anthonyyule

Because completely coincidently I decided to change my car at almost exactly the same time as the factory gave Leven Lotus the Goodwood blue show car and of course Leven Lotus already have their new Orange one which has been there for ever. I traded mine back to Leven Specialist in exchange for my 600LT and so they have decided to keep the car themselves and try to sell it from Corstorphine Road. So the Leven group now find themselves with 3 GT430s on their books and I guess they just want/ need to move some of them on.

My old car is for sale.... easily the cheapest 430GT I have seen on the market.

Never received mine 😫

My car is for sale: https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/evora/lotus-evora-gt430-2-0/9438189 https://www.lotusforsale.com/ads/lotus-evora-gt430-2/ I'm looking for a quick sale.... please pass on to anyone you think might be interested. Thanks, T

bibs. I’m really sorry but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to attend at the weekend 😞. Following a couple of incidents with the car it’s not looking it’s best at the moment (!) and the time I need to take off to come along to hethel this weekend will be better spent working to try and pay for the damage to get repaired. At least it shows I’m using the car though and it’s definitely not a garage queen. I hope everybody has a great time and I look forward to seeing the pics. Anybody who has seen the “seagull” picture will understand! I’ll try and post pics later!!

I’ll be there! Planning on convoying down with Leven Lotus and making a weekend of it but I’m sure the car could be made available to you if you plan to make a display. Im now on silver wheels like Marks...... could be good bookends

1 & 2 Mark plus 1 (Fullx2) 3 & 4 Brian & Jackie (Full x2)  5 Jim S (Full ) 6 Mike C (Full)  7 & 8 MarkT and SJ (Fullx2) 9 & 10 Andrew and Alister (Full x 2) 11 & 12 David and Maryann (Full x2) 13 C8RKH - bacon rolls 14 & 15 - Tony and TBC - just a quick drop in for a cup of coffee before heading back to Ballater for their annual vehicle parade. No need for breakfast

This interested me greatly. With so few cars actually built and sold..... who complained? I love the panels on mine and feel that it adds to the cocooned nature of the cabin. Under what circumstances would a glass panel have made 'that' much difference that new owners (or potential purchasers) felt the need to complain.... and shock of shock.... Lotus felt compelled to collate all such complaints and make a change to the design? We must be talking single figures for complaints.... surely not enough to warrant a change? Is it not more feasible that this was one of JMG's last cost cutting measures and simple 'cheap' glass was substituted in place of the more expensive carbon and a plausible story was woven to mask the change?

Nope. Not from what I was told. Same internals for sure but completely recalibrated again.... the software was causing the engineers some headaches which was going to delay my GT430 auto so eventually I went manual. If it had been identical then this delay wouldn’t have been an issue

I honestly don’t know Darryl..... as a driving machine I personally believe it to be quite peerless at the moment. When you start to look at aspects of the car and the brand beyond the aspect of actually driving then I still believe there is some room for improvement...... infotainment/ finish/ after-sales/ access to dealer network could be improved - purely on those points alone I could be tempted into a Mclaren 570 or a new Aston Vantage or possibly an AMG GT. I don’t fancy a 911 of any sorts. But seriously, I enjoy the feeling of the GT430 and can’t think of anything right now that I would swap out for.... I’m waiting to see what Geeley do and the changes which come from Lotus over the next 24-36 months or so.

I would completely agree. There still doesn’t seem to be the same consistency across Lotus dealers as there is with something like Volvo,..... both in the way you are dealt with as a customer and the way in which th dealers look. Lotus needs to brand across all dealership buildings accordingly. But I think it’s gettinng better? That’s very unlikely to happen! The love for the XC90 is real! I’ll have it for it’s 3 year term for sure. To be honest there is more chance of the GT430 being traded before the Volvo!

Absolutely! If it is built to the same quality and it rides and goes like my XC90 then sign me up now. It’s a great piece of understated technological luxury and I absolutely love it. When Geeley start to trickle Volvo stuff through to Lotus it’s going to be epic! I have a short term memory and a very forgiving nature. Although deeply pi55ed at the time, my experience thus far with the GT430 has been very enjoyable and hopefully my future experiences are as good. I stand by my feelings that Lotus warranty are the effective weak link in the chain and that Sales could do more to retain “serial” buyers/ Owners, but on the whole I still hold the brand dear to me and I’m ever hopeful that under Geeley things can only get better!

Im not sure how relevant this is but I’ll be honest that I’ve never actually gotten down and checked over all of the carbon on my 430. It actually took my detailer to point out several small glitches in the weave. Does that make me lazy or less of an owner - I don’t think it does... but I can live with minor imperfections in something like carbon fibre which is a natural weave. The same sort of weave that we find every day in our clothing and I wonder how often we return clothes which has a slight weave out of line? Maybe folks do?? ive messed up my front splitter and I’m gutted by that but it was self inflicted. I’ve also got a couple of marks on the roof which are clearly part of the manufacturing process but I appreciate they are small enough that they would pass QC. I can live with that. tbh - I can’t see any noticeable defects in any of your pics.... sorry!