Emira Road Tests & Reviews

[C8RKH]

9 hours ago, yeller77 said:

 

Oof 😕

Yup. But very much like any modern Lotus from Elise on. Lotus are physics denying magicians at this for sure.

[Techyd]

Overall seems really really positive, waiting for carfections and, dare I say it, Schmee150!

It would be the touring setup for me.

[C8RKH]

10 hours ago, yeller77 said:

 

Oof 😕

Schmee! Just spent 20 minutes cleaning up my vomit.

[Mctaff]

Remove the exclamation mark and I’d subscribe to his channel to see that!!

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Doesn’t anyone else find it strange that none of these reviews include the V6 auto?

[Mctaff]

Has anybody ordered one??!

[tim_marra]

1 hour ago, C8RKH said:

Schmee! Just spent 20 minutes cleaning up my vomit.

Fair play, but he's still a cnut 

[DaveC72]

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/new-car-reviews/lotus-emira-first-drive-review-will-the-fab-four-become-the-famous-five/

[Cooper]

Andrew Frankel reviews the Emira on this weeks Intercooler podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-intercooler/id1504140597?i=1000565501846

[Evotion]

Well, a lot of you seem to be smoothing this over. These are not great reviews at all. Indeed, the majority are horrific.

The car gets a bit slaughtered in most areas apart from steering feel and interior.

What I believe is the single most damning thing of all is that nobody said that the car was amazing, nobody said the car was exciting, nobody said wow. They really didn't 'feel' the car.

We all know the Cayman is a better car. Always was going to be but, my god, it is bloody ugly. I have driven one and they are great once inside but I never hankered for one, ever.  To me, looks are a big factor and enough for me to still believe I am right to keep the Emira.

Harry's review.. well, yes, seemed better but he is getting one don't forget. He has a weighing machine so he must have used it but did not share the results. Umm.

Overall, yes, I am bitter, somewhat pissed off. I wanted everyone to say that it is the best car ever. We did not get that but you won't wipe the smile off my face when I get mine.

[SpyderBite]

2 hours ago, Evotion said:

Well, a lot of you seem to be smoothing this over. These are not great reviews at all. Indeed, the majority are horrific.

The car gets a bit slaughtered in most areas apart from steering feel and interior.

What I believe is the single most damning thing of all is that nobody said that the car was amazing, nobody said the car was exciting, nobody said wow. They really didn't 'feel' the car.

We all know the Cayman is a better car.

None of the reviewers who weren't already greatly predisposed to being passionate advocates of the car (Ie, Harry & Rory) are blown away or seem unabashedly enthusiastic.  I agree the reviews are a bit disappointing on the whole (including listening to the podcast w/ Frankel).  For sure there's apologists on the forums that seem to be looking for reasons to cast doubt on certain reviews even though the reviewers' sentiments seem to be broadly shared, to varying degrees.  Where one reviewer may be critical of something, another may simply appear "uninspired" by it.

While we were hoping for a little more excitement, "horrific" is quite the over-statement too though :).

Maybe the difference for me is that I've been disappointed about "what could have/should have been" since the moment Lotus confirmed they were detuning the V6 and greatly detuning the I4.  They chose to introduce a car with engines dialed backwards in power & rpm vs. the same engines (V6/I4) released in previous years.  Just so that years from now, they could restore it to what we've seen years ago :).  And they paired the power decrease with adding weight (this part was by necessity, not really a "choice" IMO).  Though maybe as of today the added weight turned out to be even a little more than we anticipated for the V6 manual vs. "1405kg in its lightest form".   Lotus also included an ancient unchanged 6-speed cable shifted manual that they took as far as they could in the Evora apparently.

More weight, same engine but with less power & lower limits, same old cable actuated transmission... So aren't the reviews about what everyone should have expected given all this?  Honestly?  Sure we all hoped there would be a little unanticipated magic that might appear, I had my hopes for *a little* better as well.  But this really is about par for the course for what we knew going in, no?

I just hope the aftermarket "figures out a few solutions" at a good pace, because each of us has a limited number of driving years on this planet and clearly quite a few of them are going to go by before Lotus gives us the tuned-up and lightened Emira we know will eventually come.

Edited June 8, 2022 by SpyderBite

[Rambo]

Wait until shmug faced shmee gets his hands on one 

[Relic222]

The reviews are similar to how the Evora is often represented in the media - it's a good car, but the Cayman is better. But as an owner of an Evora, I absolutely love mine, and would take it over a Cayman any day. So I have no reason to believe the Emira would be any different. I'm sure many of us were hoping for a 'revolutionary' moment where the reviewers drove it and were blown away, but in reality this is an evolutionary car, so that wasn't ever really going to happen. 

However, cars are emotional things, if you review them objectively then I'm sure you'll be able to find 'the best car' but that doesn't mean everyone will like that one the most. I'd much rather own a car that I love, than one that everyone tells me is 'the best'. It's always nice to have positive reviews to validate your own opinion, but in reality, reviews don't really matter at all. Buy the thing that makes you happy, you'll get far more joy knowing that you like it, than constantly telling yourself that someone else thinks it's good. 

 

[DaveC72]

You beat me to the post @Relic222.  Having had two Evoras back to back, it's not a car you would have bought based on reviews.  I did a metric fuck-tonne of drives in similar cars for the money when I bought the first - and nothing made me smile the way the Evora did.  Nothing put that shit-eating grin on my face.  Nothing else made me look over my shoulder as I walked away.  There are plenty of things that are compromises, but nothing - at least in the price bracket that wasn't going to bankrupt me - ticked the boxes that made me want to part with my folding in the same way.  Sports car purchases are not rational.

Lotus may have a misfire on their hands according to the press.  I'm not being an apologist, but that has been a constant in most reviews of Lotus' output from day one.  Hasn't stopped enough of us from buying cars that put that shit-eating grin on our faces.

I'll be honest, I've also been looking at other options vs the Emira.  The dearth, paucity and (well, lets be honest) absence of communication from anyone in the Lotus network has been denting my faith.  So I've been window shopping and at the price-point, there's genuinely little to excite.  There are plenty of options, for sure.  And some very good cars. 

I'm sticking with the wait for the Emira.

 

[TdM]

I think the worry for many is that the Evora launched to rave reviews and eCOTY win. Through its life it got strong reviews for it's dynamic ability and, most importantly, excitement of driving. It's weak points as usual in reviews were practicality, build quality and interior.

The Emira seems to have some question marks over the excitement. The reviews trend toward it being highly capable and therefore not that exciting (which is a trend for all cars as they have to compete on lap time reviews and being faster). Balance and ultimate grip can be altered in the after market, which should help, but in reviews it leaves the Emira squaring off against the Porsche options with a similar profile, high dynamic competence but not too exciting, nice interior etc. Unfortunately, without the heart argument the Porsche will win because it's an engineering exercise in refinement to logical perfection.

[jonnyboy]

I'm surprised by the reviews very surprised. I've just sold a GT3RS because it was a bit dull I have a GT4 at the moment as a stop gap but also quite a dull and soft edged car. Neither of the Porsches are a patch on my old 410 Sport Evora to drive. Sometimes I do wonder what these reviewers are actually looking for other than a place held on the Porsche payroll which I have no doubt at all exists. 

Porsche do screw the cars together well and do all the owner experience stuff that Lotus will never be able to match but they are dull as dishwater cars.  These publications are supposed to be representing the last of us dinosaurs that really want an analogue driving experience yes with the addition of some mod cons. One of the reviews criticised the Emira for bit having anything "new" in terms of tech.  What do you rent a teasmaid satnav? 

Taking a positive it may well spur Lotus on to expedite the frutier variants. I'm waiting with deposit in hand for a road GT4 car. 

 

 

[Eagle7]

Problem with all the great reviews for the Evora was, the general public didn't buy it.  They're lined up 2 years deep for the Emira already.  What the general public is interested in, and what journos are interested in are quite often two different things.  Journos have to get clicks, likes and subscribers; customers have to buy and live with the car.  Lotus addressed the things the general public is interested in, not what the journos wanted.

The other issue is having pre-production cars that don't even have the final production spec software tune, being put up against in-production, finished competitors. This is most likely, literally, the worst the Emira will look against everything.  Even with that, it still doesn't come out as terrible, OMG don't buy it.  I thought it actually held it's own fairly well under the circumstances.  It's unquestionably the better looking car.  Harry's review as a potential customer, was the one that I felt aligned the closest to what the general public will identify with.  It's a fun car to be in and drive.

The final production car should be very much what the general public will want, irregardless of what journos or the hardcore say.  They weren't keeping the company in business; Lotus needs the greater general public customer.  I think they've got them with the Emira.

[Graham Ridgway]

12 hours ago, Frickin_idiot said:

My thoughts precisely. Having watched the reviews I am starting to get cold feet. Maybe wait another 18 months and get the Cup.

My feet were cooling anyway and have just dropped by a few more degrees.  Glad I have delayed delivery so I can get a test drive and judge for myself.

[DaveC72]

I feel for Lotus.  From "it's a great drivers car, but we'd sacrifice some of that for more practicality/ creature comforts" to "it's more practical and has creature comforts, but it's lost some of that great driver's feel".

Go figure.

I'm confused as to how the prototype reviews that were so positive ended up being so diluted in the release.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

At least no-one has mentioned the low speed transmission chatter, so that must be a thing of the past.

[TdM]

They have actually. It's in the least 'professional' review here @ about 4.44:

https://youtu.be/edzcQ0LuVOE

 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

OK so it’s still a case of TADTS. Interesting that the tester says he heard similar low speed noises in the Cayman, but of course no-one reports that.

[mdavies]

Only a quick scan but in the mentions of the Emira's weight in comments above I didn't spot a figure.  In the reviews I have seen so far, there is only one given, in Stuart Gallagher's words in EVO.  Quite specific: "    to the 1486kg kerb weight of our test car ".

https://www.evo.co.uk/lotus/emira

 

[jonwat]

Just watched Harry & he absolutely loved it 

[Beady]

I really wonder what the Lotus management are thinking right now.

Prototype test reviews just a few weeks ago were pretty glowing so why issue another batch of cars that are still not 100% production standard for a full test?

Why not wait a few more weeks until the cars are 100%?

Instead the reviews are 'what we all expected' at best, and perhaps a little below expectation to some.

Most of the reviews mention the car is still not production quality and subject to final tweaks but then go on to point out the items that still need sorting anyway, which adds an unnecessary negative feel to the review. This could have been avoided by waiting just a little longer. Or being cynical, if gives lotus an excuse if the reviews are not quite as good as they hoped.

On reflection the Evo you tube review is pretty scathing. Ignoring the unfair GT4 comparison, the sheer disappointment from the journo (I forget his name) on the Emira as a stand alone car is pretty clear. It looks like he wanted and expected it to be brilliant, but it wasn't. By comparison the Evo written article was much more positive. 

The rest of the reviews are pretty positive as a stand alone car, just not as good as the GTS. In reality I suspect most Lotus die-hards knew this would be the case, but hoped this time it would be different. However we buy into Lotus because its different and better in other ways.

Some buyers that are new to Lotus may well be having second thoughts and i can understand that. It looks stunning but as others have said, this car was pitched firmly against the GTS and the only conclusion I can draw from all the reviews, is that it has failed.

Personally I have been wavering for some time now but after the prototype reviews, decided to stick with it. My second thoughts were never about cancelling in full, just pulling out of the FE and waiting a bit longer for a base car and saving a bit of money (and the world today is a lot different to 12 months ago so a possible £8-10k saving is pretty appealing) . I am also still nervous about colour choice and still need to see a DV car in person.

I haven't changed my mind yet and I am really looking forward to what Chris Harris has to say (hopefully on Sunday). If he loves it as much as Harry then I probably proceed with the FE but if he is disappointed then i might just wait a while.