Your ideas on what i should do please....help!!

[mister kevlar]

Ok all i will make a short story long...or sumthing like that anyhow.

Well ive had my elise s1 since xmas eve last year, i bought it as i fancied one for ages and ages, i thought i will see how it goes, after reading these forums i was unsure how reliable it was and how expensive it was going to be to keep it on the road!!.

Ive been sooooooooo happy with it, not caused me any concern, lived through half the winter, snow,rain and finally 4 days of sunshine without missing a beat!!!. I use it for work a short trip away and leisure use only, no track days or such like.

Im now beginnning to think, hay i want black wheels..then i think mmm corbeau retrim...mmm upgrades suspension etc etc.

So my questions to you, the people who have been there done that is (are?? unsure which you choose..):-

1.Do i keep my s1 as it is, its been well loved by previous owners i know its not going to blow up on me!!! lotus main dealer in bristol checked it out and they said its a very good car, lotusbodyshop.co.uk serviced it and they said it was a very nice example with low milegae.

My problem with this option is, i may get bored as it is!!!

Or

2.keep my s1 and then continue to upgrade her bit by bit, she has a magnex exhaust wider yokos all round already..so do i add on with all the nice stuff like wheels,suspension,seats,hard top,better induction,throttle body etc etc.....

Problem with said option i see is i spend a fortune, wont see it back when i sell her on...or do i go option 3...

Or

3.Sell her and get myself an s2, i like the s2's more than i used to, its more refined, they are dropping in value. My only thought is a standard s2 is fairly cheap.

My thought on this option above is, its not much more than a new shape,same engine etc..

or

4.Go crazy and upgrade the engine, to a 190 or perhaps barmy and go to the audi conversion...

Problem being, its expensive, but i culd have an elise which is scarier than an exige!!then again i probably wont see cash back on resell.

or

5.Do i say bs to it sell it as it is and look out for a s1 shape exige...getting all the upgraded stuff, which is a really kick ass rare car.

Problem with my final option is...its expensive!!!.

Si hope you see, what do i do...i justknow im so happy with my car i know lotus is where its at for me!...

[DanH]

In the end, do what makes you happy, but realise you'll get almost nothing back on upgrades and they may make the car a killer to sell. If you want an upgraded car, you are by far better off buying one thats already been done, it could save you >5k.

[tom_burnley]

IMHO - And don't get me wrong - I constantly consider upgrading ( I want the short shift gear linkage first ).
This is what puts me off...

1) Upgraded cars are a problem to sell.
2) Upgraded cars are vastly more to insure.
3) Upgraded cars are more expensive to maintain.
4) Upgrading cars is addictive

You already said that you use your car mostly on the road - the Lotus is already quick enough - and enough fun for this.

What I decided was to buy a 'factory standard' upgraded model - I got an S160 (SVA). ( Most power for an unmodified factory car, except S190 111R, I think )

I hear S2 111s's are good performance and getting cheaper - maybe that would be the best "upgrade" - from your description....

Like I said IMHO

[mister kevlar]

Hey tom your so sure...you had to tell me twice!.

Yeh the upgrade thing could be the problem when selling thats what i think also, as for the s2 thing well they are nicec, but i would be looking at 20k+ for a 111s im sure and thats when i call into play the exige theory!!!...yeah you know it!.

Its got to be a all or nothing answer i cant help but feel...

[DanH]

The other thing to note is that you will never be happy when you upgrade. The normal pattern is to do loads of very expensive incremental upgrades, so you never get the enjoyment of a big bang change, and then once its perfect sell it nearly immediately. I've seen it happen so many times!

So either buy someone elses baby and let them take the hit or buy another faster car. I'm taking the latter course although I do need to sell my beautiful Elise first

[dragstar]

DanH said:

In the end, do what makes you happy, but realise you'll get almost nothing back on upgrades

However, you miss the point that you can take them off before you sell. I dont think Mr AromaT will mind me saying that when he sold Viper (Sport160) he had taken off most of his mods and sold them off seperately (there is a fair market for such bits...he even told me that a bloke drove quite far for his nitrons IIRC) at a good price.

Any of your choices is going to end up costing money, and then losing money. The way i look at it is, if your happy with your car (nearly typed cat ) then dont change her. Instead, improve her. Not all are good runners/in good shape! You could end up with a s2 or exige which is a dog.

It's your choice though!

[DanH]

Selling off lots of small individual mods is a huge pain though. Also it costs money to put them on, then again to take them off.

>> Edited by DanH on Wednesday 4th August 18:53

[dragstar]

very true. But everything cost money these days.

[pley]

I think the main point here is no matter what the cost is do what you want to do.

If you are really bothered about residuals then stick to an original car with the mods on from factory (exige) otherwise bolt on and tune til you go mad!

hth

[S Works]

Sell and trade up. Unless you're doing minor mods (zorts, induction, qwikshift) you may as well sell and get a different variant.

IMHO the standard 'liz is still a fantastic car and ppl will always want them!

[skinner]

My 2p would have to be either stick with what you have and find a bullet proof piggy bank to drop the money into (a lot of self control needed for this one) and put it towards buying something more expensive and consideralby quicker (Noble, TVR etc)

Or get an S2 that has been well looked after with a few toys on it.

I thought long and hard about the Exige route but was put off by the possibility of engine rebuild if you track it regularly (which clearly HAS to be done!!)

I hear a certain Danh has a rather nice example of an S2 up for grabs

[DanH]

skinner said:

My 2p would have to be either stick with what you have and find a bullet proof piggy bank to drop the money into (a lot of self control needed for this one) and put it towards buying something more expensive and consideralby quicker (Noble, TVR etc) Or get an S2 that has been well looked after with a few toys on it. ... I hear a certain Danh has a rather nice example of an S2 up for grabs

Yep the above is pretty much what I did, which is why my car is up for sale.

Its not a total no brainer where to go after the Elise though, I'm going to noble, but its going to cost me more to run, and if I have an engine prob or something its going to cost me dearly. Also the noble is heavier than the liz and you can feel it.

The good news is that there was 20% throttle travel missing when I test drove it as the guy had a pedal upgrade done by the factory, but the accelerator was just catching on the bulkhead. So its even faster than I thought

[tom_burnley]

mister kevlar said:

Hey tom your so sure...you had to tell me twice!.

Doh - deleted one