M5 going, Elise and mondeo coming!
 

After 10 months of the M5 its time for a change. The M5 has been an amazing expirience, but the running costs and lack of use have forced me to reconsider my motoring needs!! I've decided trying to combine a family car, high mileage business travelling and a fun performance into one car just doesn't work (for me anyway). So its now time to get a fun car that i can use at weekends and go to work in occasionally with a sensible family diesel that can soak up the high business miles and fit both kids, the wife and loads of ****e in the boot!

Have got a deal on my M5 giving me a very clean 99 T plate elise with 35k miles nice engine mods and £3500 cash to buy a mondeo TDCI.

I'm worried i'm going to miss the big BHP i've been used to over the past few years, but i can't wit to save a fortune in fuel, repairs and servicing costs!!!

Anyone else moved from a big BHP car to a similiar set up??:confused:

I had s2k and went to a big car (omega at the time, now a nice Audi A6 Quattro) and a Westfield. Big and comfy for long journeys, shopping, general stuff etc. and mad westie for weekend fun. :)

Nice way to go. Both cars combined are greener than a Beemer <do you like that :D

£3500 is not much of a budget for a TDCi so buy with care.

Saying that they are a nice place to be, handle well and still have plenty of grunt for overtaking.

Cheers
Lee

I bought a 52 plate TDCi for £2500 with 86000 on the clock, but came with full ford service history, and full brake setup replaced front and rear.
Was an ex rep mobile so was all motorway miles, drives as good as new.
There are some out there to be had!

Personally I think you will miss the BHP. I had a long test drive of an Elise, and initially the fun factor was immense and fell in love with it. But after a few hours of driving, I was longing for more power, and realised a VXT was the only way to deliver all the goods.

Unless you live in the country with lots of 'B' Roads, I would say the performance will wear a little thin. But you will enjoy the Elise in the time you have it which might be short lived.

You did ask of peoples thoughts, and this is a honest one ;)

Ironically I am now looking to do the opposite to you, and sell the toy in favour of a fast family saloon. Most of my driving time is in the family Scenic. So looking at the value for money equation, figured I would sooner spend my time driving a decent fast ish family saloon.

Each unto the own, and hope it works for you.

Coming from a M5 you WILL miss the grunt in a elise. But its the steering and handling of the elise that will go some way in bridging the gap. Just think of a road going go-cart.
One bit of advice though, get some driver training at somewhere like 1st lotus.
The amount you can learn in one day is huge. When Walshy drives your car at the start of the training day you realise just what its capable of. Money well spent, and much preferable to ending up backwards in a ditch.

Greg

I came from a 22b uk version to a S1 Elise.

I'd leave the Elise for now and get the diesel sorted out first. TBH it's the wrong time of year to be buying an Elise, at least wait another month, and it'll give you a lot more time to look at Elises. I'd pay no more than 9k for a standardish S1, mine was a very nice T plate with all the extras and just over 30k miles. I bought mine in early March for 8.5k however not midsummer ;)

As said above you'll miss the straight line grunt of the big bhp cars, you'll have to work the gears and it'll be a pain in the arse getting in and out. But, the Elise is a cheeky little car, gorgeous to look at and GREAT handling. You'll get around 260 miles from a tank of NUL petrol (small tank) and up to 49 mpg on motorway runs, it's very very cheap to run. And you can get several bags of shopping in the back, and more behind the seats on the shelf.

Make sure you get one with a braided clutch pipe, the later style wheels and no damage to the clams however superficial it looks. Full service history is always nice, look out for a C service which is the biggie, and can work out expensive.

You mention you'll have enough cash to buy both, but exactly how much cash will you have?

will the elise not need some work done to it at that age suspension etc could be a money trap plus mot every year?
not being awkward buy buying a 7 year old car for fun could cost (obviously not more than m5 though)
martin

There's hardly anything in the cars to go wrong in the first place ;)

A lot of people swop the S1 suspension over to S2 suspension. The major things that go wrong are:

Head Gasket Failure, 500 quid fix
steering rack goes loose couple of hundred quid
releasing handle that releases the boot goes stiff, not much to repair.

The chassis is aluminium and the clams are fibreglass, so there shouldn't be any real issues there

Im my experience Elises tend to get looked after better than most other sports cars like Imprezas and the like of a similar age. I've yet to see a complete dick driving one.

Agree with this - did the same, when I realised having a MY05 WRX 5 door was still not big enough for one baby...

So, sold the WRX, bought a Volvo V70 for £2.8k with 150k on it but works welll and then bought a Dax Cobra, which is blinking amazing, and a greater driving experience than the WRX because it looks and sounds the DB's...

Cheers for the input fellas!! Been on hoilday and just come back to the replies :thumb:

regards time to buy/sell, I think its actually a decent to buy as the summer is over by the look of it ;) and dealers especially, are looking to get rid before the winter really starts.

re: Mondeo, thanks for the input James, i know there are some bargains to be had out there!! ;) I also know there are some nails :( I'm looking for an 1 owner ex rep mobile, and from what i've seen i should get what i want for £3.5k.

Collecting the elise tomorrow!! :)

Whats the price and the spec of the Elise you're getting?

Saw your M5 a couple of months ago Austen up near the Hagley Road, looked nice!:thumb: Was going to wave but was in my works van!;)

Just seen a post over on MLOC :cool:

Enjoy and take it careful in these damp conditions.

you'll certainly enjoy the Elise - great car (and even better as a second car)

Had my S1 now for 6months, and apart from the head gasket, the starter motor, the battery, the seats had not had to replace anything (EEK!)

loads of MPG and excellent fun once you get used to the handling and getting into and out of it. Plus the dont seem to appreciate much at all (I think I could sell mine for a profit at the moment actually)

heres mine

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...neilt/side.jpg

the s1 is a piece of turd crappy sodding k series engine is the worse ever built stay away mate!

Mine was a very nice turd, the best handling car I've ever owned, the best looking too. The engine issue is well documented and will cost less than £500 quid to fix. Doesn't suffer from piston slap or det as far as I know, bills on these for Imprezas are 3k upwards IIRC.

I've been through this dilemma of having one car for work and one for play,as it were, and then tried to get one car to do the lot. I initially had a Nissan Almera GTI as a sensible work car (143bhp- only), this allowed me enough time and money to get what I really wanted, an R34 GTR Skyline (420bhp) as a second, weekend car.
I quickly realised my work car was not quick enough or interesting enough, so I bought an MY01 WRX PPP (260ish bhp) for work, whilst still having the Skyline for occasional use. Then along came a baby...
We needed a bit more space, so we had a conservatory built funded from the sale of both cars and with the change I bought an MY06 Forester STI (330bhp) which I hoped would do everything I needed from a car.

Unfortunately this hasn't worked either since the Forester draws too much attention and I'm paranoid about leaving it parked anywhere, and it isn't quick enough to give the same buzz as the GTR did.

I had also thought about an M5 as a sole car prior to the forester, but I think you are doing the right thing in getting 2 vehicles one for work and one for play, since anything else is just too much of a compromise.

sorry meant engine was rubbish not the car, worst engine built, ask any mechanic, well from the ones i know

Along similar lines I went from a 280bhp scooby to a Honda Integra and was worried that I would miss the BHP, or more importantly the torque.

Like the elise, the integra has very precise steering and and a great chassis and for me this more than makes up for the loss of the shove in the back. Saving in petrol is immense too!

An integra is not quite as much of a track day fun car as the lotus but it may be worth considering some other cars. I am waiting to be able to afford a toyota powered elise before I buy one.