Finally, it's arrived (well almost)

[SwissV8]

For those who have ordered an Evora, and are still waiting for delivery.... wondering what impact the factory production slow-down earlier this year has had on delivery times:

I ordered my Evora S the first week of Jan, and was initially given a delivery estimate of late April.

Well, I found out on Friday that my Evora was built in the first week of June, and arrived in Switzerland a week ago It's now awaiting PDI, and I should be able to collect end of next week :) So effectively a delay of about two months.

I called in to the dealer yesterday for a sneak preview, and wow, the car looks stunning! Not sure it was a good idea to see it though, as it's going to make the wait this week even harder!

Plan is to collect on Friday afternoon / Saturday morning, and then we're off to the sunny southern part of Switzerland for a week (with the Evora of course). Should mean it will be ready for its first service pretty quickly.

Will post up an update when I get a confirmed delivery date, and then photos when I get back from holiday (assuming its delivered in time)....... Can't wait!

BTW - seems the Lotus continuous improvement programme is continuing - the dealer received his MY2012 S IPS demonstrator in December last year, and his car has pop-up locks on the tops of the interior door panels. These pop-up locks are gone on my car. Not sure if there are other differences, I'll take a closer look when I collect it.

[Bibs]

Nice one Rob, looking forward to pics

[LotusX180R]

I await the arrival of my Evora as well so I can share in your excitement.

Good to see the time between order and arrival is down from 9 to 6 months, but it is a little disappointing to hear that after waiting such a long time the first you heard about it was a week after it arrived in you country.

Regardless, I too look forward to seeing some pics!

[SwissV8]

Delivery confirmed for tomorrow morning. Gonna be a sleepless night!

[robcarter]

Enjoy it!

[softlips]

Enjoy indeed.

My A5 took longer than that to arrive and I was given four delivery dates. They said it would definitely be here the third date so I sold my car. The Audi didn't arrive for another five weeks and they phoned me saying can you pick it up tomorrow!

Similar experience with my colleague and Audi too

[SwissV8]

So, picked up the Evora yesterday morning

Bit of mixed emotions, as handing over the Esprit was not so easy. There were a few people at the Lotus dealer (regular Saturday morning coffee and chat for Lotus fans), and they all seemed much more interested in the Esprit than the new Evora …. understandable really, as the Esprit is far more dramatic, especially in yellow!

Having said that, the Evora also looks stunning in Sienna Brown. You don't really get that impression from the photos, but when you see it "in the flesh", it looks really gorgeous. After a few minutes of looking it over, and discussing with the dealer, the thought of handing over the Esprit became far easier to accept, and by the end of the handover chat I couldn't wait to get on the road with the Evora.

First issue was already pointed out by the dealer though - the valve in the exhaust rattled quite loudly at tick-over / low rpm, but seemed to stop when switching to sport mode. Given that I was leaving for holiday Saturday afternoon, and wanted to take the Evora with me, I agreed with the dealer that I'd take it with the rattle, and see how it went over the week of holiday. More on this later!

So, after a couple of hours of Lotus chat, coffee, and general Evora handover, I finally got to drive it the 50kms home.

So, here's the info:

New MY 2012 Evora S

Sienna Brown

Standard silver wheels (don't like dark wheels on a dark car - too…. well, dark really)

Premium sport red/black interior

Tech pack

Reversing camera

For those who have been discussing the color of the headlining, it's black. I didn't specify I wanted black (forgot to mention it when ordering), it just came that way.

Now, the first impressions:

It was a really interesting morning - I drove the 50kms to the dealer in the Esprit, and then the 50kms back in the Evora, and the difference really is day and night. The Esprit is (in comparison) noisy, rattles and squeaks a lot, and also has a lot of wind noise. The clutch is very on/off, and the whole driving experience is kind of electrifying! Don't mean to sound negative for the Esprit, but I want to highlight the differences. Both cars handle brilliantly, and have that special feel that only Lotus can master (my opinion!). In comparison, the Evora is unbelievably solid feeling. No wind noise, no rattles, no squeaks, nothing… except a beautiful exhaust note. I have to be honest, I didn't expect it to feel so solid. The test drives I made were in earlier Evoras, and I don't remember them feeling this well sorted. Sorry to say, but it reminded me of the last Boxster S I had. That was also very solid and rattle free.

General quality of the Evora is excellent. The interior is beautiful, with lots of attention to detail, and the exterior finish is also very high quality. During my drive home, the Evora drivers seat was a truly lovely place to be. The car is very easy to drive, the gear shift was perfect for me (reminded me of my Honda S2000), and the general feel / response of the car was absolutely great.

Got home feeling really impressed by the car, and convinced that it was the right move to move from the Esprit V8 to the Evora S.

So, yesterday afternoon, my wife and I crammed the Evora full with luggage, and headed off for the southern part of Switzerland. I'm writing this post on Sunday evening after having arrived at our destination (with an overnight stop-over), driving about 460kms in the Evora. I'll save the details for my next post, but let me just say three little letters… C.E.L (and if you're not sure what that is, it's the dreaded orange engine warning light on the dashboard!)

[esprit s2]

Looks like a beautiful car Rob. Sienna Brown is a gorgeous colour!

[Kimbers]

Update on the CEL issue?

[SwissV8]

So, an update after my first 3 days with the Evora S. Sorry it's taken some time to post, but I'm on holiday in the middle of nowhere with only limited internet access.

The drive down from northern to southern Switzerland was really enjoyable and trouble free. As the car is brand new, we decided to take the scenic route, avoiding all motorways. This meant a much longer journey time (more time in the Evora ), so we took an overnight stop in Lichtenstein, where we left the Evora to chat to a hot Italian chick for a while

This part of the trip didn't give a chance to get a feel for the performance (obviously), but did reinforce that initial impression of quality and solidity. As Bibs said in one of his write-ups, the Evora makes a great GT car, covering miles with ease, comfort and total enjoyment.

Next morning we set our destination in the new Pioneer Sat-Nav, which quite bizarrely predicted a 6.5 hour journey (which in reality should take about 2 to 3 hours). Luckily, I consulted the Sat-Nav manual, where I found a section that stated "The predicted arrival time for your journey is only an estimate, and does not guarantee that you will arrive at that time". That made me feel better

Our journey south took us over the Lukmania pass, which I can highly recommend as it was beautiful. Before starting up the pass, the Evora was looking stunning, with its lovely, clean and shiny Sienna Brown paintwork. Now, those of you who've had the joy of buying a brand new car will probably agree that there comes a point where, all of a sudden, your new car doesn't feel quite so new anymore. This is usually when you first drive it in the rain, or get the first stone chip, scratch, or minor dent. Until that point, you want to treat the car like a goddess, pamper it and generally treat it with more care and love than any sane person would ever devote to any inanimate object. After that point, you start to use the car as it was intended - as a car. Well, for me, that moment came far earlier than planned….

Just as we were about to start making our way up the pass, we drove though a very small village where there were ongoing roadworks. On the opposite side of the road to us was a huge pothole, filled with lovely cement-coloured water. Despite the odds being very small, a car coming in the opposite direction managed to hit the pothole exactly at the moment we were driving past. The resulting wall of grey water covered the Evora from front bumper to roof! The windscreen wipers did a good job of restoring forward visibility, only to provide a clear view out over a once-clean bonnet and front wings (now looking like Jamie Oliver had been making bread-dough on them). So, that was it, new car feeling gone!

The rest of the journey passed without further drama, just pure enjoyment of this wonderful car. I have to say though, I was pretty concerned when we arrived at out holiday home. The house itself is situated up in the hills, overlooking the town of Locarno, and the beautiful Lago Maggiore.

The further up into the hills you get, the narrower the roads become. When we reached our holiday home, we found a road that felt barely big enough to get a push chair up, and only offered a very tiny amount of on-road parking Still, as the Evora was past it's feeling-new phase, I decided to just accept the situation and start enjoying the holiday.

That evening, we headed down to Ascona for dinner, and that's when the dreaded engine warning light reared its ugly head . At this point, the car had exactly 444kms on the clock, and was less than 2 days old. That's not really a good start, especially after I've just posted up my story of living with an Esprit V8 for eight years, all without any problems. The owners manual will tell you that, in the event of this light (MIL seems to be the in-word), you should drive the car only if absolutely necessary, and when doing so, drive with greatly reduced speed. Now this might be ok when you've just started your usual work week, and your dealer is 20 minutes away. But in our case, we'd just started our 1 week holiday (and we don't get to take a holiday very often - this is our first this year), and the nearest Lotus dealer is about 200kms / 2.5hrs away…. Not good!

So, Sunday evening, I sent a text message to my friendly Lotus dealer, asking for advice. Then, drove the car back to the holiday home, and tried to think positively. This is probably the time when your devotion to Lotus is most tested. For many people, this would not be acceptable, and they'd already be planning the chat with the Lawyer, thinking about some "lemon clause" or similar thing. For me, this is part of the Lotus experience! And I don't mean that in a bad way. In my view, if you want a perfect product, where everything is made to exacting standards, and every example produced is exactly the same as every other one, buy a Porsche (or something else German). The Germans are good at that, their quality is excellent (except Merc, who I hate, see my Esprit story)…. but that's not what I want from my Lotus. I want a product that was hand made in England. I want a product that excels in the key areas - handling & performance, and I want a product that is rare and exclusive, something that not every sports car buyer is going to buy. If that means a warning light and a rattling exhaust, then fine, I accept that. I'd rather take the niche product together with its quirks, than the mass-market "perfection" that lost its sole somewhere on the ladder of success.

Enough rant, back to the Evora. I've sung the praises of my Lotus specialist (Schaffner Racing) before, and sorry, but I have to do it again. Bruno from Schaffner's called me on Monday morning, we discussed the problem, and tried to determine the best course of action. The outcome - Bruno plus one of the other guys from Schaffner's drove 2.5 hrs down to southern Switzerland on Monday afternoon / evening, just to try to ensure that we could continue our holiday with the Evora, and not have to send it back to the dealership on the back of a truck. They brought their OBD computer kit, and arrived here at our holiday home at 6:30 in the evening. They then proceeded to do the diagnostics (more on this in a moment), clear the code, check the car, and pronounce that we could keep using the car for the rest of the holiday. That all took about an hour, so we all then went down to Ascona for dinner at the lakeside, and a generally good evening's entertainment. The guys from Schaffner's finally headed off at about 11:00, with a long journey ahead of them…. and they left us to the rest of our holiday, still with the Evora, thinking about how wonderful the Lotus community can be!

Of course you expect some level of service when you buy a new car, but this was far beyond what anyone could reasonably expect, and I don't think I've every come across a better example of dedication, professionalism or customer service. So Bruno and Roger, if you're reading this (which you're probably not as it's written in English!), thank you again for all your help (and of course the entertaining evening!). Thanks to you guys we can continue to enjoy the Evora for the rest of the holiday.

Finally, some technical detail on the engine fault code. The ODB reported a P0139 error, which is a post-catalyst O2 sensor reaching it's optimal value too slowly. While they were here, the guys from Schaffner's took real-time readings from the post-cat sensors under varying conditions and stresses, and observed totally normally behavior. That's always annoying, as it makes a precise diagnosis very difficult. The detailed description for P0139 basically states that the sensor should reach it's optimal target reading within 230 seconds of starting the engine. Based on this, we have found a working theory as to what caused the problem:

As mentioned earlier, our holiday home is high up in the hills, meaning that, after starting the car, I can effectively drive all the way down the hill using gravity alone, no need to press the accelerator pedal. As I do this with the car in gear (for the engine breaking), the ECU cuts the fuel supply as it is not necessary to waste fuel while the car is engine-breaking. All of this means that the engine would not have been burning fuel during the hill decent (which easily lasts more than 230 seconds), and consequently the O2 sensors would not have been reaching the target readings within the permitted time.

This sounds plausible to me, and sets my mind at rest. In my book, the Evora can't be blamed for this issue, and neither can Lotus. This means that the only black mark on the score sheet at the moment is the rattling exhaust (which is really annoying), but at least that should be an easy fix. So, let's see how the rest of the week goes - keep the fingers crossed. Any drama, I'll post it up as quickly as possible. Otherwise, I'll write up a summary after the holiday, and try to add some more nice photos!

[JAWS]

Cracking write up Rob, Glad you're enjoying the experience, I also think Sienna Brown is the best colour the Evora comes in now.

I'd been interested in knowing the best roads you've come across as I'm planning a 9 x European Countries' tour next year with most of our time hopefully spent in the Alps.

[Justin182]

Superb write up, I enjoyed that thanks.

I absolutely love Sienna, although have only seen it in pictures, can you take a few more pics and try and capture what it looks like in the metal? Also, I'd be interested to see your interior?

Personally I think I'd have opted for the bigger wheels on the S, I think they really set the car of nicely

[Bibs]

That is a lovely colour, very nice

[Gazm]

Nice post and great pictures, I am taking my Evora on a road trip to the Swiss Alps later this month... it is yellow like your Esprit. Look forward to more holiday tips... we fancy staying at a lake too, cant wait to get on the road.

[TBD]

Great report and enjoy the car. Lovely.

[Bibs]

Top, top service from the dealer. Get yourself a bluetooth ODBII scanner perhaps for the glovebox and iPhone app, you can help with a local diagnosis if anything similar happens again.

[Captain]

Thanks for the great write up! Your dealer has a veeeery good service apparently.

You mentioned a rattling in the exhaust, I may have the same issue with my MY2012 S. I can hear it on startups and below 2000 rpm, kind of a high frequency rattling. Does it sound like your rattling valve? If yes, I would be interested how it's repaired.

Cheers

[SwissV8]

Top, top service from the dealer. Get yourself a bluetooth ODBII scanner perhaps for the glovebox and iPhone app, you can help with a local diagnosis if anything similar happens again.

Yeah, thanks Bibs! I had an OBD interface box & laptop cable for the Esprit (let them go with the Esprit). After ordering the Evora, I thought about buying the Bluetooth OBDII dongle but decided it shouldn't be necessary - positive thinking! After the experience this week though, I think I'll do as you suggest, and buy the dongle + iPhone App. Don't have one for sale on the forum shop do you?

You mentioned a rattling in the exhaust, I may have the same issue with my MY2012 S. I can hear it on startups and below 2000 rpm, kind of a high frequency rattling. Does it sound like your rattling valve? If yes, I would be interested how it's repaired.

Hi Lionel, yes - the rattle on my car is almost certainly coming from the exhaust valve. It doesn't rattle all the time at tick over, but frequently. If I switch to sport mode, the rattle stops... But I still get it frequently while driving (even in sport mode). However, it is always at fairly low rpm.

It's a pity, because the car attracts a lot of attention in the towns down here, but I'm not sure how much is due to the looks, and how much is due to the loud rattle!

Anyway, the dealer is checking with Lotus on possibilities for replacement parts, so hopefully it can be solved as part of the first service. I'll post up an update when I know more.

Hope you're enjoying your Evora as much as I am

I absolutely love Sienna, although have only seen it in pictures, can you take a few more pics and try and capture what it looks like in the metal? Also, I'd be interested to see your interior?

Personally I think I'd have opted for the bigger wheels on the S, I think they really set the car of nicely

Hi Justin, I'll try to get some more photos through the week and post them up. I'll make sure I add a couple of interior shots too. The new premium sport interior really is lovely by the way

Wheels was a tricky decision point for me. The dealer had a good range of cars and wheels in stock when I was ordering, so I was able to compare quite a few combinations. For my needs, this is what I concluded:

- I don't like dark wheels on a dark car

- I actually prefer the standard design to the diamond forged design

- but the larger wheel dimensions suite the car better than the smaller wheels

- the tires for the larger wheels are very expensive, as are the wheels themselves (over here at least)

- for road driving, the extra grip of the larger wheel/tire combination isn't necessary (a bit of slide can be fun )

With all this in mind, I decided to take the silver standard wheels, with the plan that I can always move up to larger wheels sometime later if I really feel the need. I could then use the standard wheels for winter tires.

Have to say though, so far I'm really happy with the look of the car. The silver wheels are a great combination with the Sienna paint, and the red brake calipers also compliment the red piping and stitching on the sport interior. I'll do my best to capture this a bit better with some further photos, but as I've said before, I think photos never do the Evora justice, you have to see it live.

[Snoopy1969]

Very nice - best sentence:"I'd rather take the niche product together with its quirks, than the mass-market "perfection" that lost its sole somewhere on the ladder of success." - even a main reason for me to buy the Evora (now it is 13 days old - no problems and yes, it has a b i g soul) Nice idea to start using the new car on a holiday trip! (and far better than to start with parking garage hassle downtown like I did - but the Evora behaved very well...)

Enjoy!

[SwissV8]

I'm now on my 5th day of Evora ownership, still down here in super sunny southern Switzerland, where the temperature today was about 36 degrees C. Below are a couple of photos from the highlights of my day, and the test for you all is….. what's missing from the photos?

Any guesses, anyone?

Well done to those of you who correctly spotted that the MY 2012 Sienna Brown Evora S is nowhere to be seen! Don't panic though, it's not (quite) as bad as it sounds! You see, the Evora is currently acting a bit like a newly adopted child, constantly testing me, looking for the limits. What can it get away with. The limits it's testing are those of my Lotus loyalty. I was quick to defend its rattling exhaust, and also very understanding when it threw its little P0139 error code tantrum, but today it took things a step further. It hasn't killed my Lotus loyalty (yet), but it did move the Evora to the bad books, at least for today.

Now somewhere along the line of motor vehicle development, some bright spark decided that one single engine warning light was not enough. No no, cars have become so technically advanced that you now need multiple lights to group together various error codes, maybe to make it easier for the engineers to pinpoint a problem. I think the only purpose of these lights is to scare the s**t out of new owners!… and my Evora has picked up on this and decided to test whether these lights work. Well, they do, believe me!

So what happened? Well, while driving back from a rather scary little place up in the mountains (that's a different story), we were coasting gently down a lovely, hairpin filled mountain road, when mid-hairpin an orange picture of a lego-like spanner / wrench illuminated brightly on the dash, and the Evora cut the engine power. It then refused to allow the rpm to rise above about 1,700, leaving us crawling along like a couple of 90 year old pensioners in a 2CV. That's embarrasing I tell you, having a beautiful sporty new Evora crawling along at about 30 kmh, causing a traffic jam. We couldn't pull over immediately as we were on a mountain road, so I wanted to find somewhere safe to pull in and stop the engine. We had to drive so slowly, that even the tractor behind fancied his chances at an overtake!

Anyway, we made it to some off-road parking, pulled in and cut the engine. I left the car stand for a minute or two, and then restarted the engine. After about 15 seconds at tick-over, the lego spanner disappeared… that's good! Just to be on the safe side, I thought I'd call my friendly Lotus specialist - Schaffner Racing. If you could rate your friends based on the amount of time you spend chatting to them, then Bruno at Schaffners would be my best mate. Hell, if I wasn't already married he'd be my best man at the wedding!

According to the workshop manual, the lego spanner appears when the ECU detects an electrical fault, and then the ECU restricts engine power to protect from damage. This makes sense, and ties in with an observation we made straight after the lego spanner appeared.

What observation? Well, when you're on holiday in 36 degree heat, the Sat Nav isn't so important. Neither are the heated seats, the parking sensors or even the cruise control. But what is bloody essential is the AirCon, which appears to have failed This in turn seems to have sent the ECU into a panic. Thanks Lotus!

Working on the assumption that the failed AirCon is responsible for the Lego spanner, our plan now is to continue using the car for the rest of the holiday, and then call in to Schaffner's on the way home to check the stored error codes and decide the next steps. Until then, we'll just kick back here, enjoy the view and a bottle of local wine, and reflect back on the joys of Lotus ownership! Enjoy it now, that's what I say, for tomorrow might be another story. Let's see

[robcarter]

Very nice - best sentence:"I'd rather take the niche product together with its quirks, than the mass-market "perfection" that lost its sole somewhere on the ladder of success." - even a main reason for me to buy the Evora (now it is 13 days old - no problems and yes, it has a b i g soul) Nice idea to start using the new car on a holiday trip! (and far better than to start with parking garage hassle downtown like I did - but the Evora behaved very well...)

Enjoy!

Epic quote indeed and one that all Lotus enthusiasts would echo!

[Bibs]

What's up with the ac Rob?

[SwissV8]

What's up with the ac Rob?

No cooling at all. AC switched on or off makes no difference to the temperature of the air coming out of the vents. The fans are working, and the AC switch illuminates, but no cold air

Thought about checking the fuse, but as far as I can tell from the manual, there are no spare fuses in the fuse box.... and if it did blow the AC compressor fuse, not sure if it's a good idea to just change the fuse before having the system checked out by the Lotus garage.

[TBD]

Most likely you've lost the cooling fluid. Check to see if a hose has broken or fallen off in the engine bay. You can check the compressor just by looking to see if it is running.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to start off with the new car by going on vacation. Its those early niggles that are typical for a hand-built car like the Lotus.

[Kimbers]

Nice write up Rob. great pics, great car, lovely holiday...whats not to like?!!