nickejmartin

Wandering around a local dealer over the weekend, came across a Lotus Elise 1.8 sports tourer in yellow with race tech pack.

Never considered anything other than a Scooby or Evo or Clio V6, but this Lotus looked amazing. Know very little about them, but I was tempted.

Have anyone experienced both and know what they are like to drive and live with?

badgersport

Had an 04 Elise 111S before my current 06 STI. On paper Lotus claim the same 0-60 time, in reality they must be joking. It was hopeless, lots of noise but very little go, hugely overated handling and poor brakes. Add in the unbelievably poor reliability and I was glad to see the back of it.

Andy M3

If you do a search there are lots of threads about this. But the gist was, most people love theire Elise becuase of the cheap running costs, handles well in the dry - but in line performance lacked a little. And of course the practical side was compramised. Are you single and under 14 stone?

mcarrick69

I've owned a VX220 (very very similar to an elise) and also a standard classic scooby.

The Vx220 was a tad bit slower but so much more fun to drive. Major grin factor, especially on a nice day with roof off.

Overall i'd take the Vx220 any day.

Deffinately worth a test drive

NeilT

got both - a 2005 STI and a 98 Elise S1.

Elise is great (when its dry) straight line performance isnt anything to write home about (hot hatch territory) and it needs to be driven very differently to the Impreza, when you get it right the handling is superb (again, on dry roads).

2 very different machines, but on a warm summers day on good roads I doubt you'll find many cars that are more fun than an Elise

Neil

Sport160

Agree with above post

The elise may not be fastest car about but they are great great fun, I couldn't possibly live with one as an everyday car but I'd have one as a 2nd car like a shot.

Handling does require respect, even more so on the S1 cars.

greg.g

I went from a 280bhp scoob to a 99 111s.
Straight line acceleration wont match the scooby but thats not what the elise is all about.
Its the handling and feedback thats so impressive and rewarding
The brakes do take a little getting used to as you need to push on them a little (no servos)

But on a dry twisty road i know which car i would rather be in :drive:


Plus not so many visits to the petrol staion

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I had a basic 1.8 series 1 before the Scoob, as said above many times the scoob would eat it for breakfast, but the fun I had in that car.

I miss it dearly and would have another tomorow if funds allowed

scoobynutta555

Try one. If you don't like it then sell it on. I'd advise anyone to own an Elise for a while, lovely little cars.

Impreza v Elise? Chalk and cheese. Elise handles very well indeed, looks great and is great fun. Getting in and out is a pain in the **** and you have to be able to predcit the weather somewhat if you want the roof off. I'd certainly get another ( I had a S1 W reg) but probably a 111 next.

NeilT

forgot to mention residuals - the Elise holds its value extremely well, if you buy in the winter (when prices are low) and sell late summer (at the end of the high price period) you're likely to gain £££ not lose. I plan on keeping mine for a few years, and dont expect to lose much over that period.

I think one of the Sunday papers had a motoring article some months back about which cars held their value the best, Elise was either #1 or #2

So to sum up - go-kart like fun car, handles v well in the dry, goes pretty well, cheap to run and insure and doesn't plummet in value. Looks pretty cool too.

Neil

mine:

Brun

I want one but don't want to sell the Scoob

Dave_68

I had an S1 for 5 years before getting the STi. Great fun, mine was a weekend car for 4 of the 5 years. Never used mine in the winter and never had any problems with it either. MY 05 STi PPP is much much quicker but lacks the precision of the Elise, but it does weigh over twice as much. Horses for courses, they are both fantastic, just different. I don't facny another TBH, if I wanted similar I'd have an S2 Exige or VX220 Turbo.

EVOLUTION

i took the 2 new models out last week.

The new S, which was the136 bhp one, and it was crap TBH. Handeling was similar to that of a Kart, great in that respect, but the performance was poor.

I was really shocked at how easy it was to live with, not that much noise, and it didnt really shake you to pieces.

I then took the 111R out, pretty mush the same handeling, the performance was better but not outstanding, it felt slower than the scoob.

Take them on track and im sure i would be telling a rather different story, but, i doubt i would ever have them on track, i get my joys of driving on the road, so im sticking to the 4 door family saloon for now.


One big shock i got was the price, the S is very cheap, TBH, i think Lotus are sh!tting in there own nest abit with that one, entry level starts at £23,995 on the road.

And my choice of coloure was a whole £1,010 on top, for WHITE of all colours, they call it a lifestyle, i call it highway robbery, at least dick turpin wore a god damn mask

evil.soup

iTrader: (1)

They are great fun to drive and echonomical, but the money you save on fuel will go back out on engine repairs. I must admit, it wont blow you away, but the biggest put off for me is the fact that it needs to be thrashed to perform well and screams like you are beating it with a stick!

billythekid

S1 elsie is designed around the origional Lotus concept that Colin Chapman devised, light weight, rear drive. Its all about handling not power.

I have driven most variants on track and all put a smile on my face. The best S1 is the 190 sport with the VHPD engine, will easily keep up with an STI to 100mph.

Lower versions with 120 ish bhp still offer great fun, loads of grip and classic Elise oversteer still on offer.

If you want to build a proper super car killer go and pay Blink Motorsport to build a Honda powered S1, will produce 200 - 240bhp depending on tune. Suspesion and brake package can be fitted too.

Performance quoted by Blink is 0-60 in 4 secs and 0-100 in 9.4 secs...

Sweepickit

worked in a Vauxhall dealership for two years, had to live with a VX220 demo car for two weeks. At 6'3" tall had to take the roof off to get in and out! Fun to drive but not at all practical. Notice as well that all posts seem to say..."great fun in the dry". In the wet get it wrong and you can kiss the back end goodbye. Get the power down too quickly coming out of a wet bend no amount of opposite lock will stop the spin. Not the safest car to be having a smash in either.

scoobynutta555

I thought that the Elise was quite a safe car crash wise due to the strength of the clams etc.

Anyhow, back to residuals. I had an S1 for 4 months, and made £500 quid on it. Nothing went wrong, spent nothing on it apart from NUL petrol.

nickejmartin

thanks for all the replies - I think its worth a test drive to see what its really like. Not the most pratical of cars as I went in looking for a 4 door diesel to save money as a second car and came away with this idea - not sure where to put the 3 kids either if i go for the Lotus!!

practicalities may get the better of me on this one.

Scratch

iTrader: (1)

Same dilemma as me.

Father in law has a VX220 turbo that he is likely to sell in the near future, and I'm very very tempted by it, but the major put off is where to put the wife and 2 kids, or my mountain bike or model aircraft ?

It offers none of the practicality that my JDM Sti Wagon has, and although it is a weekend car (mostly) if I got the VX I can see it would only ever get used if I specifically got it out of the garage and took it for a drive. Which seems a bit of a waste. At least with the scooby I can get the wife kids and a bootful of stuff so that it can actaully be used at the weekends.

Gordo

LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious

I had one of the early ones (about '97) which I traded an N reg impreza turbo in for.

In summary:

- worst car I ever had
- looked great.....err and that was it
- slow - reasonable up to 60 but then lost its bottle. I remember nearly matching an M3 joining the motorway but then he left me for dead
- dreadful interior and uncomfortable. had to stop every 60 miles to de-numb my ****. seats are plastic school chairs with the legs snapped off. i.e. no adjustment
- ****e roof. putting it together was a nightmare. if it rains it's better to carry on - you'll get drenched trying to put it up anyway
- noisy - forget a sound system, you can't hear it anyway
- you look like a *** getting out of it as it's so small an aperture to get through you often end up on your knees
- a handful on anything but a dry racetrack. I can understand why Top Gear etc loved it as that's the only place they drove it. on a wet road or a bumpy surface you have to concentrate all the time and it feels like a sledge on snow when it hits standing water - get used to bad tramlining, a wild swinging steering wheel and a loss of steering at the slighest provocation. i.e. a fun track car, not an every day motor.
- you need to be a pretty good driver as it's lightweight, rear wheel drive with no ABS etc
- **** all luggage space (as much as you can fit in a 5 litre ice cream container)
- poor build quality (e.g. windows fell inside the doors twice, gearbox always crunched in reverse and 2nd gear, pissed oil out of the exhaust, paint is poor)
- over priced for what it is - and I disagree with the 'holds its value' point. I lost £7k in 12 months on it

Couldn't wait to get rid of it and still cringe when i see them out and about.

Hope this doesn't colour your judgement

Gordo

billythekid

So why did you buy it?!

scoobynutta555

Very much a negative view of ownership there. I had a 00 Elise, they were a significant improvement on the earlier ones. The roof is a bit fiddly, but a modicum of common sense and forward planning means you don't get caught in showers. The roof only takes a few mins to get on and even less to take off. I could fit several full plastic bags in the boot, plus there is storage behind the seats. Long journeys were very comfortable, i had leather seats with lumbar support. Getting in and out is a practised art and you only 'look like a ***' if you haven't adopted the knack.

Keeping up with M3s on a motorway is not whats Elises are about at all. Driving in the dry on normal roads was ok, handling is sublime. Agree, there is a little tramlining and the ride is the firm side of FIRM. In the wet, drive with respect and there is no surprises.

Noise, err well, it's a bloody sports car with the engine inches away from you, what do you want FFS! As for the 'dreadful' interior, I found it quite pleasent with a mixture of cream leather and bare metal. There is obviously a minimalistic aspect to the interior to save weight. I don't by an Elise for abs, servo'd brakes, air-con lecky windows and the rest of it. Anyone who does misses the point entirely.

Buy wisely and you have a fantastic car which you won't lose money on.

Gordo

Nope, sorry, IMO they're ****e as an every day car.

billythekid - if you read my list you'll note that most of my complaints stemmed from things you only learn once you've got it - oh and I was young and keen to have a sports car

scoobynutta - agree you can get several 'full plastic bags' in the back - if they're small freezer bags perhaps! the boot on mine was such that you could JUST get a 5litre ice cream container in it. no idea how you 'forward plan' for sudden rain showers - you a weather pixie or something?

there's a big difference between a nice minimalistic interior and the sharp metal edged ****e that was the early elise. perhaps the later ones improved - not obvious looking through the window (there's one here today). as I said, great track car, don't expect it to be useful for anything else.

I didn't buy the car looking for the stuff you listed (lecky windows etc) - not sure why you thought I did - my point was to beware if you're not used to lightweight rwd motors as there's not ABS to rescue you.

nick - buy it if you want a fun track car or do limited mileage and have another motor that's more practical. If you want a practical fast point to pointer, it ain't the car for you.

Gordo

scoobynutta555

Full normal sized plastic bags, not freezer bags. Forward plan for rain, perhaps look at the weather forecast or just look up in the air Mine was an everyday car for several months, not a problem at all. I fail to see how ABS would 'rescue' anone in a light RWD motor.

Gordo

Blimey - I'm impressed that you're soooo good at predicting the weather you don't get caught in showers

ABS would stop the wheels locking and therefore make it less inclined to try to kiss its **** goodbye. You're right it would not rescue a poor driver - that wasn't my point.

But enough of this - you love them, i think they're ****e. we're not going to change each others views and that isn't the point of this discussion - I think Nick now has enough of a sense of what people think to be able to make his own mind up.

Gordo

scoobynutta555

If the sky looks like this then put the roof on or don't bother taking it off

mollymai

I owned both versions as 111s which were used for day to day driving. The first version meant driving home in a swimming pool each night it had rained as a result I was talked inti upgrading to the newer version. Both did too many piroettes. Car was unscathed each time but it makes you think with that bodywork what if and what would the cost be. Whereas my Impreza had a fight with a Badger and actually looked better for it, rough and ready. The Elise is OK as a road car but I prefer the rugged look and handling of a 4wd 'rally' car than a formula 1 'racing' car particulalry where I live, even tractors get out of the way for me on the lanes.

Fulham71

I am looking at getting another one again

this is what happened to the last





Looks a lot worse than it was I hit an oil barrel filled with concrete at 30mph after a side on impact when someone jumped a red light

The clam was very slightly bent so it was written off for financial reasons !
I ended up very bruised internally & externally but no other injuries !

I drive a Forester Sti daily but want this for some fun ! I had the last one as a daily driver & it was fine but think it is probably best suited to being a second car as far as I am concerned