Andy Norman

Last Saturday in a parking spot just on the main drag out of town, then again going past our Loch house on Loch Fyne. Sounded great.

Saturday afternoon 👍🏼

About 6pm traveling west.

Pretty sure it was a 430 looking at the wing end plates. Traveling south at about 7.30pm. I was traveling Northbound in the Tesla with the fam.

Quick update on my 430CUP as I feel it’s important for all you owners up here in Scotland. CMC is the best £150 I’ve spent after the main dealer dropped my car off directly two weeks ago at his workshop for a check over of warranty work they completed and the annual service and MOT they carried out. Faults found immediately and photographed by Craig of this work from main dealer after they dropped the car off to Craig include; Over-sprayed silver hub paint onto yellow break caliper, which I did not ask them to do. Fractured AC condenser mounts on cars clam from over torqued screws requiring fiberglass repair on both sides of the clam, left and right. Likely use of air gun. These screws had to have come off to replace the condenser. Blowing exhaust seal not fixed leaking hot exhaust gasses into underside of car, reseal needed by Craig. Big oil puddle left after service in rear undertray under engine creating fire risk. Clean up required. Another factured rear spring, rusted through and fractured in two requiring another new spring and damper, I’m now getting all 4 replaced under Craig’s guidance rather than just the 2 the main dealer suggested and completed. Lotus looking into possible fault with these 3 way spring and dampers. Car MOT was passed by main dealer then they drove it to Craig’s like this. A/C only has 2 degrees temp variation after AC condenser changed under warranty. Craig would expect 7 degrees so he’s redoing the gassing and checking this too. Craig sent me pictures of all of this and a picture of what a recent un-corroded new spring fracture looks like in comparison to mine. My concern is that I could have quite easily been going to track the car immediately after pick up and what could have happened with leaking hot exhaust seal + oil puddle in undertray and a fractured spring and a final spring heavily corroded. They also knew the car was going straight to CMC to be looked at carefully and my car was still presented to him at drop off like this. Hethel have been great and are investigating with the aid of the pictures Craig sent me and the report he provided. Thankfully they are taking this very seriously I am due to hear back from them in the next few days after their own investigation. They are now involved in discussions on my behalf with the approved garage as I’m disgusted with them and don’t want anything more to do with them. I’m also vindicated in my previous posts about the concerns I had after they made me feel like I was in the wrong to question them. It has been an awful experience TBH and taken up a lot of my time over the last 5 weeks, not to mention the wait for a new dealership to be opened and the warranty work able to be carried out. Craig has been instructed to complete the work given his level of skill and how much he is trusted so my car will be good as new again.

My car is now at CMC. He’s going over everything with a fine Tooth comb. He’s an absolute legend. Lotus really has missed a beat not using him as their approved centre, madness! Most embarrassing for Lotus was that I made them go and drop my car off at his place on Thursday from the Glasgow dealership. I left their Mini parked up with Craig for them to take away back to Glasgow. I’ll DM his findings of their competence when he’s gone over everything if anyone is interested as I’m moving away from the Marque again. (Sore back). Will include 3 year service check, MOT check, suspension spring and three way damper change check and wheel alignment after two spring failures, AC condenser replacement (warranty) Supercharger belt replacement (squeak/warranty).

Just don’t let them touch your alloys.

Parks. Bad bad bad They also censored my Google review of them. At least when Leven damaged my car twice 2 years ago they had the leadership at the top to own up and fix the damage they caused. Not here at Parks so beware all of you. I would suggest you read my FB post on Lotus Ecosse. I can’t be bothered with dealing with these dishonest guys again and the car needs to now be delivered by them straight to CMC on Thursday to check their ability to work on the car properly, do the service properly and fix the warranty parts correctly.

Yeah. Fancy a change and I’ve never kept one over 3 years, which is approaching in September. I’ve got a 600LT or 765LT itch I want to scratch. My lower back is also complaining when I get out which isn’t good for the day job so needs must. It’s been a blast for 11k miles.

My 430CUP will be up for sale in 1-2 weeks. I’ve put the feelers out on FB if you want to see what it looks like. It’s my 3rd lotus since 2006 and a cracker.

Funny how the powers that be will come at you for a small logo infringement which is only seen by a few enthusiasts, is very tongue in cheek and actually pretty well thought out..... but completely ignore the glaringly obvious disgruntlement with the lack of progress and flawed communication with a Scottish dealership which is sitting at the top of the LEGS page. I’m pretty gob smacked and disappointed they’ve obviously read that thread and are literally sticking their fingers in their ears and looking the other way without comment.

What a load of pish. No offense to you Bibs. They told me to ring them back in 4 weeks, in writing. I work with GDPR daily with thousands of registered patients every day and as a small business we have our own assigned data controller. We get in touch with patients daily with correct digital consent gained and stored in our server. I’ve registered with Parks Lotus, I’m happy to receive information from them including telephone or emails so they can let me know as ‘you’re at the front of the Q Andy”, but still they can’t be arsed to get in touch with us directly instead getting you to let us know the score nearly a week after I got an email saying not to bother calling back for 4 weeks. It makes a mockery of Lotus ownership for us Scottish based owners. Also ensure you have someone to give you a lift home as they don’t have any customer cars allocated for us once you’ve dropped your car off for work.

It’s funny as McLaren Glasgow, under the umbrella of Parks Group, is rated best in the country and they’ve been great at talking to me about a car even though I can’t go and see it yet. They’ve bent over backwards to answer my questions and responded to my emails straight away, discussed movement on price and inclusion of extended warranty deals to be had etc and will deliver all cars under covered car transporter including the services, at no extra cost. The car I’m looking at is only £40k or so more than I spent on the Cup. Makes me think is a Lotus thing, an ingrained mentality from the powers that be, that they don’t really give two shits once the car is sold, then that filters down to the front of house staff in these places. Then look at CMC, has his own place, really cares about the brand and knows some horror stories of what he’s experienced with Scottish main Lotus dealerships. Lotus don’t give two hoots about him or his fantastic reputation. Its just crazy.

It’s another 4 weeks minimum until they’re going to be ready. It’s also you call us back, to see if we’re ready to accept cars, rather than we’ll call you! Wow. Its weird as they have just serviced a 430CUP with someone on PH forum Scotland page? All very strange. On the plus side, I’m going to see a man about a 720s.

6 weeks since my visit to Parks and still no news about them being ready to accept warranty repair work on the Cup. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ Car is ready to be packed away for winter in a week or two. Bummer!