Lotus Exige S2 as a daily driver

[Reavenger]

I've seen a few threads briefly touching on this on here and SELOC but I'm interested in further opinion.

I only do 6000 miles every year including commuting to work and I don't need to go into work every day. I don't carry much or take passengers that often.

Based on mileage I don't think the reliability and running costs will be huge.

I'm prepared for the following:

- Winter tyres when temperatures require
- Lights from other cars shining my eyes, bad visions at junctions, potholes sending huge jolts through the car etc
- Taking the car cover off and having to demist when needed
- Watching for other drivers more closely

I'm a fairly hardy sole when it comes to cars I think and I want that's fun that I can take on a track day or two.

Like I say, my mind isn't made up and I'm interested in opinions or threads I may have missed about driving in the UK.

[kambites]

I do it in an S2 Elise which is much the same apart from having slightly more sensible tyres. Other things to be aware of.

- You need a LOT of space to get in and out because the doors are so thick and the sills so wide. Not so bad in an Elise because you can just roll the roof back and climb over the door, but I can see it being a pain in an Exige.
- Spray on the motorway can be horrific because you're so low down and the windscreen wipers aren't the best.
- The boot is a reasonable size but gets quite hot, which isn't ideal for trips to the supermarket to buy frozen stuff.
- Many passengers wont be able to get in, or worse wont be able to get out again. Passengers who aren't used to the car will try to pull themselves up on the windscreen frame which will break the windscreen.
- There's no spare wheel and nowhere to put one.
- If you're an OCD sort of person, keeping one in perfect condition is very difficult. The front is very prone to stone chips and it's extremely easy to damage bits of the interior squeezing in and out.

I've had my Elise as a daily driver for 8 years now and still adore it.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 29th January 09:17

[gashead1105]

My Sprint has a soft top conversion (although I've never used it). It's currently for sale...

[Reavenger]

kambites said:

I do it in an S2 Elise which is much the same apart from having slightly more sensible tyres. Other things to be aware of.

- You need a LOT of space to get in and out because the doors are so thick and the sills so wide. Not so bad in an Elise because you can just roll the roof back and climb over the door, but I can see it being a pain in an Exige.
- Spray on the motorway can be horrific because you're so low down and the windscreen wipers aren't the best.
- The boot is a reasonable size but gets quite hot, which isn't ideal for trips to the supermarket to buy frozen stuff.
- Many passengers wont be able to get in, or worse wont be able to get out again. Passengers who aren't used to the car will try to pull themselves up on the windscreen frame which will break the windscreen.
- There's no spare wheel and nowhere to put one.
- If you're an OCD sort of person, keeping one in perfect condition is very difficult. The front is very prone to stone chips and it's extremely easy to damage bits of the interior squeezing in and out.

I've had my Elise as a daily driver for 8 years now and still adore it.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 29th January 09:17

Thanks for your thoughts. Interesting insights. Glad you're still enjoying it.

- Fortunately, the places where I park (at work and shopping), space isn't usually as issue. It's not something I really noticed though.
- I hadn't thought that. I hardly ever drive on the motorway although same principle applies to other roads.
- Passenger seat for shopping
- What do people do about the spare wheel problem for Europe trips etc? Guessing a puncture repair kit somewhere.
- I've heard about stone chips on the clam. From my experience, a lot have armourfiend or equivalent. If it didn't, I'd check the paint and get it done I think.

[gashead1105]

Reavenger said:

Thanks for your thoughts. Interesting insights. Glad you're still enjoying it.

- Fortunately, the places where I park (at work and shopping), space isn't usually as issue. It's not something I really noticed though.
- I hadn't thought that. I hardly ever drive on the motorway although same principle applies to other roads.
- Passenger seat for shopping
- What do people do about the spare wheel problem for Europe trips etc? Guessing a puncture repair kit somewhere.
- I've heard about stone chips on the clam. From my experience, a lot have armourfiend or equivalent. If it didn't, I'd check the paint and get it done I think.

Re spare wheels - just make sure you have European breakdown cover. If you are using it as a daily driver you'll probably want a second set of wheels anyway as the standard fit Yoko AO48s are not great in cold temperatures and hopeless with standing water. They as also quite a soft compound.
Most S2s will have armourfend.
Re parking - it's only when you have to park a fiberglass car in a public place that you really start thinking about the size of parking spaces!

Other things to consider with an S2 Exige. You will want the air conditioning to work, the sill pipes are a known weak spot. The engine is right up against the cabin bulkhead and so you do get some heat soaking into the cabin after a little while. The air con is also very helpful for demisting, you can be sat waiting for the windscreen to clear for quite a while without it. Also a lot of them will have modified, a sports exhaust and intake will be the mimimum in most cases so they can be very loud and are not the most luxurious place to sit on a long distance journey. At motorway speeds the radio can be quite hard to hear!

I've loved mine for almost 4 years, but I've now been granted permission for a V6 exige so it's time for someone else to enjoy it.

[kambites]

I've never really found spray a problem on single carriageway roads. Not sure why.

Headlights can be pretty dazzling in the wet, though, and you'll come to hate the idiots who sit on the foot brake in traffic; especially in cars with modern LED brake lights. Similarly, if an SUV is stopped behind you in traffic, its dipped-beam headlights will be pointing straight into all three mirrors, which isn't very nice.

The car comes with a can of tyre gunk stuff, although fortunately I've never had to use it so I've no idea how good it is.


As above, you definitely want working air conditioning, especially if it's going to be kept outdoors.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 29th January 13:33

[Reavenger]

kambites said:

As above, you definitely want working air conditioning, especially if it's going to be kept outdoors.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 29th January 13:33

I have a good insulted car cover that I already use religiously on my current car. Air conditioning was top of my priority too.

[kambites]

Reavenger said:

I have a good insulted car cover that I already use religiously on my current car. Air conditioning was top of my priority too.

A cover doesn't really help unless the car leaks (which it shouldn't). With such a small cabin volume, it takes very little moisture to create a lot of condensation and the best car cover in the world wont actually dehumidify the car for you (unless it's a carcoon or similar). My Elise lives in a dehumidified garage, but when I was rebuilding the garage a few years ago it would take me nearly half an hour some mornings to de-ice and dehumidify the car enough to drive it safety.

[Reavenger]

kambites said:

A cover doesn't really help unless the car leaks (which it shouldn't). With such a small cabin volume, it takes very little moisture to create a lot of condensation and the best car cover in the world wont actually dehumidify the car for you (unless it's a carcoon or similar). My Elise lives in a dehumidified garage, but when I was rebuilding the garage a few years ago it would take me nearly half an hour some mornings to de-ice and dehumidify the car enough to drive it safety.

I didn't realise they were that prone to misting up. I thought a fully working air conditioning and an old trick like a sock full of cat litter on the dashboard would solve the moisture problem.

Thanks for your insights by the way.

[kambites]

Air con probably helps, I haven't got it (didn't want it because I have a garage and it's heavy and failure prone).

I've got some little sacks of silica gel which I keep in the car and they help a bit, but I think you'd be replacing them pretty frequently.


It's certainly doable. I've known several people use Elise S1s as daily drivers with no garage. It's just a bit more hassle, especially when the inside of the windscreen ices up.

[simpo555]

Pros and cons

Car is not practical

Boot ridiculously small. However, you adapt and can surprisingly get a lot of stuff in once it's 'squashy'. Unused space in the cabin helps too. Just avoid going away with the girlfriend and her six pairs of shoes, three handbags etc etc etc

The car is very low. Be prepared when your sandwiched between lorries, busses etc etc. Can be unnerving.

Rear view mirror a complete waste of time. Must be a legal requirement because you can see f..k all out of it. Fortunately it has door mirrors, but reversing can sometimes be a little stressful.

Headlight dazzle at night from oncoming cars can be a pain, it's right in yer face.

Headlights are not up to the performance of the car. They also get dirty very quickly in bad weather which makes matters worse. Need to think about cleaning them on long journeys.

I don't want to think about having a puncture. To me thats a nightmare scenario. I just hope I don't have to wait too long for the breakdown truck.

Idiots parking too close to the drivers door to stop you opening it wide enough so you cant get in. Happened twice but fortunately I could climb in from the passenger side.

Yoko AD 08's in the wet make for squeaky bums.

The upside. It's just a fantastic car I used mine daily when I was under the twenty miles per day. I'm now around the 100 mark so not really faesable. Every drive, every mile is a pleasure. It's a smiles per mile car like no other.

Love the performance, love the look of the car. Find it surprisingly comfortable, even on long trips.

Mine has AC, wouldn't want one without. I see it more as something to keep the interior mist free when the weathers bad.

Mine lives outside. No issues apart from the windows being a pain to dry in the mornings. Wouldn't want a cover.

Running costs are reasonable but be prepared. Had a bill for £2200 this year which set me back a bit.

I prefer the later models with the newer dash and the vastly improved door sill covers which cope more with getting in and out compared to the earlier models.

Too me it should be on the list of something you should do during your lifetime

[dgr]

Lots of good advice above. Couple of thoughts from me, having driven 96k in Elise's since 2004.
Consider an Elise if you are after a daily driver, you'll get a newer car for the same money, rear vision is also better (no wing in the way) which is important. Looked after, the cars can take high mileage very well, the only giveaway on my 66,000 mile, 7 year old 111R was the stone chipped front. I never armour fended that car on the basis that it cost the same as a front end respray. In reality it made no difference to the trade in value when I bought my new Elise last summer.

Best advice I can give is to get out for a long test drive in a couple of variants, make sure you drive in traffic, park in a supermarket, 20 mph limit, dual carriageway etc. The car is great blatting around the lanes, but it's the day to day stuff that will make or break the car for you as a daily. Go talk to your nearest dealer, even if you plan to buy an older car.

[aceofspades]

I ran mine as a daily for a couple of years. 100km daily round trip on backroads at the tail end of Ireland's construction boom. Lots of fun with slippy tillage stuff fallen from trailers, muck from tractor tyres and short-range maximum commitment overtaking of concrete trucks. I did cop on after a while and get a set of road rims with road tyres. I also wound up doing a full re-spray and armour fend, and purchase of a skip. Exige now lives in the garage between track days and weekends of recreational driving. Given length and nature ie road quality of commute it was never going to be a long term proposition but it was pretty enjoyable overall. Earlier comments about filthy windows, headlights, dampness all apply. But with short commute I say go for it. Get a caravan rechargeable dehumidifier, civilised tyres eg Conti Sport and be ready to clean your windows pretty often and you're sorted.

[fridaypassion]

As much as I live and breathe these cars I recently had to retire mine from daily duty. It was doing my head in a bit.

I normally have another car to use but a few weeks ago I ended up between other cars so used the Elise daily for about 4 weeks.

All the little rattles that I would normally put up with started annoying me. The novelty of sliding about in the crap weather wore off quickly. These cars dont like been out in the salt either. It spurred me on to get the interior rattles fixed but no for me its a fun weekend car to be kept in the garage for best

[badgerade]

Not an Exige (by any stretch!) but I've commuted in my VX220 for the last 4 years. It requires a sense of humour, but I find it's worth it - the good days make up for the bad.

Mine lives outside, and I've found a cover helps in the frosty weather. The screen has a habit of freezing on the inside which doesn't happen with the cover on. (Just be aware that you need somewhere to put the wet cover when you take it off the car!)

[piers1]

I had an S1 as a daily for a year on so. Now have had an 111R S2 Elise for 8 years, first 5 years as a daily driver. I still have it as a weekend and holiday car now, as my mileage was becoming larger, more motorway and using the car more as an office! I retired her from daily use after 80k miles

My thoughts -

I loved every single day
It was garaged overnight, so steamy windows was'nt such an issue
I had the roof off practically every single day
It never got tiring
Some say it ruins it using it everyday, it does'nt
No one ever damaged it
I got 30mpg all day everyday
I always took the long way home if the opportunity arose
I drive pretty rapidly everywhere, and never had an issue with AD07's
Even got caught in the snow a few times, they got me home fine

I would say give it a try, you will love it. Don't worry about running costs, it is an insanely cheap car to run, when you factor in the performance and lrelative lack of depreciation

Go for it.

Oh, and I did many many trackdays in between as well as an annual 3k Euro Tour, then still drove to the office the next day

Now 85k, supercharged and striped for Euro fun and trackdays. Happy days

Edited by piers1 on Wednesday 4th February 21:40

[RobM77]

As with many others, I used my Elise S2 111S as a daily driver for 3 or 4 years, so I should imagine an Exige S2, being of similar or better refinement, would be fine.

The only reason I stopped using my Elise every day was that I took up the cello and more recently windsurfing as hobbies and now do a lot of motorway driving, so I need roof bars and a quiet car on the motorway. I had a fantastic time over those 3 or 4 years though and would recommend it in a heartbeat. The only downsides I found were the noise on motorways and the lack of carrying capacity for large objects. The boot is actually surprisingly big, so I never really struggled on combined volume of stuff (bags, shopping etc), it was just obviously quite hard to fit big things in the car and there were no roof bars. If I went back to a A/B road commute then I'd probably get another Elise as a daily driver and keep my 3 series for long journeys and carrying stuff around.

[otolith]

We've got a couple of other cars, but my 111R is used as my default car. I work from home, though, so there's no commuting. It gets left on the drive for one of the other cars if the dog or wife is coming along, if there is a lot to carry, or if it's all boring motorway.

It's not got AC and it needs the windows/roof adjusting to stop a leak, so it was getting very fogged up. I've bought a shower cap for it and put a tray of silica gel cat litter in the car, and the problem of fogging has pretty much gone.

I've upgraded the dipped beam lights to HID, which makes a big difference to their effectiveness.

[Dr_Rick]

I drive an S3 Elise S 14-plate that has just passed the 10k mile mark. It currently looks a little manky because of the residual grit and grime on the motorway. I use it 5-days a week for commuting and do about 60miles a day. Never missed a beat, doesn't even rattle too much. I've got the ArmourFend on the front and sides whcih I'm sure helps. Typically its just me and a small bag, so it works out relatively easy to do the work run. Economy is fine, comfort is only let down over a luxo-barge by the Stage 3 intake and exhaust.

However, last summer when the sun was out and the roof was off, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Even managed to get a bit of a tan ... in Scotland!!

And as has been said elsewhere, if it got too much to do the long straight motorway miles, there were always the A- and B-roads to attack for fun. Can't do that in a diesel Corsa.

[Toaster]

I had a Europa S 45,000 miles in three years was a blast, aircon I suggest is a must and regarding tight parking spaces.....One day I parked in a mother and child bay, I found a very annoyed lady hurling abuse at me, I protested and explained I would never park in a disabled bay so this was lesser of the two weavels at which point her partner came hobbling round the car with one leg and crutches..............I think he needed more space than I did......