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I just wanted to share a few experiences I've had buying my Elise from SVAG (formerly Ferrari of Los Gatos) in California. First of all, the buying experience went very smoothly, no surprises. Yes, I'm talking about the actual *buying* experience...the waiting experience sucked. That was mostly Lotus' fault, not SVAG. SVAG would be honest and up front with me when I asked for info, they just weren't great about notifying me of every little tidbit of news they heard about my car as soon as they heard it (I don't think they're used to customers being so anxious - obsessively so - to get their cars!).
I received two letters after purchasing the car, one from the GM and one from the manager of their service department. Nice touch. For scheduled maintenance, they offer free pick up and delivery of the car (I confirmed that this is done via their own carrier, they don't contract out this work). Today, the service manager called me about my reverse gear lockout ring - they had noticed that it did not spring back down when they did the PDI, but as mine was one of the first cars they'd seen, they wanted to check with Lotus about what to do for it. They have a fix for it, and were calling to find out if I've had any trouble with it and if I need to bring it in (I haven't, it's easy to manually push back down). I asked him about the oil cooler problem that some cars have had, and they're aware of that (unlike some dealers I've heard mentioned here). He said it'd be very obvious if my car were leaking.
Surprisingly, my license plates showed up about two weeks after buying the car - addressed from SVAG and sent via FedEx! I think one of their employees went to the DMV to handle the paperwork and pick up the plates themselves - the registration paperwork was printed in the format you'd get from a DMV office, not what you'd get if the plates came in the mail via normal means. I'm not sure how I feel about this - it's a nice service they offer, but not having plates on my car gives me a bit of an edge in avoiding traffic tickets.
They're just really a class act so far. Makes me wish I could take my other cars there for service too!
I received two letters after purchasing the car, one from the GM and one from the manager of their service department. Nice touch. For scheduled maintenance, they offer free pick up and delivery of the car (I confirmed that this is done via their own carrier, they don't contract out this work). Today, the service manager called me about my reverse gear lockout ring - they had noticed that it did not spring back down when they did the PDI, but as mine was one of the first cars they'd seen, they wanted to check with Lotus about what to do for it. They have a fix for it, and were calling to find out if I've had any trouble with it and if I need to bring it in (I haven't, it's easy to manually push back down). I asked him about the oil cooler problem that some cars have had, and they're aware of that (unlike some dealers I've heard mentioned here). He said it'd be very obvious if my car were leaking.
Surprisingly, my license plates showed up about two weeks after buying the car - addressed from SVAG and sent via FedEx! I think one of their employees went to the DMV to handle the paperwork and pick up the plates themselves - the registration paperwork was printed in the format you'd get from a DMV office, not what you'd get if the plates came in the mail via normal means. I'm not sure how I feel about this - it's a nice service they offer, but not having plates on my car gives me a bit of an edge in avoiding traffic tickets.
They're just really a class act so far. Makes me wish I could take my other cars there for service too!