Okay. It's mid-March. Have we started production yet? Have we?!!

With all the emphasis on including a start button on the new Elise, folks at Hethel forgot to include one on the new production line!

Hey, is that midnight blue? It looks pretty good, better than I thought it might look. Any other views of this car and color?

No, I thought the delay was due to the cup holders?

The color I believe is Magnetic blue. Here's the link:
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2212

Looks like magnetic to me.

-Whit

Allan Gibbs said:

No, I thought the delay was due to the cup holders?

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Thats right. LCU was supposed to fed ex over a super big gulp so that Hethel could make it to fit, but for some reason they didn't send it fed ex, not even "par avion", so it just got there last week. Turns out they are going to have to widen the car 3.5", and add 2.1" to the wheelbase the retooling is going to delay the car till 2006 when the new bumpers and cup-hoolders will add 470lbs to the total weight.

Evl said:

Thats right. LCU was supposed to fed ex over a super big gulp so that Hethel could make it to fit, but for some reason they didn't send it fed ex, not even "par avion", so it just got there last week. Turns out they are going to have to widen the car 3.5", and add 2.1" to the wheelbase the retooling is going to delay the car till 2006 when the new bumpers and cup-hoolders will add 470lbs to the total weight.

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Didn't GM beat them to this? a.k.a. Solstice.

Three more people in England decided to order the car with the Toyota engine plus one more in Australia, so US production has been delayed for six months while Lotus figures out how to meet the extra demand!

Damn, no one can give a serious answer?

nxm150 said:

Damn, no one can give a serious answer?

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You forget what group this is?

Weve all gone mad waiting for the car, so serious cant possibly describe us.

nxm,

The line which the Elise will be built on for the US is the same as the one which previously produced the VX220/ Speedster for GM. Production of a limited addition model to finish the run ended acouple of weeks ago. Since then, Press cars entered production for an event scheduled later this month. Our cars should reach production later this month or early in April. Although a couple of weeks delayed from the original estimates, still in order for the first cars to arrive in May. Remember that the first cars will be the dealer demos. Expect customer cars late in may or early june.

Modern Wedgie said:

You forget what group this is? Weve all gone mad waiting for the car, so serious cant possibly describe us.

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I think a few of us already were mad before we placed the deposit.

wallabyguy said:

nxm,

The line which the Elise will be built on for the US is the same as the one which previously produced the VX220/ Speedster for GM. Production of a limited addition model to finish the run ended acouple of weeks ago. Since then, Press cars entered production for an event scheduled later this month. Our cars should reach production later this month or early in April. Although a couple of weeks delayed from the original estimates, still in order for the first cars to arrive in May. Remember that the first cars will be the dealer demos. Expect customer cars late in may or early june.

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Changing the name to LODUS = Lots of delays, usually significant.

Just kidding. Well, mostly.

Does Lotus supply any kind of status in production? Do we get any idea that a car has been shipped or even in the US before we get a call from the dealer saying the car has arrived!
I find I am dropping events that I could go to because my Elise might show up sometime between May and July!!!!