Lotus Emira | PH Used Buying Guide

• Available for £58,000
• 3.5-litre V6 supercharged petrol, rear-wheel drive
• Performance not quite as spectacular as the looks
• Probably the easiest sports Lotus to run as a daily
• Quite a few issues, fortunately not Usually Serious
• More ‘special’ than a Cayman? You decide 

Announced in 2022 as the last Lotus to be powered by a petrol engine, the Emira V6 was also Lotus’s first new model since its takeover by the Chinese concern Geely in 2017.  As per the Lotus playbook of recent times, the Emira was built around a bonded aluminium chassis. An Emira i4 with a substantially downtuned 360hp (down from 421hp) version of the AMG A45 S 2.0-litre four and an 8-speed twin-clutch gearbox was launched a little after the V6, but this guide will concentrate on the 395hp supercharged 3.5-litre V6. 

On-sale Emira prices ended up being substantially higher than the sub-£70k figure that was originally being talked about, but by the time the first press cars were being tested on British roads in 2022 Lotus reckoned they had two years’ worth of orders in the bag so it didn’t matter. Well, not to them anyway. 

Normally we’d spend a bit more time on this overview but there’s a lot to cover in the other individual sections so we’re going to cut to the chase a bit. We’ll just mention that as we were going to press with this guide in March 2025 Lotus had just announced a revamp of the Emira lineup to include a new 2.0 Turbo SE with 400hp and 354lb ft and an enhanced level of equipment. As far as we can see the only changes for the V6 were the introduction of black ‘technical’ fabric for the headlining and other interior trim pieces and new branding to signal the end of the ‘First Edition’, ahem. 

Prices for these new 2025 Emiras were being quoted in euros, the sterling equivalents (according to Google anyway, rather than Lotus) being £91,700 for the Turbo SE and £94,200 for the V6. You can read more about it here. 

At the time of writing low- or delivery-mileage used V6s were running at around £90,000, but you could chip over £30,000 off that by going for a 4-6,000 mile example from 2022 or 2023. Admirably, Lotus has succeeded in selling 10,000 Emiras so getting one on your drive has changed from a long wait for a new one to a buyer’s market in the used sector.

Today there’s a veritable gaggle of sub-£60k cars to pick from. You can more or less have your favourite colour and spec in the same way that a new buyer could. It looks like dealers are resisting the urge to knock much off their initial asking prices, but how much longer they’ll be able to do that now there’s a new (sort of) model available is anyone’s guess.

Engine: 3,456cc V6 24v supercharged petrol
Transmission: 6-speed manual or 6-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 395@rpm
Torque (lb ft): 310@rpm
0-62mph (secs): 4.3 (man), 4.7 (auto)
Top speed (mph): 180
Weight (kg): 1,458 
MPG (official combined): 25
Wheels (in): 20
Tyres: 245/35 (f), 295/30 (r)
On sale: 2022 – now
Price new: £89,895 (man), £91,695 (auto)
Price now: from £58,000

Note for reference: kerbweight and power data is hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.

It’s surely fair to say that not many of the bought-in drivetrains Lotus has been obliged to use over the years have added much lustre to the overall packages that have gone on sale to the general public. 

Some say that tradition was continued with the Emira V6, which was powered by a transverse supercharged 395hp 3.5-litre Toyota unit. Taken in isolation, that last phrase sounds pretty exciting, but the chain-timed 60-degree 2GR-FE that we’re talking about here (and that had already been used in Evoras and Exiges) had been knocking around since the mid-’00s. 

In the Emira it sounded great on ignition and suitably snarly on revups, but the size of the engine precluded big revs. Power dropped away quite markedly after 6,000rpm. As you’d expect from a supercharged V6, there was good low- and medium-rpm thrunge, but it had a ‘soft’ long-geared feel about it that was kind of normal in old-school larger-capacity Japanese engines. For serious progress, you had to use the gearbox more than you might have thought you were going to. That wasn’t the most rewarding process in the V6 as the shift action was not as snickety as (say) a Porsche’s. You could see the linkage through a metal lattice, which was fun, and the anodised aluminium knob felt great in the hand, but the action could be meaty sometimes verging on baulky, especially on downshifts from third to second or when attempting to get reverse. One Dallas-based owner reported his shifter freezing solid for five minutes in sub-zero temperatures. 

‘Gearbox grumble’ was a known and accepted thing on Evoras, and it also appears to be an Emira characteristic on some cars. You could have your Emira with a torque converter automatic gearbox, which despite everyone telling you otherwise might be seen as a fair choice in this case, and not only if you were unlucky enough to find manual gearchanging difficult through disability (say). 

Lotus doesn’t seem to do recalls as such. They prefer to call them ‘manufacturer communications’. There was a ‘manufacturer communication’ about loss of drive, oil leaks from the transmission driveshaft seals and transmission noise while driving the V6. These issues were put down to the driveshafts not having been fully locked into position during assembly. There was another recall (or whatever you want to call it) for the central powertrain controller (CPC module) after software updates didn’t seem to ‘stick’ as they were supposed to, leaving the module in a partially programmed, ie unusable, state. 

At least one V6 has had oil leaking from both ends of the line running from the oil filter housing to the oil cooler. All that said, the V6 has plenty of personality and according to PHer Timbo_S2 who lives a mile away from the Lotus plant at Hethel it sounds brilliant when blasting down the road, which is what they do around there. 

Once again in these guides we have to warn you of the need to keep the battery up to scratch if you don’t want to run the risk of random electrical quirks. Some owners found that they could only listen to the audio system for a couple of minutes with the engine off before a ‘low battery auto shutdown’ message came on. Early Emiras in particular seemed to suffer more from this weak battery thing. Lithium replacements are available. They’re expensive but they seem to be more reliable and they are a hell of a lot lighter than the standard item. 

A ‘limited telematics’ warning was a different matter as that had its own discrete battery that was only charged up by driving and not by a trickle charger (although we believe you could work around that by putting the car into ignition mode II and turning off all non-essential electrical components with the trickle connected). A software update seemed to help. 

As noted earlier the Emira was built on a bonded aluminium chassis that was closely related to the Evora’s. Its wheelbase was the same as the Evora’s but overall it was bigger in every way than the earlier car. The double-wishbone front and rear passive suspension system could be had in a choice of two set-ups: Sport, with slightly stiffer damper and spring rates, or the softer Tour. Both came with a limited-slip diff as standard. There was no need to worry about finding the right suspension setting from a million possible options as Lotus had already done that for you. 

The result of their efforts was an intensely rewarding driving experience. The 1.4-tonne V6 was more than 300kg heavier than the Alpine A110, so it didn’t feel quite as feathery and delicate as the French car through a given series of bends, but it made up for that with its composure, grip and security over broken surfaces. The ride quality improved the faster you went. The steering assistance was hydraulic rather than electronic and the feel at the wheel was not far short of perfect, combining pleasing weightiness with natural load-up through corners and a flow of detailed information through the Alcantara or leather-wrapped wheel. Some power steering pumps have leaked though. 

Braking was by steel discs, 370mm at the front and 350mm at the back (bigger in both cases than the Cayman GTS’s), with four-piston calipers at each end. New buyers could choose between road-biased GoodYear Eagle F1 tyres or track-biased Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s. Problems with the tyre pressure monitoring system were attributed to too much water-based lubricant being used to fit the tyre valves to the wheels during the wheel assembly procedure. A new cleanup operation was added to the Emira’s service schedule sheets when it emerged that dirt and road debris could accumulate around the wheel speed sensors, throwing up warnings. 

General creaking noises when manoeuvring at low speed were traced back to the undertray moving relative to the chassis. That was fixed by putting in additional rivets. Front-end scrapey noises were put down to movement between the contact areas of the front damper spring seats and the road springs. Spring isolators that were already fitted to the upper spring seats ex-works were thereafter fitted to the base of the front road springs as well. 

The styling of the Emira’s composite body panels gave it a genuine sense of exoticism. Though there were some who considered it boring, most thought it looked stunning, especially in strong primary colours. Anyone with a vague notion of car prices in the 2020s who was looking at it for the first time would almost certainly assume it cost a lot more than £90k.

Although the Emira was a coupé, Lotus didn’t repeat the Evora mistake of trying to squeeze two additional seats behind the front ones. That decision plus relatively wide door openings helped to make the Emira easier to climb in and out of than the Evora but the sizeable sills still required some fancy legwork. 

The vents at the front of the car and on the bonnet were all functional, as were the rear diffuser and twin exhausts. It shouldn’t really be necessary to say this type of thing about a car but it’s amazing how much stuff is faked these days. 

Some cars suffered from paint bubbling/blistering, which it’s thought was due to moisture getting in through the back of the panels. Some cars were delivered with no paint on the underside of the front bumper. A Black Pack changed the colour of the roof to er black.

Some Emira windows have let water in. Others have dropped down to the halfway point after the owner had tried to close them. Lotus clearly knew that might be a thing as the handbook gave you a procedure to get around it. The book also told you that you couldn’t open the windows at speeds of over 112mph. Some door mirrors have failed to retract. 

Some cars have had a rattle that seemed to be coming from the headliner at the top corner of the windscreen. Others have had the alarm going off either randomly or 2.5 minutes after locking the car with the fob. Water ingress has led to at least one car having to be stripped down and rewired. The headlights though, were excellent.

Emiras were more ‘normal’ than Lotuses of the past in handy areas like practicality, space and comfort. The cabin materials seemed to be very good quality, well chosen and nicely put together. It smelled expensive. Emiras also came with most of the neat stuff that owners of non-specialist cars had been enjoying for a while before, things like keyless start, adaptive cruise, road sign recognition and rear cross-traffic alert.  

Some testers didn’t think much of the support offered by the four-way nappa leather seats (12-ways were optional) or the height they put you at, but others were quite happy about it because the seat height combined with the low dash line provided very good forward visibility. There were no Isofix points on the passenger seat though, which could be a putoff for buyers who might have wanted to blood their young ‘uns into cars at an early age. Seat side panels gained a reputation for detaching, sometimes after the dealer had had it off to fix broken seat electrics, but sometimes just for the hell of it. The plastic bracket tasked with the job of keeping it in place was only 3mm long. 

Owners who had previously had Boxsters and who liked a laid-back driving position preferred the Lotus because its greater front-to-rear cabin length permitted a larger recline. Those who had owned Evoras liked the fact that the Emira’s driving position, though still offset, was somewhat less offset than the older car’s. The Emira’s steering wheel was widely adjustable for both rake and angle and the extra lateral cabin space compared to the Elise (which was 18cm narrower) meant a welcome reduction in the amount of passenger elbow interaction for those whose Lotus experience was in the company’s smaller cars. 

The model-unique 10.3-inch central infotainment display provided plenty of data that would be useful, or fun at least, on a track, including a lap timer. The screen res was sharp but the operation wasn’t always likewise. On top of some lag you might have trouble keeping Apple CarPlay alive. Android Auto was also wirelessly built in, if that isn’t a tautology, with a full widescreen display. Sat nav and audio problems have been resolved by software updates. 

Lotus managed to keep the audio, heating and ventilation controls separate from the screens, hallelujah etc, but a ‘recall’ had to be done to fit a shield to the HVAC when it appeared that some resistors were failing due to water ingress. We’re not sure if that was just for the 2.0 cars or for all Emiras. In addition, work on the climate control module has been carried out by Lotus dealers. The 12-inch instrumentation pack ahead of the driver didn’t offer much in the way of twiddleability, but some quite liked that and the payback for the driver was easy assimilation of the important information. It was a bit too easy to nudge the touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel, however. 

There was a fair bit of road and engine noise coming through the body, but the Emira wasn’t alone in its class for that. The standard 7-speaker audio had enough power to get on top of it, and you could upgrade it to a 10-speaker KEF system although we haven’t seen a lot of love for that. More than a few owners have noticed a popping noise coming intermittently from the subwoofer area. Nobody seems quite sure what that might be. 

Cabin storage opportunities included good-sized carpeted door pockets, two big cupholders, a proper glovebox, a deep cubby between the seats and a 211-litre space behind them to complement the 151-litre boot between the engine and the rear bumper. Best not to use that to carry ice cream. Sadly, Lotus wasn’t able to engineer a front boot into the Emira, which is why Porsche’s Cayman provided 60 litres more luggage space overall. 

Returning to the quality thing for a minute, the black plastic Lotus chose for trim pieces like the cupholder surrounds was not very scratch-resistant. There was an issue with the air conditioning as well apparently but ironically the Emira forum conked out when it was trying to provide us with some enlightenment on that.  

Lotus got their excuses in early with the first journos to test the Emira, beseeching them to take a kindly view of any quality issues they might find with what they described as prototypes. 

It seemed in the early days at least they needn’t have worried. The bar hadn’t been set all that high by the dynamically excellent but slightly shonky Evora, and when new the Emira easily bested it in all the key quality areas. It also more than lived up to the positive Lotus stereotypes of excellent handling and steering and added extra sheen to some more recently acquired marque attributes like cabin poshness and a ride that was compliant bordering on plush. It was entirely daily-able. 

Unfortunately time and experience have taken their toll. You’ll have noticed from this guide that there have been quite a few complaints about the Emira. For space reasons we stopped at page three of the ‘problems and issues’ section of the main Emira forum. There were another 13 pages after that. In the Emira’s defence, it’s worth remembering the number of cars sold versus the number of complaints, and the old adage that the vociferousness of complaints generally increases in line with a car’s price, but the tales of woe are still regrettable not to say surprising given the fact that Lotus is now part of a huge car company.

Looking past all that, ‘a sports car in search of an engine’ would be a reasonable summation of the Emira V6. The Toyota 2GR-FE drivetrain did hold the car back a bit. In terms of 0-62mph acceleration and top speed there was very little between the V6 and the AMG 2.0 four-powered i4 model. The four has had its own share of problems though. What was good about the V6 was that it had its own distinctive voice and it gave you the option of a manual gearbox, even if it wasn’t the best manual on the market by a long chalk. 

The Emira V6’s price did go up from the initial headline figure of around £75k, but even at £90k or so it looked like good value if you bought into its description as a cut-price Ferrari F8 Tributo or 488 Pista. If you compare it to a Cayman GTS 4.0 starting at £75k in 2025 it’s harder to make the dynamic or quality arguments stick, but it would be all too easy to add £10k-£20k to the Porsche’s price for uprated seats, audio and the like, whereas everything was standard on the Emira. And is the Porsche as ‘special’ as the Lotus? Only you will know the answer to that one. 

Looking at the Emira as a GT car that was seriously overqualified on the handling front rather than a sports car that didn’t feel explosively quick helped you to make a bit more sense out of it. If you wanted it to be more sportlicher you could spend around £7k on a Komatec 475 upgrade which by all accounts knocked any mechanical misgivings you might have right out of the park.  

If you think that the Emira’s bad days should all be behind it by now and that you’d definitely like to have one, what sort of money are you likely to be paying for the privilege in the UK? One PHer managed to snaffle a two-year-old Emira V6 for under £55k, but the normal starting price in Spring 2025 will be around £58k. That will almost always be from a dealer. Private cars are rare. 

Of the 44 Emiras for sale on PH Classifieds at the time of writing only five were 2.0s. The most affordable V6 on there was this 4,000 mile 2023 car in Hethel Yellow – a very popular colour choice – at £57,895. Seneca Blue was another popular pick for these. Here’s an 8,000-mile 2023 car in that colour at £57,950. Only two of the V6s on PH Classifieds were automatics. This 2023 car with 2,000 miles was the cheapest at £67,500.