demo cars at dealers ?

[Mctaff]

Yeah fair point… and those shiny showrooms ain’t cheap either!

[TomE]

15 hours ago, Mctaff said:

over a grand to accept a car off a truck, check it over, then pull a cover off it for the customer and get a few bits of paper signed?

anyone want to pick up from my house? I'll throw in a decent espresso too!

Delivery charge for an Elise/Exige last year was £850.  Includes the transport company as well as the dealer.  Then registration and Year 1 VED on top.  All itemised on the dealer invoice.
 

The Emira delivery charge is slightly higher but similar ballpark.  Other marques sometimes hide the delivery charge in the list price. 

[Evotion]

Ah, then, like Fagin from Oliver!, my favourite character of all time, I will reviewing the situation. 😄

[exeterjeep]

Not seen any update on here about when an Emira (or 2) may turn up at a retailer, so spoke to Hendy today and it looks like the May/June is now more like late June and probably more likely sometime in July.

[TomE]

Late June/early July was what I was told by Customer Care when they told me about the delay to my delivery date from June to July.

Lotus Driving Academy are expecting their fleet of Emiras in mid June.

[JJ]

Local dealer in NL has (tentatively) indicated early July for their demo cars to arrive, FWIW.

[exeterjeep]

On 07/05/2022 at 12:52, TomE said:

Lotus Driving Academy are expecting their fleet of Emiras in mid June.

May encourage a lot of bookings.

[Mctaff]

I was told July by rybrook in Bristol now for demos… previously may/june

 

7 hours ago, exeterjeep said:

May encourage a lot of bookings.

Cynically I feel they are milking the early adopters - pay for a tour to see the colours; pay for driving academy to get a test drive. Wtf??

😡

Edited May 9, 2022 by Mctaff

[TomE]

There has been talk before of them organising something for the first delivery batch (was June, now July).  I was told this by Lotus seniors and Customer Care but have heard nothing more about it recently.

At the "delivery minus 30 days" point they will be asking people to confirm their order (and delivery option, part ex, financing, pay balance etc).  If they don't offer test drives and there are no dealer demos available for that early group, then there's a risk some people will cancel or ask to defer delivery.

I realise everyone signed up to a pre-launch and took a calculated risk, with the possibility of having to take delivery without a test drive.  With the issues with lack of info and delayed parts and key things like seats not yet finalised, plus press reviews also delayed, I suspect some of the early batch may be more nervous now about taking a Month 1 car.

[NotSoQuick]

I’m confident the cars will be great to drive and sound great. Aside from everything else, just their experience and development with the Evora platform almost certainly guarantees that (despite the larger wheels).

 

For me, it’s the lack of being able to plan for using the car.

 

I should have been collecting in May, then June (had roadtrips planned for it!) and now it’s July. I was led to expect to see demo cars in showrooms no later than April/May and a lot of the chatter was around press reviews being released in Q1 and then again in the past few weeks, but now it’s May and still nothing…it’s one thing buying a car unseen/undriven by yourself, but there is the growing possibility that we won’t even have official pictures of a production car or a press review before we have to confirm our orders - If the July timeline holds.

 

So, given the uncertainties now being mentioned, I’m now not confident about a delivery before very late July. Therefore, I’m thinking that quite possibly the first time I’ll get to use it will be September - glad I specced the Dunlops…but the ‘shine’ for me will have gone by then as it’ll be back to commuting on a train and the weather will be turning and will possibly only use the car between 10-15 times until Spring 2023…

 

On that note, I’m sure they’ll be absolutely brilliant as daily drivers (but I won’t have that option 😩)

[DaveC72]

12 hours ago, Mctaff said:

I was told July by rybrook in Bristol now for demos… previously may/june

 

Cynically I feel they are milking the early adopters - pay for a tour to see the colours; pay for driving academy to get a test drive. Wtf??

😡

I can feel your frustration, but this made me giggle.  From your experience so far, do you honestly think that there is that level of sophistication, planning and forethought...?

[simonb]

11 hours ago, TomE said:

 I suspect some of the early batch may be more nervous now about taking a Month 1 car.

I think this will be the first new Lotus where the early adopters take less risk.  Historically I think first batch was more like beta testing

[Mctaff]

7 hours ago, DaveC72 said:

I can feel your frustration, but this made me giggle.  From your experience so far, do you honestly think that there is that level of sophistication, planning and forethought...?

Lol. Fair point!!

I’m overthinking it 😃

Edited May 10, 2022 by Mctaff

[Beady]

It might be helpful to generate a list of the cars at each UK dealer (once they arrive) -

assuming all v6 manual, key info being colour  / sport or touring / leather v alcantara

then it will easy to find the closest dealer with the colour / options we want to check out

I am pretty sure if all dealers have 2 cars then they will all have a sport/touring option but the colour is the big one.

In particular I need to know who has DV?

 

[TomE]

We can start that as soon as the dealers know what they're getting - many don't and are now waiting to see what turns up.  Apparently now due to be delivered in last week of August for UK.

[exeterjeep]

I was told that the my local dealer has given details of what cars they wanted, but I can't imagine that what actually turns up would be what they were expecting.

When Hendy gets its ones, I'll update.

[Bibs]

I'll post an article on our home page with a list of what's where when they start arriving on forecourts. 

[Bibs]

I understand there's more than a few transporters up at the factory at the moment. I'd imagine next week should be a busy time at the retailers

 

[stephenwhyte]

Got to wonder why the first demo cars appear to have been sent to Belgium? Seems an odd decision…..or are they just the first to get photos posted up?

[Bibs]

I've no idea what the logic behind the delivery dates is but I'm sure there's some logistical reason. Either way, we'll be able to drive them soon

 

[exeterjeep]

May be we could offer to collect from Hethel and deliver the cars to our local retailer.    

[hamza]

4 hours ago, stephenwhyte said:

Got to wonder why the first demo cars appear to have been sent to Belgium? Seems an odd decision…..or are they just the first to get photos posted up?

Maybe the first cars were LHD?

[Beady]

Parts supply - lack of right hand steering wheels 🤣

[TomE]

Demos to Belgium first because of a shortage of parts for RHD cars.  Hence why most of the press and late-stage validation cars were LHD.  UK dealers were supposed to get demos in mid Aug but latest estimate is "by mid Sept".

Test drive bookings in the UK are going to be handled centrally by Lotus for the first few weeks, so early depositors are given first chance if they want a drive before having to commit to their orders.

Thierry Verhiest in Oostende has the first two (Shadow Grey and Hethel Yellow), the other Belgian dealers in Antwerp and Brussels expect theirs early next week.  PIcs here:

https://www.facebook.com/verhiest.lotus

[simonb]

be interesting to have confirmation these are now final production specification cars