Lotus Ashford Saturday - Report

[Stormcloud]

Nice food, nice welcome, plenty of Lotus people available to answer questions.

Missed Goodwood so first opportunity to see the car, pretty disappointed with the blue, pleasantly surprised with the space behind the seats, very usable for luggage. Can confirm had chat regarding another 7 colours late next year, black, white, red, 2 blue and 2 grey. Importantly one of the greys is expected to be the crayon colour that a lot were expecting of Nimbus. 6 FE colours will be available on 2023 base offerings.

The car itself was more pre-prod than I had expected, did feedback about the seat height, ride height, making v6 / manual decisions based on an AMG slammed show car, they understood but clearly it is what it is. Apparently the seats will be 20mm lower and the ride height 20mm higher.

As mentioned before, just over 1000 being made in year 1, based on the 90/10 split on v6/amg they would like to build, suggested it would mean i4 FEs would not be met next year if depositors split more 50/50, said they'll review it based on answers given upto Nov 5th.

On colours, red seemed more Jag lipstick and does not photograph well, nimbus is just silver, grey is as grey is, yellow is mustard flat to my eyes. Apparently the most popular colour by a considerable margin is the green, even though it is so dark, I got the impression that it was the best of what was on offer tbh from speaking to others, although a few were going yellow and blue, so who knows.

So another 3k before Nov 5th, 10% deposit 4-6 weeks later when configs and monies are locked in. At that point you will be given an expected delivery for your car. It is expected early delivery v6 owners will not get an opportunity to drive a v6 before collecting theirs. I'd like to know where I am in the v6 queue for delivery and where I'm likely to be in the i4 queue for delivery before Nov 5th tbh. I'd wait till autumn 2022 for an i4FE, but if it's expected to run into summer 2023 then I'll take a summer 2022 manual. Annoying really.

So, Ashford did a good job, car looked good, still keen, but will be going i4FE or even i4 base (not 100% sold on green), at 1400kg and as the car looks so nice it will not be a car I'll be chucking around, and I have another manual option in the garage. With that space behind the seat and an AMG auto it looks like a perfect GT for my purposes.

 

[EspritGuy]

Nice food, nice welcome, plenty of Lotus people available to answer questions.

Missed Goodwood so first opportunity to see the car, pretty disappointed with the blue, pleasantly surprised with the space behind the seats, very usable for luggage. Can confirm had chat regarding another 7 colours late next year, black, white, red, 2 blue and 2 grey. Importantly one of the greys is expected to be the crayon colour that a lot were expecting of Nimbus. 6 FE colours will be available on 2023 base offerings.

The car itself was more pre-prod than I had expected, did feedback about the seat height, ride height, making v6 / manual decisions based on an AMG slammed show car, they understood but clearly it is what it is. Apparently the seats will be 20mm lower and the ride height 20mm higher.

As mentioned before, just over 1000 being made in year 1, based on the 90/10 split on v6/amg they would like to build, suggested it would mean i4 FEs would not be met next year if depositors split more 50/50, said they'll review it based on answers given upto Nov 5th.

On colours, red seemed more Jag lipstick and does not photograph well, nimbus is just silver, grey is as grey is, yellow is mustard flat to my eyes. Apparently the most popular colour by a considerable margin is the green, even though it is so dark, I got the impression that it was the best of what was on offer tbh from speaking to others, although a few were going yellow and blue, so who knows.

So another 3k before Nov 5th, 10% deposit 4-6 weeks later when configs and monies are locked in. At that point you will be given an expected delivery for your car. It is expected early delivery v6 owners will not get an opportunity to drive a v6 before collecting theirs. I'd like to know where I am in the v6 queue for delivery and where I'm likely to be in the i4 queue for delivery before Nov 5th tbh. I'd wait till autumn 2022 for an i4FE, but if it's expected to run into summer 2023 then I'll take a summer 2022 manual. Annoying really.

So, Ashford did a good job, car looked good, still keen, but will be going i4FE or even i4 base (not 100% sold on green), at 1400kg and as the car looks so nice it will not be a car I'll be chucking around, and I have another manual option in the garage. With that space behind the seat and an AMG auto it looks like a perfect GT for my purposes.

Excellent report. Thanks.

 

[Joel]

10% deposit 4-6 weeks later when configs and monies are locked in.

Was this something confirmed at the roadshow event?

When I spoke to a lotus rep early September I was told that the final deposit to make the 10% mark would be due "a week before" your build slot, and up until that point, you could cancel for full refund. The point I think being that you should get an opportunity to test drive before you're fully committed.

Being locked in for 8k and having not been able to drive the car would probably be a deal breaker for a lot of people

 

[GarrethN]

Really mixed messages coming through. I can see a lot of people pulling their deposits if asked to pay another 10% non refundable based on something that is only “representative” of the actual car.

I’m happy to lend Lotus 5K to get things going, but 13K? No.

Someone must know what’s going to happen. These mixed messages are nuts.

 

[Joel]

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my last message. I think the intention is that the final payment makes you up to the 10% rather than being a 10% payment, so you'd be adding another 3k to make up 8k including the existing 5k. It's expected you'll have 90% to finance/settle on delivery

 

[Stormcloud]

The sales guy at Ashford told me the 4-6 weeks information. I caught him at the end of the event, so I presume he had already been asked previously by other potential buyers. The head of brand sales debunked the 90/10 split to say nothing had been decided and would instead be mostly guided by firmed up v6 orders, I have not had my call as yet so not sure if the call team make a note of any preference beyond you saying yes or no to a v6.

A separate engineer at the event said to me that the owners of early v6 deliveries would not get an opportunity to drive the car. Reading between the lines it feels like the dealership cars, press cars and early locked in 10%'ers will be in the same window. If the 4-6 weeks is true (and I did ask the guy twice) then their suspicion maybe that with dealer cars, demo cars and buyers that will lock in 10% in mid December to get the very earliest build slots will be enough to keep them very busy, if you don't want to lock in 10% then you slip down the list a little for those that will risk 10%, it'll only be a little way down the list and importantly, not off it.

I'm speculating about why a mid December 10% lock in could be valid, but 4-6 weeks was told to me, I need to pop into b&c late next week so when I phone them tomorrow to arrange I'll ask them about a 10% lockin and when it is likely due, without leading the witness, if they confirm the timescale without prompting, then it's pretty much official in my mind.

And yes, the 10% is bringing your 5k up to 10% of the cars value, so 10% locked is 8k.