and his feedback to me was it drove noticeably better than an Evora 410 sport from a driving dynamics perspective and that the interior and build quality were on a totally different level. His view after driving one is Lotus won't be able to build enough, particular of the 60K AMG version.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom