New member from Cheshire, UK

[JohnHoward]

I am currently driving an Evora 410 Sport (auto) in white, which I understand is quite a rare model. I have a deposit down on a FE Emira V6 auto and am looking forward to seeing the car at the Manchester Airport roadshow on 5th November.
I think it is likely that I will be going for a magma red with black pack, gloss black wheels and ice grey leather interior and I am very much looking forward to delivery next spring/summer.
My only one reservation about the new car is whether the availability of servicing/repairs is to be improved. My local Lotus dealer is only about 25 minutes away, so is very convenient and they are a great team of friendly and knowledgeable people. My main issue is that it takes so long to get anything attended to. I am currently nearing the end of a seven week wait to get a red airbag warning light looked at. Earlier in the year I had a six week wait to get an orange spanner light checked out and before that the car was off the road for four weeks waiting for an engine warning light to be investigated.
I will ask the question at the roadshow about how Lotus plans to add more resource into the service side and reduce some of the long wait times.
I would be very interested to know how others find the waiting times for service/repairs/investigations etc are like in other part of the UK. As I said above, the entire service team at my local dealers are really helpful and friendly, there just does not seem to enough ‘hands on spanners’!

 

[Leonard]

Welcome John
I was going to ask the same when I visit Central Lotus in Notts next Monday, so will let you know

 

[1500 GT]

I am currently driving an Evora 410 Sport (auto) in white, which I understand is quite a rare model. I have a deposit down on a FE Emira V6 auto and am looking forward to seeing the car at the Manchester Airport roadshow on 5th November.
I think it is likely that I will be going for a magma red with black pack, gloss black wheels and ice grey leather interior and I am very much looking forward to delivery next spring/summer.
My only one reservation about the new car is whether the availability of servicing/repairs is to be improved. My local Lotus dealer is only about 25 minutes away, so is very convenient and they are a great team of friendly and knowledgeable people. My main issue is that it takes so long to get anything attended to. I am currently nearing the end of a seven week wait to get a red airbag warning light looked at. Earlier in the year I had a six week wait to get an orange spanner light checked out and before that the car was off the road for four weeks waiting for an engine warning light to be investigated.
I will ask the question at the roadshow about how Lotus plans to add more resource into the service side and reduce some of the long wait times.
I would be very interested to know how others find the waiting times for service/repairs/investigations etc are like in other part of the UK. As I said above, the entire service team at my local dealers are really helpful and friendly, there just does not seem to enough ‘hands on spanners’!

John,
Another new member from Cheshire and I'm at the Manchester Airport roadshow on 4th November, having placed my deposit in early July. I'll be going for a Verdant Green manual First Edition with gloss black wheels, lower black pack only, touring suspension setup and black alcantara interior with yellow stitching, that is unless the Seneca Blue blows me away in the flesh and I'll have to have a re-think.
I'm very much with you on the local dealer front and it's one of my main concerns in jumping in for an early Emira. I run a Caterham CSR260 which I've owned for about 3 years now and although Oakmere are Caterham retailers the car ended up back at Caterham headquarters in Crawley for fault finding and repairs on two occasions due to lack of resources and silly timescales locally. I just hope that they can expand their operation to address the increased demand that the Emira will almost certainly create.

 

[TomE]

Welcome John. Disappointing to hear about your dealership experience. Did they explain why such long delays? From what you've said these are investigation jobs, so shouldn't be affected by any parts supply issues. Are they just busy due to lack of Lotus-trained staff, increased demand, Covid-related absence? I'd really hope the dealership would acknowledge the delay is unacceptable.

My experience with Lotus dealers elsewhere has been very good (Bell & Colvill, Silverstone, Stratton, JCT). I know over the last few months some have been hugely busy as people come out of lockdown and want their cars serviced, MOT'd etc. Parts supply from Lotus has also been a factor, particularly where their non-UK suppliers are more heavily impacted by Covid.

Airbag warning light should be a simple issue: it's usually either triggered due to low voltage and just needs an ECU reset or the sensor has failed and needs replacing.

I also have several good independents near me who are Lotus experts. Have you got anyone similar near you or is your car still under warranty so you want the dealer to resolve it?

Evora 410 Sport is a lovely car. I'm sure there are people on here who would be interested to hear your thoughts on the auto box and the ride & handling of the sports setup over on the relevant threads.

 

[JohnHoward]

Welcome John. Disappointing to hear about your dealership experience...................................................

Thanks for your reply.
The issue at my local dealer seems to be increased demand and shortage of staff that has persisted all of this year. I appreciate that there are external factors that are leaving job vacancies unfilled across a number of sectors and the dealer is advertising vacancies for technicians and apprentices.

My Evora only came out of warranty earlier this year, so I have stayed with the Lotus dealer to resolve any issues.
My experience of new cars is that there are generally some ‘teething problems’ which are usually very quickly rectified, but I don’t want to be waiting 6 to 8 weeks to get something checked out.

It will be interesting to see what the plans are for Lotus with new or improved service level agreements with their dealer network. If there are no firm plans to change things, I will probably reconsider my purchase.

 

[JohnHoward]

John,
Another new member from Cheshire and I'm at the Manchester Airport roadshow on 4th November....................

It's a great venue for a car launch, I used to work at the airport and went to a number of functions over the years I was there. I am assuming that the folk from Oakmere will be there as I didn't see their name mentioned anywhere on the launch invite.

 

[JohnHoward]

Welcome John
I was going to ask the same when I visit Central Lotus in Notts next Monday, so will let you know

Many thanks, it will be very interesting to read what they have to say on this.

 

[supersix]

Welcome to the forum @JohnHoward