Is anyone planning on delaying their delivery?

[Emira]

I'm sure this has been covered amongst the various threads but it was hard to search for.

Is anyone with a "November" or "December" delivery thinking of delaying delivery until, say, March/April?

Is such a thing able to be requested to Lotus, i.e. do they have the flexibility to do this or do we have no choice on when our car comes?

 

[Jon_N]

Shmee delayed his delivery/build for 3 months I believe!

 

[Tonyshepp]

If mine is going to be late January deliver (was to be November) then I’ll seek to register it in March, pay for it earlier though -provided the warranty also starts on registration date and not payment date.

 

[Emira]

Shmee delayed his delivery/build for 3 months I believe!

Alas he is not a mere mortal like me haha!

 

[Emira]

The reason I'm asking (sorry, probably should have clarified this on my first post), is that it would be useful to start seeing real examples being delivered in the UK/dealer demos I could be tempted to change my colour combo. So, I'd want to delay in order to get more real life experience of seeing physical cars before committing to my order.

(I appreciate that spec changes delay the car, but if I get the call/email before I've seen real life cars then I'd want to delay).

 

[spice]

The reason I'm asking (sorry, probably should have clarified this on my first post), is that it would be useful to start seeing real examples being delivered in the UK/dealer demos I could be tempted to change my colour combo. So, I'd want to delay in order to get more real life experience of seeing physical cars before committing to my order.

(I appreciate that spec changes delay the car, but if I get the call/email before I've seen real life cars then I'd want to delay).

I get the feeling Dec/Jan in all reality will be Feb/March anyway .

 

[scoates]

I'm not sure if delaying any specific time is possible. I reckon if you get through to checkout stage and at that point ask to delay then you will likely go to the back of the queue for a new build. After checkout is done then the next stage is assigning registration to the car and that is to be done before final document signing and payment so not sure if you can pay and then delay registration.

From what I've seen if you decide to change spec and incur a delay because of it, it can be a bit of a lottery where you end up as well! We've also seen some people ask for a specific delivery month which equated to a 3 month delay, and that delay has been held through all of the further delays. If you ask for "March" now it likely will just go down as a 4-5 month delay so if everything gets pushed further it could end up a lot later than that.

 

[DJS]

I agree with Tony take the car while you can, I think most of us will get our cars beyond March 2023 anyway (1st 2nd batch) Taking a chance by delaying could leave you here this time next year still scratching your head.

If only Lotus could tell us your car will be delivered in March or April 23, most of would except that.

God help the I4ers

 

[TomE]

I’ve asked Lotus about this before. They won’t let you delay to a specific month. They will let you delay out of your current batch but can’t tell you when that lands you. Same if you make a spec change. That may become clearer once they have done the early 2023 production schedule, but with all the delays most of Q1 is rolled over Q4.

If you get to Checkout and want to delay, then most likely is you go back into the queue and your part/full built car is re-assigned (like a cancellation). I think you could delay 1-2 weeks, for example to fit in a test drive, but not longer.

If you get to Delivery you get a few weeks flexibility on dates, but if you want longer then the car is reassigned and you go back into the queue. You could possibly ask for it to be delivered to the dealer and held by them, if they’re prepared to do it. But I think this would result in the car being registered, as Lotus handles that centrally before delivery.

 

[spice]

Presuming , as suggested, the factory has a two week shut down over Xmas , there is max 8 weeks for my car to be produced for early Jan , slim chance of this happening, maybe Jan /Feb at best , however I am prepared for Feb/March .

 

[Tonygcar]

Also if you delay until next year Lotus may be forced to increase the price to keep the profit margin, if you listen to MW on Harry’s garage they are being eaten into by inflation and logistics etc and the margins are tight. 🤔

 

[emiraspain]

As Tom says, you cannot pick and choose.

You will be given 3 dates to receive your car.... I imagine those 3 dates are spread across no more than a few weeks.
If you simply want to try to get a weeks delay, or a different date than those offered, but within that time frame, they will contact the scheduling dept for you and ask them, BUT no guarantee.
I did ask this exact question last week and was told that if you want to delay beyond a small period, which in itself is not guaranteed, then you dont go to the back of the queue necessarily, but you simply go into the next batch, which is not scheduled at the moment so NO guarantees on date can be given and you certainly can't chose your month etc etc.

I agree with Tom, it is unlikely the dealer can do much more than keep your car for you, the registering may be out of their hands and even if its in their hands, they too have monthly targets, VAT and what have you.

I doubt most car companies will be much more sympathetic in this regard. You take your GT4 when it arrives I'd say and certainly pay for it.
When I got my Ionic 5, albeit here in Spain, I pretty much had to take it the month it arrived, or certainly pay for it at the very least, which makes sense.... it is not fair to keep it on their books and the dealer in this case had to pay Hyundai themselves.

Anyway, if you were January and wanted to delay to "March" you may be lucky and get some date in March, but you may also be looking at April or later and as has been said, pricing is a whole other story as is road tax.....

 

[Cachaco131]

Alas he is not a mere mortal like me haha!

Where is your self esteem?! That Schmee is absolutely no one.

 

[Emira]

Thank you all, all valid comments that make sense.

 

[LotusAmateur]

Be careful about asking Lotus to delay delivery. I was an early depositor (pre-Goodwood) and initially scheduled to get my car in June. When that became July/ Aug, I asked to delay to Sep as I was travelling July and Aug. They said they would do that but moved me to Oct (instead of Sep) and did not tell me. And from then, I have been treated as a later depositor and experienced their delays. E.g. have not received the latest updates (been getting Electre updates promptly though 🙄). And when I raised this with CS, Scott and B&C, CS got back offering me a cancellation.

As others have said, see the further delays play out. Nov/ Dec will most likely be post Mar anyway. At least that I what I am working towards now.

 

[benjh1028]

I didn't realize that not having a delayed delivery was optional?

 

[RENDERMAN]

You guys are killing me, first you fight because of the delay, now , you fight to delay, wnat's the delay now?

 

[TomE]

I know at least one early recipient who is putting their car straight into storage until next April

 

[DerTheDer]

No, Lotus has been delaying it for me! Original delivery was supposed to be next month. Any more delays and I am 100% walking back my FE order and requesting my deposit back. With rising rates and the world going to shit, I feel less inclined to buy a 100k sports car.

 

[nahanni]

I'm sure this has been covered amongst the various threads but it was hard to search for.

Is anyone with a "November" or "December" delivery thinking of delaying delivery until, say, March/April?

Is such a thing able to be requested to Lotus, i.e. do they have the flexibility to do this, or do we have no choice on when our car comes?

You may just be being overly cautious. As long as it doesn't become "paralysis through analysis". Anyway, in Canada we often just say, "shoot the puck".