I collected my 2005 Exige 240R on Saturday 14th June. Driving back home the Air Conditioning packed up, which isn't great when we are experiencing nice summer weather - like 30 degrees celsius.
On Monday 16th, I drove it to 'Caffeine and Machine - The Hut', and managed to back the car into a hedge (didn't realize anything at the time) and scratched the rear paintwork. I wasn't impressed with 'The Hut' - in the outdoors area I was getting seriously bothered by flying insects, maybe because I had a yellow shirt on. I should give it another chance as I notice they do English breakfast.
They say bad things come in three. Third disaster was my car cover melted in the sun (on 19th June.)
After just 10 days of ownership, on Tuesday 24 June, I returned the car to Hofmanns to get the AC fixed. Alas, it was not a simple 2-hour AC service, was not a simple re-gassing, something else was wrong. They diagnosed a faulty AC relay and ordered a replacement part. And now we are stuck waiting on Lotus. They ordered the part on the 26th of June, and it is now 7th of July and no sign of the part.
The biggest problem with Lotus and why people get burnt and never come back to the brand, has to be their shoddy parts supply. The cars are great until something bespoke to Lotus breaks (if it's a Toyota part, no problem) and then you have to wait for your part, which can take a long time, or maybe you never get your part. Very sad really. Strangely, with all the Lotus cars I've owned, I've never experienced this issue with parts before (I've been lucky), but it does help me understand why some people will never touch Lotus. With Porsche there is plentiful spare parts supply. This is my oldest Lotus yet, so perhaps this experience was to be expected at some point, but so soon into my ownership of this car, is disappointing.
Sometimes cars which have a bad start to the new-owner-experience, turn out to be great long term cars (like my Cat N Audi A3 which I've now had nearly 3 years) possibly because all that initial pain puts you off changing car ever again. I can see this being the case with my Exige S2. If the part to fix the AC takes too long, I'll never touch Lotus again, and avoid old cars too (say older than 10 years at time of purchase) - honestly, this has to be my last ever sportscar, I'm reaching a point in life, nearly 50, where I'm thinking I want to retire early, live a modest and affordable life doing all those interesting things I said I'd do and never had time to do, whilst I still have my health, and I can always go back to work in my sixties if I need to.
A few photos (I've yet to take a decent photo of my Exige S2 ...).
June 14th started off with a nice English breakfast by the Thames (Bistro at the Boathouse):
My replacement car mats fit well:
2nd disaster, my argument with a hedge:
3rd disaster, a melted car cover (the vendor replaced my car cover with a one-off special edition reflective one - military grade fabric - very good service) the damage must have been caused by reflected light off something(s) outside my house:
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