honest opinions. on daily usability please

[kazste]

Good afternoon I currently have a lotus elise s which I use daily for a 40mile journey. I have always fancied a noble and their finally coming to a price I could afford £25k ish just wondering about reliability mpg servicing etc. It would be run on a shoe string budget but nor would I be able to just throw money at it and would prefer to not bother if it meant scrimping on things and ruining it for the next owner.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated and have a good day.

Ps if your the chap who is see often in the ripley. Derbyshire area then it's you that's caused all of this mine is the blue gold and white elise you keep seeing.

[Gadgeroonie]

not a daily driver imho

buy a 1k diesel for every day

[Lucozade]

kazste said:

Good afternoon I currently have a lotus elise s which I use daily for a 40mile journey. I have always fancied a noble and their finally coming to a price I could afford £25k ish just wondering about reliability mpg servicing etc. It would be run on a shoe string budget but nor would I be able to just throw money at it and would prefer to not bother if it meant scrimping on things and ruining it for the next owner.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated and have a good day.

Ps if your the chap who is see often in the ripley. Derbyshire area then it's you that's caused all of this mine is the blue gold and white elise you keep seeing.

Not a daily commute car in my opinion. They need TLC and at very regular intervals too. Servicing is every 6000 miles, so you'll need to be close to one of the many decent service centres. If you are buying one at £25K keep another £5K aside for all the things it may need doing. All the cars that are pretty much standard are reaching the cliff and could need:
1. new shocks and springs
2. new wheels!
3. new radiator
4. replacement coolant hoses
5. replacement fuel lines
6. New floor or reasealed
7. New brakes, hubs or bearings

Just to list a few!

Edited by Lucozade on Tuesday 12th June 12:24

[kazste]

Thanks for the replies it's not for me then, at least not yet as work lots of weekends so no point having a car which can only be used when not at work.
Will wait a few years until I could have it as a spare car.

[Blu3R]

I dunno, I think if you're living with an Elise then it wouldn't be much worse, if at all?
Perishable items will need replacing almost irrelevant of mileage anyway and general wear/tear stuff is to be expected. Weatherproofing is an issue but once the floor is resealed and you've eliminated any other issues, that's it. Where's the problem?

I admit I don't use mine daily - in fact mine's only ever got caught in the rain twice but that's just me. Other's have used theirs daily and covered many happy and trouble-free miles.

Personally my back wouldn't let me even if I wanted to!

[andygtt]

I used mine as daily driver for 2 years and for much of that time it was my only car on the road... never worked on it myself in that period kept it totally standard and only paid kerridges to service it.

Never let me down in that period, averaged 30mpg and I used it rain or shine even if it snowed, traveled to europe on business many times and covered around 30k miles in that period.

I paid 23k for mine 4 years ago and it had done 11k miles (nearly 50k miles now) so its not like it was new when i got it.

They are however hand built cars and a lot are modified so like TVR's there are some that have loads of issues and some that work faultlessly for years... I have a rule, I NEVER use my everyday car on track.

[JBliss]

There are some people on here that use their cars as a daily driver.
Put it this way, when the weather is nice ill always take the Noble!

[joust]

There are quire a few owners who run them as daily drives. If they are "standard" (with all the obvious mods/upgrades) then using them every day for a commute run won't really stress them. Mine does around 5000 miles a year and hasn't had anything done except servicing and a big service at year 6 to replace all the corroded stuff (as it lives outside 7/24). All I do in-between is add petrol, check oil, and top up the aircon gas which has always slowly leaked.

Interestingly both my Z4M and X5 have had to have more work done with bigger bills, the latest was a £15k rebuild of the top end of the Z4M engine (which fortunately I didn't pay for).

J

[951]

I've not had mine for all that long, but I can't really see a big problem using one as a daily driver per se.

As Andy says, some cars may be more troublesome than others, but if you buy one that has been well looked after and don't thrash it to death 100% of the time then it should be fine.

Making sure the floor is well sealed would be a prerequisite and getting any car you look at checked over by someone who knows them would be a very good idea, obviously, as they do have some known weak spots.

Yes, it's the kind of car that is going to need looking after and respecting - but well worth it!

[R0162]

i have always used mine as a daily driver, i maintain it well, but it probably the most reliable car i have ever had, in fact i keep waiting and expecting it to let me down but it just doesnt...
Any problems i have had, have been "caused"..i.e. i broke down one time when the fuel pump fuse kept blowing due to a short, i had just had new lambda sensors installed, turns out the mechanic had left the wires long and touching a hot part of the turbo and the melted together.. only time i can remember being left at the side of the road, and if it wasnt for dodgy workmanship then that would never have happened.

I get minor maintenance issues, but nothing to stop the car getting from A to B... look for a car that has had the normal problems fixed and has been well maintained.