[OneFastLotus]

Ive noticed a trend on SELOC. Constant complaining about replacement parts taking weeks and months to come in from Lotus. From the smallest of brackets all the way up to clams and grills it ALL seems to take forever to get and thats in England!

Anyone know if the US Lotus dealers will be kept well stocked? What if you wreck your car? How long to get a new clam? Parts? What if a bracket breaks? Two month wait?


Just curious if anyone has any insight.

 

[zvezdah1]

ON my esprits and m100 I had no problem with parts, of course I'm close to LCU so I could just drive up and pick up what I need. They've always carried a good supply of the common parts as well as bodywork components.

Probably will be different for the elise. I suspect they'll keep a supply of everything at LCU. A lot of the components can of course be sourced elsewhere if need be.

Don't think it'll be a problem, Clyde's got a lot of experience getting parts from Lotus UK and requisite delays.

Chris

 

[Tpup]

I would be concerned about that as well. I have had many problems with parts availability for my car. My car is an Exige; LCU did import about 75 Elise/Exige/Motorsport/340R so I would have hoped that they had a plan for parts distribution. Here are some of my personal experiences:

1. I have had parts delivered that included the wrong parts. I ordered a kit for the Exige and they send me Elise parts.
2. I have requested information about parts (what part number is this part, how much is it and when can I get it) from the factory and gotten no response. Typically, either the one guy who knows is out or they don't know the answer to the question either.
3. I have had the factory ask me to ship them the specifications of the correct part that I found in a box at LCU because they don't have any record of what that part is.
4. I have purchased parts and found out during installation that other parts are required that were not sent in the kit or suggested. When I contact the factory they say "Oh", we are out of stock on those parts but we will send them over soon.

Frankly, LCU works hard to get you what you need and I give them an A+. The factory still does not understand that most markets will not put up with that level of service. I'm pretty frustrated with the situation, to the point where I am exploring shipping the car to Europe and selling it (weak dollar means more money for me over there).

Time will tell if LCU can help the factory get their act together in this area.

Roy

 

[zvezdah1]

The other really quirky thing about Lotus UK parts distribution, until recently. LCU was treated like a retail customer from a standpoint of pricing. ie. in many cases the part was available in UK cheaper than US. I believe they finally rectified that in the last few years.

Also, the problem with small quantity construction like the esprit, exige etc. The parts actually used may change even in the same model year.. I remember on my europa had two or three different starters depending on serial number of the car and none would interchange.

Distribution from Lotus UK has never been good and Roy's right, they'll definately have to organize it a bit better.

Chris

 

[jml1952]

Dealers do not seem to stock a lot of parts anymore. When my Miata needs something, which hasn't been often, the dealer generally needs a day or two to get it. If Lotus sets up a couple of warehouses on the east coast and west coast, they should be able to ship parts within a day or do with all of the options available today. I wouldn't expect each dealer to have much on hand.

 

[cerven]

Since the Elise is not my daily drive but a weekend plaything, I can wait for parts - may not LIKE it but not the end of the world. And if that's what it takes to own this car, then I guess that's what it'll be.

 

[ConeFusion]

I wouldn't expect the dealers to have more than the most common parts in stock. If it takes a few days to get them from a warehouse, that's fine with me. But if the car is down for a few weeks because they have to get parts from the UK, I won't be a happy camper.

 

[Arno]

Repair on my Elise after colliding with a motorbike took almost 2 months.

This was about 1 week actual labour (disassembly, cleaning up, bonding, painting, re-assembly) and the rest simply waiting for parts and the correct parts (eg. getting a RIGHT indicator, while a LEFT indicator was ordered and stuff like that)

Clams and crashboxes are notoriously hard to get and often have long delivery times. Even the factory has little or no in stock as they only make enough to keep the car production running.

Spares for items like this seem to be usually built in batches after they get a certain # of orders.

If you're in luck they still have some from the last batch. If they're out then you need to wait until the next batch is made.

Bye, Arno.

 

[meat]

Tpup

I think alot of your issues are related to the Exige. There are very few people left in the UK that built/designed the Exige so it's a bit of an "oddball" to them I think. Does this make it right? No. But, I would think the Elise would be more down the road of the m100.

You are going to sell it after all the work you did this past year????

 

[grudkin]

Saw a blurb in EVO a while back about a 340 R body repair -- cost an arm and a leg

How much does the front clam cost to replace on the Elise?

If repairs will take a long time, it does detract from practicality. But then again, it took BMW a month to repair my M-coupe after an off on Mulholland (replace front bumper and the right front suspension components)

So maybe the stories above are not so out of line...