What things annoy you on Emira?

[CarGuy11]

My biggest gripe is the abysmal Lotus customer support and the impossible approval of warranty repair. My dealer complains of the same. I can live with the rather long list of mostly user interface issues others have commented on but Lotus not addressing the warranty to the point that I have paid out of pocket for issues that should not be present for a car of this price is unforgivable. Not the best way to build brand loyalty. Many, many people ask me about the car when in the wild and I tell them the car is great but unresolved issues diminish the enjoyment that other car manufactures have sorted.

Interesting, what wasn't covered? All of my actual problems were covered under warranty.

 

[JDR]

I have documented in other posts, defective battery and very loud interior rattles. The car sat at the dealer for 5 weeks and I got frustrated and took the car back and replaced the battery at home and have an appointment at another shop for the very loud and annoying creaks. The dealer never got approval ($ reimbursing approval from Lotus) and I could not get Lotus to respond to my request for contact to resolve (Lotus US, UK would not talk to me after $100 of phone calls). I think they are trying to limit their cost for repairs due to their financial problems?

 

[crestima]

This was my response to this same pos ton FB. There are speakers in the back.

There is a rubber gas area flap that can be installed that drapes down over the body to protect it when filing up. Available on Amazon. Works great. I pull the gas nozzle out after filling and twist the handle so the spout is pointing up and that keeps fuel from spilling on the car.

There are two mid bass speakers at those upper locations in the rear. They don’t produce much sound but they are there in addition to the sub.

You can replace the haptic steering wheel controls with non haptic. That is a simple but huge upgrade.

You can use voice commands for turning on the seat heaters. That work much easier if you replace the haptic steering wheel controls.

Also, the voice command works two ways. Short press works with built in car systems. Long press works with CarPlay.

I’m with you on the proximity entry not being there and a button at the rear hatch to open it. That seems standard nowadays.

Good guidance and solutions. As for your second point, however, I think the reviewer criticism was the Emira's fuel filler opening being on top (vertical access) rather than on the fender's lateral side, like on most vehicles. The advantage of having it on the side is that, when inserting the fuel dispenser nozzle, you avoid inverting the hose, spilling residual fuel from the previous customer's usage. This happened to me a couple of times so, lately, before inserting the nozzle, I've resorted to pointing it downward towards the ground to empty any potential residual fuel in the hose. Admittedly, it's not the safest of practices, but in a toss up between the ground and my Emira, the ground will always lose. Incidentally, I also placed the rubber apron which helps to protects against potential nozzle scraping and dripping of fuel directly on the paint.

 

[PatrickJS]

@PatrickJS I've had a front plate on for 12+ months using the GRP front plate mount and never had a single false-positive from a PDC sensor. were you using a different plate mount?

Just my tow hook that triggers it. But others said the plate can trigger it too

 

[PatrickJS]

Good guidance and solutions. As for your second point, however, I think the reviewer criticism was the Emira's fuel filler opening being on top (vertical access) rather than on the fender's lateral side, like on most vehicles. The advantage of having it on the side is that, when inserting the fuel dispenser nozzle, you avoid inverting the hose, spilling residual fuel from the previous customer's usage. This happened to me a couple of times so, lately, before inserting the nozzle, I've resorted to pointing it downward towards the ground to empty any potential residual fuel in the hose. Admittedly, it's not the safest of practices, but in a toss up between the ground and my Emira, the ground will always lose. Incidentally, I also placed the rubber apron which helps to protects against potential nozzle scraping and dripping of fuel directly on the paint.

You can rotate the nozzle up. In another post about how to gas the car I have a video explaining how to do it

 

[seneca blew me]

Love the car. But wish...

-Seats would move back automatically whenever you open doors to aid entry/exit. I currently use memory settings to do this.
- Parking brake located near gear shift instead of under the dash.
- Wish there were dedicated 'next track' 'prev track' buttons on the wheel instead of having to scroll to the media section and then doing it.
- Wish the volume knob could move side-to-side for next track / prev track.
- Not sure why the seat belts are twisted weird
- Wish android auto google maps could be displayed on driver display

 

[crestima]

You can rotate the nozzle up. In another post about how to gas the car I have a video explaining how to do it

Yep, tried that and it worked well for a few of my gas pumping sessions, but when there was lots of residual fuel left in the hose, I still managed to spill fuel all over the housing.

 

[seneca blew me]

Yep, tried that and it worked well for a few of my gas pumping sessions, but when there was lots of residual fuel left in the hose, I still managed to spill fuel all over the housing.

I feel like spilling some fuel on housing is fine vs on the paint itself

 

[Andrew25]

My biggest gripe is the abysmal Lotus customer support and the impossible approval of warranty repair. My dealer complains of the same. I can live with the rather long list of mostly user interface issues others have commented on but Lotus not addressing the warranty to the point that I have paid out of pocket for issues that should not be present for a car of this price is unforgivable. Not the best way to build brand loyalty. Many, many people ask me about the car when in the wild and I tell them the car is great but unresolved issues diminish the enjoyment that other car manufactures have sorted.

This is spot on. And "Unresolved issues diminish the enjoyment that other car manufacturers have sorted" is the best way to describe the feeling.

 

[Orchardbike]

I’d list out customer care, but that’s already been covered above. Outside of that it would be the manual gearbox. It’s by far the worst aspect of the car for me. It’s very noisy and loud, below 2k rpm. It’s like a grating, scraping, roaring noise (I’ve tied 3 others, so know it’s not just mine). The amount of backlash in the gearing in the low gears is truly shocking making the it jerky and snatchy at low speed, almost to the point of embarrassment!

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

The fact that the volume of of each source (phone, radio,etc…) resets with every power cycle.

The over complicated control scheme mess that is the d-pad steering wheel controls. My Tesla uses similar with two scroll wheels that have an d-pad functionality and act as a button if you press down. But the tactile feedback is 1000x better so you are 100% confident in your input. The Emira touch capacitive pads are a mushy and thoroughly dissatisfying mess. What did I press down on? And accidental swipes drive me insane.

 

[wcat]

Mine would be not being able to click a setting so that the car’s drive mode can be in sport (or track) mode by default. Having to change from tour mode every time is annoying.

I also don’t like looking at the plus marks on the driver screen in the various modes and not being able to modify them. Should be able to do in every drive mode.

 

[geoffbland]

The fact that the volume of of each source (phone, radio,etc…) resets with every power cycle.

The over complicated control scheme mess that is the d-pad steering wheel controls. My Tesla uses similar with two scroll wheels that have an d-pad functionality and act as a button if you press down. But the tactile feedback is 1000x better so you are 100% confident in your input. The Emira touch capacitive pads are a mushy and thoroughly dissatisfying mess. What did I press down on? And accidental swipes drive me insane.

Replace them with proper button pads - these are just so much better. The old touch-sensitive pads did my head-in and were actually dangerous as I had to keep looking at the steering wheel to work out what I just accidentally brushed against.

 

[jabingb]

Archaic infotainment and no adaptive cruise, my cheap Chevy Bolt is FAR superior/usable in those regards! However, the car is still a blast to drive!!!

 

[trong74]

-No proximity locking
-Overly sensitive steering wheel touch buttons
-Always starting in default tour mode
-Needing to tap on radio icon before it recognizes favorites list
-Interior rattles / creaks, including shift cable noise at higher RPM
-No easy entry and exit
-Memory seats require holding down when doors are closed
-Wireless carplay initial connection is a hit or miss
-Radio stays on after opening the driver's door without even without key nearby

 

[Steve Tillett]

Edit: How could I forget the seats! They're comfortable but not supportive. I also feel way too high up, I'd forgo heated/power seats if it meant they were closer to the floor.

I can help you with this but it means buying new seats.

 

[trackday14]

When the side windows are down, the aerodynamics of the car cause hot air coming off of the front radiator to vent into the cabin…It’s crazy. Easily 10°F hotter in the cabin when cruising with the windows down.