RE: Vauxhall VX220: PH Used Buying Guide
Discussion
It's been through a bad patch over the last 3/4 years I would say. In our place we got a lot of VX owners through the doors and most would be passive readers rather than participants due to stuff like posted above. The lack of moderation just turned it into a bit of a playground imho. Probably worse than most of us long term members thought.
I bought an Elise 111s series 2, paid 14,500 for it. Used it as a daily and sold it 5 years later for £14k
had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
lotuslover69 said:
I bought an Elise 111s series 2, paid 14,500 for it. Used it as a daily and sold it 5 years later for £14k
had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
Conversely, I bought a VX220 for 8k and sold to a dealer 2 years later for 9.5khad i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
Great you know Evoras aren't going to lose money.....if its a newer one it will.....if its an older one.....good luck finding a buyer!!
lotuslover69 said:
I bought an Elise 111s series 2, paid 14,500 for it. Used it as a daily and sold it 5 years later for £14k
had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
VX220s have gone up just as much as Lotus. In some periods of time faster. had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
johnwilliams77 said:
Conversely, I bought a VX220 for 8k and sold to a dealer 2 years later for 9.5k
Great you know Evoras aren't going to lose money.....if its a newer one it will.....if its an older one.....good luck finding a buyer!!
No doubt an exotic car can be difficult to sell but all the Evoras that were for sale at the time i purchased mine within the same price range have all disappeared from pistonheads, so either their owners gave up on trying to sell them or they in fact did sell.Great you know Evoras aren't going to lose money.....if its a newer one it will.....if its an older one.....good luck finding a buyer!!
At the time i bought my Elise a similarly priced VX220 would have lost almost 5k and been round the 10k mark.Not really up for discussion it was fact. Sure the prices have started to go up on VX220s and i'm not trying to say a vx220 is a bad car at all. All i am saying is if you are torn between buying an elise and a vx220 then paying the extra money for the elise is money you will likely get back when you sell it. Lotus cars are one of the top depreciating brands, however i wouldn't recommend buying any car brand new if you plan to avoid depreciation
Edited by lotuslover69 on Sunday 18th November 08:52
lotuslover69 said:
I bought an Elise 111s series 2, paid 14,500 for it. Used it as a daily and sold it 5 years later for £14k
had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
What an odd post. Of all of the VX220s I had (seven!), I never lost money and they held their value extremely well. Conversely, my Evora has depreciated so your experience is at complete odds to mine! had i bought a vx220 i would have lost about £5k
Buying a Lotus makes sense if you plan to keep upgrading your cars provided you buy them at bottomed out price, the elise has started creeping up in value now.
Had an elise then bought a cayman s, lost just 2k on the cayman in 3 years of daily driving and now have an Evora which i know isn't going to lose money either.
lotuslover69 said:
No doubt an exotic car can be difficult to sell but all the Evoras that were for sale at the time i purchased mine within the same price range have all disappeared from pistonheads, so either their owners gave up on trying to sell them or they in fact did sell.
At the time i bought my Elise a similarly priced VX220 would have lost almost 5k and been round the 10k mark.Not really up for discussion it was fact. Sure the prices have started to go up on VX220s and i'm not trying to say a vx220 is a bad car at all. All i am saying is if you are torn between buying an elise and a vx220 then paying the extra money for the elise is money you will likely get back when you sell it. Lotus cars are one of the top depreciating brands, however i wouldn't recommend buying any car brand new if you plan to avoid depreciation
What time period is this because it just doesn't sound right at all. At the time i bought my Elise a similarly priced VX220 would have lost almost 5k and been round the 10k mark.Not really up for discussion it was fact. Sure the prices have started to go up on VX220s and i'm not trying to say a vx220 is a bad car at all. All i am saying is if you are torn between buying an elise and a vx220 then paying the extra money for the elise is money you will likely get back when you sell it. Lotus cars are one of the top depreciating brands, however i wouldn't recommend buying any car brand new if you plan to avoid depreciation
Edited by lotuslover69 on Sunday 18th November 08:52
Johni1 said:
I had one of these as well, 2.0 litre turbo 2004, most troublesome, unreliable car I ever owned, used as a daily driver unfortunately, would never ever have another of these terrible terrible cars ever again.
On the reverse of this, I owned an '04 Turbo in 2006, which I used as a daily. It didn't miss a beat, and I used to take it on track...
Last I knew it had been heavily 'modded' both visually and mechanically by a guy on the aforementioned VX forum, and the MOT history seems to suggest it's still in that 'modded' state...
I've had I think 8 personal cars and only had standard consumables and a bust rad in 13 years of running them. I normally kept to the low mileage mint end of the market so that's probably not that surprising.
The cars we have had through the business have been pretty much the same. We had a higher miler that had a bust gearbox we sorted and the only other recurring things are stuff like boost leaks and the odd clutch slave leak which is a box off job.
You get what you pay for so going buying a ratty 80k car you can be in for new dampers/suspension components/brakes/tyres/paint/radiators etc it can get expensive especially if you are needing to pay someone to work on them. They are a car for which it's handy to be semi competent with the spanners as it can save you a lot of cash and they are actually pretty easy to work on once you know how to get access.
There are hardly any nice ones left though I know I have mentioned it before but I think over the next couple of years we will see another push on prices for the top cars. I would be pleasantly surprised if there were more than 30 properly nice low mileage cars left in the country. That's a bit of an educated guess but being pretty well plugged into the owners network this is relying on having a good few cars that are not known through the forums etc. There are still lot's of pretty nice higher mileage cars about though some people did look after them.
The cars we have had through the business have been pretty much the same. We had a higher miler that had a bust gearbox we sorted and the only other recurring things are stuff like boost leaks and the odd clutch slave leak which is a box off job.
You get what you pay for so going buying a ratty 80k car you can be in for new dampers/suspension components/brakes/tyres/paint/radiators etc it can get expensive especially if you are needing to pay someone to work on them. They are a car for which it's handy to be semi competent with the spanners as it can save you a lot of cash and they are actually pretty easy to work on once you know how to get access.
There are hardly any nice ones left though I know I have mentioned it before but I think over the next couple of years we will see another push on prices for the top cars. I would be pleasantly surprised if there were more than 30 properly nice low mileage cars left in the country. That's a bit of an educated guess but being pretty well plugged into the owners network this is relying on having a good few cars that are not known through the forums etc. There are still lot's of pretty nice higher mileage cars about though some people did look after them.
fridaypassion said:
I've had I think 8 personal cars and only had standard consumables and a bust rad in 13 years of running them. I normally kept to the low mileage mint end of the market so that's probably not that surprising.
The cars we have had through the business have been pretty much the same. We had a higher miler that had a bust gearbox we sorted and the only other recurring things are stuff like boost leaks and the odd clutch slave leak which is a box off job.
You get what you pay for so going buying a ratty 80k car you can be in for new dampers/suspension components/brakes/tyres/paint/radiators etc it can get expensive especially if you are needing to pay someone to work on them. They are a car for which it's handy to be semi competent with the spanners as it can save you a lot of cash and they are actually pretty easy to work on once you know how to get access.
There are hardly any nice ones left though I know I have mentioned it before but I think over the next couple of years we will see another push on prices for the top cars. I would be pleasantly surprised if there were more than 30 properly nice low mileage cars left in the country. That's a bit of an educated guess but being pretty well plugged into the owners network this is relying on having a good few cars that are not known through the forums etc. There are still lot's of pretty nice higher mileage cars about though some people did look after them.
As a trader who is trying to push up VX prices (for personal gain), you are hardly independent of thinking on this thread so not sure I take what you say. In the nicest possible way of course The cars we have had through the business have been pretty much the same. We had a higher miler that had a bust gearbox we sorted and the only other recurring things are stuff like boost leaks and the odd clutch slave leak which is a box off job.
You get what you pay for so going buying a ratty 80k car you can be in for new dampers/suspension components/brakes/tyres/paint/radiators etc it can get expensive especially if you are needing to pay someone to work on them. They are a car for which it's handy to be semi competent with the spanners as it can save you a lot of cash and they are actually pretty easy to work on once you know how to get access.
There are hardly any nice ones left though I know I have mentioned it before but I think over the next couple of years we will see another push on prices for the top cars. I would be pleasantly surprised if there were more than 30 properly nice low mileage cars left in the country. That's a bit of an educated guess but being pretty well plugged into the owners network this is relying on having a good few cars that are not known through the forums etc. There are still lot's of pretty nice higher mileage cars about though some people did look after them.
Of course VX prices will rise as they inevitably ride on the coat tails of the Elise.
I thought that comment would come but nope. The rising prices have made it much much more difficult to buy cars in. I spotted the demand about 4 years ago for the top level low mileage cars they were underpriced. This year the prices have actually dipped despite the lack of supply which is odd.
I've no axe to grind or gain to be made as previously mentioned there are so few nice examples about so sadly the VX is no longer really a significant part of the business like it was a few years back. I only have 3 on site now which is the lowest number for quite a while and no leads on any new ones. Most of the cars we have sold in the last 18 months are revolving door stock we buy back in.
Of course as an owner I have a typically rose tinted hope the prices will at least remain steady. As a trader I'm just looking for a bit in the middle so it's of no importance what the market is doing really. Spotting underpricing is a key skill but actively pushing prices up in a free market is something different and arguably something that doesn't really happen.
I've no axe to grind or gain to be made as previously mentioned there are so few nice examples about so sadly the VX is no longer really a significant part of the business like it was a few years back. I only have 3 on site now which is the lowest number for quite a while and no leads on any new ones. Most of the cars we have sold in the last 18 months are revolving door stock we buy back in.
Of course as an owner I have a typically rose tinted hope the prices will at least remain steady. As a trader I'm just looking for a bit in the middle so it's of no importance what the market is doing really. Spotting underpricing is a key skill but actively pushing prices up in a free market is something different and arguably something that doesn't really happen.
Edited by fridaypassion on Sunday 18th November 11:22
Prices - snore.
Bought mine in 2003 for 15k, sold in 2004 for 14,300. Certainly the least I’ve ever lost on a car! Since then I’m sure prices have fallen, and then come back - ultimately if you want this sort of car there’s limited supply of them (Elise or VX) and there appears to be a floor price that people will pay for a “good” one to have as a toy... Same is true of any of these impractical toy cars (caterhams et al) - they all have a floor that the price isn’t going to drop below if the car is in reasonable shape.
Bought mine in 2003 for 15k, sold in 2004 for 14,300. Certainly the least I’ve ever lost on a car! Since then I’m sure prices have fallen, and then come back - ultimately if you want this sort of car there’s limited supply of them (Elise or VX) and there appears to be a floor price that people will pay for a “good” one to have as a toy... Same is true of any of these impractical toy cars (caterhams et al) - they all have a floor that the price isn’t going to drop below if the car is in reasonable shape.
Johni1 said:
I had one of these as well, 2.0 litre turbo 2004, most troublesome, unreliable car I ever owned, used as a daily driver unfortunately, would never ever have another of these terrible terrible cars ever again.
You sound as if you unfortunately purchased a POS..it's hardly a car purchased to be used as a daily driver is it?johnwilliams77 said:
Flanners said:
You sound as if you unfortunately purchased a POS..it's hardly a car purchased to be used as a daily driver is it?
Don’t see why notThey seem to be happier being run regularly than in fits and starts, though now mine is in a heated garage so eventually the paint work osmosis struggles will be fixed
For daily use plenty of mods available to fix the heating.
Suspension swaps to the VXR kit, and Geo resolves any handling concerns.
Had a VX turbo in Europa Blue from 2006-8 as a daily driver (on the M25 in constant traffic too), replacing a 1977 Cosworth Capri which I also ran as a daily but that's a thread for another time.
Didn't cost much in the way of consumables, engine mounts and the expansion tank and radiators were a weak point from what I recall. The worst thing about the whole experience was dealing with Vauxhall in Luton who simply didn't have a clue about their own damn car. Servicing and maintenance were carried out by Lotus Hadley Highstone after that, it was cheaper and the staff were far more knowledgeable.
Great cars, really tempted to drop back in one at some point. They used to get a lot of stick from some Lotus owners, nice to see that sort of childishness has largely disappeared - both great cars in their own way.
One of the best experiences was going out for breakfast then coming back to the car and finding a bunch of Americans clustered around it trying to work out what it was
Didn't cost much in the way of consumables, engine mounts and the expansion tank and radiators were a weak point from what I recall. The worst thing about the whole experience was dealing with Vauxhall in Luton who simply didn't have a clue about their own damn car. Servicing and maintenance were carried out by Lotus Hadley Highstone after that, it was cheaper and the staff were far more knowledgeable.
Great cars, really tempted to drop back in one at some point. They used to get a lot of stick from some Lotus owners, nice to see that sort of childishness has largely disappeared - both great cars in their own way.
One of the best experiences was going out for breakfast then coming back to the car and finding a bunch of Americans clustered around it trying to work out what it was
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