The REAL cost of owning a Lotus Elise

[LRGS2]

Well here is the real cost of owning my first Elise over a 6 and a half year period. This was a 2003 Sports Tourer 1.8 K-Series 120BHP. A few HGF during my ownership, but hopefully not all of you guys will be as unlucky as me! Despite all of these costs I have the Lotus bug and have ended up buying a lovely Lotus Elise SC Jim Clark Type 25

MILES COST - DESCRIPTION
00000 £24995 - New Price
01077 £57.82 - 1st Service
05058 £338.85 - Janspeed Sport Exhaust (Fitted)
05990 £272.76 - Pipercross Viper Air Filter (Fitted)
07788 £285.40 - A Service
14614 £375.72 - A Service
14614 £202.19 - Bridgestone Rear Tyres
14614 £5.41 - Anti-Freeze
14614 £4.30 - Keyfob Battery
21872 £91.65 - Radiator Coolant Leak
23241 £902.41 - B Service, MOT, Break fluid, Oil leak from cam cassette, Front & rear brake pads, Front Yokohoma AD07 tyres
23241 £18.04 - Anti-Freeze & Pressure Cap
29462 £299.62 - EBC Turbo Groove Brake Disc Set
29462 £1139.79 - A Service, Fit brake disc, Investigate coolant loss, Replace alternator belt, Replace rear tyres, MOT, Replace damper caps, Brake fluid change
29462 £29.32 - Shelf Divider
31470 £1106.56 - HGF #1, Cambelt
36000 £5.70 - Anti-Freeze
36768 £401.02 - A Service, Brake fluid change, Replace pair of rear shock absorbers
36768 £2505.18 - HGF #2, Piper 633 camshafts, Vernier pulleys, New head, Cambelt£2505.18
36768 £38.19 - Adjust tracking
44283 £523.25 - Replace Front & Rear Tyres, Yokohoma AD07 £523.25
44404 £39.10 - MIL engine warning light investigation
44989 £54.02 - MOT
46567 £405.06 - B Service
47345 £39.10 - Coolant loss and steam investigation!
47572 £989.37 - HGF #3, Water pump, Cambelt
47775 £21.39 - Number plates

TOTAL £35416.22


YEAR VED
2003 £140.00
2004 £145.00
2005 £145.00
2006 £150.00
2007 £150.00
2008 £165.00
2009 £170.00

TOTAL £1065.00


YEAR INSURANCE
2003 £758.96
2004 £881.98
2005 £771.00
2006 £458.00
2007 £400.00
2008 £420.00
2009 £350.00

TOTAL £4039.94


Loan Interest £2324.72

Petrol 47572 miles at £3.50/gallon (33MPG Average) = £5045.51

GRAND TOTAL £47621.39

Sold for £11000

Cost per mile (including depreciation) = £0.77

Cost per year = £5634.06

Wear Items
14000 Rear Tyres
23000 Front Tyres
23000 Brake Pads
30000 Brake Discs

[LRGS2]

Jim,

You should know by now I am very sympathetic in my driving style! My previous car was never bounced off of the rev limiter until those two little figure got to at least 90! Just because those stupid brummy (no offence to brummies in general, just Rover engine building ones) engine builders didn't know the meaning of tolerance or were half way through their tea break and forgot the finer details of engine liner heights!

You as well as many other people are one of the lucky ones, but I do seem to remember you had a top end rebuild at which point they said HGF was coming very soon!

I brought a Lotus to drive like a racing car and I did not expect it to expire like a cheap Italian so often.

However, I have been assured that the Toyota engine is bullet proof!

[LRGS2]

Mine had a new head which was a known good hard one from DVA. I was hoping to get away with the 2 thou protrusion of the liners by removing the shims on the end of the head gasket to get a bit more bite as this is trick that sometimes works. Unfortunately for me it didn't! So without fitting over sized liners or dropping the engine and skimming the block my problem would not go away so on went another gasket and off she went to Belgium.