Henry Catchpole - Carfection review

[Mctaff]

hahaha, So Turkey Bacon is basically turkey made to look and taste like regular Canadian bacon, it's not bad. I prefer the real Bacon tho.

I've never eaten a Canadian. Taste good?

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer pig bacon!

 

[eclat2emira]

I've never eaten a Canadian. Taste good?

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer pig bacon!

Best with a little Maple syrup. Avoid Mounties, they're quite tough.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Let's put things into perspective. How many FE deposits are there? 3000 worldwide (forgive me if that number is wrong)?

How many ppl on here are complaining about delays, etc.? Like the same 10-15 people? I think the vast majority are fine with delays as 1) the FE is probably most people's 3rd or 4th car, 2) delays are kind of the world we live in right now, 3) they're all probably busy with 100 other things going on in their lives to worry about the delivery of their sports car getting delayed, 4) they probably understand and have the correct expectations regarding what Lotus is as a company, both current and past.

So for those complaining, it might be a good reminder to know that you probably don't speak for the majority of Emira deposit holders.

It's not the Catchpoole review... but just to shed some light on what the new Lotus is up against in the N/A market. Lotus Cars USA, is in need of a complete overall.

I think the Majority of Emira depositors don't want this kind of service anymore; Funny Vid below... Don't think I have ever seen a video like this about Aston or Porsche.

 

[VL3X]

It's not the Catchpoole review... but just to shed some light on what the new Lotus is up against in the N/A market. Lotus Cars USA, is in need of a complete overall.

I think the Majority of Emira depositors don't want this kind of service anymore; Funny Vid below... Don't think I have ever seen a video like this about Aston or Porsche.

Yeah, that's an old video but a good watch from an insider/salesman perspective. I knew what I was getting into when making my Emira deposit over a year ago. I just hoped things would have gotten better... The Emira's quality is still to be determined. Hopefully the interior doesn't fall to pieces.

 

[Eagle7]

I’ve had several discussions with Matt about concerns from me and forum members. Apart from the “everyone is delayed” video, what actual improvements has anyone noticed?

Customer service starts right at the beginning of the buying process. Hoping it’ll get sorted once cars start getting delivered is leaving it way too late. People are cancelling and deferring now, because they’re fed up with being treated so badly and are worried the aftersales service will be equally bad.

Lotus don’t need a customer satisfaction survey to tell them this. They can read it on every forum and have been told face to face at the dealer roadshows and at events like Goodwood.

Right, but didn't you say that you're considered the "old guard" and they don't view your concerns/comments as important to their new business model? Or something like that?

Of course customer service starts at the beginning. It actually starts before you have customers. If you're doing it right, you have service trained, ready and in place before you open the doors for business each day. If you don't plan for success, you won't be ready for it if it happens to you. That's Lotus right now and for the last 12 months.

None of us understands what they're doing in this regard, or why. The silence has been deafening. I have 35 years of experience with customers, both as a business owner and as an employee of a large, international company. If Matt were to put me in charge of all this, as a direct report to him, I'd have this all sorted out within 30 days.

Obviously feedback from tours and Goodwood haven't been enough to get things going, or whoever is in charge simply doesn't have the imagination or creativity to do something to match the looks of the Emira, because that's what they need right now. It's the looks of the car that's brought them this wave of response, and they need to realize that to the point of working across the board to match that in every facet of their business, because that's the level of expectation Carr's creation has generated.

Lotus wanted to swim in the deep end of the pool, and now they're in it. It's not like the shallow end where you can stop swimming and not drown. Once cars start shipping, they're not going to have much time to get their customer service act together; like maybe 30-60 days. That's going to take someone who knows what to do, has the authority and budget to do it, and aggressively gets on it. Do they have someone like that there? If so, where have they been? What have they been doing? We'll see.

 

[DJS]

Happy to help put together a crack team of trainee Grumpy Shorts with aspirations to move on to a longer leg length at some point

Count me in I’m miserable as fuck, so if your mr grumpy pants then call me miserable bollocks.

 

[MCS]

Again, I agree.... I have a story about this - Had a friend once that did not eat any pork. We would go for breakfast every Saturday morning to the same place and he would ask for turkey bacon with his eggs. The server replied the same every time " sorry we don't carry that". After a month I asked him why he kept asking the same server the same question if he already knew the answer... His response was "you'll see". After 8 months and asking the same question for 32 weeks, they finally added turkey bacon to the menu. He was happy and order two servings, and ordered it every time he went again. He said "they needed to know that they were losing money, it's the only way they will change menu". It's been 3 years and turkey bacon is still on the menu.

I get that it is exhausting hearing the same complaints over and over and over again. But I would rather the people on the forum kept complaining and voicing their issue. Maybe Lotus will understand that changing some things will result in better sales and retention. They are a business and ultimately making money is what matters. These forums are EXTREMELY important to future buyers of any Lotus. People do a huge amount of research these days and the forums like us, Ferrari chat, rennlist and others hold weight and can sway people's opinions.

I agree my wife calls this “feedback” and believes it’s important to pass on the “feedback” regularly. I can confirm that it does take a while to respond to said feedback but you can run the risk of overdoing it 🙂

 

[MCS]

Count me in I’m miserable as fuck, so if your mr grumpy pants then call me miserable bollocks.

You’ve been given an opportunity to give yourself a nickname and that’s what you’ve chosen? 😆

 

[DJS]

You’ve been given an opportunity to give yourself a nickname and that’s what you’ve chosen? 😆

Ive been called worse it's a deal.

 

[ADC]

Happy to help put together a crack team of trainee Grumpy Shorts with aspirations to move on to a longer leg length at some point

Given the current weather, maybe a Grumpy Speedo...? (shudder)

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Didn't Matt say that the Nimbus car behind him in his recent update video was the first "finished" customer car?

That statement now smells a bit fishy.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

If you don't think it's worrying that they are still developing a car that was due last month then more power to you. And relax

Who says they are still developing it? They just can't get the damn parts thanks to China, Ukraine, COVID, etc.

 

[emiraspain]

While I agree with most of your stuff... I will say that deposit holders or anyone interested in ordering any Lotus should certainly point out their short comings when compared to their competitors. If we all just give up and say " oh well, it's a small company and it is what it is...." well, I don't think that is how a company gets better. They want to sell electric cars for over 100K.... they need to pull up their socks, be as good if not better than Tesla and Porsche and any other manufacturer playing in that field. Comm's included. They have an advantage by being small, easier to scale and should be able to move quicker when there are issues, a more nimble and focused business.

I think Lotus needs to be called out on things that major competitors do significantly better. One of them is the track your dream site for when you order a Porsche. Lotus North America is pretty much non-existent to a degree that is shocking. For an area that has more than 2,500 pre-orders for a 100K car (that's 250 MIL per year in sales) to have a support network to be non-existent is unacceptable. Oh, and maybe get a damn picture of DV!

I couldn't disagree more....!
No, just kidding, but as there are many disagreements on here now we are all bored stiff, I thought it was a good place to start.

I proposed this, track your/build update amongst other things to Lotus before Porsche ever had this feature, but they were not too interested, even though the budget for this is not earth shatteringly large. However, I have it on good authority that this and other things are going to be introduced, hazarding a guess, this would be next year sometime, too late for us on here, or most of us.

A funny story; well not so funny, but at least a story, which our GR friend @Leonard may like. For security, I ordered 2 Yaris GR's here in Spain, one dealer telling me it probably wasnt going to happen, but she took my deposit anyway and even the other dealer was far from convinced as Spain did not get a huge allocation of the GR yaris, but he thought it may happen.
Anyway, the latter far from convinced dealer let me know about 8 weeks before that the car was now being built etc etc and I would get it last Summer, just as he was going on holiday. Then, while he was on holiday I get a phone call from someone I could not quite hear the name of, as I was outside, and she tells me my car is here, at the port, awaiting registration and could I now make the final payment for it. She sends me a whatsapp with the bank info and I try to make the payment, it fails for whatever reason.
To, thankfully, cut a long story short, the call was from the other dealer's boss and I nearly paid for the car I had been told I would more than likely not get, not the car I had been told was already on its way. So no update, just its HERE.
This wasnt actually the point of the story at all, just to confuse, the point was that I then discovered
EVEN TOYOTA has an app which lets you know when your car is being built and then it shows you its on their cargo ship steaming its way to you(not actually using steam of course these days), with an estimation date of arrival. And the sad part is, the dealers didnt even know this option exists, I discovered it by accident when I downloaded the app to my phone and registered with my email as one of the dealers had uploaded my email to the toyota system.
Ok, that was a crap story, but its a slow news day.......
And I am sorry, but the toyota yaris's 10 year old interior and app and turning circle and seating position........ ohhhh how I miss my honda E, if only it had even 175miles of real life range!

 

[Leonard]

And I am sorry, but the toyota yaris's 10 year old interior and app and turning circle and seating position........ ohhhh how I miss my honda E, if only it had even 175miles of real life range!

But it has a 10 YEAR WARRANTY 😲, a handbrake so you can turn on a dime, rubbish seats but they do a lovely Recaro pole position option now 😁 It really is awesome 👌 🤣
All you need is that little app to keep you updated and everyone is happy ! 😊
Quite fancy a Honda E reckon it would do as a daily 95% of time. Other 5% be Emira time 😎

 

[MCS]

I couldn't disagree more....!
No, just kidding, but as there are many disagreements on here now we are all bored stiff, I thought it was a good place to start.

I proposed this, track your/build update amongst other things to Lotus before Porsche ever had this feature, but they were not too interested, even though the budget for this is not earth shatteringly large. However, I have it on good authority that this and other things are going to be introduced, hazarding a guess, this would be next year sometime, too late for us on here, or most of us.

A funny story; well not so funny, but at least a story, which our GR friend @Leonard may like. For security, I ordered 2 Yaris GR's here in Spain, one dealer telling me it probably wasnt going to happen, but she took my deposit anyway and even the other dealer was far from convinced as Spain did not get a huge allocation of the GR yaris, but he thought it may happen.
Anyway, the latter far from convinced dealer let me know about 8 weeks before that the car was now being built etc etc and I would get it last Summer, just as he was going on holiday. Then, while he was on holiday I get a phone call from someone I could not quite hear the name of, as I was outside, and she tells me my car is here, at the port, awaiting registration and could I now make the final payment for it. She sends me a whatsapp with the bank info and I try to make the payment, it fails for whatever reason.
To, thankfully, cut a long story short, the call was from the other dealer's boss and I nearly paid for the car I had been told I would more than likely not get, not the car I had been told was already on its way. So no update, just its HERE.
This wasnt actually the point of the story at all, just to confuse, the point was that I then discovered
EVEN TOYOTA has an app which lets you know when your car is being built and then it shows you its on their cargo ship steaming its way to you(not actually using steam of course these days), with an estimation date of arrival. And the sad part is, the dealers didnt even know this option exists, I discovered it by accident when I downloaded the app to my phone and registered with my email as one of the dealers had uploaded my email to the toyota system.
Ok, that was a crap story, but its a slow news day.......
And I am sorry, but the toyota yaris's 10 year old interior and app and turning circle and seating position........ ohhhh how I miss my honda E, if only it had even 175miles of real life range!

 

[emiraspain]

But it has a 10 YEAR WARRANTY 😲, a handbrake so you can turn on a dime, rubbish seats but they do a lovely Recaro pole position option now 😁 It really is awesome 👌 🤣
All you need is that little app to keep you updated and everyone is happy ! 😊
Quite fancy a Honda E reckon it would do as a daily 95% of time. Other 5% be Emira time 😎

it would be my daily for years, but it wont get me to barcelona and back and thats my minimum yardstick for distance, 250 km... no stress. Honda E does about 110km no stress... terrible really

 

[Citizen]

it would be my daily for years, but it wont get me to barcelona and back and thats my minimum yardstick for distance, 250 km... no stress. Honda E does about 110km no stress... terrible really

So the Honda-e needs a swap to K24 turbo!

 

[Eagle7]

Yeah I've been reading tests by various journalists and the electric cars don't really have the range that's advertised or people think they have. Apparently the test procedure for determining range doesn't include any real world conditions like elevation changes, towing anything, using the air conditioning or the infotainment system.

There was a recent report where a review team only got something like 85 miles on a full charge when towing a camper trailer on a trip. The problem apparently is on a steady trip, the regenerative braking doesn't come into play to help recharge the batteries like it does in stop and go driving in the city. Driving with the A/C on and listening to music while towing a camper was devastating to the battery charge levels. Another journalist traveling from one state to another found that many of the charging stations don't work, so those that do are backed up with lines of people waiting to charge their cars. This was on the east coast of the U.S. It takes at a minimum, 40 minutes to charge, so if you have a few people ahead of you, it's going to take hours just to charge your car. For right now, it looks like electric cars are mostly useful in the city and daily commutes, as long as they aren't long distances at a constant speed, but they're really not a practical replacement for ICE vehicles in every situation. Not yet anyways.

And of course now we're seeing warnings in Texas and California, for people to not charge their cars and cut back on their electric usage during the day to avoid blackouts because the system can't handle the load. The world isn't ready to go all-electric, and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Certainly not soon enough to abandon ICE vehicles. I won't be surprised if in the next 3-5 years we see some of those deadlines getting pushed back, but then the manufacturers will have already abandoned their ICE production to go all-electric. The road ahead definitely looks challenging.

 

[Leonard]

I couldn't disagree more....!
No, just kidding, but as there are many disagreements on here now we are all bored stiff, I thought it was a good place to start.

I proposed this, track your/build update amongst other things to Lotus before Porsche ever had this feature, but they were not too interested, even though the budget for this is not earth shatteringly large. However, I have it on good authority that this and other things are going to be introduced, hazarding a guess, this would be next year sometime, too late for us on here, or most of us.

A funny story; well not so funny, but at least a story, which our GR friend @Leonard may like. For security, I ordered 2 Yaris GR's here in Spain, one dealer telling me it probably wasnt going to happen, but she took my deposit anyway and even the other dealer was far from convinced as Spain did not get a huge allocation of the GR yaris, but he thought it may happen.
Anyway, the latter far from convinced dealer let me know about 8 weeks before that the car was now being built etc etc and I would get it last Summer, just as he was going on holiday. Then, while he was on holiday I get a phone call from someone I could not quite hear the name of, as I was outside, and she tells me my car is here, at the port, awaiting registration and could I now make the final payment for it. She sends me a whatsapp with the bank info and I try to make the payment, it fails for whatever reason.
To, thankfully, cut a long story short, the call was from the other dealer's boss and I nearly paid for the car I had been told I would more than likely not get, not the car I had been told was already on its way. So no update, just its HERE.
This wasnt actually the point of the story at all, just to confuse, the point was that I then discovered
EVEN TOYOTA has an app which lets you know when your car is being built and then it shows you its on their cargo ship steaming its way to you(not actually using steam of course these days), with an estimation date of arrival. And the sad part is, the dealers didnt even know this option exists, I discovered it by accident when I downloaded the app to my phone and registered with my email as one of the dealers had uploaded my email to the toyota system.
Ok, that was a crap story, but its a slow news day.......
And I am sorry, but the toyota yaris's 10 year old interior and app and turning circle and seating position........ ohhhh how I miss my honda E, if only it had even 175miles of real life range!

So the Honda-e needs a swap to K24 turbo!

Wish they had put a small blown engine in it as well like a certain Yaris. Would have been a great car in vein of a Mk1 Gti. In fact it probably would have out Gti,d the Gti!

 

[GetawayDriving]

Apparently the test procedure for determining range doesn't include any real world conditions like elevation changes, towing anything, using the air conditioning or the infotainment system.

To be fair, it's the same with any car. We just don't think about our "range" as much with gasoline.

Towing will obliterate EV range, same as gas mileage, that's not really surprising. The heater is the biggest draw in an EV, and cold temps can exasperate it if the driver doesn't take time to precondition. Everything else is negligible feature-wise. Range will fluctuate for the same reasons gas mileage does: aerodynamics (bike racks etc), weight, terrain, lead foot, tire pressures, etc.

Charge times depend on the car, but are only 40 minutes if you have a lower peak charge rate and want to wait for 100%. Most people never will. A car like a Tesla or Hyundai with 250+ kw charge rate will get 80% back in 15-20 minutes and be on their way. Charging slows way down for that final 20% of juice, which is why you see 40 minute times. It often makes more sense for an EV to make multiple stops to get 80% back than one stop to get 100%.

In the US, the Tesla network is excellent and lines are uncommon (mostly happening on the west coast). Here's a charging station in South Carolina:

Other charging networks are worse but growing fast. It's true that many chargers are broken I've experienced that in my 6 years of driving electric. This will get better as more plugs are added.

"For right now, it looks like electric cars are mostly useful in the city and daily commutes, as long as they aren't long distances at a constant speed, but they're really not a practical replacement for ICE vehicles in every situation. Not yet anyways."

For most people who can charge at home, EVs are fine. As long as a car has a strong peak charge rate they're perfectly fine for long distance travel. I've driven mine from Tampa to Nova Scotia and back with ease on multiple occasions. If you're towing that distance, don't sell that ICE engine yet.

"And of course now we're seeing warnings in Texas and California, for people to not charge their cars and cut back on their electric usage during the day to avoid blackouts because the system can't handle the load."

Many chargers are solar with local energy storage, but it's true that more need to be. We aren't going electric overnight. It'll take 10-15 years to transition and that's time to upgrade what needs to be upgraded. Most EV charging happens off-peak, so the current grid can actually handle it reasonable well. Texans may vary.

Maybe a relevant time to mention, this was my pandemic project:

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