RE: PH Carpool: Lotus Elise

[300bhp/ton]

Blown2CV said:

Could you use one as a daily driver, doing a fair amount of motorway miles or is it not comfy enough? What sort of realistic fuel consumption?

MPG wise will vary tbh. I've had a couple of MGF's as has my brother and a couple of VVC powered R200 BRMs. All weigh about 1050kg or there abouts. So the S1 is circa 300kg lighter.

In the above I've averaged 27mpg through to 43mpg depending on how I've driven. I see no reason why an Elise wouldn't be any different and arguably better by a couple of mpg given most scenarios.


As for comfort. Well that's down to each individual. I think the biggest compromise is getting in and out of them. The rest of it is no worse than most older/classic sports cars. Personally I'd not see a problem using one daily. But then I've come from a background of running a Defender as a daily, a stripped out modded V8 TR7 as a daily (60-80 miles a day) and currently a smart Roadster as a daily (sometimes as much as 190-200 miles a day).

None are Elises, but I can't see that an Elise would truly be any more of a chore to use.

That said, some people find or claim that even something as comfy as a 2.0 Focus is way too difficult to use daily.....

[Mr E]

Rawwr said:

kambites said:

Mr E said:

There's plastic in a S2?

I thought exactly the same bits were made of plastic, I must admit.

Mine was all covered in alcantara. It was like sitting inside the knee-high boot of an expensive hooker.

Mine is hookers boot apart from the top of the dashboard pod and the sill covers (which are scuffed and cracked)

Blown2CV said:

Could you use one as a daily driver, doing a fair amount of motorway miles or is it not comfy enough? What sort of realistic fuel consumption?

Comfortable enough, and rides better than you'd think. Very very noisy (and mine requires earplugs due to the stupid pipes). Fuel consumption is very good indeed.

[Rawwr]

I used to commute to Cardigan from Cambridge and back every week. 310 miles there, 310 miles back. The Elise was more comfortable than the Impreza and Escort I had use of at the time, possibly because the seats forced you to sit in the right position.

[zebedee]

very, very comfortable, have driven for hours and hours at a time and always get out feeling great, but it is noisy in there, your ears ring afterwards! Seats are great in mine - very thin but my wife always falls asleep in it on motorway journeys and she can't normally sleep in cars. She doesn't sleep on b-roads though!

[JBanx]

I love mine to death (s1 111s). I will never part with it; ever.

makes me grin when driving it, I give it a second glance when I've parked up and I go everywhere I can in it. It's very easy to become really attached to one of these little cars. They are brilliant.

[Moospeed]

Nice words about seloc? That'll never catch on.

Good write up. Although they are like real minis in that it's hard to resist upgrades the base S1 is still a precision tool for delivering proper driving pleasure.

Only thing... I thought your grand upwards a year was overly generous.

[Cotty]

Good write up. I am about to take the plunge with an S2 111s

"Girls don't like it apparently" go on why not?

[andy_s]

Short skirts, high sills...

[wackojacko]

Black and Red are the best colours for the S1.



Great write up, alot of smiles for the money.

[chevronb37]

Wonderful cars in S1 or S2 form. Still not driven an S1 Elise, but I was stunned by how much more alert the Exige felt compared to the 111R I had before.

[Madfish.]

Great Write up, I really miss mine....still the new kitchen is ace

chevronb37 said:

Wonderful cars in S1 or S2 form. Still not driven an S1 Elise, but I was stunned by how much more alert the Exige felt compared to the 111R I had before.

Hi Andy

[stew-S160]

Biggest regret in the past few years= selling my Elise S160.

[chevronb37]

Madfish. said:

Great Write up, I really miss mine....still the new kitchen is ace

chevronb37 said:

Wonderful cars in S1 or S2 form. Still not driven an S1 Elise, but I was stunned by how much more alert the Exige felt compared to the 111R I had before.

Hi Andy

Hello matey! How are you? I finally saw the light and went the S1 route, albeit in hardtop form. You off to Silverstone Classic this year?

[Cotty]

andy_s said:

Short skirts, high sills...

Im obviously not dating the right (wrong) girls

[pthelazyjourno]

Moospeed said:

Nice words about seloc? That'll never catch on.

Good write up. Although they are like real minis in that it's hard to resist upgrades the base S1 is still a precision tool for delivering proper driving pleasure.

Only thing... I thought your grand upwards a year was overly generous.

Sorry, I'll have a word with myself and not do it again!!

I always wanted an original Mini, there's nothing like them. I struggle with the idea of spending thousands of pounds on something that'll go rusty and disintegrate though (hence the plastic car)! I did that with a Mk1 MR2, it was painful.

£1000+ is the amount I'd want to have on hand - now I've changed lots of bits I can't imagine it being that much again for a few years. Depends how you go about it - whether you carry out preventative maintenance at one point, or whether you change things as and when down the years - stuff will still need doing over 3, 4, 5 years though.

As mentioned, it's so, so easy to get to a grand as well. Tyres and a new exhaust, for instance, and you're there. Or a clutch and a new radiator, and you could be comfortably over a grand. New brakes, new bushes, and with fitting again there's another grand. New wheel bearings, new dampers, another grand. See a pattern? Not saying you'll have to change everything - but if you keep the Elise for a number of years, and do decent mileage in it, there's a lot of potential for bigish bills - I just wouldn't want to run one without a budget just in case.

All consumables, all similar money to other cars, but some of them wear out so bloody quickly. I guess it gets driven pretty hard, but there you go.

[Esprit]

Nice write-up Phil, covers things off nicely. I've never had HGF with any of my Elises/Exiges... although the less said about my current K-series, the better... mind you, the head gasket has never been a problem!

[ESOG]

I have to comment on two things I noticed quoted in the article:

The 1st being he says, "It shifts too, atleast up to 60mph..." What exactly does that mean?

2ndly, "It does however go through consumables quickly... a recent clutch change cost $500..." I am not sure if stating the cost of the clutch change was a negative implication regarding price or just a mere statement of the price since he was going the way of mentioning having it changed. But if it was to imply that the price was high he is sorely mistaken. Thats actually very reasonable. My girlfriend owns a 2007 Subaru Legacy NA, and we had to have the clutch dont very recently, the parts and labor totalled close to $1,300!! Now that is ALOT of money!

I think if you are one of the lucky few to own such a car as the Lotus, you should be educated enough from the various owners boards and information sites to be aware of how to shop smartly for parts and be able to locate a reliable mechanic to work on it for you. That being said, there are I am sure many folks out there who bought the Elise as a poser machine and are none the wiser when it comes to maintenance; those are the folks that I am certain get beat over the head and pay a premium for parts and labor. A seasoned mechanic is sure to spot a sucker a mile away, especially if it is not a reputable Lotus garage, and quote the fellow an astronomical price for labor, of course based upon the fact that "it is a Lotus sir, lots of labor intensive time must be put it into it. its not a regular car you know, it is not as if the brakes set up is the same on this car as it is for your wifes Ford..."

[pthelazyjourno]

Esprit said:

Nice write-up Phil, covers things off nicely. I've never had HGF with any of my Elises/Exiges... although the less said about my current K-series, the better... mind you, the head gasket has never been a problem!

Thanks George. Your head gasket has never been used for more than 3 miles at a time has it?! With the rebuild periods of some of the VHPDs (not yours, I'd hope it'll go for longer once it's been put together properly) I'd be interested to know if any of them have had HG issues before they've gone bang!

ESOG said:

I have to comment on two things I noticed quoted in the article:

The 1st being he says, "It shifts too, atleast up to 60mph..." What exactly does that mean?

2ndly, "It does however go through consumables quickly... a recent clutch change cost $500..." I am not sure if stating the cost of the clutch change was a negative implication regarding price or just a mere statement of the price since he was going the way of mentioning having it changed. But if it was to imply that the price was high he is sorely mistaken. Thats actually very reasonable. My girlfriend owns a 2007 Subaru Legacy NA, and we had to have the clutch dont very recently, the parts and labor totalled close to $1,300!! Now that is ALOT of money!

I think if you are one of the lucky few to own such a car as the Lotus, you should be educated enough from the various owners boards and information sites to be aware of how to shop smartly for parts and be able to locate a reliable mechanic to work on it for you. That being said, there are I am sure many folks out there who bought the Elise as a poser machine and are none the wiser when it comes to maintenance; those are the folks that I am certain get beat over the head and pay a premium for parts and labor. A seasoned mechanic is sure to spot a sucker a mile away, especially if it is not a reputable Lotus garage, and quote the fellow an astronomical price for labor, of course based upon the fact that "it is a Lotus sir, lots of labor intensive time must be put it into it. its not a regular car you know, it is not as if the brakes set up is the same on this car as it is for your wifes Ford..."

It shifts = it accelerates quickly. After 60ish, the standard car runs out of puff a bit, a mixture of the low power and pretty crap aero. It'll still go, but above that it's definitely not in the same league as other performance cars - check out the 0-60 and 0-100 times to see how performance tails off (I know numbers aren't everything but it's a good indicator in this case).

I actually said it gets through consumables quickly, and that parts are cheap! My clutch itself actually cost £100, that's silly cheap. I was just listing the costs as an example of what I paid, not moaning about costs. I also thought the £130 for a service was also incredibly competitive - my friend paid more to service his Mondeo, and my other mate's 147 cost £170 **more** to change the clutch than my Elise. Incidentally - I bet labour was similar with the Subaru - £500 vs $1300 - how much of that was for parts?

So yeah - that was just intended to be examples of running costs - not a whine of "ooooh I hate Lotus and it's oh so dear to run and all the garages are nasty and charging me a billion pounds"...

[zebedee]

ESOG said:

That being said, there are I am sure many folks out there who bought the Elise as a poser machine and are none the wiser when it comes to maintenance; those are the folks that I am certain get beat over the head and pay a premium for parts and labor. A seasoned mechanic is sure to spot a sucker a mile away, especially if it is not a reputable Lotus garage, and quote the fellow an astronomical price for labor, of course based upon the fact that "it is a Lotus sir, lots of labor intensive time must be put it into it. its not a regular car you know, it is not as if the brakes set up is the same on this car as it is for your wifes Ford..."

You are American so I will give you the benefit of not knowing the Elise in your jome market, but suffice to say the Elise was generally bought by enthusiasts, and still is, not by poseurs. If you see an Elise, the owner is generally a friendly petrolhead and the car is generally driven as it was intended, not like lots of other performance cars you often get stuck behind and think "why did you buy that as you clearly can't even drive properly?" There is a real community too, so you are right, people share info re: maintenance, suppliers and garages. They can be quite labour intensive though in areas because the car is so compact, needs to have floor removed for certain jobs etc etc. Reality is they are simple cars though, especially the S1, no air con, no central locking, no power windows, no cruise control, really just 5 wheels, some seats, an engine, a lovely chassis and suspension and a draping of plastic over the top! You don't need to be lucky to own one either, they are still very good value, but get on the bandwagon quick, prices are rising...

[griffo20022]

zebedee said:

why did you HATE them?! Strong word.

Mine is my LIFE car I believe, to answer someone else's post.

Possibly too strong a word to use getting all technical, however I just really didn't take to their looks, That was all it was really, their aesthetics. I've never driven one so I wouldn't dare comment on their driveability etc. I just didn't like the look of the things.

As I say though I have now converted haha!