I finally got to inspect up close an Evora. My thoughts.
Discussion
Today was a good day.. Any day where I can come face to face with a Lotus car is a good day. However I am left indecisive on a few things and so without further ado, my story and my opinion as follows;
A beautiful day today and so I had some business to tend to that happened to be within a few miles of my OH's place of work and because of that I decided to go with her and the plan was I would take her car to run my errands in that part of town. Now me knowing all things Lotus was fully aware there was a dealer but a mere 3 miles from her place of work and that quickly became the number 1 spot on my errands list.
Fast forward to the door of the Lotus dealership which so happened to be connected with an Acura dealership, but it was its own entity, meaning it was across from their main showroom floor and in the Loti lot was a small fleet of more prestigious cars if you will, such as Maserati and Jaguar. Okay so first thing I notice is a beautiful white (or pearl white) Evora in the showroom under the showroom lights, lovely in that color! Next to it a red Evora, behind it the new Elise ( I am NOT a fan of the new front face lift, totally played down the Elise if you ask me, looks too 'cute') and beside those was an all black Exige special edition series (cup 260?). The doors were locked and when I inquired within Acura as to the whereabouts of the Lotus salesman they said he had left for the day to take care of business at the other warehouse. Fair enough I thought, I wouldnt very much expect him to be sitting all day waiting for a customer to wander in, it is for sure on an appointment basis. Nevertheless, would have been nice to have a chat and such, and I suspected he would be back at some point for no other reason than to pick up what I could only suspect was his personal Lotus, an older red Exige with racing stickers all over it and worn tires, definately uses this car for the right reasons, so he automatically gets my nod of approval.
Lucky for me sitting outside for my very own personal inspection a 2010 Evora painted in black with forged aluminum wheels and that dark red/brown? interior. Which by the way I love the looks of, absolutely wonderful interior, but then I am one to always give my nod of approval for the interiors of pretty much all Loti. That is one thing they always designed well IMO. So, I had a good walk around this Evora and closely inspected all I could.
What I found was surprising, and it pains me to say that it was not surprising in a good way unfortunately. You know, all of you, like myself have undoubtedly read endless reviews of the Evora and no doubt can recite the qualms that are written about its $80,000 + price tag and the validity of its claimed revised quality of construction. And no doubt many if not all have commented that the Evora is an amazing vehicle but in no way warrants that kind of money. Until today I disagreed, and I did so without ever having the luxury of actually inspecting one up close and personal and in the flesh. And I disagreed I suppose because I want to believe that Lotus have come through on their claims of improved build quality bad enough that I let it cloud my judgement. But what I saw today, well, I cannot deny any longer that it is true; The Evora should be more closely priced near the $50K mark, MAXIMUM. And to be honest what I saw today on a car that is to apparently fetch $80K + had the build quality that wasnt even as good as the build quality of my OH's $20K Subaru FFS. I wouldnt even expect this sort of s
t on a Hyundai let alone a car supposedly worth $80K. and okay, I admit I am MAYBE making it out to be alot worse than it is, but the more I think about it I dont know if I am TBH. Again, I dont even think I ever saw what I saw today on a Kia worth 10 grand.
This Evora was a 2010 and was used but had less than 7K miles on it. So tell me then how in the world the lug nuts already had late stages of rust and oxidation to the point where it looked as if they were dipped in battery acid. Tell me how one warrants an $80K price tag when the seams on the leather stitching atop the center of the dash board (right in the center where the leather dash meets the cusp of the windshield) was torn in a HUGE 'V' shape!?! The beloved Lotus emblem FFS was PEELING from underneath the plastic covering, yes I am that observant. The shift knob was fading and the headlights button graphic was faded as well.
With what I saw, I am sorry but the car should be priced $35-$40 grand MAX and that is only because it is of a brand with heritage and exotica. But again, with how new it was and the low mileage, NO car should have those problems IMO. And I wondered right then and there, I tried to remember if the Esprit had these sort of obviously poor build flaws? I tried to project myself back to the times when I was a teenager and would go to my local Lotus dealership every other night after I got my license and would walk around inspecting the Esprit S4, then the V8 left outside and overnight protected only by Hummer H1's, wondering if I can recall seeing such shoddy workmanship on those models? But my minds a blank. I dont think there was anything to quip about TBH about the Esprit of those times. And so, the $75K + price tag of the Esprit of those days was justified IMO.
Now onto a more subjective qualm. When the Evora came out I couldnt get passed the design of the rear quarters over the rear wheel well and the strange rectangular roof top leading into a curvish rear. Then it grew on me, looking more and more like the M250 concept, and in many ways it still does resemble the M250. I learned to like it. But today the quirkiness of the design of the last quarter of this car irked me something awful. It completely loses its flow, its essence, its togetherness if you can understand that. It just looks, well, ugly. funky. fugly. it bothers me, it ruins the design of a car that I would VERY much like to be completely ga-ga over. Dont get me wrong, when prices of the Evora plummet so low I can acquire one for less than the price of a new Hyundai I certainly will be first in line to purchase one, and I am sure it will grow on me, but good god its an awful design. It doesnt flow right. But if you ask me, Lotus has never done very well with the design of the rear quarters on their cars. Sure there are a few exceptions, like the Elise, the Elite, the Esprit, but god awful is the Evora, the Europa (old and new) the elan etc.
I will say again however, the interior is beautiful!!! The back seats however, oh wow are tiny, no way is anyone fitting back there comfortably if at all. Their only chance in hell is if someone with my height is driving and has the seat pushed forward more, but get someone 6 foot + in the driver or passenger seat and that seat is all the way back leaving zero room for anyones legs.
That is all for now, thank you for reading!
A beautiful day today and so I had some business to tend to that happened to be within a few miles of my OH's place of work and because of that I decided to go with her and the plan was I would take her car to run my errands in that part of town. Now me knowing all things Lotus was fully aware there was a dealer but a mere 3 miles from her place of work and that quickly became the number 1 spot on my errands list.
Fast forward to the door of the Lotus dealership which so happened to be connected with an Acura dealership, but it was its own entity, meaning it was across from their main showroom floor and in the Loti lot was a small fleet of more prestigious cars if you will, such as Maserati and Jaguar. Okay so first thing I notice is a beautiful white (or pearl white) Evora in the showroom under the showroom lights, lovely in that color! Next to it a red Evora, behind it the new Elise ( I am NOT a fan of the new front face lift, totally played down the Elise if you ask me, looks too 'cute') and beside those was an all black Exige special edition series (cup 260?). The doors were locked and when I inquired within Acura as to the whereabouts of the Lotus salesman they said he had left for the day to take care of business at the other warehouse. Fair enough I thought, I wouldnt very much expect him to be sitting all day waiting for a customer to wander in, it is for sure on an appointment basis. Nevertheless, would have been nice to have a chat and such, and I suspected he would be back at some point for no other reason than to pick up what I could only suspect was his personal Lotus, an older red Exige with racing stickers all over it and worn tires, definately uses this car for the right reasons, so he automatically gets my nod of approval.
Lucky for me sitting outside for my very own personal inspection a 2010 Evora painted in black with forged aluminum wheels and that dark red/brown? interior. Which by the way I love the looks of, absolutely wonderful interior, but then I am one to always give my nod of approval for the interiors of pretty much all Loti. That is one thing they always designed well IMO. So, I had a good walk around this Evora and closely inspected all I could.
What I found was surprising, and it pains me to say that it was not surprising in a good way unfortunately. You know, all of you, like myself have undoubtedly read endless reviews of the Evora and no doubt can recite the qualms that are written about its $80,000 + price tag and the validity of its claimed revised quality of construction. And no doubt many if not all have commented that the Evora is an amazing vehicle but in no way warrants that kind of money. Until today I disagreed, and I did so without ever having the luxury of actually inspecting one up close and personal and in the flesh. And I disagreed I suppose because I want to believe that Lotus have come through on their claims of improved build quality bad enough that I let it cloud my judgement. But what I saw today, well, I cannot deny any longer that it is true; The Evora should be more closely priced near the $50K mark, MAXIMUM. And to be honest what I saw today on a car that is to apparently fetch $80K + had the build quality that wasnt even as good as the build quality of my OH's $20K Subaru FFS. I wouldnt even expect this sort of s
t on a Hyundai let alone a car supposedly worth $80K. and okay, I admit I am MAYBE making it out to be alot worse than it is, but the more I think about it I dont know if I am TBH. Again, I dont even think I ever saw what I saw today on a Kia worth 10 grand. This Evora was a 2010 and was used but had less than 7K miles on it. So tell me then how in the world the lug nuts already had late stages of rust and oxidation to the point where it looked as if they were dipped in battery acid. Tell me how one warrants an $80K price tag when the seams on the leather stitching atop the center of the dash board (right in the center where the leather dash meets the cusp of the windshield) was torn in a HUGE 'V' shape!?! The beloved Lotus emblem FFS was PEELING from underneath the plastic covering, yes I am that observant. The shift knob was fading and the headlights button graphic was faded as well.
With what I saw, I am sorry but the car should be priced $35-$40 grand MAX and that is only because it is of a brand with heritage and exotica. But again, with how new it was and the low mileage, NO car should have those problems IMO. And I wondered right then and there, I tried to remember if the Esprit had these sort of obviously poor build flaws? I tried to project myself back to the times when I was a teenager and would go to my local Lotus dealership every other night after I got my license and would walk around inspecting the Esprit S4, then the V8 left outside and overnight protected only by Hummer H1's, wondering if I can recall seeing such shoddy workmanship on those models? But my minds a blank. I dont think there was anything to quip about TBH about the Esprit of those times. And so, the $75K + price tag of the Esprit of those days was justified IMO.
Now onto a more subjective qualm. When the Evora came out I couldnt get passed the design of the rear quarters over the rear wheel well and the strange rectangular roof top leading into a curvish rear. Then it grew on me, looking more and more like the M250 concept, and in many ways it still does resemble the M250. I learned to like it. But today the quirkiness of the design of the last quarter of this car irked me something awful. It completely loses its flow, its essence, its togetherness if you can understand that. It just looks, well, ugly. funky. fugly. it bothers me, it ruins the design of a car that I would VERY much like to be completely ga-ga over. Dont get me wrong, when prices of the Evora plummet so low I can acquire one for less than the price of a new Hyundai I certainly will be first in line to purchase one, and I am sure it will grow on me, but good god its an awful design. It doesnt flow right. But if you ask me, Lotus has never done very well with the design of the rear quarters on their cars. Sure there are a few exceptions, like the Elise, the Elite, the Esprit, but god awful is the Evora, the Europa (old and new) the elan etc.
I will say again however, the interior is beautiful!!! The back seats however, oh wow are tiny, no way is anyone fitting back there comfortably if at all. Their only chance in hell is if someone with my height is driving and has the seat pushed forward more, but get someone 6 foot + in the driver or passenger seat and that seat is all the way back leaving zero room for anyones legs.
That is all for now, thank you for reading!
I've seen a large number of Evoras, including a significant proportion that have had a very hard life (press cars, track instruction cars, that sort of stuff) except for the gearknob (which has been sorted on MY2012 cars) I've never seen anything of the other issues you've described. ETA which isn't to say you're telling porkies, just that I can offer no explanation
Edited by The Wookie on Thursday 15th September 08:44
hornetrider said:
Would anyone be so good as to post a precis? I'm not wading through that load of flannel.
The guys Mr's works near a Lotus/Acura garage so he popped down to have a look at an Evora. It was tatty, therefore all Evoras are st and overpriced. Oh and the Acura sales rep was out on lunch.
hornetrider said:
Would anyone be so good as to post a precis? I'm not wading through that load of flannel.
Guy judges one of the finest driving motor cars ever built entirely on perceived build quality of a used example. Next week he will give his opinions on the Reventon based purely on its' load-carrying ability. 
Having had a good look at Evora (as well as driving) I have to say that if that's "Hethel's finest" then it makes the criticism heaped on Corvettes look seriously misplaced.
Yes, you can forgive a specialist car like Evora a few sins - I owned an Esprit for many years and loved it - but it's difficult to get over that price for that car.
What's so frustrating is it's exactly the type of car I want to buy yet falls a very long way short in terms of "what you get for what you're being asked to pay". I don't want a Cayman but if anyone can explain how/why Evora justifies a substantially higher price I'd be interested to know.
Yes, you can forgive a specialist car like Evora a few sins - I owned an Esprit for many years and loved it - but it's difficult to get over that price for that car.
What's so frustrating is it's exactly the type of car I want to buy yet falls a very long way short in terms of "what you get for what you're being asked to pay". I don't want a Cayman but if anyone can explain how/why Evora justifies a substantially higher price I'd be interested to know.
5 USA said:
I don't want a Cayman but if anyone can explain how/why Evora justifies a substantially higher price I'd be interested to know.
Try driving an Evora. If your question remains unanswered, it's not the car for you. If after stepping out, you suddenly see the light, it's the car for you.5 USA said:
Having had a good look at Evora (as well as driving) I have to say that if that's "Hethel's finest" then it makes the criticism heaped on Corvettes look seriously misplaced.
Yes, you can forgive a specialist car like Evora a few sins - I owned an Esprit for many years and loved it - but it's difficult to get over that price for that car.
What's so frustrating is it's exactly the type of car I want to buy yet falls a very long way short in terms of "what you get for what you're being asked to pay". I don't want a Cayman but if anyone can explain how/why Evora justifies a substantially higher price I'd be interested to know.
It drives better, is much more exclusive, has back seats and is produced on such a small scale compared to Porsche that it could never be hoped to compete on price anyway.Yes, you can forgive a specialist car like Evora a few sins - I owned an Esprit for many years and loved it - but it's difficult to get over that price for that car.
What's so frustrating is it's exactly the type of car I want to buy yet falls a very long way short in terms of "what you get for what you're being asked to pay". I don't want a Cayman but if anyone can explain how/why Evora justifies a substantially higher price I'd be interested to know.
Low volume cars are more expensive than high volume cars. If people can't accept that, buy the high volume car.
less than 10,000 miles on it and less than 2 years old. 80 grand? shouldnt happen, im sorry. doesnt happen on a Hyundai, not even a Kia, why should that happen on a 80 grand car? im not knocking the evora or Lotus, I am a DIE HARD Lotus fan, always will be and still want one but I can see where the criticisms come from. Im sure it does drive amazing, thats not the =argument. the argument is NO CAR COSTING 80 GRAND should have those things happening to it. My god, what will happen to it in 3 years and 30K miles?
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