bdrought

Servicing is pricey if you use a main dealer. (and depreciation can be a bit severe)

Simply buy an older higher mileage car and run that. Oil changes are a 10 minute job and amazingly simple. Other than that, nothing major to do on them. Engines are pretty tough. Mine had 50,000 miles before blowing the head gasket. (theres a way to prevent to the headgaskets going by replumbing the cooling circuit but i didnt know that until after. DOH!). Head gasket is a few hundred quid to change.

Worst case you blow your engine up... well, its £700 for a new(ish) one, or £1000 for a brand new one. About 5 hours labour to swap them over.

Rear ball joints can wear out, but its about £100 to replace them (inc labour).

Tyres last better than on a scoob (fronts 30,000... rears 20,000. brakes last forever aswell.

Fuel economy on a standard car is 45~50 mpg with normal driving, dropping to about 35mpg for a spirited run.

I use mine for commuting to London. Tend to do that about 4 days a week. It's a 100 mile round trip and it handles that fine. Seats I find better than a scoob or my Merc (bizarrely) and the driving position is perfect. If you do a lot of miles then steer clear of a sports exhaust unless you want premature deafness.

I've done 40,000 miles in it in 18 months. Only problem being the aforementioned headgasket which I used as an excuse to upgrade to 200bhp (about £3K)

Hope that helps,

Bri

[Edited by bdrought - 9/4/2002 9:21:47 AM]

carl

A few people on here have swapped to Elises, thinking that the fuel economy (nearly 40 mpg) will save them money. Has anyone actually saved money, or was it eaten up by parts and servicing costs?

Currently considering what to do -- the amount of commuting I do means I have little time (or inclination) to drive at the weekends so whatever I get has to put up with a 130-mile roundtrip at least one or two days a week.

Current thinking is:
Elise (13-15k) + oldish A4 TDi (7k)
NSX (18k) + old BMW tds (3k)

Elise is 40mpg, but not that reliable (?)
NSX is reliable (but expensive if it goes wrong) but only 28mpg.

Tractor

The answer is yes, I did save money, especially on fuel, but the Elise is way easier on tyres, brakes, clutches etc as well. Mine has also never missed a beat, and nothing has broken or fallen off etc.

It is also for sale as of today - go here http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/thread.asp?threadid=128076

Sorry, don't know how to make the link clickable.

Mike

Brun

click

carl

Any response from anyone who isn't trying to sell an Elise

The Crushinator

I'd sooner have an elise than my impreza. It doesn't stand much of a chance in a straight line against an impreza, but they stick to the track soooo well, and can get out of the corners just as quickly. Servicing is a LOT cheaper, i can't remember the exact figure but the servicing costs of a subaru seem ridiculous in comparasion.

I was ready to make the switch a short while ago, but i couldn't, for various reasons

And they come in better colours

NDT

I keep on flirting with an Elise too...

hard choice - I get a WRX as a company car and the cash alternative is crap.

Then the other half would have to run a better car as well as our proper car for going away in.....

if only it had a proper boot!
(did I really say that???)

Nick

kamikaze

thoute servicing is about the same for both
Also lotus main dealer rates are usuallya rip off when it comes to labour

Glenn Coombs

I've just swapped the other way, from an elise 111S to a scooby. The fuel consumption on the elise never dropped below 35 mpg no matter how hard I drove it while I'm now averaging 24 mpg. Rear tyres needed to be replaced at 17,000 miles which I thought was pretty good. Main dealer servicing costs were very expensive.

The reason I got rid of it was because it was too noisy at motorway speeds. I drive about 30 miles each way to and from work most of which is at motorway speeds and it got very tiring after a while. The standard elise is a bit quieter than the 111S model but even so I wouldn't really recommend it as a daily commuting car. If you can afford one as a second car and just take it out for blasts at the weekend then it is an excellent choice.

GEJL

I've got both and the annual costs of the Elise are about probably about 60% of the Scoob's, on a per mile basis (excluding depreciatio).

Mpg: Elise averages high 30s, vs. 26 for the Scoob (normal 95 UL is fine for the Elise, too, though admittedly is also OK for the Scoob).

Insurance is a little cheaper on the Elise, though not as much as you might think (£600 for Elise, £700 for Scoob for me, though track day cover included on the Elise, but use is limited to 5000 miles ).

Servicing is cheaper/similar if you're not using main dealers (Lakeside in Woking is a great independent). If I remember correctly, "A" service is oil and filter at 9000miles or annual (appx £150), "B" service is 18000 miles or 2 years (appx £300?), "C" service is cambelt change at 5/6 years, I think - £600? (guessing). Check out www.lakesideengineering.com for sample prices. My second annual service on the Scoob was more like £600 (27000miles done), with oil changes every three to six months.

And it is lighter on pads, tyres, clutches etc. I get about 12-15000 out of the rear tyres and the fronts last for ever - even when doing some track days. That's probably about 50% better than on the Scoob. I've had to change pads and disks on the Scoob at 27000, whereas the Elise at 20000 is barely half worn.

Depreciation seems about the same on both - appx. £2000-2500 per annum for a new Elise (from 23 new to around 14 now for a four year old car), and about about 18k to 13k for a Euro import MY00. Though I'd expect the Elise to flatten out at about £10k, but the Scoob to keep on falling.

HTH! Friend at work is in the process of moving from a MY01 to an Elise 111s, and keeps on being pleasantly surprised about where he'll save money - his insurance will be about half, for example.

simon_prickett

I'm headed this route... swapped the 98 Impreza for a 01 Leon TDI to chug around in and for work trips, then will be after an S1 Elise, Caterham or something else late next year to have as the fun car.

Theory being the fun car can be broken and off the road for some time while I save up to repair it, but still have something to get to work in etc.

Simon.

GEJL

...and in four years/20,000 miles with my Elise, other than routine servicing, I've replaced one damper and the inlet manifold gasket. All-in cost about £200.

Richard Askew

...muchos cheapness mate...mine does somewhere close to 48mpg day in day out for the commuter run..about 33mpg when given large..ie the nurburgring.. service costs much cheaper - 130 quid plays 450 against the scoob and my insurance was nearly halved

...mind you I dunno how its gonna fair with the 240 bhp it'll have in the non too distant future


...or til the Focus Cosworth comes along