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

[Herman Toothrot]

Interesting. If it wasn't for the HGF and upgrades at the same time it would have been reasonable, 3 x HGF would piss me off no end, I feel quite justified avoiding K Series cars reading that.

[RobM77]

Crumbs. Any reason for three head gasket failures that close to each other? Surely it's not the car, just the gasket, the head, the way it was fitted or the way it was tightened down?

[Grinnders]

3 x HGF cannot be just coincidence!

Do you make sure the car is up to temperature before giving it the beans?

[Olivera]

£47k!

Edit: £5634 per year is actually not bad, since you did a quite a few miles and hopefully a got lot of enjoyment out of it.

Edited by Olivera on Sunday 31st January 23:27

[lewis s]

you need to tell me where you are getting petrol for £3.50 per gallon

[Scuffers]

that's a pretty honest account by the looks of it...

Looking at the list, I am guessing it had issues earlier with loosing water etc? (hindsight and all that).

lewis s said:

you need to tell me where you are getting petrol for £3.50 per gallon

I would suggest that's the average cost over the 6+ years....

[Gooby]

I could blow this into the weeds...

[RobM77]

I keep my ownership diary on PH pretty up to date, so if anyone wants an alternative look at a K series Elise running costs, feel free to check it out.

[kevin ritson]

Herman Toothrot said:

Interesting. If it wasn't for the HGF and upgrades at the same time it would have been reasonable, 3 x HGF would piss me off no end, I feel quite justified avoiding K Series cars reading that.

If you ask mechanics that don't have a clue what they're doing, yes.

[Herman Toothrot]

kevin ritson said:

Herman Toothrot said:

Interesting. If it wasn't for the HGF and upgrades at the same time it would have been reasonable, 3 x HGF would piss me off no end, I feel quite justified avoiding K Series cars reading that.

If you ask mechanics that don't have a clue what they're doing, yes.

The fact it went once is bad enough. I love the way people ask "did you warm it up properly etc", what a crap engine if unless you follow a protocol every start its expected to be un-reliable.

[kambites]

Herman Toothrot said:

The fact it went once is bad enough. I love the way people ask "did you warm it up properly etc", what a crap engine if unless you follow a protocol every start its expected to be un-reliable.

Yup, it requires significantly more care than most engines which is why they're so rubbish in things like Rovers where the owners tend not to care about their cars. If you're the kind of person who looks after a car though (and lets face it, you shouldn't stress any engine from cold if you want it to last) they are fine(ish) though.

The difference in fuel economy is enough to pay for a new head gasket every couple of years anyway.

Edited by kambites on Monday 1st February 11:51

[kevin ritson]

Herman Toothrot said:

kevin ritson said:

Herman Toothrot said:

Interesting. If it wasn't for the HGF and upgrades at the same time it would have been reasonable, 3 x HGF would piss me off no end, I feel quite justified avoiding K Series cars reading that.

If you ask mechanics that don't have a clue what they're doing, yes.

The fact it went once is bad enough. I love the way people ask "did you warm it up properly etc", what a crap engine if unless you follow a protocol every start its expected to be un-reliable.

Really? Wring any engine from cold, perhaps apart from a Coventry Climax and see how you get on.

I was told to look out for Nikasil wear on my Puma. Many a 111R owner is warned about bearing or cam lobe damage. VXs apparently have timing chain issues. There's no such thing as a bullet proof engine. At least not as long as they make use of moving parts...

Edited by kevin ritson on Monday 1st February 12:20

[Grinnders]

I speak from experience of having had an S1 for 9 years from new. Used everyday (quite often for commutes 5-8 miles) so not good for the engine really but not 1 sniff of HGF.

I never booted it until it at least registered something. At least 60ish (if i recall correctly) even if it wasn't the norm 84.

I have a 911 now and similarly take care until the needle has left the stop on 60.

If you don't look after your engine, it won't look after you.... even F1 drivers know that

Edited by Grinnders on Monday 1st February 12:38

[RobM77]

I find the comments about warming the engine throug etc interesting. Am I the only one here who keeps to small throttle openings and low/free revs until the oil and water have warmed through properly? I thought everyone did that? Surely that's just basic mechanical sympathy; the same that I'd give to my keyboard (by not hammering the keys really hard), my lawnmower (by not getting it clogged up), my paintbrushes (by washing them after each use) etc etc - the list goes on! I'm careful with my stuff

[Spunagain]

Hi All

Here are my costs after 11 years (12 now but not much to add) Cross posted form Seloc...

I thought I would total up my costs over that time to give people an idea of the costs over a typical cars 'early' life!

I picked the Elise up on a rainy spring day 11 years ago from Bell and Coleville. My Dad took me down to pick it up and he clearly did not approve, but the car grew on him and when I almost decided to sell when my daughter started school he helped pursuade me not to!

I have had huge amounts of fun with it, a couple of hill climbs and trackdays and runs with friends. It has taken me and Mrs Spunagain on great touring holidays; Northumberland, Scotland and the Lakes stick in the mind!
In 2000 my best man got me to the church on time in it! My Daughters love it and one of my eldest’s earliest spoken phrases was "Weeeeeee roundabout!"

The Elise is my day to day car as its is fun and pretty frugal to run, tyres last for ages (compared with my ZT260 anyway) and I get 38 to 42mpg during day to day (not fairy footed) driving. I once got 46mpg over a tank last summer but got very bored doing it! I got 12mpg over a tank at Bedford Autodrome on a wet February Monday which is where my login name comes from!

I have one brown trowser moment when Mrs Spunagain spun the car off a roundabout on the A1 in Scotland, the car did a 180 and all 4 wheels jumped the curb – leaving just scuffed alloys - no geo problems at all! An XR3 came up and pointed and laghed as he went round the rounbdabout as we were gathering our thoughts. At least he did until he skidded on the same patch of oil did a 180 and wound up next to us! Shortly after that we both did a skid pan day at Thruxton!


The bad bits: £1900 of repair costs is bearable:
Broken front number plate
Split steering rack gaiter
Worn trackrod ends
Broken exhaust mount
LHF wheel bearing
Worn handbrake cable
2 Boot hinges
Repack silencer
RHR swivel joint
Corroded headlight
Lambda sensor
Siezed radiator fan (Clam off job)
Rear dampers
Front dampers
Broken exhaust bracket
Throttle pot

But none of these caused the car to break down or let me down and were either fixed myself at home or done at the 9000 mile service. Speaking of which, Sportomotive have looked after the car for many years and I can recommend them as being friendly, cost effective and really know their stuff. I won't comment on my experiences elsewhere as it was a long time ago.

£6500 in service costs is not too bad for a performance car over 11 years as it includes all servicing and tyres. etc.

£3800 on upgrades is pretty restrained in my view! I bought the elise as the Super 140 was a dealer special including stainless sports exhaust, K&N panel filter and “Icon” engine chip from BBR (Brodie Brittan Racing).
The difference between that and stock pursuaded me to buy the car! Since then I have added:
I have added the following goodies:
ITG carbonfibre air box and filter
Ceramic coated tubular exhaust manifold
De-flashed and flowed inlet manifold
52mm throttle body
Sabre gas flowed and ported cylinder head with uprated gasket
CF Hardtop
Leather seats

The car has been dynoed at 146BHP and 145 ft lbs of torque. The mods have been done with road driving in mind and is very tractable and pull like a train even at low revs. I average about 38-42 MPG.

The Icon chip with the head work needs super unleaded to run without pinking. Last summer I disabled it and the bum dyno did notice a slight loss of power, but it was much cheaper to fill and the MPG jumped from an average 38 – 42mpg.


14/05/1998 Purchase 0 £24,273.00 Bell & Coleville Purchase
05/06/1998 100 m service 1170 £72.37 Bell&Coleville Service
22/04/1999 A service 8644 £247.83 Bell&Coleville Service
17/01/2000 2 Pirelli £197.99 Headley tyres Service
25/04/2000 A service 15661 £234.44 Haydon Lotus Service
11/04/2001 Front no.plate £13.51 Bell&Coleville Repair
20/04/2001 B Service 21068 £510.32 Haydon Lotus Service
20/04/2001 Spot light 21068 Haydon Lotus Service
20/04/2001 Mats 21068 Haydon Lotus Upgrade
21/04/2001 Touch up paint 21068 £6.80 Haydon Lotus Service
24/04/2001 MOT 21068 £40.00 Haydon Lotus Service
24/04/2001 Steering rk gtr 21068 Haydon Lotus Repair
24/04/2001 Trackrod ends 21068 £130.34 Haydon Lotus Repair
28/08/2001 Geometry check 24775 £64.63 Murray Motor Service
19/01/2002 Front pirellis 30025 £312.55 Headley tyres Service
15/02/2002 A service 31188 £761.08 Haydon Lotus Service
15/02/2002 Ball joint LHR 31188 Haydon Lotus Service
15/02/2002 Headlamps 31188 Haydon Lotus Service
15/02/2002 Carpet set 31188 Haydon Lotus Upgrade
29/08/2002 C service 39984 £675.79 Haydon Lotus Service
29/09/2002 Carbon hardtop £900.00 Private Upgrade
15/02/2003 Rear Yokos 45525 £298.26 Haydon Lotus Service
15/02/2003 Lamp covers 45525 £37.24 Haydon Lotus Upgrade
15/02/2003 Rainex 45525 Haydon Lotus Upgrade
11/07/2003 A service 49141 £208.43 Sportomotive Service
11/07/2003 exhaust mount 49141 Sportomotive Repair
06/08/2003 LHF whl bearing 50203 £581.77 Sportomotive Repair
06/08/2003 Handbrake cable 50203 Sportomotive Repair
06/08/2003 ITG CF airbox 50203 Sportomotive Upgrade
17/11/2003 Wiper blade £30.97 Elise parts Service
16/04/2004 A service 58314 £267.89 Sportomotive Service
16/04/2004 Sabre head 58314 £1699.64Sportomotive Upgrade
16/04/2004 Tubular m'fold 58314 £415.01 Sportomotive Upgrade
16/04/2004 boot hinge 58314 £34.99 Sportomotive Repair
16/04/2004 Repack silencer 58314 £111.63 Sportomotive Repair
21/02/2005 B Service 67528 £732.79 Sportomotive Service
22/02/2005 Rear tyres 67528 Sportomotive Service
23/02/2005 RHR swvl joint 67528 Sportomotive Repair
24/02/2005 All brake pads 67528 Sportomotive Service
25/02/2005 Mot 67529 Sportomotive Service
28/02/2006 A service 72638 £468.81 Sportomotive Service
28/02/2006 headlight 72638 £50.99 Elise parts Repair
28/02/2006 headlamp covers 72638 £55.75 Elise parts Upgrade
28/02/2006 bulbs 72638 £16.69 Elise parts Upgrade
28/02/2006 ceramic manifold72638 £202.10 Camcoat Upgrade
28/02/2006 Mot 72638 Sportomotive Service
07/07/2006 Lambda sensor 75000 £75.99 Elise parts Repair
07/07/2006 Ignition leads 75000 £58.44 Elise parts Service
07/07/2006 Washer kit 75000 £46.80 Elise-shop Upgrade
07/07/2006 SS kit 75000 £18.72 Elise-shop Upgrade
16/02/2007 A Service 79600 £174.49 Sportomotive Service
16/02/2007 4 Toyo Tyres 79272 £258.62 Sportomotive Service
16/02/2007 Radiator Fan 79272 £361.25 Sportomotive Repair
16/02/2007 Rear dampers 79272 £293.47 Sportomotive Repair
16/02/2007 Front OSF damper79272 £35.19 Sportomotive Repair
16/02/2007 MOT 79272 £0.00 Sportomotive Service
06/12/2007 C Service 85452 £621.94 Sportomotive Service
06/12/2007 MOT 85452 £0.00 Sportomotive Service
31/10/2008 Leather seats 90000 £230 Ebay Upgrade
12/12/2008 A Service 94247 £302.93 Sportomotive Service
12/12/2008 Boot hinge 94247 £28.46 Sportomotive Repair
12/12/2008 Make exhst brkt 94247 £113.85 Sportomotive Repair
12/12/2008 Wheel refurb 94247 £345.00 Sportomotive Upgrade
12/12/2008 Throttle pot 94247 £68.39 Sportomotive Repair
12/12/2008 Antisqueal pads 94247 £24.75 Sportomotive Upgrade
12/12/2008 MOT 94247 £0.00 Sportomotive Service

Totals
upgrades service repair
£3,991.70 £6,547.36 £1,899.84

Running costs £12,668.89 includes upgrades
Cost new £24,273.00
Worth now -6000
£0.31 per mile

If you want to calculate

For Insurance I have paid about £650 per year (now 450 as part of a fleet policy).

£7150 over 11 years

Petrol I averaged around 39- 42mpg.
So about £10k in fuel.

Which would add another 17-18p a mile

Total 49p a mile!

I hope this helps any potential buyers (not of mine – it’s not for sale!)

Sadly when my 2nd daughter starts school I will need 2 passenger seats for the school run (I drop and Mrs Spunagain picks up!) and then (maybe) the Elise will have to go, but I have a couple of years to go before I have to make that decision!



Regards
Spuanagain

[Herman Toothrot]

RobM77 said:

I find the comments about warming the engine throug etc interesting. Am I the only one here who keeps to small throttle openings and low/free revs until the oil and water have warmed through properly? I thought everyone did that? Surely that's just basic mechanical sympathy; the same that I'd give to my keyboard (by not hammering the keys really hard), my lawnmower (by not getting it clogged up), my paintbrushes (by washing them after each use) etc etc - the list goes on! I'm careful with my stuff

Every thing with in reason though.

I don't go redlining / thrashing my cars straight from the word go but it should not be necessary to baby an engine for several miles. If you really baby it all you do is delay the warm up. Within one mile (I live in the countryside so straight on to NSL road), if I pull out on to the road accelerate up to 60mph going to about 3500rpm (i.e. normal driving) by the 1st junction that is 1.1miles away I have water temp up to normal on all my cars. Oil temp won't be up to full temp but its still warm and if the correct weight clean oil is used that is fine.

My old Honda Accord or MR2 was never "warmed" up just driven normally, not thrashed mind from the word go, neither had a coolant change or top up (they never needed it) in the 50,000 for the Accord or 20,000 for the MR2 miles I had them. The neighbour now owns the Accord and it runs perfectly, doesn't burn oil etc, the MR2 was also perfect. Some engines are far better than others in terms of reliability and the K-Series is firmly at the bottom of the heap.

The Vauxhall VX n/a engine pre 2003 benefitted from a cam chain update but once thats done or the cars a post 2003 then no issue, rep mobile reliability, no babying necessary, pull off drive normally but no thrashing.

Really any engine from the last 25 years should be fine for 200,000miles as long as its not thrashed from cold.

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Monday 1st February 13:29

[kevin ritson]

Was that one of those MR2s with a pre-cat that would destroy the engine? Wouldn't want one of those, dreadfully unreliable...

[cyberface]

Herman Toothrot said:

Really any engine from the last 25 years should be fine for 200,000miles as long as its not thrashed from cold.

Any modern ECU-controlled engine should be able to limit revs / throttle openings whilst the oil / water temperature parameters are 'too cold' anyway. If the engine design has a problem with high revs when the engine is cold, then lower the rev limit in the ECU when the temperature isn't up to normal levels...

No real excuse for a *road* engine to need 'special' treatment (as per the TVR speed six, etc.) - the K isn't that bad either, the incidence of HGF doesn't appear to be strictly correlated with user 'sympathy' as plenty of religious 'no more than 30% throttle and 3000 rpm until hot' types have had HGF, along with owners who rag from cold who haven't.

[dom180]

LRGS2 said:

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

Out of interest, which company did you use for the HGFs?

Edited by dom180 on Tuesday 2nd February 20:22