Lotus Evora 400
Discussion
I collected my 2016 Lotus Evora 400 last Friday. I changed from my Jaguar XK-RS which I had for approaching 3 years and 40,000 miles. The XK ran faultlessly in all that time with my only real expenditure being the required servicing. If the Evora is half as good then I'll be very happy.
I sold the RS privately with surprisingly little hassle. First person who came to view bought the car at the full advertised price.
After washing and waxing the Lotus (I find that this is the best way for me at least to find any little issues on the exterior) well, not much to report. Lower parts of the car have had PPF applied, I assume from new, and it appears to have done it's job as intended. The car has covered 21,000 miles and it is pretty much faultless inside and out. The only minor issues I have found are a couple of what appear to be bubbles in the PPF on the drivers door sill in the shut gap and a couple of chips to the paint on one of the alloys. The only issue with the interior is the leather of the drivers seat bolster is coming away from the seat frame. Looks like the seats are based on the Sparco SPX seat so after a bit of digging it appears that this is a common issue and has been resolved by Lotus by providing clips which help to secure the leather to the frame. A quick call to Lotus Silverstone and it's all booked in to be done second week Feb. I could probably have tackled it my self but it's a seat out fix and Lotus will do it for £85 + 45p for the clips.
First impressions - well, it's not as refined as the RS and with a lot less weight it feels a little skittish when compared to the Jag. I quite like the interior, nice a clean and clear, modern enough and appears quite well built. Connecting the phone for calls and music to the Alpine unit was very easy, Have to say the stereo is terrible though especially coming from the B&W in the Jag, Getting out is a bit of a faf at present too. Where I need the seat to be in order to reach the peddles it appears to be too far forward for my arms
Think I need to play around a bit more with the positioning.
Makes a fabulous sound on the road, especially in Sport mode. It's does like to be revved however as it doesn't seem to really open it's vocal chords until after 4000rpm. Quite a change from the Jag. Oh and it's my first manual for quite some time, last one was a Cayman back in 2007 ish. Lovely shift action though, really "snickety" when running through the gears.
Here's a couple of freshly cleaned photo's. Garage still need sorting out!
I sold the RS privately with surprisingly little hassle. First person who came to view bought the car at the full advertised price.
After washing and waxing the Lotus (I find that this is the best way for me at least to find any little issues on the exterior) well, not much to report. Lower parts of the car have had PPF applied, I assume from new, and it appears to have done it's job as intended. The car has covered 21,000 miles and it is pretty much faultless inside and out. The only minor issues I have found are a couple of what appear to be bubbles in the PPF on the drivers door sill in the shut gap and a couple of chips to the paint on one of the alloys. The only issue with the interior is the leather of the drivers seat bolster is coming away from the seat frame. Looks like the seats are based on the Sparco SPX seat so after a bit of digging it appears that this is a common issue and has been resolved by Lotus by providing clips which help to secure the leather to the frame. A quick call to Lotus Silverstone and it's all booked in to be done second week Feb. I could probably have tackled it my self but it's a seat out fix and Lotus will do it for £85 + 45p for the clips.
First impressions - well, it's not as refined as the RS and with a lot less weight it feels a little skittish when compared to the Jag. I quite like the interior, nice a clean and clear, modern enough and appears quite well built. Connecting the phone for calls and music to the Alpine unit was very easy, Have to say the stereo is terrible though especially coming from the B&W in the Jag, Getting out is a bit of a faf at present too. Where I need the seat to be in order to reach the peddles it appears to be too far forward for my arms
Think I need to play around a bit more with the positioning.Makes a fabulous sound on the road, especially in Sport mode. It's does like to be revved however as it doesn't seem to really open it's vocal chords until after 4000rpm. Quite a change from the Jag. Oh and it's my first manual for quite some time, last one was a Cayman back in 2007 ish. Lovely shift action though, really "snickety" when running through the gears.
Here's a couple of freshly cleaned photo's. Garage still need sorting out!
Edited by ziggy328 on Thursday 27th January 07:35
Edited by ziggy328 on Thursday 27th January 07:36
unpc said:
Looks lovely but I would say that being a fellow Evora owner with a red interior. I've always fancied an XK-RS too having had an XKR back in the day. Great cars.
The stereo in mine is truly woeful too and the subwoofer has never worked. An easy thing to upgrade however.
Thank you. The RS was and is a fabulous car. If I could have kept it I would have. Pretty sure it's gone to a good home though. When the chap collected it and drove off with his 12 year old in the passenger seat the looks on both of their faces was priceless. The lads mother following behind not so much!The stereo in mine is truly woeful too and the subwoofer has never worked. An easy thing to upgrade however.
Did you upgrade your stereo? If so could I ask what you did?
CABC said:
interesting op...
can I ask why you chose the Evora? what are you expecting from it? different cars give different petrolhead fixes, nothing right or wrong just different.
lovely colour combo btw
I didn't really want to get our of the RS but I'd put 40,000 miles on it so decided to move it on before it became a bit of a high miler! So I started looking at all sorts of alternatives. It pretty much cam down to me wanting something a little bit different and for driving the car to be an event and Lotus seemed to fit the bill. I tried the Exige first but it was simply too basic - I knew after the initial period the Exige would get tiresome very quickly. Then up popped the Evora. Had a test drive and I couldn't believe just how much more refined it was vs the Exige. It's really is pretty comfortable for what it is. can I ask why you chose the Evora? what are you expecting from it? different cars give different petrolhead fixes, nothing right or wrong just different.
lovely colour combo btw
Not sure what will happen to residuals with the Emira coming out but hey ho.
OP, if you haven't come across this already, it's worth having a look to see if the stereo sounds better having followed the instructions...
https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/80176-...
How are you finding the transmission noise? I test drove several manual 400s from 2016 and they all - to a vary degree - had a chunter and whine that I thought would be too annoying in the long run (esp in-gear decelerating about 2k rpm). There were some design changes in the MY2017 which I think added extra lining to quieten the vibrations. In the end, I bought a 2016 auto and love it.
https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/80176-...
How are you finding the transmission noise? I test drove several manual 400s from 2016 and they all - to a vary degree - had a chunter and whine that I thought would be too annoying in the long run (esp in-gear decelerating about 2k rpm). There were some design changes in the MY2017 which I think added extra lining to quieten the vibrations. In the end, I bought a 2016 auto and love it.
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