Early Emira takers, I commend you.

[Maverick1]

I commend all you early takers of the Emira.
Buying your cars without even a test drive is quite brave and daring, but buying a car and having to choose the color before seeing it, or a proper rendition of it in the flesh is on another level, and in my opinion is ridiculous and should not be happening.
I've only purchased one car in my life without having the ability to test drive it, and it ended up being a complete nightmare.
I purchased a 2016 Ford Focus RS and at the time they were so hot no dealers would allow test drives and I even had to buy it out of state because the local dealers were charging $10k to $20k over list price.
That's why many unscrupulous California car dealerships are known as stealerships.
This also happened with the Civic Type-R, and will no doubt happen with the new GR Corolla in California.
I ended up selling the RS after only eight months of ownership because the ride quality and suspension were so firm even on the softest setting I couldn't take it, unbearably harsh.
Got to the point where I actually loathed driving the car so I sold it, and promised myself I would never ever buy another vehicle without a test drive.
Lesson learned.
I'm just hoping I'll be able to see the Emira colors in the flesh because I'm still on the fence, and take out a demo car for a test drive before I have to lock in my order.
I wish you all well who are going through this process/procedure blindfolded, as it's quite a large investment.
Good luck.

 

[Davebeats]

Maybe I was lucky, but I was able to see the Grey car in person along with the color samples. Didn't get to test drive it of course, but that is the nature of the beast for an early adopter, thankfully there are many similarities to the Evora you could make judgement on.

 

[ksegg]

I ordered my 2020 M2 Competition 6MT without ever driving it, or even seeing one in person. Not a single dealer I visited across 3 different States (Texas, New York, Connecticut) had any in stock. And keep in mind this was in 2019 when the pandemic wasn't raging yet, nor did we have any supply issues.

I don't worry about ordering cars I like without driving it/seeing it in person anymore. You have to lean/trust heavily on trusted review sources, and/or be in a forum community with members who already received delivery, had time to spend with the car, and can provide credible insight/reviews.

 

[dgrace]

Well given that early adopters can probably flip the car for a profit if for any reason they're not satisfied, it's not such a big financial risk at all. It's like a call option.

 

[Kenny]

I commend all you early takers of the Emira.
Buying your cars without even a test drive is quite brave and daring, but buying a car and having to choose the color before seeing it, or a proper rendition of it in the flesh is on another level, and in my opinion is ridiculous and should not be happening.
I've only purchased one car in my life without having the ability to test drive it, and it ended up being a complete nightmare.
I purchased a 2016 Ford Focus RS and at the time they were so hot no dealers would allow test drives and I even had to buy it out of state because the local dealers were charging $10k to $20k over list price.
That's why many unscrupulous California car dealerships are known as stealerships.
This also happened with the Civic Type-R, and will no doubt happen with the new GR Corolla in California.
I ended up selling the RS after only eight months of ownership because the ride quality and suspension were so firm even on the softest setting I couldn't take it, unbearably harsh.
Got to the point where I actually loathed driving the car so I sold it, and promised myself I would never ever buy another vehicle without a test drive.
Lesson learned.
I'm just hoping I'll be able to see the Emira colors in the flesh because I'm still on the fence, and take out a demo car for a test drive before I have to lock in my order.
I wish you all well who are going through this process/procedure blindfolded, as it's quite a large investment.
Good luck.

Completely understood where you're coming from - however, if you want a stick V6, you kind of just have to believe in the process and keep your fingers crossed. That's what I'm doing. And, worst case, you can always sell it if it's not a fit.

 

[prestonc]

I commend all you early takers of the Emira.
Buying your cars without even a test drive is quite brave and daring, but buying a car and having to choose the color before seeing it, or a proper rendition of it in the flesh is on another level, and in my opinion is ridiculous and should not be happening.
I've only purchased one car in my life without having the ability to test drive it, and it ended up being a complete nightmare.
I purchased a 2016 Ford Focus RS and at the time they were so hot no dealers would allow test drives and I even had to buy it out of state because the local dealers were charging $10k to $20k over list price.
That's why many unscrupulous California car dealerships are known as stealerships.
This also happened with the Civic Type-R, and will no doubt happen with the new GR Corolla in California.
I ended up selling the RS after only eight months of ownership because the ride quality and suspension were so firm even on the softest setting I couldn't take it, unbearably harsh.
Got to the point where I actually loathed driving the car so I sold it, and promised myself I would never ever buy another vehicle without a test drive.
Lesson learned.
I'm just hoping I'll be able to see the Emira colors in the flesh because I'm still on the fence, and take out a demo car for a test drive before I have to lock in my order.
I wish you all well who are going through this process/procedure blindfolded, as it's quite a large investment.
Good luck.

Did you make money, or lose a bunch?

 

[DerTheDer]

I could think of a lot more dumb things to spend 100k on. I have another buddy that is a FE adopter as well, and I was chatting with him over lunch a few weekends ago and we both have the same idea.

We both own Elises, and he owns some other high end cars (Ferrari, Audi...etc.) and we both said that if we get it and don't like it, we will most likely sell it and turn a profit. That's not the intent, but we don't believe these vehicles will depreciate, there will be a huge demand for them.

We both are hoping they are somewhat like the Elise and put a smile on our faces like the Elise does. Either way im already renovating my garage to fit this in.

 

[Kenny]

I could think of a lot more dumb things to spend 100k on. I have another buddy that is a FE adopter as well, and I was chatting with him over lunch a few weekends ago and we both have the same idea.

We both own Elises, and he owns some other high end cars (Ferrari, Audi...etc.) and we both said that if we get it and don't like it, we will most likely sell it and turn a profit. That's not the intent, but we don't believe these vehicles will depreciate, there will be a huge demand for them.

We both are hoping they are somewhat like the Elise and put a smile on our faces like the Elise does. Either way im already renovating my garage to fit this in.

Heh, on the same page I just redid the garage + installed an Autostacker lift. Excited for the Lotus to join the family.

 

[Maverick1]

Did you make money, or lose a bunch?

Lost only a little money since it was a car in great demand.
Didn't really care about the money I lost, it was more the let down of my highly anticipated new car, if you get my drift.

 

[prestonc]

Lost only a little money since it was a car in great demand.
Didn't really care about the money I lost, it was more the let down of my highly anticipated new car, if you get my drift.

I do indeed follow, but this is my first time, so learning from your mistake won't be easy!

 

[virtualmacho]

After buying all sorts of things online for the past few years, I had forgotten that I could have opted to see the actual car before placing a deposit. Then again, I would have missed out on the FE, so no regrets!