USA/Canada Delivery Thread

Wiz33 · Nov 27, 2023

Well, this kinda sucks for those waiting for Auto and I4 (me). I was planning on getting mine around Jun/Jul right before my lease is up on my RS5. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to buy off the RS5 at lease end and then decide if I want to keep it or trade it in when the I4 comes in. I'm hoping that with the extra time. They'll be able to get all the FE I4 in the first shipment.

Nova · Nov 27, 2023

I am guessing 500 cars is roughly the portion of 700 FE 1.0 orders that were manual? We will get to see how any cars are on the first boat in the next few days.

MIGZ · Nov 27, 2023

In New Orleans for a work trip and spotted 3 Emiras , decided on the red one.

Good thing is car will be here soon, hopefully my dealer stores it the covered garage. Really don’t want them to put it on the sales floor as an attraction.

Climber · Nov 27, 2023

MIGZ said:
In New Orleans for a work trip and spotted 3 Emiras , decided on the red one.

Good thing is car will be here soon, hopefully my dealer stores it the covered garage. Really don’t want them to put it on the sales floor as an attraction.

We get hail storms in Texas all the time..
through about purchasing a car cover and delivering it to my lotus dealership…

Dr.JDK · Nov 27, 2023

dgrace said:
The only silver lining I can see from this shitshow is that US buyers will have a chance to go take a good look at the car while it's impounded at the dealership to check for misaligned body panels, door bubbling, configuration errors, A/C functionality before making final payments. I really don't know where Bellevue is going to store 40 cars though.

Edit: it's a toss-up who Lotus treats worse: the customers or the dealers. I figure the only thing worse than having no product to sell for 2 years is having to warehouse and take financial responsibility for a bunch of product you still can't sell, all through no fault of your own.

I demand they seek indoor garage space. Lotus USA may or may not provide funding for storage cost for the dealership. Bellevue has the Hagerty Driver’s Club storage they can potentially rent. They really don’t have any extra indoor/outdoor space on their compound. Even Aston Martins are parked outside.
If they cannot provide indoor garage space, I may need to drop off a car cover for my car…

azlambo · Nov 27, 2023

B r I a n said:
My Dealer (Maryland) informed me of the same (FE 2.0 V6 Manual delivery in April 2024) back in Aug 2023, but that was based on a Dec 2023 build, not sure if that is still the case.

If CARB is obtained in January and deliveries start , I would expect delivering 500 cars would take 2-3 months.

Once cars are delivered to North America (next wee) will they will immediately be delivered to the dealers for prep or would be stored at a central location until CARB is approved and then distributed to the dealers for prep. I presume Lotus would hold all cars at a central location until CARB approval is obtained to ensure no penalties. Maybe not.

Taking that into account, I think a FE 2.0 V6 manual delivery would be summer of 2024 (if prioritized over FE 1.0 V6 Auto). I do not see FE 1.0 or 2.0 specifically noted in dealer recap - just First Edition.

Cars will go straight to dealers…..no being held at a central location. Cars will remain at dealers until CARB approval. Once CARB approval, delivering 500 cars will not take months! Imagine it will take a day or two!!!

KCMO68_510 · Nov 27, 2023

azlambo said:
Cars will go straight to dealers…..no being held at a central location. Cars will remain at dealers until CARB approval. Once CARB approval, delivering 500 cars will not take months! Imagine it will take a day or two!!!

It will take longer than a few days just from pure logistics. Not all 500 are appearing at once. Then mix in individuals schedules. It will take some time. BUT, during that time the dealer will likely keep getting more FE2.0 manuals.

VL3X · Nov 27, 2023

azlambo said:
Cars will go straight to dealers…..no being held at a central location. Cars will remain at dealers until CARB approval. Once CARB approval, delivering 500 cars will not take months! Imagine it will take a day or two!!!

It'll take weeks at least. Ever sat through a car delivery? Especially one that involves financing? It takes hours. The big dealers got 40-60 FE allocations and the smaller ones got 5-10. Considering most Lotus dealers only have 1-3 dedicated sales reps, the initial 500 will take quite some time to get into customer hands.

Let's not even talk about the rejected deliveries. If these end up sitting for weeks (especially those outside in the cold) and not on battery tenders, there will be a lot of issues reported from these early deliveries.

trackday14 · Nov 27, 2023

KCMO68_510 said:
Yeah. I’m trying to figure out when to sell other cars, because in MO you can use the sale of one car to offset the sales tax of another, but I think they have to be sold within a few months of the purchase. So trying to figure out timing and save a few grand on sales tax

VL3X said:
It'll take weeks at least. Ever sat through a car delivery? Especially one that involves financing? It takes hours. The big dealers got 40-60 FE allocations and the smaller ones got 5-10. Considering most Lotus dealers only have 1-3 dedicated sales reps, the initial 500 will take quite some time to get into customer hands.

Let's not even talk about the rejected deliveries. If these end up sitting for weeks (especially those outside in the cold) and not on battery tenders, there will be a lot of issues reported from these early deliveries.

The smart play would be for dealers to schedule customer deliveries for those that prearrange financing. For those customers that intend to finance through their dealership, the dealership can do most of the work before the customer shows up.

MIGZ · Nov 27, 2023

Climber said:
We get hail storms in Texas all the time..
through about purchasing a car cover and delivering it to my lotus dealership…

They will be keeping the car if it ends up looking like a golf ball , or I’ll buy it for dirt cheap.

Pixelated · Nov 27, 2023

Please pray for us V6 auto/I4 customers

benjh1028 · Nov 27, 2023

VL3X said:
It'll take weeks at least. Ever sat through a car delivery? Especially one that involves financing? It takes hours. The big dealers got 40-60 FE allocations and the smaller ones got 5-10. Considering most Lotus dealers only have 1-3 dedicated sales reps, the initial 500 will take quite some time to get into customer hands.

Let's not even talk about the rejected deliveries. If these end up sitting for weeks (especially those outside in the cold) and not on battery tenders, there will be a lot of issues reported from these early deliveries.

Being in the FE 2.0 batch starting to sound good.

azlambo · Nov 27, 2023

KCMO68_510 said:
It will take longer than a few days just from pure logistics. Not all 500 are appearing at once. Then mix in individuals schedules. It will take some time. BUT, during that time the dealer will likely keep getting more FE2.0 manuals.

By the time Lotus gets CARB approval, all 500 cars will be sitting at the dealerships, waiting for their owners to come in, write a check, drive off.

…Next……..

WarriorHockey2266 · Nov 28, 2023

trackday14 said:
The smart play would be for dealers to schedule customer deliveries for those that prearrange financing. For those customers that intend to finance through their dealership, the dealership can do most of the work before the customer shows up.

Right. This is way over thinking that it’ll take weeks. The sales person doesn’t do the financing. The sale is already effectively done pending payment. So you’ll have managers stepping in to help also. You can line basically everything up beforehand schedule when they are going to come in and even 2-3 sales people could knock out 20 of these a day.

When I got the Vette, I wasn’t even planning on buying it I was just bringing the jeep over to sell when car prices were being stupid. They had it appraised, with an offer, and I had financing ready to go while there in a matter of a couple hours we were done.

The dealers are doing delivery not Lotus, they won’t take 4 hours a person. If it was lotus they’d be done delivering them in 2025. The dealers have been waiting for multiple years to get these things in. Any dealer worth their shit will have everyone available to get these out the door ASAP because it’s basically free money for them.

MajHall04 · Nov 28, 2023

The “nut kicker” is prices will likely rise while the I4 is being delayed. And to add insult they just said $2300 delivery fee on top of my $10200 I4 that’s now slated for 2025

EspritGuy · Nov 28, 2023

DerTheDer said:
BIG IF TRUE. Thanks for the info.

And as a further development the slogan embossed on the key fob will now read:
'For the Drama.'

WarriorHockey2266 · Nov 28, 2023

MajHall04 said:
The “nut kicker” is prices will likely rise while the I4 is being delayed. And to add insult they just said $2300 delivery fee on top of my $10200 I4 that’s now slated for 2025

Delivery/destination fee was always going to be charged. It may be a bit higher but it’s also low volume so it’s costing them more than being able leverage volume cost reduction there.

With the cost increases on the FE2. My guess is that they almost have very slim margin on FE1. Have they said that the price is still locked on the I4? I’d be more concerned with that if it’s not in writing than the delivery fee.

Climber · Nov 28, 2023

WarriorHockey2266 said:
Delivery/destination fee was always going to be charged. It may be a bit higher but it’s also low volume so it’s costing them more than being able leverage volume cost reduction there.

With the cost increases on the FE2. My guess is that they almost have very slim margin on FE1. Have they said that the price is still locked on the I4? I’d be more concerned with that if it’s not in writing than the delivery fee

Climber · Nov 28, 2023

We are starting to get cars! 500! I feel like celebrating

. More importantly the indefinite waiting is over. We have a definitive timeframe… Congratulations to the lucky

500!! & manual driver’s.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MajHall04 · Nov 28, 2023

WarriorHockey2266 said:
Delivery/destination fee was always going to be charged. It may be a bit higher but it’s also low volume so it’s costing them more than being able leverage volume cost reduction there.

With the cost increases on the FE2. My guess is that they almost have very slim margin on FE1. Have they said that the price is still locked on the I4? I’d be more concerned with that if it’s not in writing than the delivery fee.

Yes, delivery fee is always charged but $2300 is excessive. Also, the car was shown in 2021 and now we are getting a 2025 vehicle. At that point most manufacturers are starting their LCI. Are we getting the ADAS now? Are we getting the 400hp the China is getting? All I have now is a locked in build, a deposit that’s 3 years old, and my only hope is that interest rates will fall by 2025.