My CFO came into the office today and asked if I could drive him over to the dealership to pick up his Lotus Emira – and being as my Hellcat is still in the shop the only option was to ride with him in his Boxster, and then drive his Boxster back to his place.
Not exactly a hardship.
Now, granted, his Boxster is dramatically underpowered for what I’m used to – it’s about 200hp compared to my Hellcat’s roughly 800 – but it’s a different kind of car. It’s more about cruising around with the top down and enjoying the moment than ripping a launchpad out of the nearest available tarmac…
In the long list of cars I’ve owned, one was a white 1972 Porsche 914 2.0 – which had about 100hp but only weighed a smidge over 2000 pounds. It was a very similar beast to the Boxster, and I had a nice wayback moment when driving the Boxster back to his place.
Anyway, back to the Emira…
He took delivery of his Emira back in August, after waiting like two years for the thing, and last week the first service interval came due. So it’s been in the shop for a week now – not that this phases my CFO much as he has like seven cars.
The Emira had a slew of firmware updates that needed done, and there’s the typical Lotus issues with sticky reverse gear, electrical foibles, and excessive wind noise… The dealership apparently fixed all of the little things under warranty and did the oil/filter change which was only $250.
I know readers might be justifiably alarmed at that cost, but it really isn’t that bad considering what it takes to get the car apart to do it… The Emira isn’t your granddad’s F-150, and it takes a solid 30 minutes just to get the underbody panels off and back on again.
The Hellcat has a similar oil change cost, but for other reasons – such as needing to drain the oil coolers as well as the pan, and the thing holds 7 quarts of oil…
As for the Hellcat – it’s still in the shop.
They did determine the issue was one of the fuel pumps and my extended warranty is covering the cost. Right now they’re waiting for a new Hellcat spec fuel pump to show up, and then they need to do the work – so hopefully I’ll have the car back by the end of the week.
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