My First Lotus

[MazdaMark82]

I am basically looking for a bit of advice on the Lotus Elise S1 or S2,ie Running costs, practicality (if any) and just general views on your own experiences of ownership with either models.

I am looking at a budget of around £13-14k

Which model would you say is a best first buy?

[MazdaMark82]

That's great thank you,

Insurance is not that bad I am in my 30's and have had company cars for the last 10 years, so certain insurance companies have said they still take that into consideration even though its not my own policy,

I haven't driven an S2 as yet, but will look to do that when I eventually get a day off, Are the S2 cars slightly bigger than the S1 vehicles?

[MazdaMark82]

JACK6284 said:

My first Elise was an S2, the 111S suggested. They may be slightly bigger but its not much. Two main points with the S2 are it's easier to get into because it has a lower sill and the other is that from around 2002 onwards they have a decent soft top that is much easier to put on and take off.

I have an S1 now and love it. Its fast,nimble and economical at around 38mpg! I have just had the big "C" service done which costs around £ 500-600ish. This service includes the cambelt change and other services are much cheaper with independents providing excellent facilities. If you like to do your own spannering then they are not too difficult to work on.

That helps that the sils are lower on a S2 because the S1 I drove was a bit of a squeeze to get into with the roof on lol. But im sure it is something you get use to, I know people are suggesting that the 111S is the model to go for with my budget but are the normal tourers not any good?

[MazdaMark82]

kambites said:

My profile contains the full running costs for my S2 111S, using it as a low-mileage daily driver for the last 7 years.

Your cost breakdown is really helpful,

Im hopefully going to get out and drive an S2 at some point next week, I do really like the look of the S1 but im thinking that an S2 is going to be better to get in and out of, and obviously low mileage S1 models are becoming harder to find and also higher budgets.

[MazdaMark82]

rob999 said:

If you want to have a look around my crappy satsuma drop me a pm.

Thanks Rob, that would be great if that's not too much trouble, will PM after 24hours, cant do them on here until then.

And your car looks far from crappy..lol