RE: Lotus Exige Sport 380: Review

[Striple]

I'd buy one, especially this one, but my worry would be that although it would be good to drive, it'll need more garage time than the equivalent Porsche/Nissan/Audi. For those that have bought recent Lotus cars, what are they like to live with on a daily basis? Are they reliable? You don't really see them that often on the road but they look awesome when you do.

[sidesauce]

LambShank said:

Which is, of course, his prerogative and loss.
There are still people who will buy them irrespective of new models coming out on every day ending in a 'y'.

I would agree if we are talking about a multinational like one of the German brands but Lotus definitely needs as much help as it can get order-wise and losing customers is due to this practise is NOT going to do that. The fact that they've only just made a profit for the first time ever kinda makes that point even stronger.

[hondansx]

Nicodema said:

Ha ha!
It's all down to personality of course. On Thursday I'll be picking up my Sport 350, having specced it myself as I wanted it, including bespoke paintwork. Nobody mentioned the 380, the first I heard was the teaser on Facebook.

Am I upset that my Sport 350 has been trumped or diminished? Not even a little bit. Might seem odd, but I'm totally fine with it.

You see they haven't replace the 350 with the 380, for the same money. They've added it in above, so to get the stuff I wanted on it I would have needed to find another £10K.

Now, will I be switching out to Cup 2s, or swapping in a Lithium battery at some point. Maybe so, but in real life, this thing (my 350) is going to be quicker than our Caterham, and that goes like stink!

Come to think of it, the Seven 360 or 420 never bother me in regards to our R300, because each one is a peach, and the residuals are neither poor or particularly of concern, more a bonus to Caterham or Lotus ownership.

Now, back to waiting for Thursday...

Congratulations!

[Cold]

sidesauce said:

would agree if we are talking about a multinational like one of the German brands but Lotus definitely needs as much help as it can get order-wise and losing customers is due to this practise is NOT going to do that. The fact that they've only just made a profit for the first time ever kinda makes that point even stronger.

Is a faster, considerably more expensive model going to lose them customers? It seems that some of the Porsche owners on here find the idea unpalatable which is why they buy their fixed head Boxsters at £400pm, but surely prospective purchasers of this type of car are a little more informed?

[Black S2K]

Nicodema said:

Ha ha!
It's all down to personality of course. On Thursday I'll be picking up my Sport 350, having specced it myself as I wanted it, including bespoke paintwork. Nobody mentioned the 380, the first I heard was the teaser on Facebook.

Am I upset that my Sport 350 has been trumped or diminished? Not even a little bit. Might seem odd, but I'm totally fine with it.

You see they haven't replace the 350 with the 380, for the same money. They've added it in above, so to get the stuff I wanted on it I would have needed to find another £10K.

Now, will I be switching out to Cup 2s, or swapping in a Lithium battery at some point. Maybe so, but in real life, this thing (my 350) is going to be quicker than our Caterham, and that goes like stink!

Come to think of it, the Seven 360 or 420 never bother me in regards to our R300, because each one is a peach, and the residuals are neither poor or particularly of concern, more a bonus to Caterham or Lotus ownership.

Now, back to waiting for Thursday...

Congratulations, you mad bugger!

I must admit, since I don't really do track days, a boggo 350 (is there such a thing?) would be my choice too.


EDIT; hondansx said (almost) the same above.

Boringly predictable - just like our Watanabe-supercars cars, apparently!

Edited by Black S2K on Tuesday 29th November 14:23

[framerateuk]

Awesome. If I could bring myself to replace the Caterham, it would be with one of these (or quite happily the 350).

[SteveO...]

Earlier this year I bought an Exige V6 Club Racer. Since then Lotus have a have released the Exige 350, the 360 Cup and now this 380. That's probably taken a chunk out of the residuals on my car. I could get upset about that. Instead I drive it - It's the best handling, most communicative and plain most fun car I've owned. It's better looking than the newer ones too!

V6, CR, Cup, 350, 360 or 380. It doesn't matter which you have. They're all slightly differing degrees of brilliant.

[TheRocket]

The model evolution/upgrade is pretty quick a Lotus but on the basis this is being marketed alongside the 350 I can't really see the issue. Great car and I'd love one, keep it up Lotus.

[cib24]

Striple said:

I'd buy one, especially this one, but my worry would be that although it would be good to drive, it'll need more garage time than the equivalent Porsche/Nissan/Audi. For those that have bought recent Lotus cars, what are they like to live with on a daily basis? Are they reliable? You don't really see them that often on the road but they look awesome when you do.

Highly doubt it. Porsche, Audi, VAG are consistently surveyed as one of the most unreliable manufacturers globally when it comes to their cars, and those aren't even in the shop that often.

The Toyota engine in the Lotus is basically bomb proof and the only stuff you hear about going wrong on them are small items on occasion like a squeaky seat or a worn bushing or something else that is pretty minor. And apparently warranty claims are an easy process as well and they try to sort the problem on site at the dealer, and if they can't Lotus HQ isn't very far away in UPS/Fed Ex terms.

[kambites]

Striple said:

I'd buy one, especially this one, but my worry would be that although it would be good to drive, it'll need more garage time than the equivalent Porsche/Nissan/Audi. For those that have bought recent Lotus cars, what are they like to live with on a daily basis? Are they reliable? You don't really see them that often on the road but they look awesome when you do.

My Elise (which is 2004, not sure if you call that "recent") has been my daily driver for just under ten years. In that time it's never broken down but it's had a fair number of niggling issues, some of which were non-trivial to fix. The few I can think of which were significant:

• Head gasket (it's a K-series) - the car was still usable and I drove it for a few months with it leaking with no adverse effects beyond topping the coolant up every now and then.
• Heater resistor pack - A £50 part but a clam-off job to fix which makes it about a day's labour.
• Alternator voltage regulator - I bought one for £15 from a scrap yard and fitted it myself in a couple of hours.
• Complete suspension consumables refresh - about £1500 in parts plus probably 24 hours of my own time. I'd imagine a garage could do it in half that time.
• Both roof tensional cables snapped - about £15 each from ebay for replacements and a bit of faffing about poking them through the roof.

That's about it. I don't think it's too bad for ten years' of daily use. There have also been a handful of very minor irritations like squeaks and rattles from the interior. The total running costs are in my profile if you're interested. Newer cars are generally better; Lotus are pretty good at improving their cars over time.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 29th November 15:49

[Oilchange]

Fantastic Porsche killer. Lotus once again sharpen their blades to slice up the competition. If only I could afford one... :-/

[Onehp]

So if you buy a 911 you'll never miss out. Because all of the following variants are released at lauch:
Carrera
Carrera 4
Carrera S
Carrera 4s
Targa
Targa 4
Cab
Cab 4
S with Powerpack
GTS
GT3
GT3 RS
GT2
GT2 RS
Turbo
Turbo S
Cab Turbo
Cab Turbo S
Speedster (maybe)
R
Classic
(missed a few)


And the respective facelift of all the above. Of course. If it comes.

So you'll never ever order to find something else is launched that you fancy in the mean time. McLaren is the same.

(Irony applies to the above )

Seriously On topic: lovely car, sport 350 would do fine for me. More versions incoming.

[Vee12V]

I need to drive one first, but they might be enough changes all together to trade in my plain old Exige V6. Great job Lotus, now get the word out.

[SFO]

there's a 350 Sport Special Edition which is £5k more than standard 350 Sport with the following standard equipment:

lightweight forged alloys, lightweight brake discs, lightweight CF seats, LiOn battery and new front access panel -- all fitted to 380 as well

full leather or alcantara interior
cruise control
floor mats
4 colours only: old english white, essex blue, dark metallic grey and motorsport black.

https://www.thelotusforums.com/latest-news/lotus-c...

not an easy choice between this car and the 380 when the 380 is at least £7500 more

[Hellers]

WCZ said:

Porsche911R said:

Be a 410 CUP soon ;-)

That's the thing with Lotus, you think you are buying the best newest car and up pops another,
I know all manufacturers do it, but most give 2 to 3 years warning and you know what's coming.
IE a R, GTS, GT so you buy at the top and get to have a top of the range car for 3 years etc

Lotus kill resale and ps off buyers due to all these cars every few months and MASSIVE DISCOUNTS.
you can see it now with the Elise Cup 220 and Elise cup 250 both on sale at the same time atm !!!
And if you ordered a Cup 220 3 months ago you would be a bit pissed off.

So expect an Exige CUP 410 in 6 weeks !

Lotus have always done it, sell you a car in the show room while they have newer cars out back.

even people who bought last years Cup 360's ended up with a poorer car at top money than a new basic Sport 350 which is lighter and faster and cheaper !

Here is another example , buy this car from Bell and colvill, it's brand new, but already old stock and outdated and more expensive and more weight than this new Sport 380 !!! but it's a brand new CUP car which is slower !!!

who is going to buy that at £68k now the new ones £67k

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/l...

disagree with lots of thing you say but this 100% right imo

The only way to get 410hp out of the current engine is to strap on the additional chargecooler just like in the Evora 410 Sport. This new 380 doesn't have it. IMHO, the additional chargecooler is unlikely in the Exige now, because of the added penalty of the extra weight which would be a trade-off too far.. so I believe this is just about as far as they will go for now, until they possibly decide to jump to a 430/450 run-out version sometime before the new platform in 2020.

Edited by Hellers on Tuesday 29th November 16:54

[DaveGB]

So a British manufacturer produces a cracking car and fair chunk of people want to just moan No wonder the Aussies refer to brits as whinging poms.

Cheer up you miserable buggers and celebrate the fact we're being spoilt by Lotus at the moment with cars they are producing. I'm not sure whether to buy another Exige for track work, probably a Sports 350 or to trade the Evora 400 in for the 410 and just have one toy.

Either way , all cracking cars whichever you choose. Those who dismiss Lotus without ever driving one, are really missing out on great driver cars.

Go test drive one......go on

[RamboLambo]

£67k for a lotus is serious Wonga when it will be worth £40k in a years time.

[DaveGB]

RamboLambo said:

£67k for a lotus is serious Wonga when it will be worth £40k in a years time.

A true mini McLaren then

Some people do spout some crap. Oldest Exige V6S are low £40's still , at 3 years old vs original price of mid £50's.

Exige Cups are mid 50's

Do you want to share how much money your 650 has lost vs list price new ?

Edited by DaveGB on Tuesday 29th November 18:10

[gm77]

Striple said:

I'd buy one, especially this one, but my worry would be that although it would be good to drive, it'll need more garage time than the equivalent Porsche/Nissan/Audi. For those that have bought recent Lotus cars, what are they like to live with on a daily basis? Are they reliable? You don't really see them that often on the road but they look awesome when you do.

I bought an Elise S Club Racer two years ago (my first Lotus) and its used as my daily driver. It now has 18,000 miles on the clock, took me around Europe last year (2,500 miles in 5 days) and earlier this month I drove to Spa, spent the day on the circuit, and then drove back.

In all that time it has only been off the road when I unfortunately hit a fox, and it needed repairing. Other than that, it has never let me down. Niggles have been limited to minor adjustment needed to the gear change linkage (just to make it sharper - it was still functional)and there was a minor delamination of the headlights. All covered under warranty, and all no fuss whatsoever.

I have been so impressed with it in fact, that last year I bought an Evora 400 (my second Lotus) to be used as a daily driver by my wife as the back seats could accommodate children - now with 11,000 miles. We had a problem with our alarm that was an easy fix, and the gear change cable came off the gear selector arm on the gearbox once, also an easy fix. There are a new squeaks and creaks that will be fixed when it next goes in for its service.

All in all, I couldn't be happier. Both cars are keepers!

[otolith]

RamboLambo said:

£67k for a lotus is serious Wonga when it will be worth £40k in a years time.

What's that based on? I can't find a 2015 Exige for 40k, and they started out cheaper.