Lotus Exige V6 or Porsche Boxster GTS?

[olliete]

GFWilliams said:

So today Romans International kindly let me test drive their Boxster GTS on some of my favourite local roads. I wanted to really like it and was ready to make the swap but unfortunately it left me quite disappointed. I'll try and summarise some thoughts...

For the Boxster:
Lovely place to sit in a comfortable and quiet environment
Lots more boot space, front and back
PDK is just brilliant as I already knew. Gearbox isn't great in the Lotus.
Great Stereo & Heated Seat
Power steering
Quick and good retractable roof

For the Lotus:
Much much faster - the real difference here is the power delivery thanks to the supercharger. The Lotus delivers a lump of torque from low down well as with the Boxster you have to really rev it out and it feels like it's lacking in the mid range. I remember thinking this when I did a road trip in a Cayman S a few years ago.
Sounds much better - a little unfair as I have an aftermarket exhaust, but the Porsche felt a bit flat well as the Lotus is a crazy raspy V6. No competition here at all for me.
Handling - you feel the weight of the Porsche here. I'm not going to say the Porsche was bad because it's not, it's brilliant. The Lotus is just better though.
Placing the car - admittedly something you would get used to with owning the car, but with the Boxster all the edges just fade out of view a bit. In the Lotus you can see the arches above the front wheels which means you can very precisely place the car on the road which gives you more enjoyment.
Steering feel - sometimes too much in the Lotus, but by comparison the Porsche doesn't have any steering feel.
Looks - When I drove back to Romans my Lotus was parked outside and all I could think was "that's more special"


So conclusion is keep the Lotus, I can't sell a car this great! In order to get a faster car I'm going to have to spend quite a lot of money and would have to start looking at things like 997 Turbos which are out of my price bracket for running cost reasons. For now I think sell the Caterham and buy a sensible daily driver with the money.

Good decision - if i were you, I'd be looking at a decent lease deal (I'm sure one of those Insta-Leasers will give you a pretty sharp deal if you throw in a few hashtags!!)

I looked at your Lotus before you bough it from B&C - I would have loved to own it but i couldn't get the finances sorted.

[shirt]

If I were you I'd keep the exige and get something cheap and utilitarian for work and daily driving. Doesn't have to be boring, something used which has depreciated like a brick.

Fwiw you can also swap the fuel tank for a forge 60litre item for more range. I took the tank out of my Elise to fit forge silicon hoses to the side heater pipes and I reckon you could swap it over easy enough in a couple of hours.

[RobDickinson]

What happened to the merc, sold for the lotus?

[GFWilliams]

RobDickinson said:

What happened to the merc, sold for the lotus?

It was getting high milage and I was bored of it so sold it.

Intention was to keep Caterham and Exige and share driving between both, but my Caterham now feels slow compared to the Exige which takes away from the fun!

[zebra]

Boxster every time as the Exige just isn't special enough, over priced and the V6 lump comes out of a taxi.

[RobDickinson]

zebra said:

Boxster every time as the Exige just isn't special enough, over priced and the V6 lump comes out of a taxi.

epic thread fail

[bobbo89]

You say your selling the Caterham to free up cash for your business?

Now I'm not well up on this kind of thing but surely you could get something comfy and hassle free on a lease deal purely for the slog to and from work? I know some people like to own their cars but if your a business owner it seems like a sensible option...

[GFWilliams]

bobbo89 said:

You say your selling the Caterham to free up cash for your business?

Now I'm not well up on this kind of thing but surely you could get something comfy and hassle free on a lease deal purely for the slog to and from work? I know some people like to own their cars but if your a business owner it seems like a sensible option...

This is the plan

[johnwilliams77]

Too much steering feeling, feel stupid in a yellow lotus? Meh! No brainier

[SirSquidalot]

Boxster with a PDK for daily duties and the Caterham at the weekends, perfect 2 car garage?

[LaurasOtherHalf]

GFWilliams said:

bobbo89 said:

You say your selling the Caterham to free up cash for your business?

Now I'm not well up on this kind of thing but surely you could get something comfy and hassle free on a lease deal purely for the slog to and from work? I know some people like to own their cars but if your a business owner it seems like a sensible option...

This is the plan

Cheap hot hatch deal?

[VX0075]

Get yourself over to the cheap lease thread .

Good choice on keeping the exige!

[RobM77]

GFWilliams said:

So today Romans International kindly let me test drive their Boxster GTS on some of my favourite local roads. I wanted to really like it and was ready to make the swap but unfortunately it left me quite disappointed. I'll try and summarise some thoughts...

For the Boxster:
Lovely place to sit in a comfortable and quiet environment
Lots more boot space, front and back
PDK is just brilliant as I already knew. Gearbox isn't great in the Lotus.
Great Stereo & Heated Seat
Power steering
Quick and good retractable roof

For the Lotus:
Much much faster - the real difference here is the power delivery thanks to the supercharger. The Lotus delivers a lump of torque from low down well as with the Boxster you have to really rev it out and it feels like it's lacking in the mid range. I remember thinking this when I did a road trip in a Cayman S a few years ago.
Sounds much better - a little unfair as I have an aftermarket exhaust, but the Porsche felt a bit flat well as the Lotus is a crazy raspy V6. No competition here at all for me.
Handling - you feel the weight of the Porsche here. I'm not going to say the Porsche was bad because it's not, it's brilliant. The Lotus is just better though.
Placing the car - admittedly something you would get used to with owning the car, but with the Boxster all the edges just fade out of view a bit. In the Lotus you can see the arches above the front wheels which means you can very precisely place the car on the road which gives you more enjoyment.
Steering feel - sometimes too much in the Lotus, but by comparison the Porsche doesn't have any steering feel.
Looks - When I drove back to Romans my Lotus was parked outside and all I could think was "that's more special"


So conclusion is keep the Lotus, I can't sell a car this great! In order to get a faster car I'm going to have to spend quite a lot of money and would have to start looking at things like 997 Turbos which are out of my price bracket for running cost reasons. For now I think sell the Caterham and buy a sensible daily driver with the money.

That's pretty much the impression I got from trying an Exige S and a Cayman S.

The other negative I found with the Porsche was the variable ratio steering: at about 30 degrees of wheel movement (if I remember correctly, or was it 30 degrees of wheel movement?) the teeth on the rack start getting closer together - on my test drive I ran over a couple of apexes with the inside wheels and just couldn't get used to it at all.

Your plan to chop in the 7 for a daily driver sounds good to me. It needn't be boring if you choose the right model - BMW and to a lesser extent Mercedes make some lovely well balanced saloons.