Simon Bateman

I'll have a look at this for the next trip. I must admit that I don't like anything with auto renewal, although I appreciate that it can be cancelled if not required.

We have driven through Switzerland quite a few times in recent years and always order the vignette before we go. That said, there is a booking fee, which might be avoided if you obtained locally. The Swiss border staff checked our group for vignettes. Speeding is a massive issue in Switzerland. They have a zero tolerance policy and cameras are set to the exact figure. Personally I don't enjoy the motorways because of that. Regarding food prices.....last summer we stopped at a Hotel on Lake Constance and found a nice Pizza place with an outside terrace just a street back from the lake. It was very similar to UK prices there. Roughly a fiver for a large draft beer and about £15.00 for a very large pizza. I think it pays to check the prices before sitting down as it clearly varies greatly between regions etc.

We were queuing and moving slowly today on a dual carriageway up to a small accident at a roundabout, when my wife said that a young lad in a Scirocco in the next lane had given her the thumbs up and a nod of approval. He then decided to take a photo with his phone and drove straight into the back of the car in front of him. We couldn't look and felt so bad for him.

Good idea. I'll have a look at that.

just a word of warning really. I needed 2 rear tyres for our Korean supermini and wanted the same to match the ones on the front axle that I had fitted 12 months ago. found them and ordered through the ATS website, booking a time slot a few days away. then get a phone call from the depot the next day saying they are not actually in stock, offering me an alternative.....all OK with that tbh, despite the website continuing to show these tyres as available. Unfortunately the issue is then getting a refund. Customer service in Birmingham not interested....just quoting company policy.....almost laughing at my attempt to get a quick refund, so put a complaint on and eventually got a card refund 2 weeks later and a generic response to my complaint another week later. I obviously had to get the tyres from somewhere else before the refund and if it was a set of premium tyres for the Evora I would have been out of pocket initially over £1000.00. I belatedly checked out trust pilot and a few other review sites and there's loads of people saying they waited over 4 weeks and more for their money in many cases that seemed to be similar to mine. Personally I wouldn't go near them again. In their response to my complaint they admitted that their website wasn't able to determine if a tyre was actually in stock at the time of order and in the event of having to then go elsewhere for your tyres, they seem happy to sit on your refund for weeks, despite no fault being with the buyer.

Interesting comments re the laggy gearbox. In the Harrys garage video there seemed to be a noticable issue with the gear shift times. The ZF gearbox in our new M2 is super fast for a torque convertor auto and BMW made a lot of noise about how the gear change speeds have been improved, which I read were around 150 v 100 in say a PDK. I'd assumed that the Merc double clutch box was similar to a Porsche PDK, but there does seem to be a slight disconnect between the paddle click and the actual gear change with the Lotus/Merc set up in the Emira.

I think the pillar trim mod involves modifying the underside to enable the trim to have slightly less tension and resistance to laying flat. I doubt it's documented and from memory was passed on to him as 'something we now do at the factory' I'm sure Ben could be persuaded to divulge the secret if required.

I had the A pillar trims lifting on mine within the first 12 months. These were changed under warranty and the windscreen cracked in the process. The replacement screen was fitted FOC by one of the main windscreen companies, under supervision at the Lotus dealership (Silverstone) but within another 12 months they had lifted again. This time, Ben at Silverstone got an addition tip from the factory regarding a small mod that can be made to the trim before fitting and 4 years later they are still stuck down (fingers crossed).

I don't agree with too much of that tbh. This new interior is bang up to date. The hand built Merc engine isn't exactly a lump of old iron either. Heavy.....probably, but have a look at verified weights for say a Turbo S on Ze perfs website or similar....that car isn't light either and although it's 4 wheel drive, it's also a flat 6 v the Astons bigger V8. An iffy heritage.....what about the countless wins at Le Mans and other endurance racing. The F1 team has made massive progress in the last 18 months to. In terms of price, It looks to be about 20k cheaper than a comparable 911, so I'm not sure how 'cheap' it needs to be. Never had an Aston.....I can't afford one. I'm happy to get behind the brand, particularly when they look to have produced something decent.

I've seen a couple of reviews and think it's stunning. Just goes to show how close the previous gen was to looking half decent and with re designed headlights, looks so much better. 160k is a lot of cash, but with 665ps, it's move powerfull than a 911 turbo S and that has an OTR price of nearly 185k, so it is competitive. In a world of bland Porkers, I'd seriously consider one if I had that some of money to spend.

Happy to recommend Silverstone obviously. We have taken our Evora 400 tbere since 2018 and the techs are excellent. If you didn't want to go that far, you could also consider Allon White in Cranfield, Beds. They have been around for a long time and seem to have a good reputation. Last time I checked, they were still on the Lotus website as an official service centre.

And in pride of place in their Le Mans exhibition area.

In June we visited the Technik museum Sinsheim in Germany with a car group They have a Le Mans Evora there.

You may also want to check the main fuse plates/cable running from the battery connector cables. I had the exact same problem as you with my Evora 400 and Silverstone found the issue. They also check these now as part of their pre sales list on all vehicles. Mine first happened after a spirited drive along some Alpine passes and was very intermittent thereafter. I assume the Exige has a similar set up in this aspect to the Evora 400.

Not sure if this helps, but both my keys stopped working during a French road trip last year. We were at a service station. Turned off waiting for my turn at the pump. 5 mins later, nothing. All lights on the dash OK, but the fobs not talking to the alarm. Did a hard reboot with the battery and all OK. Never did it again for the next 10 days and I changed the fob batteries just in case, when I got back to the UK. Plenty of stuff on the Internet about external sources interfering with key signals and the service station I stopped at was crammed with all sorts of signal masts and antenna's. I was sceptical and still am, that both fobs ran out of battery at exactly the same time. Especially when it's not even a smart key constantly sending out s signal.