New Jayemm Emira video

[MiamiBlue]

Agree, disagree?

 

[geoffbland]

Also linked here

Mostly agree, but as pointed out by Teshoo Lama in the link above there's a couple of things not quite right. Most of the points he makes I have heard echoed by nearly every other Lotus owner I have spoken too recently - and more importantly in some respects - non-Lotus owners that potentially could be a customer.

I just hope someone in management at Lotus or Geeley take some of what is mentioned in Jayemm's video to heart.

 

[Cutting42]

Also linked here

Mostly agree, but as pointed out by Teshoo Lama in the link above there's a couple of things not quite right. Most of the points he makes I have heard echoed by nearly every other Lotus owner I have spoken too recently - and more importantly in some respects - non-Lotus owners that potentially could be a customer.

I just hope someone in management at Lotus or Geeley take some of what is mentioned in Jayemm's video to heart.

I seriously doubt it. Many of us who were early orderers and lived the excruciating pain of the total lack of regular information, lies and delays far in excess of what was acceptable even with Covid; fed back in considerable detail verbally, in writing and finally though cancelling. Since the last phone call chasing my refund (they could not even get that right) I have had no contact with Lotus the company asking for more detail on my cancellation. Ironically I got a call from Lotus Hatfield 3 months later saying my car was ready for collection though by which time I had to break it to the dealer that I had cancelled and bought an alternative.

It made me very sad and I defended them vigorously on here for years until I finally realised I had fallen out of love with the idea of an Emira, any mention of it made me flinch internally so I had to let it go.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

I think it's a lousy video, though I agree with many of the things James says in it.

It's more of a self-indulgent and wide-ranging rant than an objective discussion of "where Lotus went so wrong".

He misses the most important point: that Lotus has burned over a billion dollars because they tried to go 100% EV about a decade too early. That's what matters, not whether or not you can buy t-shirts at the dealership.

 

[Cutting42]

Don't necessarily disagree with anything James says in the video, but I think it's a lousy video.

It's more of a wide-ranging rant than an objective discussion of "where Lotus went so wrong".

It's what he does really, tries to give a general feel of how he feels, he loves a clickbait title as well. Without more internal knowledge, hard to give a detailed objective discussion and probably not as entertaining. These Youtubers are about entertaining for the clicks ultimately.

 

[geoffbland]

I seriously doubt it. Many of us who were early orderers and lived the excruciating pain of the total lack of regular information, lies and delays far in excess of what was acceptable even with Covid; fed back in considerable detail verbally, in writing and finally though cancelling. Since the last phone call chasing my refund (they could not even get that right) I have had no contact with Lotus the company asking for more detail on my cancellation. Ironically I got a call from Lotus Hatfield 3 months later saying my car was ready for collection though by which time I had to break it to the dealer that I had cancelled and bought an alternative.

It made me very sad and I defended them vigorously on here for years until I finally realised I had fallen out of love with the idea of an Emira, any mention of it made me flinch internally so I had to let it go.

I seriously doubt they will learn too - this is classic Lotus - something they have never improved on - I had a deposit down for a M250 if anyone remembers that? I was hoping a large, experienced company like Geeley would improve on this but it just seems to have got worse. Lotus seem to have one of the best and most loyal set of followers and customers of any car manufacturer - this should be a huge boon having these to advocate for the brand that the company should make the most of. Yet it seems they find this an annoyance at best and are alienating their followers instead - this is noticed by any potential customers and must be so bad for their business.

Geeley I am sure just bought the company to leverage the heritage - do they not realise that all the current owners are part of that heritage?

I agree with Jayemm's basic point - the Emira is such a great car it should be selling in droves - but the quality control issues and especially the way the company handles customers is just preventing this.

 

[crestima]

It may very well be true and yet not surprising that YouTube and, by extension James, thrive on sensationalism, but one thing is certain which is that throughout its existence, Lotus has provided so much ammunition to have it fired back at them. Their abysmal dealer/customer treatment, lack/difficulty of spare parts, sorting warrantee issues, pricing inconsistencies (to mention just a few) is abundant hard to ignore ammo for critics.

 

[cyanmauve]

It’s pretty much an opinion rant with some valid points and some emotional schlock thrown in, which he more or less admits it is.

His passion for the brand and the car are apparent in how strongly he feels. It’s like having a friend you know is capable of greatness but just can’t ever get it together to fully realize their potential.

 

[Lotustoronto]

Looks like he had a bit of an axe to grind again with Lotus. He's not wrong about Lotus and customer service / quality control, but at the same time this is growing pains of a new company identity. It's clear they are in survival mode and between COVID and Tarrifs it has been a tough go for a company reset and launch. Look at Jaguar - going through the same re-launch issues and IMO if it was not for Land Rover (and maybe Waymo) they would have been out of business long ago. I don't particularly care about the car being lowered and pictured more attractively online for marketing, I don't even car about it being an evolution of the Evora. Customer service and quality control would be the reason for them not succeeding. Self defeating and maybe that is the point of his video.

You can build and design a beautiful car and have not so great dealer support and CS - but you better make sure the car is flawless and doesn't break down. What you can't do is build a beautiful car that has bad QC and CS and a small dealer network. No one wants to buy a car that sits at a dealer getting fixed for half of the warranty period.

Lastly - some of Lotus' recent marketing campaigns have been hit and miss, they really need to do a bit of a re-think about who they are marketing too.

 

[chirowolf]

The thumbnail is a bit of clickbait. Most of his gripes are about service and not the car.
He states a rough ride. My car has the touring suspension, and it is a magnitude better ride than my Evora. I drove the sport and it was a bit stiffer but nothing like a GT3 or something of that caliber. Can't have good road feel without a bit ofstifness.
Jay is a bit on the large side (to put it mildly) and that will affect seat comfort and car feel.

 

[Eagle7]

The fact that Geely has acknowledged it's misdirection with all-EV, and has and is restructuring to not only NOT discontinue the Emira, but find new engines and improve it is a very good sign to me. Every manufacturer has taken a huge financial hit over the EV debacle, and is struggling to regain their footing. Geely has the resources to take the hit, rebound and get its act together.

Hopefully they'll pay attention to the customer experience too, and not just the hardware.

 

[lynchy73]

I subscribe to Jayemm and I like his videos, but he does seem to get a bit triggered by Lotus. I don’t get it, he goes on about how great Lotus cars are, but all he does is trash them. All this seems to be mostly because a guy that used to work in Lotus PR sent him a shitty email 6 years ago…

 

[geoffbland]

I don’t get it, he goes on about how great Lotus cars are, but all he does is trash them.

He's trashing Lotus as a company, he's not trashing the car. He explicitly states just how fantastic the Emira is. He also states how good and dedicated the designers, engineers and builder are at Hethel. There's unfortunately more and more of these people now begin laid off due to the mistakes of PR, sales, advertising, customer service and upper management. It must be heart-breaking to build cars at Hethel with such pride in them to have all the negativity directed at them not due to the actual cars they are building.

All this seems to be mostly because a guy that used to work in Lotus PR sent him a shitty email 6 years ago…

Yes - but he is far from alone in having bad experiences with the company and customer services, you will find many examples of this here on this forum.

 

[seriously]

Ironically, the billion dollar EV mistake is the only reason the Emira exists. Geely had no other reason to buy the badge but to promote their EV strategy.