Beady

regarding price and options, it seems there are quite a lot of people who dont really want all the options (and extra cost) that come with the FE. General speculation seems to be launch cars will have circa £15k worth of option but discounted to maybe £12k. Lots of people seem to be expecting / happy to pay maybe £5k for the options they want (full disclosure - I am in this camp) but not £12k for a load of options they dont. On that basis, this suggests there may be a large number of deposit dropouts or people deferring LE spec to get their own spec in the second wave (again this is me). However, I have been considering this: The launch cars will probably remain £60k base price (for the I4) as that is the figure that has been published and to increase immediately would cause a lot of bad publicity. So that gives an I4 LE purchase price at around £72k. First year of production will probably still be sold out even after dropouts. Year 2 - Lotus could reasonably put the price up by 5-10% as this will be for cars delivered 18mths to 2 years after the initial launch (and for sure the price of the comparable cayman will have increased in that time too). So by deferring the LE spec, you might then end up paying £63-65k for the base spec, plus your £5k options, making £68-70k anyway. So you might only save £2-4k on the LE spec cars, wait and extra year to get it and be missing £10k of options. My man maths therefore suggests, on balance, it probably remains better to stick with the LE car.

27 April 21 - TomE - UK - V6 manual 30 April 21 - Pugwash - UK V6 manual 15 May - JCR - Undecided 4 June 21 - DJW - undecided 23 June 21 - KJD - V6 manual 25 Jun 21 - scotty435 - V6 manual 28 June 21 - DaveC72 - i4 6 July 21 - Duncs - V6, but cost dependent. 7 July 21 Al_C - I4 8 July 21 - MJON - i4 8 July 21 - Wake - i4 (V6 cost dependant) 8 July 21 - Johnhoward - V6 Auto 8 July 21 (Goodwood Thursday) - JimH - i4 9 July Beady - I4 (probably) 12 July 21 - emstan - V6

Contact your closest dealer and let them know you have placed a deposit - they will ask for the order reference then they will look after you from there

c'mon Bibs - how many deposits now in total ? spill the beans

ev04aaa - the stormtrooper lives...my first LE car - not seen it for a while 🙂

Girl on the stand said the blue one was a demo version only and will be doing the rounds for all shows, displays etc over the rest of the year.

I have now started to drive the Macan mummy wagon using paddles (rather than as an auto) to trial / get used to it

In terms of deposit numbers - yesterday at FOS I was told they had taken 400 deposits on Thursday and had around 600 in total. That means around 200 via dealers beforehand, which sounds realistic. assuming a similar take up on fri/sat/sun then there may be up to 2000 at the end of the weekend. that’s an amazing start and must be better than anyone could have expected but I would guess 90%+ of those would be previous lotus owners of some sort. the majority of non lotus ‘fans’ are more likely to wait for the magazine tests and then actual test rides. so I suspect the next few months will then see just a trickle of further deposits until the press and demo cars arrive. the reaction of the press will then gave a big impact on the next wave of deposits. anyway I am now “in” Yes good to see you too - sorry I didn’t stay much to chat - I got there early for obvious reasons then had to go meet my “group” All 6 people I was with during the day we’re amazed the emira was only £60k when they saw it!

30mins into FOS and order placed. weak, I am !

If we wait to try before we buy, then its gonna be a long wait. So, does any know what cars the AMG engine and DCT box are from? I can then go and take one for a test to see if I am ok with the DCT? I would prefer a manual and hated the IPS on the Evora but other DCT's I have tried have been ok and it IS the way forward.

a couple of people have message me to say they spotted me - now immortalised on the harrys garage youtube vid too. brilliant!

i was gonna aim for 8am tmrw but i think i will get up an hour earlier now...

Torn between green and red

Love the looks. Agree with most that the expected launch spec of circa 4.5s 0-60 is disappointing and slower than all the outgoing cars. Needs to be circa 4.2 to get any attention from other markets.

Got mine too, brilliant, thanks bibs. Can’t wait. Credit card beginning to wobble now. anyone know if there’s any form of “guest list “ to get onto the stand at Goodwood rather than just joining the inevitable long queue?…I am there Friday.