Poll - when will you be happy to fully commit to buy

[Beady]

A quick poll which I thought might be interesting 

[TomE]

Good idea.

I think some people would like to know pricing on the i4 First Edition, base V6 and individual options before committing to a V6 FE.

 

[Evotion]

Absolutely.

Maybe Lotus were pitching it, say, £5000 cheaper. If they release that now they are likely thinking that it will scupper some of the sales interest they have had on the V6 BUT it is what they should so everyone can make an informed decision.

I always think things are said, or not said, for a reason.

So now people need to wait and see if this info is released before the final commitment payment. 

[duncx]

13 hours ago, TomE said:

Good idea.

I think some people would like to know pricing on the i4 First Edition, base V6 and individual options before committing to a V6 FE.

 

Yep, these are exactly 'the other things' that I mentioned on the other thread, things that Lotus haven't yet told us about. These unknowns are making it very difficult for me to be certain that I will take the final plunge on a V6 FE early next year. At the moment I'm trying not to think about it, much easier just kicking the can down the road

[snowrx]

Well, with the dealer being 380 miles away it's tough to commit at this point. And even they don't know if the car they are to show on the 17th is a runner. Also not sure how the deposits are handled there, it sounds like the dealer is keeping their own list of deposits rather than Lotus. They did commit to MSRP for pre-ordered FE's though; which helps a lot.

[Denno]

18 hours ago, TomE said:

Good idea.

I think some people would like to know pricing on the i4 First Edition, base V6 and individual options before committing to a V6 FE.

 

Exactly this, it actually feels like they’re hiding something by not revealing all price options on all variants. Same with finance options, they should have released by now.

[TomE]

With most things Lotus related I tend to err towards cock up rather than conspiracy.  I think they're just not ready yet on either.  They appear to have decided to say nothing, whereas the more sensible approach would be to publish a timetable of when various items will be released.  Key Lotus folk at the roadshows appear to know, either the info itself or when it is going to be published.

[Bibs]

53 minutes ago, snowrx said:

And even they don't know if the car they are to show on the 17th is a runner.

I'd imagine they'd be safe to assume it's the one that's doing the rounds in the States at the moment and has been seen moving under it's own power in several videos

 

[simonb]

and remember there will be more powerful & more expensive variants later as well (inevitably)

[Greg | ValetPro]

Ideally like to drive the car.  I'm keen to know more about the i4 and finance options before i commit.

[Denno]

1 hour ago, simonb said:

and remember there will be more powerful & more expensive variants later as well (inevitably)

Which will be about 2025/26 at this rate!

[EmiraSi]

Good question and difficult to answer. Here's a list of things I'd like, and while I don't need all of these, not having any of them means I'm getting less and less sure where the line is!

- Decent photos of painted cars in FE colours

- Same for interior

- Pricing for options

- Confirmation of final seating position. Plenty has been said about the height and seat construction, but both times I've sat in the car I felt my left leg was pushed up against the transmission tunnel. Was told at Hethel the production seats would be slightly more outboard, but would like it confirmed.

- Test drive

- New dealer/service center locations

 

On the finance deals, I was told at Hethel that they can't publish the finance deals until the CO2 figures have been confirmed as it might affect OTR price. They were working with legal to try and come up with wording for representative examples to avoid falling foul of mis-selling rules.

[PhilCP]

I'd love to see pics of the interior with the different colour options. It's the one thing i'm struggling to decide on.

[tailslides]

We think we are committed now, we have paid the second deposit and are happy with colours chosen, that does not mean we don't want a test drive, both V6 transmission options would be nice but we think the auto is probably not for us as already have PDK experience which while excellent likes to change up earlier than necessary, we would also love to see the fully painted production models to be 100% sure of our choices.

The sound of the V6 is important, we cannot imagine an I4 sounding as sonorous which pretty much rules out the AMG lump, also the linear power delivery of the supercharged engine is more preferable over the turbo shove.

We are currently set on Magma red, lower black, silver wheels, tan interior and black calipers so they do not detract from the wheels. If we want a black roof and A pillars we will add that later, currently we prefer the one colour.

Until we can see all the options though, an element of doubt must still exist and we will be wasting time looking at forums and posts until we get that phone call to go and see the real cars.

[Pugwash]

2nd deposit paid.  Here is mine.

 

[Evotion]

Wow, how different are those two reds!

Both nice.  I saw the FireRed Evora in the B&C showroom which is supposed to be pretty close - more so that when it was outside a the roadshow event. Looked great under the lights.

[CORKDSP]

Sure would be nice to know the prices for the V6 base model... need to know that before make choice

 

[Evotion]

I can't blame Lotus for not releasing this so far in advance of when they will actually be taking orders, never mind deliveries.  A lot can change given the state of the world.

I fear a jump in prices anyway as it happens. I am not saying the I4 FE will be affected but I have this feeling the FE prices will be made to looks pretty damn good in 2023/2024.

[TomE]

Based on chats with Lotus people I think the V6 base will be £4-6k above the i4 base £60k and hence the i4 FE will be £4-6k below the V6 FE £76k.  But supply chains and currencies could impact that.

[Denno]

4 hours ago, Evotion said:

I can't blame Lotus for not releasing this so far in advance of when they will actually be taking orders, never mind deliveries.  A lot can change given the state of the world.

I fear a jump in prices anyway as it happens. I am not saying the I4 FE will be affected but I have this feeling the FE prices will be made to looks pretty damn good in 2023/2024.

I think you’re right on the potential price jump. Anyone remember not so long back when the Exige 350 came out people were getting them for £50k new with some haggling, within a couple of years the price went up to around £70k, that wasn’t inflation.

[duncx]

3 hours ago, TomE said:

Based on chats with Lotus people I think the V6 base will be £4-6k above the i4 base £60k and hence the i4 FE will be £4-6k below the V6 FE £76k.  But supply chains and currencies could impact that.

I too have been told quite clearly that the i4 will be priced approx £5K below a same spec V6. I'm also not sure that we will ever see a £60K Emira - inflation, demand, and (as Tom says) rapidly changing conditions will most likely make it impossible to hold that starting price

 

 

[Bravo73]

13 hours ago, Denno said:

…within a couple of years the price went up to around £70k, that wasn’t inflation.

Nope. That was the JMG effect. 

[C8RKH]

That ^^^   It was a shocker to be honest, along with the axing of the popular entry level Elise (that many young people bought as their first step into Lotus then traded up). I don't think sales volumes ever really recovered after that poor decision. It certainly impacted the Evora as well when it basically pushed it to an £85k+ car when new.

[freefall_junkie]

Yup, JMG's pricing was wildly optimistic. Ultimately the market will decide what your product is worth - simply bumping the price up and hoping buyers will just swallow the extra is not a very smart sales strategy. On the plus side it makes the V6 Emira FE look very good value. The Evora GT410 Sport I once took for a test drive had a sticker price of £95k.

[DarrylV8]

yet when the GT430 was introduced Lotus only planned to sell 6 cars to the UK market, i believe 23(?) were actually sold so JMG must have done something right?