Discussion
Ok the car is going to have the special care that Westovers offer next week. Here is the list.
Respray Front Clam (below swage line)
Respray Roof
Respray Wing mirror (Passenger side)
Respray sills
Repair and respray rear quater
Fit armourfend to sills front clam (Below swage line)
Replace front quater grill
Replace stripes
Fit new front number plate (I will supply)
Fix electric window, drivers side (sticky and slow when cold)
Alarm not operating in boot
Fit new exhaust (stage 1 supplied by Towzer)
A Service
Then get my local specialist to fit laser "garage door opener" and radar detector.
I will be getting a full quote later, anyone want to guess how much?
Respray Front Clam (below swage line)
Respray Roof
Respray Wing mirror (Passenger side)
Respray sills
Repair and respray rear quater
Fit armourfend to sills front clam (Below swage line)
Replace front quater grill
Replace stripes
Fit new front number plate (I will supply)
Fix electric window, drivers side (sticky and slow when cold)
Alarm not operating in boot
Fit new exhaust (stage 1 supplied by Towzer)
A Service
Then get my local specialist to fit laser "garage door opener" and radar detector.
I will be getting a full quote later, anyone want to guess how much?
)
beachbum said:
Is any of it under warranty ?
I am still having a robust discussion with lotus. Thier engineer says it isnt paint bubbling everyone else says it is, so an engineer is going to have another look. That was months ago and nothing.
The paint chips are so bad on the front that you cant really tell, but that is because of the poor paint.
They have not dispatched and engineer and they have not done anything about the problem so I am having the work done and charging them the appropriate amount. I am sick of waiting for lotus engineers to get thier thumb out of thier arse and do thier job.
This problem has been in thier court since october last year.
tonyhetherington said:
blimey - I didn't realise all that Gooby (not been paying attention enough, sorry!) - I thought you were just pedantic about your car (as opposed to there actually being a problem!)
Good luck with it all!
Nope you are right, I am pedantic and more than a little bit anal. The paint bubbling is about 6 inch in diameter on the front edge of the clam but why should I pay for this when it is clearly the responsibility of lotus.
There is a considerable difference in the durability of the older paint and the crap new paint on lotus. My car really looks bad. I did over 100k miles in my CRX and 120k in my mr2 and both looked very clean. I have done about 20k in the lotus, used 2 touch up pens and it still look more white than blue. It is disgraceful and if I could find some way to justify my arguement then I would go out to stuff lotus for a respray. I really do feel stiched up over the poor finish.
How long have you had the car gooby? When you said that you'd been using touch up sticks I didn't realise the extent of the problem.
If you need that much work, how can it possibly be questionable whether this is a warranty defect?
£1500 for a corp like Lotus is nothing, I thought you'd be looking at £5K for a full respray.
Phil
If you need that much work, how can it possibly be questionable whether this is a warranty defect?
£1500 for a corp like Lotus is nothing, I thought you'd be looking at £5K for a full respray.
Phil
Towzer said:
How long have you had the car gooby? When you said that you'd been using touch up sticks I didn't realise the extent of the problem.
If you need that much work, how can it possibly be questionable whether this is a warranty defect?
£1500 for a corp like Lotus is nothing, I thought you'd be looking at £5K for a full respray.
Phil
I got the car in November/December 2004. So basically with the time spent in workshop, it is a year old and just over 22k miles. Nearly all of those miles with a huge grin on my face.
The thing that really pi$$es me off is that I have been so reasonable about the problem. I have not asked them for a full respray or even a panel, just to take a proportion of the cost for having the clam (below the swage line) resprayed. There excuse was "we cant tell if there is bubbling because the stone chips are so bad".
When the problem was brought to thier attemtion, the stone chips wernt half as bad. But as usual the engineers were too busy to take a look and the work could not be done on the say so of the dealer without a report from a Lotus engineer who couldnt turn up for bl00dy months.
The paint durability is crummy. The worst I have ever encountered.
British companies - good at getting customers, crap at keeping them.
Just think - I might have taken out the very expensive lotus extended warentee. They have done themself out of a sale.
I have nothing but disdain for lotus service. It is a bloody good job that Westovers are incredible.
Hey Gooby, I saw this too on a Exige Cup and a New Noble extreem stonechips! looked realy bad and they where only a few months old!
Those paints on leightweight cars are very thin also I think, combine that with a bad water based paint....and you got a nightmare when you love your car.
Not so good to hear...I have to buy my Exige or 111R Elise yet...hm...and I dont like that plastic shield? stick-up...does that work anyway?
GTRene
Those paints on leightweight cars are very thin also I think, combine that with a bad water based paint....and you got a nightmare when you love your car.
Not so good to hear...I have to buy my Exige or 111R Elise yet...hm...and I dont like that plastic shield? stick-up...does that work anyway?
GTRene
Sorry to hear about your problems Gooby. I know what you mean about Lotus' service attitude 
My dealer has been pretty good about the few issues I have had on my 111R bought from them last September. Had the Lotus field engineer take a look at a problem with my car and was given the standard TADTS response. My response to that: On a £30k car?
right off! Ian and Rob at Castle have been sympathetic to date, just hope all my issues are resolved before Spring.
I work for a loudspeaker company and if any of our customers/dealers have ANY issues, we sort the problem ASAP until resolved. It is so easy to take the attitude that if one leaves the problem long enough, the complaint will go away. Unfortunately, so do the customers!
My dealer has been pretty good about the few issues I have had on my 111R bought from them last September. Had the Lotus field engineer take a look at a problem with my car and was given the standard TADTS response. My response to that: On a £30k car?
right off! Ian and Rob at Castle have been sympathetic to date, just hope all my issues are resolved before Spring. I work for a loudspeaker company and if any of our customers/dealers have ANY issues, we sort the problem ASAP until resolved. It is so easy to take the attitude that if one leaves the problem long enough, the complaint will go away. Unfortunately, so do the customers!
Armourfend does work very well as long as it is put on right. It is not pretty and not as attractive as a good paint finish BUT it is far nicer than a mottled paint finish due to stone chips. The main areas for concern are front clam - below the swage line and sills. I have seen fully armourfended cars and it is only up close that you can tell. My big problem is you cant polish armourfend.
One of these cars is FULLY armourfended.
it isnt my car
One of these cars is FULLY armourfended.
it isnt my car
GRL said:
Sorry to hear about your problems Gooby. I know what you mean about Lotus' service attitude
My dealer has been pretty good about the few issues I have had on my 111R bought from them last September. Had the Lotus field engineer take a look at a problem with my car and was given the standard TADTS response. My response to that: On a £30k car?
I work for a loudspeaker company and if any of our customers/dealers have ANY issues, we sort the problem ASAP until resolved. It is so easy to take the attitude that if one leaves the problem long enough, the complaint will go away. Unfortunately, so do the customers!
I agree! The field engineers are overworked and generally dismissive of problems. The gap between the service expectation and delivery has been taken up by my dealer, who are superb.
Lotus want to get people out of thier coxters and anal TT's then it needs to buck its ideas up. I have seen some 3rd rate efforts that make lotus service look like ametures.
I heard a great description today. Lotus are professional ametures.
GTRene said:
Hey Gooby, I saw this too on a Exige Cup and a New Noble extreem stonechips! looked realy bad and they where only a few months old!
Those paints on leightweight cars are very thin also I think, combine that with a bad water based paint....and you got a nightmare when you love your car.
Not so good to hear...I have to buy my Exige or 111R Elise yet...hm...and I dont like that plastic shield? stick-up...does that work anyway?
GTRene
It depends how you have it applied. If it's cut to just the lower area of the front clam then you hardley notice it... unless you use white polish and then spend the rest of sunday scraping dried polish off the edges with a tooth pick.
Phil
Towzer said:
It depends how you have it applied. If it's cut to just the lower area of the front clam then you hardley notice it... unless you use white polish and then spend the rest of sunday scraping dried polish off the edges with a tooth pick.
Phil
Mcguires do some really good brushes that sort out that problem!
gooby said:
Sh1t the bed! To armourfend the front clam (under swage line) and the sills will cost £485
It costs far less than that to get a quality paint shop to respray.
Can I / Can you justify spending that amount of money on armourfend?
That is really shocking.
thats a lot to get that done! hm...not much plastic on the one I gona buy then
I know the answer to all the stonechips as I'm back from "the dark side"
Just buy a lasershield, no not the one from Halfords but from "Starwars"
Oké I was just thinking what to do next...
GTRene
gooby said:
Sh1t the bed! To armourfend the front clam (under swage line) and the sills will cost £485
It costs far less than that to get a quality paint shop to respray.
Can I / Can you justify spending that amount of money on armourfend?
That is really shocking.
That is a lot! I think i will just leave mine til its time to sell it, its chipped pretty badly but luckily doesnt show too much with the silver paint
Armourfend costs
£160 for the front lower section
£150 for the sills
£95 Call out charge
£70 fitting charge
=VAT
Total £485
Call out and fitting charge? They are joking
£310 plus vat for thick cling film?
These guys are flippin nuts. Since when was cling film more expensive than paint?
Just imagine how much it would cost to have the entire car done? £2k?...£3k. Imagine the paint job you could get for that money.
£160 for the front lower section
£150 for the sills
£95 Call out charge
£70 fitting charge
=VAT
Total £485
Call out and fitting charge? They are joking
£310 plus vat for thick cling film?
These guys are flippin nuts. Since when was cling film more expensive than paint?
Just imagine how much it would cost to have the entire car done? £2k?...£3k. Imagine the paint job you could get for that money.
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