Who's your dealer if you don't mind being asked?
Luxury Cars of Los Gatos. I only heard the mixed reviews of their experience after having made my deposit.
I believe they are giving you the run around. A secured allocation and approved order requires 2500+7500 non refundable deposit. Lotus will not approve an order without it.
I also believe they're giving me the runaround. Would not recommend.
Wow, I'm #10 on this list? LOL. I just spoke with Gator Motorsports. Once CARB approval is complete I send money, they send me my car!
My first Lotus encounter at a dealership was Ferrari-Lotus of Los Gatos. At the time they were located on Main St. They've since moved to another location. I bought my first Esprit at Boardwalk Lotus in Redwood City. But I had all the servicing done at the Los Gatos dealership, as we lived in the hills in Saratoga (just down Highway 9). Boardwalk Lotus had a better selection at that time.
They're very personable there. But honestly they're been less than up front about timing. Telling me four months ago I needed my spec order in for a Q1 delivery, and telling me this week that maybe, just maybe they'll order the car in May. And none of this was unprompted. I've had to hound them every time to find out anything.
Honestly, it sounds like you don’t have a confirmed allocation. Once the full deposit is taken, the order needs to be in by the 20th of the month.
I don't have one. It took some back and forth to get this to be admitted.
I would be surprised if you have a confirmed order then
The process would be to take another $7500 and then the entire $10,000 becomes nonrefundable. With that, you provided your exact specifications and they become locked. The dealer submits the order in their system and then lotus response usually within 24 hours with an email back to the dealer confirming the order. The dealer will then email you a copy of this confirmation.
Welcome to LT! Read thru the Emira forum here and you'll see that they're all waiting on CARB Certification before they can be released to their patiently waiting owners.Greetings from FL. I stopped into my local Jacksonville FL Lotus dealer and couldn't believe what I saw:
There were something like 10-11 total Lotus Emira on their lot, mostly in yellow and ligther blue (which both looked absolutely stunning to the point where I couldn't stop looking). Each one had a "sold" sign hanging from the rear view mirror. The sales woman said "we are waiting on paperwork for customer delivery". I thought that was unusual but I'm also not at all familiar with the Lotus buying process.
Separately, they did have a yellow demo that they allowed me to sit in. The car had something like 3xx miles but the sales rep said I couldn't start it because of something, again, related to "waiting on paperwork". No knock on the sales rep who was probably following higher orders but I thought it was unusual since she had the key in hand.
Anyway...WOW! What an amazing car to see in person. I am truly blown away. I hope to get one in the next year or two if I can. I could right now, but would make more sense for me financially to wait another 6-12 months. Good luck on all of your orders & deliveries, you've made a damn good choice
I was never asked for more than the initial $2,500 back in July 2021. Order confirmed March 2022. $10k sounds dealer-specific unless something has changed, and many (most?) states do not allow non-refundable deposits.
What confirmation did you get?
I believe Lotus has told their dealers they need $10K for a committed build slot. As in once your # comes up, and you submit your final build specs, you have to cough up the remaining $7500 before the factory will work on your specific vehicle. And depending on your dealer, it's either completely non-refundable, or the dealer themselves would keep the vehicle for their allocation and refund you directly.
