RE: Driven: New Lotus Elise 1.6

[Rawwr]

Fidgits said:

I loved my elise and would love another one... and i find it funny just because it has a smaller engine people seem to think its no good...

They're asthmatic, poorly built buckets and touching £28k for a basic one is teetering on the brink of insanity.

All IMHO

[kambites]

UncappedTag said:

But you are twisting my post, I never said it was useless just IMO v.overpriced for what essentially is a light weight small engined car......now with rear parking sensors. The cost of manufacture would be halfed if Proton shifted the production overseas making it more in line with what it's actually worth.

Just my opinion for value for money, not it's capability.

Each to their own, but I struggle to think of anything cheaper which can even get close to it for B-road driver appeal whilst still being realistically usable as a daily driver.

[Mr Gear]

UncappedTag said:

Mr Gear said:

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

The boot is st too, and it won't tow a caravan. Useless.

Edited by Mr Gear on Thursday 15th April 12:50

But you are twisting my post, I never said it was useless just IMO v.overpriced for what essentially is a light weight small engined car......now with rear parking sensors. The cost of manufacture would be halfed if Proton shifted the production overseas making it more in line with what it's actually worth.

Just my opinion for value for money, not it's capability.

Fair enough, but the serious answer is that the difference is Lotus are handbuilt in small numbers and therefore development costs are spread over a smaller number of units with higher manufacturing costs too. That Focus body is produced in the millions by robots, and the only low-volume bits are a few engine tweaks and unique bits and bobs.

[Gary C]

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

Its you

[Peeved]

Mr Gear said:

In addition, I can't think of any tiny 2-seat sportscar that is fitted with a diesel...

So it's not really an option to "buy a diesel" when you're after a car like an Elise! Why can't all cars have decent handling AND good fuel consumption? They are not mutually exclusive.

I guess we had better hope for the VW Bluesport roadster thing. Looked the part and quite economical. How it goes remains to be seen.

The trouble it seems, is you want what I want. A cheap to buy/run, fuel efficient, light, fast drop-top sportscar with a decent badge, rwd and space for four and a real-world dollop of practicality. It just doesn't seem to exist.

Any ideas?

[UncappedTag]

Brand new MX5 1.8's can be had for £16.8k. I just would not be able to justify a £10k+ premiem for a car just as capable for the average joe.

[BBS-LM]

876kg for a modern car is bloody amazing achievement considering most hot hatch's are getting on for 1500kg.

[Beefmeister]

Before someone whinges about them....

DRLs are about to become mandatory for all cars sold in the EU, so they are going to be on every car. Live with it.

[otolith]

kambites said:

Each to their own, but I struggle to think of anything cheaper which can even get close to it for B-road driver appeal whilst still being realistically usable as a daily driver.

Besides which, depreciation is likely to be low - given that and the low fuel and tax costs, cost per mile is likely to look very favourable compared to any souped up shopping car.

[Fidgits]

Rawwr said:

Fidgits said:

I loved my elise and would love another one... and i find it funny just because it has a smaller engine people seem to think its no good...

They're asthmatic, poorly built buckets and touching £28k for a basic one is teetering on the brink of insanity.

All IMHO

have you had one?

have you actually driven one?

the last thing i would have called my R was asthmatic...

[UncappedTag]

BBS-LM said:

876kg for a modern car is bloody amazing achievement considering most hot hatch's are getting on for 1500kg.

And so it should, it's a 1.6 fibreglassed two seater car.

I would love to own one, but never ever at this price.

[Stu_00]

Fidgits said:

Rawwr said:

Fidgits said:

I loved my elise and would love another one... and i find it funny just because it has a smaller engine people seem to think its no good...

They're asthmatic, poorly built buckets and touching £28k for a basic one is teetering on the brink of insanity.

All IMHO

have you had one?

have you actually driven one?

the last thing i would have called my R was asthmatic...

Check his profile lol - He Has owned S1/S2......

I on the other hand love my buckets, asthmatic R....LOL

[KenBlocksPants]

Gary C said:

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

Its you

Nope me too.

£27k is far to much for this really.

[lotoid]

Hmmmm.. it's ok, but I Think I'll stick with my S1.

As for weight, on scales my S1 (no passenger ) with 3/4 tank of fuel was teetering 783kgs and its the 111s which is a bit lardier.. especially with my 13 stone frame in it!

[Stu_00]

KenBlocksPants said:

Gary C said:

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

Its you

Nope me too.

£27k is far to much for this really.

Granted its not cheap, but then what is now. Its going to be better to own than an Asbo RS....Plus with the added benefit you can run it on the track and wont each tyres/pads like an RS would....

Still I am biased - I would rather walk than buy an RS

[RobCrezz]

I think its cool!

Cant help but think that they could have gotten more power out of the 1.6 (toyota managed this kind of power out of the old 1.6 in the 80s mk1 MR2, Honda managed 160bhp in the 90s)... 150bhp would have been more like it to sit under the 190bhp 111R.

Perhaps it was quite a cheap engine to buy.

[kambites]

Just about every new car seems heinously over-priced to me.

[UncappedTag]

Stu_00 said:

KenBlocksPants said:

Gary C said:

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

Its you

Nope me too.

£27k is far to much for this really.

Granted its not cheap, but then what is now. Its going to be better to own than an Asbo RS....Plus with the added benefit you can run it on the track and wont each tyres/pads like an RS would....

Still I am biased - I would rather walk than buy an RS

But personally why not shift production overseas. I do not give two hoots that it's been handbuilt somewhere in the countryside in Norfolk. To be honest I have no idea what the reliability of these the modern day Lotus, but my dad had a Excel from new and I always recall it always being off the road due to something failing. He wrote it off in the end and kindly declined another one!

[Richard-G]

i really like it, in fact i even like what they have done with the interior too!

still 27k is overpriced, its as simple as that, even taking into account retained value

[BBS-LM]

UncappedTag said:

I'm staggered at the price these plastic pigs go for. £27.5k for a fibreglass body with a 1.6 mass produced engine.

And to think the RS gets some stick being £25k

Is it me or do these not offer any value for money whatsoever.

There an amazing handling car to drive and it's not really about the power with the Elise, but I know what you mean, for £27K this car should have 200-bhp as standard and then progress from there. A 1.6 with 134-bhp is perfetic really. My GTI has better BHP-TON and it is close to 390-kg more in weight.

Edited by BBS-LM on Thursday 15th April 13:31