considering purchase of 111s...
Discussion
Just in case any of you are interested... I drove the 111S at the weekend and thought that it would be a bit awkward for me to use every day. The sills are too wide and too much of a stretch for someone to get in with a nice suit and I can see it getting stretched and muddy on the sills. The other problem (for me) was that the gear stick, especially when in 5th gear, was resting against my leg which was against the steering wheel. I think that these little things would get on my nerves after a while, and especially after a crappy winter.
The car was very sharp and solid, but I was a bit irritated by the fact that they had just got rid of their last demonstrator which had been run in. The only one I could drive was one with 30 miles on it! If you ask me, that's just stupid as the gearbox is unusually tight the brakes were not at their best, and I couldn't really rev it above 5k.
When you have rung ahead and booked, I expect more forward thinking on the part of the dealer. E.g. a car that you can drive in the manner that you expect to after you purchase it. Otherwise there isn't much point. Nice weekend/when your in the mood car though.
The car was very sharp and solid, but I was a bit irritated by the fact that they had just got rid of their last demonstrator which had been run in. The only one I could drive was one with 30 miles on it! If you ask me, that's just stupid as the gearbox is unusually tight the brakes were not at their best, and I couldn't really rev it above 5k.
When you have rung ahead and booked, I expect more forward thinking on the part of the dealer. E.g. a car that you can drive in the manner that you expect to after you purchase it. Otherwise there isn't much point. Nice weekend/when your in the mood car though.
You're not wrong. He really couldn't be bothered to actually SELL the car to me, but then again there is a fine line between selling and being bullied into it.
I had a 90s Elan before the Pork and stopped using the Lotus dealer after they put new disks on my Lotus and didn't check the calipers. The calipers than rubbed a little hard on the disks and warped them. All they had to do was check them and grease them up a bit, wouldn't have been hard...
I had a 90s Elan before the Pork and stopped using the Lotus dealer after they put new disks on my Lotus and didn't check the calipers. The calipers than rubbed a little hard on the disks and warped them. All they had to do was check them and grease them up a bit, wouldn't have been hard...
As you're in warwickshire - did you go to Kings? I found them really helpful when I was there but I guess it depends as much on the salesman as the dealership.
Fo rmy test drive I took the bosses car out as the demostrator was being serviced. Annoyingly it was a race-tech rather than a sports tourer as I was trying to see wether the st calmed any of the usual noise associated with my MK1 elise (daily driver).
On the other hand my local dealer (suddenly I've forgotten their name) had a Mk1 with about 50K on it which I went to see. I got to see the car for about 2 minutes - wasn't allowed to test drive it unless I was going to buy it (eg deposit first!) and didn't think it nessecary to fix all the stone chips and scuffs etc as "I expect I'll sell it to someone for trackdays". Oh and I was stupid to think I could use an elise for a daily driver! They won't be servicing my car - EVER!
Fo rmy test drive I took the bosses car out as the demostrator was being serviced. Annoyingly it was a race-tech rather than a sports tourer as I was trying to see wether the st calmed any of the usual noise associated with my MK1 elise (daily driver).
On the other hand my local dealer (suddenly I've forgotten their name) had a Mk1 with about 50K on it which I went to see. I got to see the car for about 2 minutes - wasn't allowed to test drive it unless I was going to buy it (eg deposit first!) and didn't think it nessecary to fix all the stone chips and scuffs etc as "I expect I'll sell it to someone for trackdays". Oh and I was stupid to think I could use an elise for a daily driver! They won't be servicing my car - EVER!
Yes, it was Kings. The sales bloke was nice enough, but just didn't really seem to want to sell the car or go out of his way to provide a demonstrator that would fit my criteria for ownership - not quite as bad as the arrogant moron that you saw who thinks that any Lotus will sell itself in any condition. Hopefully he got really screwed on the price if/when he finally did sell it!
btw. where is the frickin' point in a test drive, if you are already commited to ownership??
btw. where is the frickin' point in a test drive, if you are already commited to ownership??
hear hear! I had a good experience of test driving 2 elises - the 2nd being a 111s which i am collecting 2mw :-)
The first was a standard car which I actually got sideways on a wet dual carriageway coming off a roundabout - I managed to get it back fortunately - the dealer told me he had never been sideways in 6 years of selling elises!! I take it from road tests I was quite lucky??!!
The first was a standard car which I actually got sideways on a wet dual carriageway coming off a roundabout - I managed to get it back fortunately - the dealer told me he had never been sideways in 6 years of selling elises!! I take it from road tests I was quite lucky??!!
Zeb, watch that right foot in the wet
I don't agree that the Elise is as hard to catch as everyone claims. If you practise a bit on an airfield you get used to it fairly quickly.
If its really out of shape then its bloody hard, but you've probably screwed up big style to get in that position anyway.
- pulled out of carpark covered with frozen snow onto dry road, applied power - wheyhey - frozen snow on rear wheels - must have looked impressive to onlookers tho' 
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