Discussion
Hi,
My 2002 S2 Elise is showing signes of paint flaking at the top left and right edges of the bottom rear panel. It looks like the fibre glass is flaking taking the paint with it.
Anyone else had similar problems, and does anyone know the paint wattanty ?
Also how are Horizon motorsport ? They seem a lot cheaper than my other 'local' dealer.
Cheers
David
My 2002 S2 Elise is showing signes of paint flaking at the top left and right edges of the bottom rear panel. It looks like the fibre glass is flaking taking the paint with it.
Anyone else had similar problems, and does anyone know the paint wattanty ?
Also how are Horizon motorsport ? They seem a lot cheaper than my other 'local' dealer.
Cheers
David
The lotus approach to paint issues is "there are no paint issues" and if you have a problem with paint, it is your problem. I spent £600 having the paint sorted this year and the salesman who sold me the car was so angry that I had to do that he is personally chasing Lotus for some sort of re numeration.
I had a small patch of bubbling on the front of the clam which was so obviously covered at the factory, after about 4 waxes the "filler" paint they had gone over the bubbling with had come away.
It didn't matter so much because the rest of the paint was so crummy that within a few months it was indistinguishable from the stone chips.
I had a small patch of bubbling on the front of the clam which was so obviously covered at the factory, after about 4 waxes the "filler" paint they had gone over the bubbling with had come away.
It didn't matter so much because the rest of the paint was so crummy that within a few months it was indistinguishable from the stone chips.
gooby said:
The lotus approach to paint issues is "there are no paint issues" and if you have a problem with paint, it is your problem. I spent £600 having the paint sorted this year and the salesman who sold me the car was so angry that I had to do that he is personally chasing Lotus for some sort of re numeration.
I had a small patch of bubbling on the front of the clam which was so obviously covered at the factory, after about 4 waxes the "filler" paint they had gone over the bubbling with had come away.
It didn't matter so much because the rest of the paint was so crummy that within a few months it was indistinguishable from the stone chips.
I'm just checking with a couple of dealers to see what the official story regaridng the paint warranty is. I thought it was 5 years but 1 dealer says 2 years, while another is checking it out. Will post the reply !
My experiance with Lotus waranty is dodgy as bast. I fell out with them over vibrating front brakes ( they all do that Sir ) which took 3 visits to the dealer before they were refused, and have ended up contributing 50-50 to a number of stupid problems which really should not have gone wrong on my S1 and then my S2 car.
The S2 currently has broken Air Con and the heater will only blow into the footwell. It's already had new heater elements but I can't face asking about the repair!
The S2 currently has broken Air Con and the heater will only blow into the footwell. It's already had new heater elements but I can't face asking about the repair!
My dealer has been superb, where the Lotus warentee has let me down, Westover have taken up the slack and faught my corner. From that point of view I have no complaints and I am sure they will sort out my paint issue in time.
Worthy of note it will be Westover sorting this and fighting thier way through the Lotus bull.
Worthy of note it will be Westover sorting this and fighting thier way through the Lotus bull.
Lotus Field engineers are told that if the paint can be pick off with a thumb nail there is a problem, if they cant, there isnt.
My car had horrendous stone chips, took to Westovers who were very helpful, but admitted that until a Field Engineer had inspected it there was nothing more they could do. 6 weeks later, I got a phone call from a fellow BoLOC, who informed me that the engineer was turning up the following day. So a quick phone call to Westovers and it was booked in.
Engineer took a look at car and asked for milage, didnt fall for that one and asked how many he thought it had donoe given the amount of paint damage, he guessed 9-10K miles, thankfully it was only 4K miles, which made him think. He then started to pick off the paint to no avail, until he got to one area, where it virtually fell off. Hence he agreed for the front part of the front clam to be resprayed and blended in with the rest of the Clam.
This is where Wesovers really came into their own, they insisted onthe whole clam being done, which after 3 weeks of arguing with Lotus was agreed to
My car had horrendous stone chips, took to Westovers who were very helpful, but admitted that until a Field Engineer had inspected it there was nothing more they could do. 6 weeks later, I got a phone call from a fellow BoLOC, who informed me that the engineer was turning up the following day. So a quick phone call to Westovers and it was booked in.
Engineer took a look at car and asked for milage, didnt fall for that one and asked how many he thought it had donoe given the amount of paint damage, he guessed 9-10K miles, thankfully it was only 4K miles, which made him think. He then started to pick off the paint to no avail, until he got to one area, where it virtually fell off. Hence he agreed for the front part of the front clam to be resprayed and blended in with the rest of the Clam.
This is where Wesovers really came into their own, they insisted onthe whole clam being done, which after 3 weeks of arguing with Lotus was agreed to
jke11y said:
My car has spidery cracks on two points on the rear clam. Anyone any experience of these? They look kind of like what happens if you got a stonechip crack in a windscreen.
It's usually where the clam has had an impact of some sort yes, and the gel coat is cracking.
I spoke to a guy tonight who's a fibreglass specialist and he was discussing how poor a lot of places are when it comes to a) fibreglass repairs and b) painting them properly. Was very interesting to hear.
As boggy said, the paint flake issue seems to be on cars after they changed to paint forumla to water-based.
The fact that Lotus don't sort these things out and actually don't think about whether or not maybe to investigate a better alternative straight from the factory is yet another point about the company where I think they really let themselves down. Can you imagine a Porka with similar issues?
Lotus are sadly a bit poor when it comes to warranty work. I had to fight tooth and nail when my steering rack failed. They quibbled over every detail and this with a customer who had bought 3 new Elises from them in 5 years and was looking to PX his 111S for a 111R. On the subject of paint - it was rubbish on my 2001/Y S2 Racetech but fine on the 2002/52 111S.
Lotus really need to learn a thing or two about customer service. What did the steering rack cost them? Not as much as the profit on a new car. Not saying I'd never buy another, far from it but I've a Cayman S in the garage now.
Lotus really need to learn a thing or two about customer service. What did the steering rack cost them? Not as much as the profit on a new car. Not saying I'd never buy another, far from it but I've a Cayman S in the garage now.
xxplod said:
Lotus really need to learn a thing or two about customer service. What did the steering rack cost them? Not as much as the profit on a new car. Not saying I'd never buy another, far from it but I've a Cayman S in the garage now.
Good point. With a entry level elise now around £28k, it's a lot of money to pay for a car with these sorts of issues.
Any whispers on a cheaper entry level model ?
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