Fresh owner and upset

[Andrew25]

Hello everyone,
I got my Emira less than 2 months ago, and drove it a total of 5-6 times, 1100km (990 of which back home coming from the Lotus dealer, pretty far from me).
I’ve found some paint issues and I’m waiting for the dealer to schedule a fix covered by the warranty.
Well, in the meantime I took the car to a Lotus shop much closer to me and they found out that the car was delivered with zero updates sw and hw pending since early 2024, plus some more little annoyances. Not only that, but later on I found some more very subtle paint issues all over the car (see pics). And I also noticed some fluid leakage under the car along the middle line from the front to the rear. I am now seriously considering paying for fixing the major paint issues just to not be told to go to the Lotus dealer where I first bought the car given how poorly they’ve treated me and the car so far, and then having all of the other paint issued covered by warranty. Is this all a common Lotus “experience”? Should I expect this quality of paint job when buying a Lotus?

 

[Nick in Sydney]

This is the first time I've seen this type of paint issue on an Emira. From the photos, it could be paint damage rather than a manufacturing fault?
I wonder if some apprentice at the dealership had a crack at it with a buffing wheel? You can really f*ck up the paint if you don't know what you're doing. It's also possible that the car has been partially repainted by an incompetent repair shop— many new cars have body repairs before being sold, and the buyer is never the wiser.

From what I've seen, detailers often comment that Emiras are painted to a higher standard by the factory than most brands of luxury car (noting that the blistering issue is related to faulty panels, not a poor paint job). For example, Obsessed Garage on YouTube was very complementary about the paint quality on his two Emiras, and he has high standards.

 

[geoffbland]

That's not a common paint issue - I've not seen anything like that on an Emira before.

This is very different from the bubbling issue many users have had.

Did you get this car as new? It almost looks like a bad respray attempt?

 

[Black Ice]

Apologies if this is a stupid question(!), but have you checked the white areas aren’t polish residue? I had similar on my car and thought it was paint damage, but thankfully it wasn’t.

The other issues look like actual damage unfortunately.

Just to mirror what the others have said, my detailer was quite impressed with the paintwork (less so the dealer prep!).

 

[Andrew25]

Apologies if this is a stupid question(!), but have you checked the white areas aren’t polish residue? I had similar on my car and thought it was paint damage, but thankfully it wasn’t.

Not stupid at all! I thought about it but had nothing with me to test with. Any suggestion? Cloth and water? I really hope that’s the case.

Did you get this car as new? It almost looks like a bad respray attempt

Yes, unfortunately that looks very much like someone tried to cover some issue.

I got the car as new from an officially licensed Lotus dealer. There are two different paint issues in the pics: one near the rear light that’s exfoliation (is that correct?), and the other one all over the car which looks like a bad respray attempt. Also, if you look closely at the rear light, it looks like the piece was repainted without undoing the lights assembly by just covering them with tape (paint residues and very small white dots).

Moreover, the black struts and black roof were clearly poorly handled with some sort of polisher to cover some more scratches, this is only visible with direct sunlight or leds (see pics).

This all doesn’t look good. And I can’t even drive the car because of the leakage and upgrades needed.

 

[Black Ice]

Not stupid at all! I thought about it but had nothing with me to test with. Any suggestion? Cloth and water? I really hope that’s the case.

You could try a little isopropyl alcohol as you then shouldn’t need to scrub too hard, or just try gently removing it with a finger nail.

 

[geoffbland]

Yes, unfortunately that looks very much like someone tried to cover some issue.

I wonder if this car had the bubbling issues from new and the dealer or someone has tried to cover that up with a respray - doors and rear engine cover? If so it looks like the respray has been done without removing the panels from the car making it difficult to get round the edges. It's difficult to tell from the photos but it looks like there's also quite an "orange peel" effect on the paint job too. If this is the reason and what has been done, a respray won't fix the bubbling, it'll come back - it needs new panels.

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

I wonder if this car had the bubbling issues from new and the dealer or someone has tried to cover that up with a respray - doors and rear engine cover? If so it looks like the respray has been done without removing the panels from the car making it difficult to get round the edges. It's difficult to tell from the photos but it looks like there's also quite an "orange peel" effect on the paint job too. If this is the reason and what has been done, a respray won't fix the bubbling, it'll come back - it needs new panels.

Looks like a poor respray to me too

 

[Andrew25]

Looks like a poor respray to me too

I’m no expert, but if that was the case, why a white base coat? Do they spray a white base coat before respray the original color when there’s bubbling?

 

[geoffbland]

Not sure if this helps but here are some photos of (what I think are) the same areas on my Hethel Yellow Emira (needs a bit of a wash) for your comparison. Mine does also has PPF on it, so you can see a few edges of that.

 

[geoffbland]

I’m no expert, but if that was the case, why a white base coat? Do they spray a white base coat before respray the original color when there’s bubbling?

Yeah, I was thinking that too? I don't know if that's a base coat or the raw fiberglass - it's similar to the colour of the composite on my Elise but I don't know what the raw colour on Emira doors is.
If there is bubbling then, if done properly, the whole door or panel is replaced, resprayed and then blended into the surrounding panels. In the UK it seems to be done by various different paint-shops used by the dealers, how they do this probably varies from shop to shop. Sorry I can't give a more helpful answer.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

I’m no expert, but if that was the case, why a white base coat? Do they spray a white base coat before respray the original color when there’s bubbling?

It almost looks like someone has taped off sections of the car for a respray, and then the tape has lifted paint off when it was removed!

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

I’m no expert, but if that was the case, why a white base coat? Do they spray a white base coat before respray the original color when there’s bubbling?

Probably primer

 

[Tobiasz17azs]

The white substance you see is 99% a compound. The white swirls are a haze from polishing. Whoever attempted to detail this car was unprofessional. Use 75% isopropyl alcohol, and you'll be able to remove the compound.

 

[Andrew25]

Not sure if this helps but here are some photos of (what I think are) the same areas on my Hethel Yellow Emira (needs a bit of a wash) for your comparison. Mine does also has PPF on it, so you can see a few edges of that.

Thanks for your reference, and thank you all for your feedback!

I'll look for some isopropyl alchol tomorrow and see if that's just some compound left from an unprofessional polish and let you know. Fingers crossed.