Sennadog 93

Mrs.Sennadog is looking to replace her car and finally it's a choice between a TT and the Elise as I can't persuade her that another Impreza would be a good thing.

I want her to get an Elise and she was persuaded after a drive in one last weekend after having decided that the TT was too expensive.

She even preferred the new Elise to the original, so my cunning plan of putting her in the old one first and then seeing the improvements of the newer model afterwards worked a treat.

Or so I thought.....

She's now changed her mind again and thinks that the TT would be better even though it is more expensive.

Her reasoning? She thinks the Elise would be too awkward to get into when she's wearing a skirt! FFS - I didn't see that one coming.

I won't go into the reasons why I prefer the Elise and at the end of the day it's her money and her car but I'm after some ideas to help me change her mind - selfish git that I am.

Over to you...

Katana

Is she fit?

ADL

TT two a penny, Elise stands out, far less common!!!I though there were reliability problems with the early tts coils or something?

Tim-Grove

I have a mate with a Elise and one with a TT and the TT is just as hard to get into as the Elise.

Tim.

astraboy

Show her the following definitions mate.
TT= snobby bitch from chelsea/kensington. Who drives one? Someone who is up her own ****.
Elise= funky lass who is up for a laugh. Who drives one? someone who knows her cars and knows how to handle em.
You know what I'm saying is the truth, cars that are status symbols are for pretentious bellends.
astraboy.

Tino

Just tell her the TT makes her bum look big!(This apparently works with many other products too!!)

Sennadog 93

Tino - you may be on to something

Anyone seen some off putting articles about the "horrendous" running costs of the TT?

chrisp

Just tell her the elise would be more of a challenge to drive and only for experienced performance car drivers who know how to drive.
So tell her she may be better off with a TT as it would be easier to drive and you dont have to be as gooder driver to handle one. Bound to get her mad and prove you wrong

Little Miss WRX

IMHO, I would prefer the Elise...so if she wants female back up for that model....then she has it.

MoSizlak

I hate both. Both have got image and bellend problems.

GaryC

The Elise really is a bitch to get in and out of, the TT is far easier. The S2 is easier than the S1 but still an ****.

A female colleague had an elise for a while and that fact alone made her hate the car.....and hate her husband that had pursuaded her to get it! Just a slight word of warning....

Also if she get's an Elise, and is a decent-ish driver, she will waste you on (dry) twisty roads and track...could you take that?

Add in the Elsies reliability problems, far inferior safety, potential for violent oversteer, lack of ABS and 'world have a go' potential.....I know what car I would want Mrs C to drive!! But then I put her safety and well being above my selfish enjoyment Sorry to get all serious and all, but you sound like you need a little eye-opener and reminder of what your missus is really getting

Sennadog 93

Gary,

different people have different priorities when buying cars. If safety features were at the top of her agenda then she wouldn't have had two MGFs and an MX5 - in fact,she wouldn't even be considering purchasing another soft top.

As for whether she could lose me on the twisty bits, who cares, there's always someone with a quicker car and with safety being such an issue why would she be driving that quickly on public roads?

I take your point about the Elise's potential for being tail happy in the wrong circumstances but some of us grew up in an era when most cars were RWD before the safety police/packaging experts decided that FWD was the way forward.

BOB.T

TT's fall over, VAG use crap door locks and most of their coils are going knackered...has to be the Elise every time for me

47 NAT

Sennadog 93,

I have a TT and its the worse car ever to be made. The build quality is naff, its had 4 spray jobs, its covered in rust, it squeaks and rattles on smooth roads, on 3 occassions the doors fell off and it drinks oil like no tommorow, Oh and I forgot to mention it sounds like a diesel over 1500rpm and does 4 gallons per mile! Servicing costs are a minimum of £650 for a basic service as well.

Nath

PS: All the above is rubbish and totally un-true!!! I dont even have one... But if shes adamant to have one, then you know what you've got to do.

skiddus_markus

Tell her that the Elise has got a really big rear veiw mirror(essential for doing lippy at the traffic lights)and that because the engine is mid mounted then that leaves the whole of the "engine bay"free for shopping.

bigsinky

@astraboy

AB u never fail to give me a laff on here

cheers

big sinky

bdrought

>Add in the Elsies reliability problems

Ummm, mines the most reliable car I've ever owned. Never ever let me down. They're so simple that reliability problems are usually just a myth. The engines are strongish, and even if they arent, £700 buys a brand new one.

>far inferior safety

Errr... I'd rather have a crash in an Elise than in pretty much anything else, including my Merc E-Class. Huge aluminium tub. carbon fibre crashtub, huge rollover bar etc make it very safe. In fact, it's one of only two cars to be driveable after the standard 30ish mph frontal collision test. (the other one has a V12 and is £650,000). If you want an airbag, get a VX220

> potential for violent oversteer

On the S2, its a lot more friendly on the limit.

> lack of ABS

So get a VX220.... ;-)

Bri

GaryC

It's the non-lotus mechanical parts that are the problem - engines are the biggest issue...fine if £700 buys a new one (although Lotus charges over £2000) but it doesn't help you when the gasket has blown 100 miles from home!

>far inferior safety

Errr... I'd rather have a crash in an Elise than in pretty much anything else, including my Merc E-Class. Huge aluminium tub. carbon fibre crashtub, huge rollover bar etc make it very safe. In fact, it's one of only two cars to be driveable after the standard 30ish mph frontal collision test. (the other one has a V12 and is £650,000).

Don't be daft. One of 2 cars....? Don't be lulled into thinking your spaceframe tub will save you, have you ever seen an Elise that has been involved in pretty minor shunts? They take rolling pretty well, but impacts with other cars at even moderate speeds are far from being world beating As for a carbonfibre crash tub which Elise have YOU got? I'll take your Merc (or my merc) every time in an impact.

..but still far worse than the average car!!!

This isn't a 'have a go at an Elise'. I nearly bought one 18 months ago (S2 having also tried an S1 160) but decided I would, and did, prefer the caterham/westfield approach and got twice the performance, twice the raw thrill for half the price

Regacy

Time to dig out the back issues of Autocar and Whatcar that headline the problem of people being killed in TTs by terminal lift off over-steer.
Lots of early problems with even experienced drivers being caught out by this design flaw.
Ask her about her reaction time and whether she'd be confident about being able to catch the slide before the car swaps ends a 80 mph

bdrought

I've seen elise that have been rolled at 60/70mph.... I've seen elises in 100mph shunts (50mph per car). I've seen an elise that was hit side on by a lorry at 40mph. In all cases, the driver walked away.

All Elises have a carbon fibre crash sturcture beneath the front fibreglass clam... thats what the front is bolted onto.

Bri

Toerag

At least the elise will corner better, and is a lot rarer. TT's are for poofs and hairdressers