Lotus Elise S1 depreciation. Bottom of the curve?

[Megaflow]

Hi

A few years ago I toyed with the idea of selling the current toy and buying an S1 Elise, last night I was poking around in the classifieds and noted that ~4 years later the value is S1 Elise's doesn't appear to have changed. Have they hit the bottom of the curve do we think?

[ikarl]

about 4 years ago I nearly bought one too.... wish I had now because I think it was the bottom of the curve back then! I think they're starting to appreciate slightly.

[kambites]

They're still falling in real terms and probably always will; just slower than inflation so monetary values are rising slightly.

Very few cars produced in the kind of numbers that the Elise was ever "bottom out" in real terms.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 24th May 08:55

[Jasandjules]

I truly don't understand this mentality.

You wait three years to see if you might lose 3k on the price of the car you could have been driving for the last three years?

[300bhp/ton]

Megaflow said:

Hi

A few years ago I toyed with the idea of selling the current toy and buying an S1 Elise, last night I was poking around in the classifieds and noted that ~4 years later the value is S1 Elise's doesn't appear to have changed. Have they hit the bottom of the curve do we think?

I think they've leveled out a bit, however Elan M100 prices have been lower (and still are) as have been Eclat and Excel. I suspect as there is no shortage of Elises (quite a mass production car for a Lotus) that as S2's drop a bit more, S1's will suddenly slip again before leveling out. Can't see them dropping below £4k though, although it wouldn't surprise me to see them in the £4.5-5.5k bracket at some point.

[Megaflow]

Jasandjules said:

I truly don't understand this mentality.

You wait three years to see if you might lose 3k on the price of the car you could have been driving for the last three years?

Sorry, who said they had done that?

I didn't. I mearly said I looked at buying one ~4 years ago, didn't for other reasons, and in an idle moment of classifieds browsing / dreaming noticed that values happened to be the same / similar.

[kambites]

300bhp/ton said:

...I suspect as there is no shortage of Elises ...

I'm not so sure of that. From what I've seen, a huge proportion of cheap Elise sales these days end up with the car going abroad. The sales figures in the UK may have been high, but globally they weren't and the rest of Europe seems to be finally cottoning onto them.

Personally, I suspect the S2 will eventually slip below the S1 in value, like-for-like.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 24th May 09:06

[chevronb37]

I think they might actually appreciate over the coming years. Lotus aren't going to make any more and slowly they will be crashed, exported and turned into race cars.