No more Lotus/AM Partnership

Edin430 · Post by **Edin430** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:13 pm

A guy called Ian Hardy phoned me today advising me Lotus have left the AM garage and are now based with Suzuki at MMC.......

Post by ed » Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:16 pm

Lotus have had their own showroom for a while. I think they are still both part of the JM Group.

Edin430 · Post by **Edin430** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:42 pm

The person i spoke to was talking about the parts & service centre no longer being part of the AM building....

Ian Hardy.....

gorrie · Post by **gorrie** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:44 pm

AM moved in to the new building (the one that used to be Volvo) quite a while back (ie, before I got mine)... although Lotus still used the same Service Area & Reception.

Are you saying that we now need to go to the Suzuki reception/service area instead of walking over to the Aston bit?

EDITED: Too slow..

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 5:31 pm

Yep, found this out the other week.

When I got my Elise in August 2006, you had to go up to the bit that is now the Rolls Royce showroom for Lotus and Aston Martin Service. Then, they vacated that bit and both Lotus/AM service was taken at the desk in the AM showroom.

Now, we have to go into the Suzuki service desk, within the Suzuki showroom. Your Lotus now appears to be serviced in the same workshop as Suzukis. The AM workshop is just for AM and Rolls Royce.

The two things I want to know are:

1. Was the Lotus service desk (and workshop) forced to move by Aston Martin saying they didn't want to be associated with Lotus, or was it an MMC decision?
2. Have the Lotus-qualified staff moved with the service desk, or have they stayed on to work on AMs and they're now having to train up the Suzuki service staff?

Bill Young is still managing Lotus Service, and he's been helping me out recently. However, I didn't recognise the guy who was working on my car (although he was very friendly and helpful).

I don't mean this disrespectfuly to those who work on Suzuki's, but working on a Lotus is a very specialised job and I just hope that they are all getting official Lotus training. I can only assume so, or they wouldn't be allowed to work on them.

I know this sounds snobbish, but I'm a bit disappointed that we've been "relegated" down to the same bit as "everyday" cars. I always thought Lotus and AM were considered the prestige marques for MMC and that was why they were together. Plus, I always liked drooling over the Astons when I was in!

I just feel as if we're the service area that MMC doesn't want and that we get shunted about to whoever will take us. Why can't they put the Lotus service desk in with the Showroom? There's plenty of room. They can then just take the cars round to wherever the workshop is. Would create a better image for the Lotus brand.

D

Edin430 · Post by **Edin430** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:05 pm

The guy i spoke to said that Lotus and AM had taken a joint decision to move Lotus out of the AM service area etc as they want to concentrate on it being used soley for Astons.....

Said that Bill Young had the option of where to go and chose to stay with Lotus....!

Thats really all i know - guy was nice just phoned to ask about previous orders etc.

Oh and my thoughts exactly Dezzy

Post by **campbell** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:24 pm

For long enough, I think even the Citroen boys probably also worked on our prides and joys.

F1 in Newcastle is probably the nearest place you could be sure of a Lotus-experienced mechanic working on your car, at main dealer level.

More locally of course we have SLS.

Scottd · Post by **Scottd** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:45 pm

Don't quote me but I think Ali said he rarely worked AM's, just Loti... and even 3 years ago I got my parts at the Susuki desk!?!
MMC is a big fat faceless corporation. The 'colouring' may change but it's the same thing throughout it's empire.

Baggy · Post by **Baggy** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:14 pm

Ian Hardie is a nice chap. He was quite helpful and obliging during a slight spat I had with MMC recently.

The elise isn't exactly a rocket ship though........ The move to the suzuki dept could be looked on as hethel finally getting close to jap manufacturer reliability and away from AM/lotus levels..

Scottd · Post by **Scottd** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:30 pm

Baggy wrote:........ The move to the suzuki dept could be looked on as hethel finally getting close to jap manufacturer reliability and away from AM/lotus levels..

OH NO! Really?? Where have Lotus gone wrong!! I blame electric windows.

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:00 am

It's all just organisational - the space is used in different ways over time.

In fact we've just gone full circle from my perspective (I bought my first elise in the current suzuki showroom and the cars were serviced in the workshop behind the suzuki showroom).

Your car will be worked on by the same people it always is ... when Ali left, they were training up one of the Suzuki fitters to replace him.

Personally I think it would make sense to have the service reception in the showroom next to all the new cars, but they tried that for a couple of years and it obviously didn't work for them.

Cheers,
Robin

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:01 pm

robin wrote: Your car will be worked on by the same people it always is ... when Ali left, they were training up one of the Suzuki fitters to replace him.

Wonder if it's the guy Alan who has been working on my car. Very helpful, friendly chap.

D

mac · Post by **mac** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:13 pm

When we bought the car Lotus shared their current area with AM and Pauline sat behind a desk in the middle of the show room.

I think I've been to almost every desk in the place for parts at one time or another!!

Mac

DJ · Post by DJ » Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:24 pm

Just sent the wife into MMC at lunchtime to pick up some stuff, warning her she will likely have to go to the Suzuki garage. But no, she was directed to AM again as per last time â€¦

Edin430 · Post by **Edin430** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:34 pm

THINK you still have to pick up your parts from the AM service area....

Everything else - Suzuki...