To buy or not to buy

[Dean76]

I just got a 2024 i4 turbo. 2000 km, and no issues. Occasionally under hard acceleration with the turn signal is on I'll get a warning triangle light with "Rear Left or Right indicator malfunction" which then goes away after ten seconds. Who knows. Who cares LOL

• I read quite some trouble about the bubbling paint, water leaks, malfunctioning ac and so on. Spending so much money and then having a lot of problems is not really appealing.
  • Bubbling paint, who knows if it'll happen or not. Probably. Whatever, repaint it or sand down and wrap the car. Have fun with it.
• I'm in doubt if the Emira for longer roadtrips would be still fun to drive or that it would be too noisy that it will get annoying.
  • I road trip it ALL THE TIME. I go to Vermont, the Champlain islands, Eastern Quebec. It's awesome. In Touring mode, totally liveable. In sports mode or track mode, it's a bit loud and drones a bit but way more exciting in the turns and isolated small backroads
• i would disable the fake enigine noise but at the same time im afraid that part of the experience will also be gone if i do that (does someone have experience with that)
  • I don't know if they forgot to hook it all up but I don't hear any fake engine noises, I just hear the exhaust burbling and popping and that insane turbo valve whistle in my left ear nonstop. The speakers seem to only play music
• (more a general sportcar consideration) I'm afraid that after the honeymoon phase owning the car would get old quickly and that I might not enjoy it that much anymore
  • All cars do this, it's inevitable. Novelties wear off eventually but if there 's on car with staying power that brings the theatrics and insane attention, it's this one. Took me 12 years to get sick of my Evora and even then, I wasn't even really sick of it. This is so much crazier
• the emira new Turbo SE costs about 163k euro where I live and for that money I can literally buy a used 718 (base 2017) and a used alpine a110 (2024) and then still have like 40k money left over.
  • True true.. That's a tough decision. The 718 seems to have bored you though. If you have the money to splurge on an Emira. then maybe in 5 years the 40k saved may not be that much of a life-changing amount and you'll wake up daily with regret. I don't know anything about the Alpine 110 and what it's like, it doesn't exist in North America
• the older models are ~140k and then I don't know about what already happened to the cars, even the dealer told me you don't need to drive in the i4 only the v6(!? Which sound weird to me) so that makes me wonder how reliable those demonstration cars are if you would buy them. Plus I would like the safety features in the new model like the blind spot warning (since I noticed the visibility is difficult). And If i would buy used then i would just have the 350hp version without all the improvements.
  • In North America the i4 is quite a bit faster than the V6, mainly because the DCT is way quicker than the shifter lag especially 1-2 which takes a good second plus the torque is ridiculous in the i4 (it's a fkng animal) but then again it's 400 hp not 360. So not sure how much of a difference that actually makes. I had the 3.5L V6 in the Evora and it was buttery smooth and a great engine with a beautiful tone, but the 4 is pretty good too. I love the bassy snarl it makes when you start it up and at full throttle at around 6000 rpm it wails like a banshee being whipped

If you do decide to go with the Emira you're looking at nonstop attention. Kids giving you thumbs up, people taking photos at every light, small crowds in parking lots, etc. The Cayman and/or 911 doesn't come anywhere near that

 

[sbproducer]

Yes, unfortunately it is actually: 166,460 euro.
The vat part is 21,052 euro and the vehicle tax part is 43,563 euro.

for comparison, for 60,000 euro you can get a 2017 boxter, a 2019 Alpine A110 or a 2024 Toyota GR86.
A 2017 Alfa 4c will go for about 75,000 euro.

I also added a screenshot of the configurator in English (because I picked Vivid red here it is actually a bit cheaper)

The steep price not considered, here is what I would have said.

The V6 Manual is great but I'm a strong believer that you'll have to mod the car pretty significantly to get the value out of it. In stock form, it leaves much to be desired. Don't get me wrong, even in stock form the car has its strengths.. manual is getting so rare for new cars.. and its beautiful.. BUT for the money is very clearly underpowered. Like it's slow considering the price and look. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

However, the AMG is great in stock form. It's not as involved as a manual and some people, like myself, would not have it any other way. But if you don't mind paddle shifting or just letting the DCT do it's thing, the AMG is worth every penny (USD pricing) out of the box. No mods required.

Now, here's the problem. The car is not worth 166,460 euro in stock form. It's just not and that's assuming you get one that doesn't give you problems. I'm sorry if this is not what you want to hear. I love my V6 manual Emira but I never had to think twice about buying it or spending money to mod it.

Go test drive it a few times. If after that, you are not 100% sure, its a no go. I'll go even further and say at $194,000 USD, it's a HELL NO!!!

 

[sbproducer]

You live in Europe? You want Lotus? You want excitement? You want to flip the middle finger to Tesla? Get the Exige. Period.

 

[LotsOfTriumphsUsuallySexy]

If you do decide to go with the Emira you're looking at nonstop attention. Kids giving you thumbs up, people taking photos at every light, small crowds in parking lots, etc. The Cayman and/or 911 doesn't come anywhere near that

I have read that so many times but FWIW it hasn’t true for me in my 1600 mi experience (NorCal). I can think of a total three events (one was cute: a little boy on a bicycle said to his mum “That’s a cool car mum!”).