The Evora 400 Diaries

[C8RKH]

Looks like you're living the dream and sucking the coolaid. Once you get 6 cupholders in your car you'll ben an honorary Americanised Lotus owner. Just remember you need to steer with the cruise control on and you'll be good.

To be honest @JayEmm I'm loving your enthusiasm for the car and brand. Bravo man! 

[JayEmm]

Thanks guys. I did a video a while back on "five things I love about the car" and I could easily do another one of those, but I am genuinely struggling to come up with "five things I hate about the car" as a balance - honestly, there's so little.

I'm ignoring most of the problems I have because they're problems rather than design flaws, but all I have so far is: The stereo's a bit weedy (can be fixed), the auto locking mechanism is a pain and the engine start button light is annoying. Oh and you sit a bit too high.

The only reason my M3 hasn't made an appearance on the channel yet is because it's currently having a FULL engine rebuild thanks to a blown head gasket. I think you can imagine my feelings towards German cars at the present time.

The next video I film is going to be a 911 vs Evora piece. I don't think everyone that buys a 911 should have bought an Evora (especially because it would lose it's rarity factor), but I think that everyone who wants a 911 should at least test drive one. Because they might just find that the Lotus actually gives them everything they NEED, with a little more of what they WANT and without losing anything they think they can't live without. 

[JayEmm]

I think @jamesfromsmc and myself would happily form a "department of beardy picky James", an essential step in any production line really

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

14 hours ago, JayEmm said:

It's the sport and race buttons. Sport's tilting down (but only ever so slightly), race is definitely tilting up. And the door lock button is on the piss. The only two on correct are the left heated seat button and the warning triangle button.

I don't know why but it's really doing my nut. Maybe this is why MJK hid all of the S1 buttons

This one is for JayEmm. It's the VW badge on the tailgate of my 2014 VW Passat Alltrack. I have owned this since new, so know it's never been accident damaged, but look how it is not quite vertical. It took me a while to notice, but it's now the only thing I see when I open the garage door!

[JayEmm]

Wow that's pretty bad. I once got Porsche to put a model badge on the back of my car, and even paid their extortionate labour because I knew I would do it wrong. I got there and instantly saw it was off, about 5cm to one side. I told them what they'd done and they tried to persuade me it was meant to be like that! Didn't help their case there were fourty other cars parked next to it and each one of those had the badge in the middle!

[Colin G]

One of the funniest things I find with my Lotus dealership, is that I receive occasional phone calls just to check everything is ok with my car and that I'm happy, or if they want me to drop it in to have anything looked at. I think that's pretty awesome customer service to be honest. I put it in to have something fixed at one point, and they checked the whole car just in case, finding one other thing that needed doing.

[JayEmm]

That's excellent service @Colin G. TBH I hear nothing but good things about your local.

You would assume that with their huge staff, multi-million pound showrooms and demanding customers that German brands would be brilliant (if pricey) when it comes to servicing. Unfortunately the opposite is often true. Some main dealers are barely any better than Kwik Fit

[Colin G]

To be honest, when I had my Aston Martin they did it as well (they're next door to Lotus) so maybe it's just how the dealerships in that little estate work. In fact, I still get the odd call from the guy at AM to ask how I'm getting on with the 400. 

[JayEmm]

Bit of an update, I just called Stratton to double check I can get the car back this afternoon, I was told "Gary from Lotus is currently here looking at your car" - evidently they are taking issues with the cars very seriously. Which is extremely good news and nice to know.

[JayEmm]

A further update to the above, a couple of my issues have now been resolved (apparently)

Some washers were fitted to the driver's seat which they say should have fixed the creaking. Time will tell if it has. To be honest, that's my sole major issue with the car.

A new gear linkage is apparently being rushed from the factory to fix my gear lever not returning properly. They want to keep the car in overnight but I've asked whether I can at least have my car back tonight for the Lion & Lamb meeting. I don't fancy turning up to a Lotus meeting in my van again!

I had a loose head lamp which has apparently been fixed (it was hitting the bodywork when going over bumps)

Frustratingly the start light and other buttons they say they "Can't fix". Which is untrue, they can, but they don't want to. I have suggested if Lotus are happy to OK the labour if they can at least get the starter button apart I have some material which will dim the light down that can hide behind it and should solve the issue.

All good news anyway and shows that Lotus ARE dedicated to supporting their customers, for the most part. I've just got to convince them to get these buttons straight but I have a couple of ideas as to how I might be able to do that myself without ripping the interior apart.

[C8RKH]

53 minutes ago, Colin G said:

One of the funniest things I find with my Lotus dealership, is that I receive occasional phone calls just to check everything is ok with my car and that I'm happy, or if they want me to drop it in to have anything looked at. I think that's pretty awesome customer service to be honest. I put it in to have something fixed at one point, and they checked the whole car just in case, finding one other thing that needed doing.

Never had a call from them Colin and have minimal contact from them, though to be fair when I do email Brandon I get a very good, quick, response, but nothing from them to me apart from an email re the 400 Launch. I guess that's the difference between buying a used car from them and a new, though a sale is a sale right and a used car customer could be a future new car customer.

I also kinda fell out of love a bit when I had to chase re the TLF discount on parts (I gave up when I bought the barge boards and they plus fitting were not cheap) and the guy on the service desk, though a very nice guy, was in the end a Volvo service guy and not really a Lotus knowledgeable enthusiast or even aware of what TLF was etc. Sort of took the gloss off for me a bit.

Not been in since they moved the showroom, but drove past and to be honest from the outside it was hard to see the Loti as they were hidden by 2 ton multicabs from Isuzu/Mitsubishi whatever and could see no Lotus on the forecourt so decided not to bother to stop!

To be fair and balanced though, any issues I have had have been dealt with and Brandon especially was a super guy to deal with, but I believe he is now on to bigger things which is very good for him and I wish him well, as he was, after all, my route into Lotus ownership.

[Stratton Motor Company]

2 hours ago, JayEmm said:

I think @jamesfromsmc and myself would happily form a "department of beardy picky James", an essential step in any production line really

I think your right...

[21gg]

2 hours ago, JayEmm said:

evidently they are taking issues with the cars very seriously. Which is extremely good news and nice to know.

Nothing to do with you doing video diaries at all, nope, all normal, promise...it is......really....lol.

 

Gav

[Danelaw]

The buttons not being exactly straight is odd as they should be either easy to rotate or made to fit such that they are always straight. If it's the latter then in may be a quality control issue with a supplier which is not an overnight fix.

Similarly with the Start button glare issue they may be looking at a proper fix which will take time to engineer, and they probably only want to fit this to new cars when they've made that improvement. This is a very minor issue really and the expense of retro fitting would be out of all proportion.

Best of luck with getting your car back and as you would like it quickly.

 

[JayEmm]

Thanks chaps

I should have it back in a few hours, it has to go back tomorrow for a new gear linkage or part thereof to be fitted which is another ballache job. I didn't want to miss tonight's meeting and they won't really get started on it today.

A good blat will forgive a million sins I know!

[Danelaw]

An Exige v6 courtesy car could be a video opportunity... could be worth asking?

[100th_Idiot]

I thought the subwoofer on my SR wasn't working and notified the dealer prior to the 1000 mile service to look at it. Anyway did a bit of fiddling it works well by fading the speakers to the rear a bit even though there are no rear speakers and that is not what the manual says to do. It seems to be wired up in a way not reflected in official documentation.

[Gm77]

4 hours ago, 21gg said:

Nothing to do with you doing video diaries at all, nope, all normal, promise...it is......really....lol.

 

Gav

Gav

I'm normally quite cynical on these things also but the Lotus guys are also coming in to take a look at a couple of things I have noted on my two cars which are both within warranty. I suspect it's more to do with location - Stratton being close to the factory.

And I don't think my brief appearance in a 3-11 video would have swung it!?

Greg

[chylld]

15 hours ago, JayEmm said:

the auto locking mechanism is a pain

How is it a pain?

On my 2014 S it required 2 presses (at least 2 seconds apart) to unlock the passenger door, was hoping that would have been sorted with the 400...

[JayEmm]

@chylld - it's the same. Two SLOW presses to unlock passenger door. Two SLOW presses to unlock boot. And if thr auto locking is engaged when you pull up at, say, a petrol station if you push the petrol cap release button it won't automatically undo. But to undo it is two silly slow presses of the unlock button inside.

 

My car is back at Stratton again today, gear linkage being inspected and repaired. My seat is also STILL creaking despite being told yesterday for the second time it is fixed.

We also noticed that the way my boot lid is positioned it is rubbing on the engine bay air vent and scraping it's own paint off.

I am going to be speaking to Lotus directly about this because I am losing the car for an unacceptable amount of time - I worked out yesterday it's spent nearly 20% of my ownership in the workshop.

[NW76]

Jay: just cought up on a couple of your recent videos ... good stuff ;-) ... thanks for keeping them coming ... cant wait for a comparison with the Exige ;-)

[chylld]

1 hour ago, JayEmm said:

@chylld - it's the same. Two SLOW presses to unlock passenger door. Two SLOW presses to unlock boot. And if thr auto locking is engaged when you pull up at, say, a petrol station if you push the petrol cap release button it won't automatically undo. But to undo it is two silly slow presses of the unlock button inside.

 

My car is back at Stratton again today, gear linkage being inspected and repaired. My seat is also STILL creaking despite being told yesterday for the second time it is fixed.

We also noticed that the way my boot lid is positioned it is rubbing on the engine bay air vent and scraping it's own paint off.

I am going to be speaking to Lotus directly about this because I am losing the car for an unacceptable amount of time - I worked out yesterday it's spent nearly 20% of my ownership in the workshop.

Hmm that's disappointing. In my S the boot was 2 fast presses of the fob button (no button in the cabin) and filler cap was one cabin button press.

Creaking seat and rubbing boot lid isn't good - I wouldn't live with either of those.

A long shot: have you checked that the creaking sound isn't coming from the little bit of plastic covering the seat folding pull? On the first Australian car that cover was pretty loose and fell off easily

[JayEmm]

@chylldthanks for the tip off but this is a metallic noise. Have a watch of my video relating to my issues there is a couple of clips in there.

I am sat at Stratton peering through the window @jamesfromsmc right now, waiting for the car to come out the workshop. I am spending my time filming a 911 vs Evora video which is proving quite interesting indeed.

My gear lever issue was solved by replacing the entire linkage. We do not know yet if it is an isolated incident or a design flaw. I am now up to 2,000 miles in the car so mine's on track for being one of the most used out there.

@Gm77 yours is sitting very pretty in the workshop here, do you need a lift up Tuesday?

[Gm77]

42 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

@chylldthanks for the tip off but this is a metallic noise. Have a watch of my video relating to my issues there is a couple of clips in there.

I am sat at Stratton peering through the window @jamesfromsmc right now, waiting for the car to come out the workshop. I am spending my time filming a 911 vs Evora video which is proving quite interesting indeed.

My gear lever issue was solved by replacing the entire linkage. We do not know yet if it is an isolated incident or a design flaw. I am now up to 2,000 miles in the car so mine's on track for being one of the most used out there.

@Gm77 yours is sitting very pretty in the workshop here, do you need a lift up Tuesday?

Thanks James - very kind. I should be ok though.  My Elise needs to come in for new pads (thanks to Goodwood) so I'm driving up in that, swapping the cars over, and driving home in the Evora. Tough life I know! 

[99Problems]

3 hours ago, JayEmm said:

My gear lever issue was solved by replacing the entire linkage. We do not know yet if it is an isolated incident or a design flaw. I am now up to 2,000 miles in the car so mine's on track for being one of the most used out there.

I would think the demo cars that made it over to the US that had well over 20,000 kilometers on the dial would be the bench mark of used transmissions.  Wonder if either of those had issues?