[perryeyges]

Any verification of dealers with demos or cars in stock in the western USA?

 

[Steve W]

I think it's safe to say that there are no cars on the west coast at dealerships at the moment. Based on some of Randys posts about transportation, I think the earliest we can expect any is next week.

 

[Sownman]

I could have sworn there was an "official" Lotus position about
every dealer getting cars simultaneously. The dealers that got theirs first were supposed to keep them under wraps till the mass
opening on July 15th. Now Lotus USA takes part in the delivery of cars in the East while West coast dealers still have nothing.

This companies lack of ability to stick to anything is amazing.


Steve

 

[Gromit]

I could have sworn there was an "official" Lotus position about
every dealer getting cars simultaneously. The dealers that got theirs first were supposed to keep them under wraps till the mass
opening on July 15th. Now Lotus USA takes part in the delivery of cars in the East while West coast dealers still have nothing.

This companies lack of ability to stick to anything is amazing.


Steve

Actually, Lotus is really good at sticking to not sticking to anything

 

[Randy Chase]

I could have sworn there was an "official" Lotus position about
every dealer getting cars simultaneously. The dealers that got theirs first were supposed to keep them under wraps till the mass
opening on July 15th. Now Lotus USA takes part in the delivery of cars in the East while West coast dealers still have nothing.

This companies lack of ability to stick to anything is amazing.


Steve

The scoopage is, that at one point, a number of dealers were scheduled to get cars a LOT later than the other dealers. It was decided by Lotus USA that this would cause bad feelings if certain dealers had to wait weeks for their cars. Not specifically an indvidual dealer having to wait... but maybe an entire half the country.. I am not saying which half.

A ship was scheduled to arrive on a certain coast and it was determined that ROUGHLY cars would be able to arrive at dealerships around July 15th. Then it became cars would be leaving distribution around that time, as many did.

In the meantime a couple hiccups developed out in the west involving port delays and customs. I have no reason to think that Lotus USA should have forseen that. In one case, there was a paperwork typo on a container and in our post 9/11 world, that put everything into a new deal where customs wanted to take a closer look.

So in the end, west coast ships ended up about 1 week behind. As I mentioned, the second ship was also delayed in a port stack up, but is very close to unloading now. There was a third ship coming through the canal as of 2 days ago.

The initial cars have gone through the required paperwork and were officially released to the transporter as of this morning (or late yesterday) with the instructions that the cars were to be removed from distribution within 72 hours (Lotus USA pays for daily storage). As I understand it, one car for Symbolic is on it, a silver non-LSS Touring car.

Going back to the main thing... Lotus USA did not want one coast to get all their cars and then the other to not. So they delayed. But it was never really to be a simultaneous thing on one day. It is close enough now that the west coast dealers should not be having a fit and it is hoped that they understand the reasons for the delays.

 

[LarryB]

Yup, talked to my dealer this morning. Two customer cars on the transport now. Would expect first deliveries to start early next week.

 

[suv_bait]

Is the demo in that shipment?

Cheers,
John

 

[Sownman]

Thanks for the answer Randy, but it doesn't quite jive with Silver Stars answer about arrival of their demo "next month, maybe". I believe I saw another post where a West Coast dealer was told August 12 for demo arrival although I can't be certain of that., but then again I doubt they can be certain of that either.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad Chris has been an owner for over a week. It would just be nice to see something get lived up to.
I certainly hope the car lives up to the promise better than the deliveries have.


Steve

 

[LarryB]

John- nope it's a black and yellow customer cars, with touring pack. They hadn't figured out what happen to the demo car. My guess/hope, it's going on a different transport. The demo is CO, touring with hardtop and at port.

 

[Steve W]

Silver Star initially ordered their demo with LSS. when it was apparent that LSS cars were going to be delayed, they were given the option to change it and did. Their car is still slightly delayed and should be delivered to the dealer around Aug 15th

 

[Randy Chase]

Yep. If any dealers (and customers) ordered an LSS model, it will be delayed.