Cost of running

[markizok]

Hi guys

I was wondering how much you guys budget p.a. for keeping your elise on the road - my previous one cost me nothing bar the service and new typres, is this typical or was i just lucky?!

[s works]

Such a hard one to guesstimate really. I don't really "budget" per se but I know I have some savings that exist for the sole purpose of "just in case" which also covers house problems, potential illness & redundancy etc.

I reckon on spending £1.5-2k a year on average including insurance, tyres, servicing etc.

Roughly:
- Insurance £700
- Tyres £250 (half a set - I do around 6k mls/yr, though this will doubtless go up as next year I intend to track more)
- Servicing & general maintenance £500
- Petrol £800 (based on half a tank a week @ approx £30 a tank)

That doesn't include any tat I buy for it, polish etc. but then that's only a small part.

This year I bought the car, spent £700 on getting new disks & pads all round, £150 on Invictashield, £500 approx on the stereo. The only "must haves" were the brakes.

[markizok]

Thats cool, i have been budgeting and have about 1k (not including insurance)so that should just about cover off the essentials!

[shangani]

My total cost over nearly two years for a 111s:

Insurance: 1400 (for a full 2 years with AA)
Servicing 420 (got a free service when I bought the car at 5500 and have done just under 12000 miles since purchase. (2 long trips round the country added about 4000miles)
Tyres 370
Brakes 400 including braided hoses and Pagid RS42's
Oil - nil (spare liter still in the boot)

Rest is all mods:
HID kit
Harnesses
Shortshifter and linkage and lotus sport gear knob
Front splitter
Larini
Induction
Headset and speaker upgrade
Indicator stalks

Heck, reading this list of mods, my wife is gonna kill me!

[bogie]

depends on what a year entails ! ...this is a common question, but you need to define what you are doing with it - pure road use for 6K miles a year, then its just a basic service and maybe some consumables every 2 years....if you track it once a month and do 20K road miles then it can cost £4K per year etc

When I was doing 25K a year in mine + 6 track/airfield days I was probably doing about £2.5K (best) £4K worst year (C service + steering rack on top of routine stuff)

[markizok]

it will be a 2nd car, 3k per yr

[bogie]

for that many miles then yes - just a service and maybe some tyres every 2-3 years

[S Works]

With a grand a year and only 3k mls planned you should be fine... but there's NO WAY ON EARTH you'll stick to 3k per year

[markizok]

Cheers guys, thanks for your thoughts!
I think your right, i may struggle to do jusy 3k per year so i am considering selling my current car and buying a cheap run around just for the winter so that i can use the elise more - my route to work is really nice, and in the summer it would be wrong to leave the elsie tucked up (ill also save on insurance and have quite abit more cash so that a 111r could be on the cards - as long as JCT have decent deals going)

[S Works]

markizok said:

Cheers guys, thanks for your thoughts! I think your right, i may struggle to do jusy 3k per year so i am considering selling my current car and buying a cheap run around just for the winter so that i can use the elise more - my route to work is really nice, and in the summer it would be wrong to leave the elsie tucked up (ill also save on insurance and have quite abit more cash so that a 111r could be on the cards - as long as JCT have decent deals going)

Buying new or from a dealers? Are you bonkers??

There are 111R's for like 21k out there at the moment with less than 10k on them, one advertised just today on SELOC.

[RobM77]

S Works said:

Buying new or from a dealers? Are you bonkers??

Not necessarily IMHO. Lots of people here have mentioned odd things that needed replacing when they buy the car. Let's face it, if you are changing your car in the next six months and something needs replacing, you're not going to have it done.. Cars in a decent Lotus main dealer will have had everything checked over to very high standards and replaced where necessary. You also get a warranty, so if anything goes wrong you are covered. The car is also cosmetically brought up to an almost 'as new' standard. I reckon most dealers spend around £1000 preparing the car, maybe more. Add £500 for the warranty and the dealer prices make sense.

I know it isn't a Lotus, but I bought a BMW 330 coupe from a main BMW dealer back in May. The car's probably had £2k or 3k worth of work done since. About ten things have gone wrong, and it has cost me nothing! I paid about £1500 more to get a car from a dealer.

Then there is the worry of buying a real lemon. Something serious may be about to go. It isn't unheard of for a cambelt to need replacing and not be done properly.. 2k down the line and the engine will lunch itself...

I think that the price gap between private cars and dealer cars is fair. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I think you get what you pay for and it is a fair choice where you buy a car.