The Dream has come true...
Discussion
Hi,
The very first post from a norwegian Lotus enthusiast (please excuse my language, is probably not perfect I guess...)
After having dreamt about buying the car for about 8-9 years I finally got The Car of my Dreams last weekend :-) It's a 2001 Laser Blue Lotus Elise S2 Race Tech with alcantara/carbon seats and some larger air filter and exhaust fitted. Looks gorgeous I think.... Just the color and interior I was looking for.
Some pictures of the beauty;
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_1.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_2.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_3.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_4.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_5.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_6.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_7.jpg[/pic]
The car was first registered in november 2001 and has covered about 13000 kilometres since then. Looks pretty much like a new car and I'm very satisfied after having owned it for about 1 1/2 week. Fantastic handling like no other car I have driven and the looks are just stunning. Gets a lot of attention driving around, it's a very rare car here in Norway...
On to some questions that I hope you know something about...
1. Are the "LOTUS" characters at the back painted or is it just a sticker ? For some reason my car does not have these and I would like to get it, is it easy to have put back on ?
2. Looks like the Lotus badge at the front has been replaced too; it's in silver with a white/yellow Lotus sticker on it (?). Is the badge just glued on to the clamshell so that it is quite easy to take it off and put a original badge back on ?
3. When the car arrived the meter said about 5300 km while the actual distance covered is about 13000 km. The car has been set aside in storage for quite a long time (1 - 1 1/2 year) and the dealer told me that the meter has been reset because of the battery being fully discharged. Is this correct ? Isn't is a back-up battery to avoid this ? Is is a known problem ? Everything looks OK from the service book but if it's not possible that this can happen I would like to check it out more thoroughly.
4. The glass covering the right headlamp(s) has some small scratches and the dealer has agreed to have it replaced. What's the price of the part ? Anywhere on the Web where I can find such parts (I have already searched the Lotus Webstore and eliseparts.com without any luck) ? Is it easy to replace so that a "regular" garage can do it or should I have it done by a Lotus dealer ?
Note: I bought the car from a company that imports cars from abroad (mainly Germany) for customers that for example want something special that the "regular" dealers doesn't have in stock (like me :-)). There's no official Lotus dealer/garage in Norway, the nearest is about 1000 kms to the south of Sweden (I live quite in the middle of Norway)...
Quite some questions, but I hope someone can answer at least some of them. Thanks anyway :-)
Regards,
Trond Håvard Bjørgum
Trondheim, Norway
The very first post from a norwegian Lotus enthusiast (please excuse my language, is probably not perfect I guess...)
After having dreamt about buying the car for about 8-9 years I finally got The Car of my Dreams last weekend :-) It's a 2001 Laser Blue Lotus Elise S2 Race Tech with alcantara/carbon seats and some larger air filter and exhaust fitted. Looks gorgeous I think.... Just the color and interior I was looking for.
Some pictures of the beauty;
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_1.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_2.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_3.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_4.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_5.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_6.jpg[/pic]
[pic]http://www.sportsbilen.com/img/min_elise_7.jpg[/pic]
The car was first registered in november 2001 and has covered about 13000 kilometres since then. Looks pretty much like a new car and I'm very satisfied after having owned it for about 1 1/2 week. Fantastic handling like no other car I have driven and the looks are just stunning. Gets a lot of attention driving around, it's a very rare car here in Norway...
On to some questions that I hope you know something about...
1. Are the "LOTUS" characters at the back painted or is it just a sticker ? For some reason my car does not have these and I would like to get it, is it easy to have put back on ?
2. Looks like the Lotus badge at the front has been replaced too; it's in silver with a white/yellow Lotus sticker on it (?). Is the badge just glued on to the clamshell so that it is quite easy to take it off and put a original badge back on ?
3. When the car arrived the meter said about 5300 km while the actual distance covered is about 13000 km. The car has been set aside in storage for quite a long time (1 - 1 1/2 year) and the dealer told me that the meter has been reset because of the battery being fully discharged. Is this correct ? Isn't is a back-up battery to avoid this ? Is is a known problem ? Everything looks OK from the service book but if it's not possible that this can happen I would like to check it out more thoroughly.
4. The glass covering the right headlamp(s) has some small scratches and the dealer has agreed to have it replaced. What's the price of the part ? Anywhere on the Web where I can find such parts (I have already searched the Lotus Webstore and eliseparts.com without any luck) ? Is it easy to replace so that a "regular" garage can do it or should I have it done by a Lotus dealer ?
Note: I bought the car from a company that imports cars from abroad (mainly Germany) for customers that for example want something special that the "regular" dealers doesn't have in stock (like me :-)). There's no official Lotus dealer/garage in Norway, the nearest is about 1000 kms to the south of Sweden (I live quite in the middle of Norway)...
Quite some questions, but I hope someone can answer at least some of them. Thanks anyway :-)
Regards,
Trond Håvard Bjørgum
Trondheim, Norway
trondhb said:
The very first post from a norwegian Lotus enthusiast (please excuse my language, is probably not perfect I guess...)
No problems there!
This summer I'll be driving my Elise to the north cape and back again through sweden and norway.. Looking forward to it!
As you're in Trondheim I guess you'll be visiting the Trollstigen with the car quite a bit
trondhb said:
1. Are the "LOTUS" characters at the back painted or is it just a sticker ? For some reason my car does not have these and I would like to get it, is it easy to have put back on ?
They are simple sticker letters. No problem to put back on. Just need to space them out correctly..
trondhb said:
2. Looks like the Lotus badge at the front has been replaced too; it's in silver with a white/yellow Lotus sticker on it (?). Is the badge just glued on to the clamshell so that it is quite easy to take it off and put a original badge back on ?
Badge on the S2's is also stuck on. The original one is plastic and fades pretty badly. You can get an enamel one from an S1 and stick that on. Originally these are meant to be bolted to the front (clam off job), but double-sided tape works too.
trondhb said:
3. When the car arrived the meter said about 5300 km while the actual distance covered is about 13000 km. The car has been set aside in storage for quite a long time (1 - 1 1/2 year) and the dealer told me that the meter has been reset because of the battery being fully discharged. Is this correct ? Isn't is a back-up battery to avoid this ? Is is a known problem ? Everything looks OK from the service book but if it's not possible that this can happen I would like to check it out more thoroughly.
No. That's impossible. The milage counter is stored in NVRAM in the stack unit and can't really 'reset' because of power loss.
It is known for some stack units to lose their milage, but it's pretty uncommon.
Perhaps the STACK unit was replaced for some other problem somewhere along the life of the car?
trondhb said:
4. The glass covering the right headlamp(s) has some small scratches and the dealer has agreed to have it replaced. What's the price of the part ? Anywhere on the Web where I can find such parts (I have already searched the Lotus Webstore and eliseparts.com without any luck) ? Is it easy to replace so that a "regular" garage can do it or should I have it done by a Lotus dealer ?
The cover on the headlights is easy to remove. You have to do that to change headlight bulbs anyway. No problem to replace it yourself.
A new one will probably be pricey.. Try dropping an email to lotusparts@elise-shop.com and see if they can give you a quote for the part.
These are pretty simple and basic cars. If you have reasonable mechanical aptitude then you should be able to maintain it yourself without problems.
I would suggest investing in buying the official service manual and parts list. That should give you all the information you need to work on the car.
Oh.. I would *strongly* urge you to lift/remove the fake aluminium floor covers at the driver and passenger seats. These are PVC and can cause the same floor-corrosion issues as with the S1. They are held in place with velcro, so you can just (with some force) pull them out.
Not to take anything away from PistonHeads, but I would also register at www.seloc.org for lots and lots of Lotus related info..
Bye, Arno.
Well done sir 
, lovely looking car. Good English too - 1000 times better than my Norwegian 
As noted above by Arno, I think the STACK thing you should have the dealer confirm as it maybe was replaced due to a fault. Battery failure should not cause loss - it didn't in my S1.
Enjoy living your dream!!
, lovely looking car. Good English too - 1000 times better than my Norwegian As noted above by Arno, I think the STACK thing you should have the dealer confirm as it maybe was replaced due to a fault. Battery failure should not cause loss - it didn't in my S1.
Enjoy living your dream!!
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