Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Dave, Posted this morning. Will pm you with contact details. Hope it suits

Wouldn't the Elan factory or an Aussie Lotus dealer be able to order you one?

elanfan1 wrote:Wouldn't the Elan factory or an Aussie Lotus dealer be able to order you one?

Hi Steve,
No, not really, much easier dealing direct with overseas suppliers.
Very rarely purchase from Australia it is generally just too hard and often far more expensive on most items plus the suppliers never have stock and you have to wait until they are ready to place their orders.

This badge thing is a bit of an unusual purchase though they are incredibly expensive for what they are especially when you include conversion rate and the postage to Australia.
Geoffers71 has ever so kindly helped me out with a spare one of his and has already posted it to me at a cost of three pound and 30 p. Which is what shipping should be.

eg.Purchased the S4 badge from the US at $28 usd was also charged $23 shipping for something that weighed next to nothing, Total $51 usd / $68aud so I was less than happy when I realised it didn't come with the plinth.
Another 20 quid plus postage and exchange so it probably would have worked out to another $60 aud. That would have meant that to put a piddly little S4 badge on my car would owe me approx $130 aud. Ludicrous.
Hope this gives you some idea what it is like to own foreign classic cars here in Australia.

Best Regards
Dave

PS As for the Lotus Distributors here these days they would not have any idea what an Elan is. Only interested in the new stuff

I have parts shipped from overseas to New Zealand quite regularly. I find shipping costs from the US to be extremely expensive and I don't know how his is justified. In contrast, I have used SJSportscars in the UK a number of times and their shipping costs are much more reasonable, and is done on a weight basis. They give an estimate of shipping costs when you put your order together, and I keep adding items to get to the maximum weight within a price bracket to optimise the cost to shipping ratio

skelteanema wrote:I have parts shipped from overseas to New Zealand quite regularly. I find shipping costs from the US to be extremely expensive and I don't know how his is justified. In contrast, I have used SJSportscars in the UK a number of times and their shipping costs are much more reasonable, and is done on a weight basis. They give an estimate of shipping costs when you put your order together, and I keep adding items to get to the maximum weight within a price bracket to optimise the cost to shipping ratio

Thanks for your input and info and agree with everything you say.
The US used to be reasonable but of recent years the rates have gone nuts.

If you guys hadn't have said that I would have still thought that there were cheap hassle free transport arrangements between the USA and Aus/NZ.

I buy some parts for my American Maytag washer and driers from various sellers in the states, a hell of a lot of them only sell in the USA, OK I get that, they dont really need to bother with the rest of the world, but many only sell within the States and to Aus/NZ, not europe or any other countries so I wrongly deduced that it was to do with transport and import charges.

Its probably no more than that they may have sold a lot of washers and driers in your countries, certainly Australian guests staying at my apparth?tel recognise the machines whereas they are very thin on the ground in Europe.

As a complete aside I love watching an Australian TV show called Classic Restos presented by a guy called Fletch, a great programme presented by a seemingly warm hearted enthusiast.

Geoffers71 wrote:Dave, Posted this morning. Will pm you with contact details. Hope it suits

Hi Geoff,
Sent you a PM but doesn't seem to have taken..
So I will thank you publicly through the forum.
Probably the right thing to do anyway
Parcel arrived Thursday afternoon .
I was in hospital receiving a knee replacement on Wednesday and arrived home yesterday so I'm still a bit slow on it.
However your forum spirit should be recognised and I do so here
Thank you Geoff.
The plinth will do the job nicely when turned upside down and will add that Bling that has been missing ever since purchasing the car..
All the best Geoff.
Dave

Dave, Thanks for your thanks, but I did nothing that others on this forum wouldnt do and have done for me in the past. It's what makes this forum such a great place to be. We all help each other when we can, be it with parts or advice. It all helps to keep our cars on the road and looking "nice"