Wonder if any cancellations after Test drives ???

[eclat2emira]

We all know how fabulous the car looks but I still wonder if it will drive as good as it looks. I wonder if there will be any cancellations after test drives. I’ve never owned a Lotus but I know I with cars I have high expectations. I will only be spending £80k if this car puts a big smile on my face and is Fun to drive as will just be a w/e car for pure driving pleasure. After having BMW I8, Audi R8 and G80 M4 I’m finding it difficult to find a car that delivers this whilst not spending arm and leg. My last test drives of TTRS and new RS3 were all very underwhelming so really have my 🤞 that Emira delivers or sadly it will be another car I cross off the list and then I’ll maybe just go back to G80 M3 ( but don’t want a large car ) Anyone else have similar concerns ?

I totally understand your concerns and all we have is drives by Lotus personnel (oh, and a British F1 champion) to go on. As well as the massive egg on face for all of them if this was all just puffery, look at what Lotus and Audi have respectively been known for over the last (20?) years and that may reassure you as to why the Emira may not disappoint like the TTRS and RS3 did:

Audi: road test after road test talking about lack of engagement, wooden feel, difficult to enjoy even the wickedly fast ones.

Lotus: driver engagement and involvement ahead of, well, everything!

There are no accidents here, these results are down to each marque's DNA - how they go about designing and building a car based on what their creed is and what they understand their customers or followers want.

That's my take on it for what it's worth.

BTW - R8, always loved it, did it drive as well as I hope it did? Surely Audi must have raised their game for that one?

 

[daveparky84]

I totally understand your concerns and all we have is drives by Lotus personnel (oh, and a British F1 champion) to go on. As well as the massive egg on face for all of them if this was all just puffery, look at what Lotus and Audi have respectively been known for over the last (20?) years and that may reassure you as to why the Emira may not disappoint like the TTRS and RS3 did:

Audi: road test after road test talking about lack of engagement, wooden feel, difficult to enjoy even the wickedly fast ones.

Lotus: driver engagement and involvement ahead of, well, everything!

There are no accidents here, these results are down to each marque's DNA - how they go about designing and building a car based on what their creed is and what they understand their customers or followers want.

That's my take on it for what it's worth.

BTW - R8, always loved it, did it drive as well as I hope it did? Surely Audi must have raised their game for that one?

I’ve not driven a new R8 but spent maybe 10 hours driving an original R8 4.2 V8 manual and really enjoyed it. Gated shifter, lovely sound, great amount of power for the road. Great value these days they’re still an amazing drive although lacking modern infotainment etc.

 

[BeHappy]

I totally understand your concerns and all we have is drives by Lotus personnel (oh, and a British F1 champion) to go on. As well as the massive egg on face for all of them if this was all just puffery, look at what Lotus and Audi have respectively been known for over the last (20?) years and that may reassure you as to why the Emira may not disappoint like the TTRS and RS3 did:

Audi: road test after road test talking about lack of engagement, wooden feel, difficult to enjoy even the wickedly fast ones.

Lotus: driver engagement and involvement ahead of, well, everything!

There are no accidents here, these results are down to each marque's DNA - how they go about designing and building a car based on what their creed is and what they understand their customers or followers want.

That's my take on it for what it's worth.

BTW - R8, always loved it, did it drive as well as I hope it did? Surely Audi must have raised their game for that one?

Thanks yes it did I’ve loved all of my cars over the years and motorbikes. My no1 bike is Gixxer without shadow of doubt. But my V10 R8 what a car, the exhaust roar is addictive. I would literally wander in the garage just to admire her. I had her for 3 years until she went out of warranty and now this is my trouble everything now just seems blah & supposedly sports performance cars now just feel like everyday cars. They say the TTRS is the baby R8, word I would use to describe it is boring, the new Golf R was more exciting IMO. Claire

 

[Tonyshepp]

Thanks yes it did I’ve loved all of my cars over the years and motorbikes. My no1 bike is Gixxer without shadow of doubt. But my V10 R8 what a car, the exhaust roar is addictive. I would literally wander in the garage just to admire her. I had her for 3 years until she went out of warranty and now this is my trouble everything now just seems blah & supposedly sports performance cars now just feel like everyday cars. They say the TTRS is the baby R8, word I would use to describe it is boring, the new Golf R was more exciting IMO. Claire

The R8 V10 was going to be one of my picks until the aemira arrived. The howl from the videos of the V10 was enough for me to want one.

 

[First Lotus]

I would have thought a v10 r8 would be classed as a notch above the emira? Even a nearly new one is in excess of £100k.
It has a 5.2 litre v10 as opposed to 3.5 v6.
IMO the aesthetics are far better on Emira, but obviously that's subjective.

 

[NicolasB]

Sounds like a lot of us on here have dated super models, found them to be too "fake", and more for show, and are excited for something real, like the girl next door 😄

 

[NickR]

I would have thought a v10 r8 would be classed as a notch above the emira? Even a nearly new one is in excess of £100k.
It has a 5.2 litre v10 as opposed to 3.5 v6.
IMO the aesthetics are far better on Emira, but obviously that's subjective.

agree, the R8 V10 is from £128,200, that's a different price point for sure, getting into Portofino money

​

 

[andrew6382]

agree, the R8 V10 is from £128,200, that's a different price point for sure, getting into Portofino money

​

I went to look at an R8 few weekends back.... love the inside.... but outside.... it was black... and in the show room light, erm.... perhaps it looks better in day light..... all I saw was a bigger TT.... am sure the drive is wonderful... but did not have the looks for me

 

[kratedisease]

I actually had a dream last night about driving an Emira and being extremely underwhelmed. It felt really slow and I couldn't even break the tires loose. The transmission felt sloppy and shifts unresponsive. The engine and exhaust were very muted too. Basically everything that could go wrong... I guess it was more of a nightmare. 😂

I had a day dream about driving the C8 Z06 and being extremely underwhelmed. It felt really heavy like a pig (3800 lbs) had no low end grunt ( torque) off the line at low RPM's, and all my neighbors said the base model front end bumper cover and side intake looked better visually.

 

[xen]

I had a day dream about driving the C8 Z06 and being extremely underwhelmed. It felt really heavy like a pig (3800 lbs) had no low end grunt ( torque) off the line at low RPM's, and all my neighbors said the base model front end bumper cover and side intake looked better visually.

I know this is intended as snark but every single thing about the Z06 sounds amazing. For a little bit more than the Emira you're get a lot more car...I'm tempted.

 

[kratedisease]

I know this is intended as snark but every single thing about the Z06 sounds amazing. For a little bit more than the Emira you're get a lot more car...I'm tempted.

Yes, but Chevy is hiding the weight specs. its gonna be a pig at 3700 pounds. Thats 4WD Nissan GTR weight. And only 470 torque compared with the C7 Z06 having 650 torque.

 

[kratedisease]

Yeah, I more worried about getting dusted by $20k GTIs and WRXs around town. Granted, I don't street race and not actually "worried" but it'd be nice to have some power to display places other than the track. Being in a $100k car that gets walked by sporty mass produced commuter cars owned by teenagers isn't very fun.

or easily spanked by a M3 or M5 or Kia stinger

 

[kratedisease]

@VL3X you weren't wrong the Evora Gt is very slow. From the way it delivers power to how long the gearing is will definitely leave you wanting more if you are used to faster cars. Its not a fun highway car but where it shines are on backroads with constant switch backs. Realistically it needs at least another 100hp

Yeah, I more worried about getting dusted by $20k GTIs and WRXs around town. Granted, I don't street race and not actually "worried" but it'd be nice to have some power to display places other than the track. Being in a $100k car that gets walked by sporty mass produced commuter cars owned by teenagers isn't very fun.

This EMIRA should have been revealed with 500hp.

Then I could easily justify the pricing ( $95k) , and easily forgive the way the seats look so cheap.

What was Lotus thinking.....

I had a dream last night that the EMIRA had 500hp and weighed 3100 pounds. And in my dream I traded in my C8 for it.

Then I woke up.

 

[PaulP]

or easily spanked by a M3 or M5 or Kia stinger

Lol not just an M heck the Z4 or m240i will be pulling ahead.

 

[Maurice R]

or perhaps it was Porsches dream

Definitely must have been a Porsche dream lol

 

[4GIV8M3]

Not so fun fact: The Emira is the slowest car you can buy for 100k including performance SUVS. Most 50k performance cars will DUST it. With that said hopefully Lotus can make it stand out. I don't think reviews will make people want this car more and I don't think the wait times will be nearly as long as people are anticipating. It's not a Porsche and it's not a bargain. Unless chip shortages get worse and go to insanity levels I bet that Lotus will be offering their $5000 discount a lot sooner than people imagine.

 

[kratedisease]

Not so fun fact: The Emira is the slowest car you can buy for 100k including performance SUVS. Most 50k performance cars will DUST it. With that said hopefully Lotus can make it stand out. I don't think reviews will make people want this car more and I don't think the wait times will be nearly as long as people are anticipating. It's not a Porsche and it's not a bargain. Unless chip shortages get worse and go to insanity levels I bet that Lotus will be offering their $5000 discount a lot sooner than people imagine.

On the same topic, I spoke to my local LOTUS dealer and they told me that the deposits for the EMIRA have slowed down, which is totally normal and absolutely expected after the initial pop of first early adaptors and early Loyal Lotus fanboy depositors, but he also mentioned that they are getting a steady amount of low number cancellations that equals to the new deposits that they are now receiving. He told me that they are now getting around 5 new deposits each month for the past two months, but that they also had about 5 cancellations each month during this time. So he mentioned that the total deposits are holding steady, but that the deposit list is not overall growing for the past few months. The total deposits that they have is around 75.

I am afraid that after the initial two years of production that the EMIRA sales may not hold up in volume. But then again, Who knows, everything is speculation and a guess when it comes to sales volume.

 

[TomE]

Not really surprising new deposits are only a trickle, with no press reviews, dealer demo cars or customer deliveries yet. With US dealers having just got allocations and contacting people about position in queue and delivery timeframes, it's one of the points at which people will bail out.

In the UK a few people cancelled or deferred into the i4 FE/Base queue when asked to confirm specs in Dec/Jan/Feb. But most are sticking and have until 30 days before delivery to back out, so we could see another wave of cancellations in May onwards. It's a risky strategy by Lotus, as people can walk away after that individual build has started.

Publication of reviews and i4 FE/Base pricing will also be a trigger for cancellations - but also for new orders. My hunch is more orders than cancels but let's see.

The show cars are both still on tour and new deposits are being placed at a steady rate that's roughly twice the level of cancellations globally.

One of the tricky questions for Lotus is whether to add a third shift but then risk demand slowing next year. They've committed to a second shift, but that needs a decent uptick in deposits after reviews and sustained demand through 2023 to continue being viable.

We all know in late 2023 or early 2024 they'll announce a hotter version to stimulate further sales.

 

[NicolasB]

I am looking forward to the demo cars, hoping I can take one for a spin at the dealer before doing further deposits.

 

[eclat2emira]

Not so fun fact: The Emira is the slowest car you can buy for 100k including performance SUVS. Most 50k performance cars will DUST it. With that said hopefully Lotus can make it stand out. I don't think reviews will make people want this car more and I don't think the wait times will be nearly as long as people are anticipating. It's not a Porsche and it's not a bargain. Unless chip shortages get worse and go to insanity levels I bet that Lotus will be offering their $5000 discount a lot sooner than people imagine.

Dust it? What, dust it at the lights - are we all just drag racers? Each to their own but that's not for me.

Anyone who is interested in drag races at the lights should just buy the fastest road going drag racer they can afford, probably an EV.

Anyone who is interested in a total driving experience and enjoying and responding to the feedback the car gives them should get a Lotus or something similar.

So depending what anyone is after, the Emira may indeed not be what they want or what they should buy.