Discussion
Today I collected my 52 plate Elise in Ruby Red. My first Lotus - Awesome handling, accelleration and sound!!! I have been buzzing around Kent and Surrey all afternoon with the roof off and got my first 
from a black Elise on A25. Why Oh Why did I wait so long for this experience. Going to finish off the perfect day with a beer.
from a black Elise on A25. Why Oh Why did I wait so long for this experience. Going to finish off the perfect day with a beer.
Will keep an eye out for you, the A25 is part of one of my usual hoonage loops 
Oh, and please don't think all Lotus owners are like the chaps with the enormous post counts on SELOC...
I'd advise doing a bit of lurking first...
They *are* great though aren't they... the vast majority of the complaints historically associated with Lotus (build quality, reliability, etc.) have been well and truly dealt with - the culture at Lotus appears to have evolved into accepting that build quality and details *matter*, and really any Lotus built during or after the VX220 days should be able to be used daily for *driving* and having fun, rather than needing you to get the spanners out every weekend to keep the car running.
And the popularity of the cars amongst the computer-technically literate has led to *very* active discussion forums, meaning that common problems / design deficiencies / niggles get aired *very* quickly and solutions either developed quickly by the factory, or described in detail on someone's website somewhere. This acceleration of the communication process has, IMO, definitely had a positive effect on the development of the cars.
Basically, if your car has a 'feature' that happens to niggle or irritate you, the chances are very high that someone else will have had a similar problem and it'll already be documented how to fix or work around the problem. There are downsides to every enthusiast being able to publish his/her thoughts (the armchair engineer problem) but it's outweighed by the benefits of being able to find out quickly whether your car has a problem, or whether it's something they all do. They're quite simple cars, the genius is in the design.
Obviously, be careful in the current road conditions, but other than that, just drive it whenever you can. They're such 'feel-good' cars - and I fear that the ever-more extreme legislation will eventually prevent Lotus from making cars quite like the Elise in the future. What we have now may be the best it's going to get for sports cars. Congrats and enjoy it - if you see an orange Exige in the area then it'll probably be me... I always wave
Oh, and please don't think all Lotus owners are like the chaps with the enormous post counts on SELOC...
I'd advise doing a bit of lurking first...They *are* great though aren't they... the vast majority of the complaints historically associated with Lotus (build quality, reliability, etc.) have been well and truly dealt with - the culture at Lotus appears to have evolved into accepting that build quality and details *matter*, and really any Lotus built during or after the VX220 days should be able to be used daily for *driving* and having fun, rather than needing you to get the spanners out every weekend to keep the car running.
And the popularity of the cars amongst the computer-technically literate has led to *very* active discussion forums, meaning that common problems / design deficiencies / niggles get aired *very* quickly and solutions either developed quickly by the factory, or described in detail on someone's website somewhere. This acceleration of the communication process has, IMO, definitely had a positive effect on the development of the cars.
Basically, if your car has a 'feature' that happens to niggle or irritate you, the chances are very high that someone else will have had a similar problem and it'll already be documented how to fix or work around the problem. There are downsides to every enthusiast being able to publish his/her thoughts (the armchair engineer problem) but it's outweighed by the benefits of being able to find out quickly whether your car has a problem, or whether it's something they all do. They're quite simple cars, the genius is in the design.
Obviously, be careful in the current road conditions, but other than that, just drive it whenever you can. They're such 'feel-good' cars
- and I fear that the ever-more extreme legislation will eventually prevent Lotus from making cars quite like the Elise in the future. What we have now may be the best it's going to get for sports cars. Congrats and enjoy it - if you see an orange Exige in the area then it'll probably be me... I always wave Gassing Station | Elise/Exige/Europa/340R | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff