Having purchased my new 2004 Exige here in Australia
I�m interested to know if you guys in the UK have any problems with build quality
My Car has the following problems
Loud squeaking from left side of car, roof area
Loud knocking from left side car, seems to come from left hand front speaker area
Drivers seat loose on its rails, rocks back and forth under braking and acceleration
Engine wants to stall under braking in traffic
The dealer has been unable to fix any of the above when reported at first service
Major blemishes on paint job (chrome Orange) has several dimples in Fibre glass that have been painted over.
Different colour paint line that runs down from just behind the fuel filler cap and across the flat above the rear wheel arch
Looks like they ran out of paint at that point and had to rub back and continue on at a later date.
Only noticeable from certain angles under good light
I love the style and performance of this car, but feel the build quality
Should be a lot better
Am I being overly picky, the car cost me a lot of dosh down here
$97,734 base price
+$10,831 Luxury Car Tax
+$ 4,875 Stamp Duty
+$ 2,689 Extreme Paint
+$ 2,450 Dealer Charge
+$ 1,793 T45 Roll Bar
+$ 500 Registration
Loud squeaking from left side of car, roof area.
Yes I had this, dealer fixed. As Pesky says removing and refitting could be the answer and maybe a thin wipe of silicon grease on the rubbers.
Loud knocking from left side car, seems to come from left hand front speaker area.
Maybe the brake pads rattling?? Quick check on the move press the brake pedal, does it stop? if it does you could try a bit more bend in the spring plate (is that what it’s called?) between the pads.
Engine wants to stall under braking in traffic.
Yep, had this. Again as Pesky says there is an official upgrade for ecu and throttle bodies.
Major blemishes on paint job (chrome Orange) has several dimples in Fibre glass that have been painted over.
I have a few but I would not say major. The clams are hand layed (think I read that on another post) so I wouldn’t expect everyone to be perfect. Anyway after a couple of thousand miles you’ll have a whole lot more dimples in the fibre glass or is the posh word glass composite
Thanks for that Mr Pesky, I’ve read a lot of your posts, always entertaining.
The marginal paint job I can live with, but the drivers seat is a pain in the butt, literally
Like sitting in a dam rocking chair
Hit a fricken dog with the car last week, done a fair bit of damage to the front, $1000 insurance excess as well
Car only 12 weeks old
Not having a good run
For something as simple as the seat, you surely could take it apart and see what’s wrong?
I mean, there’s not much down there that can go wrong, something might just be badly assembled together.
Drivers seat loose on its rails, rocks back and forth under braking and acceleration
Major blemishes on paint job (chrome Orange) has several dimples in Fibre glass that have been painted over.
Different colour paint line that runs down from just behind the fuel filler cap and across the flat above the rear wheel arch
I had the seat rail problem - it was particularly bad on the setting I used but much better on a click each way. it was only solved by having a new set of rails fitted. it seemed to be as a result of poor tolerance on the rail and so there was no other answer.
i also had a problem with the paint job - new aluminium - this was recognised by the Lotus service engineer and i got a respray. i waited for the car to be 12 months old before getting it resprayed and I got all the stone chips, etc covered up for free!
Good luck, stand your ground and get all the issues fixed to your satisfaction.
If only you Aussies didn’t have such barriers to free trade your cars would be so much cheaper - not everyone wants to drive a Holden ute!
Sounds like you hit the nail on the head stevegreen
The Dealer pulled the Drivers seat and couldn�t fix the problem
feels like bad rails to me
My second car is a Holden Jackeroo
Even the Holden Monaro cops the luxury tax here in Oz
Luxury tax is based on price of the car regardless of where it comes from
We just have a greedy Gov