RE: Elise USA

[colinhare]

That comment from tvrrdabest is well out of order and not the sort of thing we should dwell on here. We should all be mature enough to understand that each car company should be judged independantly of country of origin. I've owned some truly bad German and Japanese cars despite the motoring press ramming it down my throats that these countries make the most reliable cars.. Golf owners will understand.

Lets keep this to the Lotus Elise in USA post shall we and at least all agree or otherwise that this is one beautiful auto with performance to match.

[dave3lotae]

This article isn't about specifications; it's about heart and insight. It tells me the Elise is Lotus reincarnated. It credits the right people. It tells all of us Lotus back at the head of the pack and that everyone else is going to have to get out of the way, follow, or try to out innovate. This car is something like 500 pounds lighter than all of the other production cars in its market segment. They've been building it for something like 7 years in Europe and everyone else has yet to approximate it!

[danmangt40]

it will go down well here, but it isn't going to be a line to get out of the dealerships either. Americans, like myself, are surrounded by trucks and minivans everywhere. Most people are getting into a smaller car when they can finally afford to buy that 'vette. People who genuinely love to drive will be elise customers. But I think most people will drive the elise, love it, then go drive a c6, say it has double the hp for only a little more money and everything else won't count a bit. so don't go nuts. Lotus needs a bigger car, a coupe with lower sills and closer to a GT to be truly successful over here. but yes, the elise will likely outsell the entire amount of esprits of any age in the US in less than 2 years, perhaps in less than a year.

[lotustt]

Hasnt there been over 10,000 Esprits sold in the U.S. Your saying in one or two years more Elises will be sold than Esprits? Its an awesome car , but unlikely. A few more years I think it will need. I hope this car does well, i want Lotus to get the respect it deserves. I love the Esprit and think its a great car, Lotus has never left the U.S. But this is a reawakening to the enthusiasts. I love this Esprit, but look forward to the next generation as well. As long as the Elise is successful here the Lotus future should brighten even more!

[ErnestM]

There have only been about 10,000 (or less) Esprits built worldwide. The US (during a good year) gets about 100 per year...

ErnestM

[Jon Gwynne]

danmangt40 said:

it will go down well here, but it isn't going to be a line to get out of the dealerships either. Americans, like myself, are surrounded by trucks and minivans everywhere. Most people are getting into a smaller car when they can finally afford to buy that 'vette. People who genuinely love to drive will be elise customers. But I think most people will drive the elise, love it, then go drive a c6, say it has double the hp for only a little more money and everything else won't count a bit. so don't go nuts. Lotus needs a bigger car, a coupe with lower sills and closer to a GT to be truly successful over here. but yes, the elise will likely outsell the entire amount of esprits of any age in the US in less than 2 years, perhaps in less than a year.

I think you have a point. I have always felt that it was foolish for Lotus to go to a lot of trouble to sell the Elise in the US. Basically, most people are going to look at it as a $40,000 Toyota MR2 spider competitor and I think that's going to be a tough sell.

Sure, they'll sell a handful of them to hardcore enthusiasts but the Elise has a number of obstacles to mainstream success....

1. US carbuyers in general care less about handling doesn't and more about straight-line performance. The Elise is too good at the former and not good enough at the latter to really stand up to things in the same price range.

2. There are too many seriously BIG cars in America. The Elise makes a Porsche Boxter seem like an SUV. When I had one in England, I felt vulnerable and exposed when a Ford Focus pulled up next to me at a light. How are people going to feel when a Lincoln Navigator pulls up next to them in the US?

3. There are too many seriously BIG asses in America. I'm not particularly big by American standards (5'11", 195lbs (that's 14st for you Brits)) but the Elise was a tight fit for me. A lot of customers are going to try to wedge themselves into one, ask themselves why they would buy a car that makes them feel fat and then go buy a Corvette.


Lotus should have taken the money they made of the various incarnations of the Elise and developed the M250 or something like it. They could have made it bigger, more refined, popped a US-approved V-6 engine into it and left the Elise as the bantam-weight roadster that it is.

Or maybe just a larger Elise... With all that aluminum-extrusion technology, how difficult would it be to just scale up the Elise by, say, 8% all around? You know, the same Elise, just a little bigger.

Note to Lotus engineers. Colin Chapman was a giant in the engineering world but not in the real one. Now that he's gone, you should stop developing cars for people his size and start building them for the rest of us.

[Dean]

With the US population something like 6 times that of the UK only a minute percentage of car buyers can make a huge difference to Lotus sales. Unfortunately for Elise sales our hairdressers prefer Porches.

[Jon Gwynne]

Dean said:

With the US population something like 6 times that of the UK only a minute percentage of car buyers can make a huge difference to Lotus sales. Unfortunately for Elise sales our hairdressers prefer Porches.

I hope you're right and the Elise starts a new craze and becomes the lynchpin of the long overdue anti-SUV movement.

But I will just say this, the US popular may be larger than the UK but the Yank public have a very different taste in cars...

God bless Lotus, I hope they sell every single one they can make but I'm not holding my breath.

[Captain Muppet]

Jon Gwynne said:

... Or maybe just a larger Elise... With all that aluminum-extrusion technology, how difficult would it be to just scale up the Elise by, say, 8% all around? You know, the same Elise, just a little bigger. ...

It wouldn't be dificult to scale the Elise up by 8%, just stupidly expensive. New tooling for the chassis assembly, body moulds, glass, new production line to take a wider car. All the expense of revalidating all the parts, plus there's the extra mass - 8% length increase in every direction is a 26% mass increase.

[fastspider]

I have a sunspeed.com converted (Honda engine) Series 1 Elise. I've been driving it around California for almost two years now, and I'm absolutely certain that there are plenty of people who will love the Elise.

I get great reactions from everyone from small kids (who seem to think its a Ferrari most of the time) to older british car fans, to latino rice rocket drivers.

There are a huge number of Mazda Miata's on the road every day, its a similar sized car, and big people don't fit into the Miata either. We have a 2001 Miata that has less headroom than the Elise. The BMW Z3 and Honda S2000 aren't much bigger. Thats what several of my friends drive. There are even a bunch of Fiat X1/9's still running around....

So if you look at the US as a whole, there are large population concentrations that have good weather and lots of small cars on the road.

There are also race tracks everywhere, and lots of people having fun at track days and autocross events. That market alone will soak up a lot of Elises. Its so funny to watch a new Mustang or Camaro lurching around an autocross and being beaten by an X1/9.

The only problem I can see is that the exchange rate has pushed up prices for all the imports. This may slow down the whole market if it persists beyond the initial backlog of orders.

[jpf]

Hey, what do you guys think of the Elises on Ebay with a right to buy??

Seems like $5,000 is a starting point. The good news is that if exchange rates don't improve, the prices will increase--which would eat into the right to buy margin first...

[anonymous-user]

Drove a Toyota engined Elise today. You guys in USA have something to look forward to! Driveable round town and VERY VERY FAST out on the road. It's all in the rev's with maximum action between 6,500 and 8,500 and excellent feel on the road.

Nonetheless it was not with any regret that I got back into my C5 Vette for the drive home. In the real world a stunning engine and relaxed cruising are more than enough to compensate for a lack of knife edge 10/10ths "track day" experience.

Those of you who really want one are gonna love that Elise!

[jpf]

Any Elises on the ground? If not, when do they arrive?

[gr8gamer]

Hello,

I'm a prospective buyer for the Elise, but I'd like to know what is the reliability and warrenty for the car. It's beautiful, but is this going to be like the frequent service, tempermental and finicky car. I was looking at a late model MB 500SL, but I do like the lines of the Elise. Mercedes has a good reputation for quality and reliability, what about Lotus? Thanks for your comments

[girlracer]

check out the Lotus forum - see many complaints? I can't speak for the Toyota engined versions (although I would presume they would be even more reliable), but when I owned an Elise it never skipped a beat, and I never heard about anyone's who did. You may lump them in with supercars because of their looks and performance, but they are very simple machines, with the performance coming from weight-saving and great chassis design rather than complex mechanicals. As such the result is one reliable supercar.

If I ever live in the US again this will be the car I buy, no doubt about it.

[mustard]

gr8gamer said:

Hello, I'm a prospective buyer for the Elise, but I'd like to know what is the reliability and warrenty for the car. It's beautiful, but is this going to be like the frequent service, tempermental and finicky car. I was looking at a late model MB 500SL, but I do like the lines of the Elise. Mercedes has a good reputation for quality and reliability, what about Lotus? Thanks for your comments

A 500SL and an Elise are chalk and cheese, but a Toyota engined Elise should prove just as reliable (probably more so) mechanically than the MB.

You may experience the odd trim niggle (as you do with pretty much any low volume car) but all in all your running cost are going to be far far lower.

Drive the pair and your mind will soon be made up one way or the other

[theforce]

Here is a video of the US spec elise at a Lotus auto-x in the west. Got the video from elisetalk.com

www.cpdserver.com/elisetalk/video/eliselaketahoeautox.wmv

[anonymous-user]

You guys enjoying these cars yet?