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Emira alternatives

NicolasB

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So the closest rival to the Emira that I (as in me!) have identified...and what I would have expected from the Emira is the Maserati MC20...

Won Evo car of the year 2023. Steve Sutcliffe's review: "Best car I have driven in 10 years"...I continued watching reviews and everyone says its marvelous, a bit like a lotus, or Alpine A110. An amazing supercar for the road.

So I bought one! Out goes the GT3.
Now Emira needs to be a hell of a good car...other wise it can leave the garage as well.
Bit of an upgrade over the Emira, not really in the same class I guess? Enjoy that, but I think you will miss the GT3!
 

kitkat

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So the closest rival to the Emira that I (as in me!) have identified...and what I would have expected from the Emira is the Maserati MC20...

Won Evo car of the year 2023. Steve Sutcliffe's review: "Best car I have driven in 10 years"...I continued watching reviews and everyone says its marvelous, a bit like a lotus, or Alpine A110. An amazing supercar for the road.

So I bought one! Out goes the GT3.
Now Emira needs to be a hell of a good car...other wise it can leave the garage as well.

How in the world did you identify the MC20 as a rival for the Emira? Horse blinders?
 

DaaS

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So the closest rival to the Emira that I (as in me!) have identified...and what I would have expected from the Emira is the Maserati MC20...

Won Evo car of the year 2023. Steve Sutcliffe's review: "Best car I have driven in 10 years"...I continued watching reviews and everyone says its marvelous, a bit like a lotus, or Alpine A110. An amazing supercar for the road.

So I bought one! Out goes the GT3.
Now Emira needs to be a hell of a good car...other wise it can leave the garage as well.
Pictures or it didn’t happen!! I saw a yellow one few weeks ago, it looked really good. Congrats.
 

lion shf

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Jag f type SVR - almost half original price for a 2017/2018 20-30k miles. So better value than the Porsche but maybe more of a GT but sounds great.

Harry posted his annual cost of stable video, and he spoke so lovingly about his, an extraordinary car.
 

hagen111

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How in the world did you identify the MC20 as a rival for the Emira? Horse blinders?
Not always the expectation and longing is in the amount it costs...its about how it has been developed, how it looks, how it drives. Especially on the road! Some cars are just spot on, irrespective of cost.

My GR Yaris is one of those examples...absolutely great car for the money it costs.

My Exige V6 offered many of the points that I see in the MC20 reviews. The MC20 reviews was what I was hoping the Emira reviews would look like. My testdrive with the Emira felt very dissappointing...a numb car, no thrills, indeed build to please a bigger crowd.

I hope Lotus takes some inspiration out of the MC20...
In the end it doesn't make sense forking out 80k for something that is not exactly what you want, it may be better to buy at double the money (provided your budget stretches) and get a car that wows you every time you drive it. My GT3 offeres that experience, but I didn't drive it that much as have another car that just offeres a lot more thrills ;-)

I would have loved to sell higher end cars in case the Emira would be the go to car for all drives...and maybe it will after some mods...time will tell.
 

emiraspain

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I think the Emira makes a great beater for those people. Something they can take out to the store that's more exciting than an Audi but also don't mind parking among the proletariat.
yes..an expensive shopping cart..makes sense now... haha :).
yeh, well I know the feeling that you want everything...... and when you have the money, then you dont think as much as when you dont have the money and have to weigh things up a lot more carefully.....
 
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Calran

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emiraspain

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Okay.. for all of you who asked on and off line, I got an answer.... had to work for it, but the 54 car owner youtuber will not be keeping the car due to....

" Car is extremely average. Looks nice though. Buy a lambo 100% not even close in comparison. "
Yes, I/we all know/ tis not a fair or realistic comparison to mention a lambo, but I imagine he has driven other harder core Lotus's too and this car although newer and with better tech, inside the cabin at least, simply isn't as exciting or engaging as their other offerings have been. This has been said many times, even if you ignore me, which is recommendable at the best of times.

I do slightly wonder about Harry...who is certainly in and not out and therefore is perhaps a stand out, not the norm, along with a couple of others.
To investigate a little more into Mr. H M, he is a lotus fan from 30 /40 years ago and did his hill climbing in his Elan, so he has a long lasting affection for the marque / brand / make / fabrica etc. Is it possible that after the many disappointments that Lotus have had/produced since the Elan, that he is just happy to have something even close to what he wants / believes Lotus should have made 7/10 years ago? Is he also compelled to help them move forward by his emotional connection; the Elan will never leave the garage, but will the Emira...... not this year for sure, its a bit too early to say that its a long termer though...time will tell.

Only Harry knows how this car really compares with the numerous cars he comes across, and its pure conjecture on my part (dont use that word very often..although I do perform the act), but his opinions on the car overall are in some ways at odds with his peers, at least his peers who have not bought the car.
A bit off topic, but in terms of reasons for not buying the car, still on topic..... Shmiieeezzzzy has bought the car and is from a wealthy UK family and no doubt, like us all, would like to see Lotus do well. Not surprising he bought the car, but we must also remember that these Youtubers, the ones like him who make a living from youtube, and I would put Harry into that category also (I accept he has savings and investments, but his farm does not afford him to have a 15 car garage, his 15 car garage affords him to have a 15 car garage!), well they put out videos that get watched and hence make money. Harrys end of year resume shows this and disappoints him that his Lancia does not get the views he'd like as its his real favourite for the moment.

My point is, they can see the Lotus has a huge UK following and it therefore makes sense to make content relating to the car and makes little sense to be too crtitical of it as that would turn people away. So I wonder how much this also plays/will play on their online opinions. I personally believe he is not perhaps as happy as he lets on and he has not mentioned the seats again has he? Again conjecture.... twice in a day.
Final final point, people revel in Harry's words and encouragement for the Emira, the Lotus has beautiful handing, steering, truly wonderful.... whatever words he used, which were not those words, but then they forget he takes a mclaren or gt4 or 911 touring out and uses even stronger wording to describe their cars attributes. They want to believe that he would chose the Emira and did chose the Emira over these cars as it is better, but thats simply not the case, he did it as he has this connection to the brand, the "romantic" side of the brand, he wants it to succeed, and for the views also. A GT4 RS is way too hard core for a 70 year old in general and the mrs, a gt4 has been done thousands of times, so no click bate there. 992 touring, I think he would LOVE to have, but its around 3 times the price and cant be justified as again, wont get the views and does not fulfil the connection he wants with Lotus and their UK fan base.
Anyway, there are always many opinions.... its not a surprise to me that Harry likes the car, its also not a surprise and Mark Mccann doesnt rate it at all, but each to their own. Again, its a viable alternative to other 70k cars out there...
 

Evotion

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I am still surprised by the ferrari and Gt3/4 owners who bought the emira ..... I dont mean to be down on the Emira, but if I had a 200k car car.... I'd probably not be buying an 80k one, no matter how it looks, it wont/cant compare to a real supercar.
Yeah, this is of course a factor in my decision to keep the Emira or not.
I had not intended to buy the Ferrari. It really, really was due the delay of the Lotus when we found out we were moving from June to Autumn (having firstly expect Easter 2022).

I immediately, and I do mean immediately, looked on auto-trader for a manual spyder of anything decent and ended up with my Italian mistress.

It didn;t take too long to realise the Ferrari is epic in a different league to many cars.
However, I kept the Emira faith and after driving it a couple of times I really believe it is amazing and would suit me as a winter and rain, and club run, car alongside my bella rossa.

Now, though.. other things have changed and yes, I will definitely buy it, got the money lined up, but now am far, far more towards having to let it go - either expeditiously or start of summer.
 

Evotion

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I'm pretty sure Harry 'likes' the car, as you say @emiraspain and I agree he may have been beefing up his feelings a tad in support of the marque and his shiny new thing. Then again, it is comfy, has decent power for the road, epic cornering (which people seem to forget) and is NEW with full warranty, etc.

Funny how perceptions are different. I think the car is a BARGAIN!
Indeed, if Lotus had tweaked it to 450HP I would have paid £100K for it. Seriously.
On looks and handing alone it is terrific.

In comparison with the overall feeling that a Lambo, Ferrari, GT porsche, older Lotus, etc, give you, the Emira fails by some distance BUT it still feels great to be sitting in it. It is prettier than any Porsche, any other Lotus, all Lambos and nearly all post 2000 Ferraris IMHO.

Harry might well keep it as he might be similar to me. We are attracted to a new, beautiful car that makes a good foil to the other cars available.
 
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New to Lotus

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Harry didn't seem to like the mc20 but evo voted it car of the year.
We all know what they think of the emira didn't even make it on the list but loved the
Manual toyota for 30k
Is Harry out of date?
 

Evotion

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Yep, new.. I don't think the Emira even has a a true peer.

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2. F-Type Coupe
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Evotion

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The side view of the back end is enough for me to buy it.
I really won't have the money now but would love to get a deposit down.
I did sit in Maranellos in Egham and go through the whole spec process.

I went for standard seats but with red stitch and embedded cavalino.
Standard wheels.
Carbon drivers zone.

It came in JUST under £250 which my aim.

Start adding carbon, premium colours, never mind the Fiorano pack and I am seeing 296 GTBs coming out at £335K plus!! Madness. That is options for the price of an Emira!! I mean, WTF.

The other problem with me getting a 296 is that the GTS is now out and I really, really can't get to that and would always be gutted when I saw one.
 

emiraspain

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@emiraspain wow, would be interested to know what he disliked about it. When you have 54 cars, you are clearly someone that tends to hold them.
just in case you missed it

 

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