Elise S1 Running Costs

[classiccooper]

Guys,

I have an itch, & once again it's Elise shaped.

I was wondering is any of you could help me with some idea on real world running costs of an S1 Elise please?

I'll be covering 12,000miles a year, 75% motorway, 25% back lanes, sitting at 70-80 on the m/way.

My biggest concerns are the servicing costs/intervals & reliability.

Thank in advance

[classiccooper]

Well I have answered one question, it's easily insurable, my existing insurer - More Than has quoted a mere £86.55 more than I am paying on the Insight. which I recon is pretty bloody good to be honest.

[Shnozz]

If you buy one that has had everything sorted it should be reliable. If you don't, it may cost you a few quid. I bought mine with low miles, 1 previous owner but then found I had all the age related items need replacing. As such, mine had about £7k spent on it in the first 18 months I owned it, and it covered about 5k in that time. Since then it hasn't needed anything at all and I dont anticipate it will for the foreseeable future. In my brilliant financial wisdom i have decided now is the time to sell.

[Shnozz]

my advice is to look for one that has had shocks, tyres, brakes etc all sorted and other than that, there isnt much really to go wrong.
Oh, and if you want an idea of my running costs, all details are in the blog under my profile. In fact you may want to check out a few of the regulars blogs on here to gain an idea of what people are paying out on their elises.

[classiccooper]

Shnozz said:

In my brilliant financial wisdom i have decided now is the time to sell.

Have you a link ti the advert please?

[tomtom]

See my profile, I did about 12k in my first year.

[boobles]

I beleive that you should budget somewhere in the region of approx 1k per year for servicing + maintanance depending on mileage. Ive owned my Elise for 16 months & driven 18k & spent out on a C service + pads, wiper motor & the dreaded HGF !. Its worth every penny though...

Edited by boobles on Monday 10th September 10:33

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

Go careful with MoreThan, someone has posted on SELOC about them, depending on who you speak to, they don't actually insure Elise, and will cancel your policy with a few days warning.

[TIPPER]

Apart from routine servicing/brake pads and tyres my car has actually cost just £420 in essentials (and that was paying main dealer prices!) for two wheel bearings since I bought her 20k miles and nearly 2 yrs ago. She's running better than ever but I'm going to be spending quite a few pounds this winter on a suspension refresh (not essential but the car will feel better than new). I wish that was the only money I'd spent but I haven't been able to resist a new interior/audible stereo/various other bling things.
Allow about £1k PA and you should be OK. Also expect rear tyres to last about 7-8k miles. Fronts don't wear much - you chuck them away when they go hard.
Be warned though that upgrading can get to you and you'll end up spending a fortune.

[piooly]

if you really are doing 75% motorway work, DONT BUY ONE !!!!!

I only use my very rarely on the motorway and I hate it on those roads, noisy and just daft for the motorway. Its so bad, I'm buying a cheap second car just to use for long trips !!

[fentuz]

I spent about 4K.... in a year, half on this was planned in the initial budget the second half was expected...
The dampers should have been replaced now but I had to do it 6 months ago + a head gasket + break discs (EBCs got wobbed, a rear bearing and some tyres (as the front ones have been vandalized).

Now most of critical stuffs have been sorted and car just passed it MOT (yesterday)...

To be fair, these cars aren't difficult to run if you have basic tool and skills (which I haven't got)...

This year, my S1 cost me about 25p per mile + fuel