RE: Kia Elan | Spotted

[SpudLink]

tr3a said:

Oddly, this has a Mph speedometer. The other one for sale has a km/h speedometer, which I would expect.

I would guess the other one was more recently imported. If this one has been driven in the UK for 20 years, it would make sense to get the speedo swapped.

[SpudLink]

Black S2K said:

I knew they existed, being such an total anorak.

Interesting to see one in the plastic though, to confirm it's not merely an internet myth.

Definitely one for the devoted Lotus collector!

I was reading everything Lotus related back then, so was aware of the Kia version. But I’m surprised there are any over here.

[Jon_S_Rally]

Billy_Whizzzz said:

MX5 please. No point in being different for difference sake.

Has it crossed your mind that some people might prefer these to an MX-5?

[ajprice]

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

Is the rear bumper a Kia part? That grille along the bottom split into two with the exhaust on one side is triggering some OCD, and don't get me started on the bolt on fog light

Lotus Elan rear.

Kia Elan rear.

Edited by ajprice on Sunday 5th November 11:34

[dunnoreally]

Interesting thing, and very competitive price in today's world. Wonder what it's like to run one. I guess the engine is pretty solid, being a Mazda 4-pot, and pretty much everything else ought to be Lotus bits? Or perhaps it's more complicated than that?

[Hammersia]

mooseracer said:

These come up for sale semi regularly - I'd say there's definitely more than 2 in the UK!

Indeed, there was more than one in the St Alban's garage twenty odd years ago, there were a few about.

[rallycross]

I always thought these were built at Lotus and rebadged.

A car dealer pal had one of these in Glasgow many years ago think it was yellow it had incredible low mileage but no one wanted it sat in his showroom for months .

If it’s as good to drive as the lotus it’s a bargain at this price.

[Equus]

ajprice said:

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

They are indeed... to the degree that if you break one on an M100 Elan, the standard solution is an afterrmarket conversion with round lights that doesn't look a million miles different from the Kia.

Having said that, I wouldn't pay £8K for a LHD Lotus-built M100, so I sure as hell wouldn't pay it for something with a Kia badge and more complicated parts sourcing.

[Nyloc20]

I’ve had my M100 S2 for 25 years, I use it regularly and dread the rear light clusters getting damaged. I should have bought a couple for spares years ago when I had chance. The S2 alloys are very difficult and expensive to source. I have got a spare one of them!
I’ve seen a handful of the Kia versions over the years at car events, the owners were all happy with them. A friend did the rear light conversion to his car, looks ok imo. The price of this one looks reasonable to me, M100 values have never increased as much as we owners would like. Mine’s done 130k, it’s well used and I value it around £7-8k, not that it’ll ever be for sale while I can drive it.

[dxg]

They need to adjust the wiper parking location!

[glazbagun]

Pretty sure these were poorly rated at the time. Although at the time tge competition had gotten quite tight!

Would be hard to pick this over 8 grands worth of Mr2/MX5/Boxster

[nismo48]

cerb4.5lee said:

I'm another one who didn't know these existed. Rear lights aside, I've always like the shape though. This is an interesting car I reckon.

+1

[Taz73]

I remember reading about these on Autocar back in the day, never seen one though, didn't realise people imported them as being LHD only makes them an odd choice over a proper Lotus equivalent to my mind.
I've always like the M100, a very pretty car that was always highly regarded for how well it drove and I've always quite fancied one, but as with so many older cars now, it's parts scarcity that would worry me, even more so for this Kia version.
It's bad enough getting parts for my daughter's 99 civic coupe, which was produce in far higher numbers, shares bits with other Hondas yet still has a lot of nla bits and bobs.
All that aside, the price seems very reasonable, I'm sure it's easy enough to remove the fog light and wire it I to one of the reversing lights as my eunos has, which looks a lot nicer and more integrated, so I like this.

[autofocus]

Hi there,

As an ex Kia salesman from the late 90’s i remember the Elan quite well.

Kia UK imported two cars officially for PR purposes.
A Yellow one (P151NKM) and a red one (P150NKM), both of these I believe are still in the UK.

There have been a few other private imports over the years and you can find them regularly for sale in Germany where a few were sold officially.

Alongside Elan, the car was also called Roadster in some countries and Vigato in Japan

Here’s a clip of the Yellow car being tested a few years ago

https://youtu.be/RJTAjOyXmDE?si=AuDfzeHtdyq7t0XS

Regards

Tim

[DavePanda]

Equus said:

ajprice said:

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

They are indeed... to the degree that if you break one on an M100 Elan, the standard solution is an aftermarket conversion with round lights that doesn't look a million miles different from the Kia.

Having said that, I wouldn't pay £8K for a LHD Lotus-built M100, so I sure as hell wouldn't pay it for something with a Kia badge and more complicated parts sourcing.

A few sets available on Ebay but £1200+ for a pair or £600-700 for a single unit.

[Numeric]

ajprice said:

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

Is the rear bumper a Kia part? That grille along the bottom split into two with the exhaust on one side is triggering some OCD, and don't get me started on the bolt on fog light

Lotus Elan rear.

Kia Elan rear.

Edited by ajprice on Sunday 5th November 11:34

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I prefer the Kia lights. I don't like them per se but i prefer them to the Lotus original which always seemed bland to me, and actually going for the circular small lights was quite a fashion thing at this time - after all the Elise had gone that route.

But I'm sure I read something that said this drove a bit differently, possibly a very different set up even if the basic architecture was the same, softer and less dynamic, maybe it was a German magazine but i can't remember now.

Like others I think the price is very fair and I'm sure it's a fun thing to punt around.

[GreatScott2016]

Like others, I didn't know these existed! Education is a good thing, but I'm not really a fan of the looks.

[Billy_Whizzzz]

Jon_S_Rally said:

Billy_Whizzzz said:

MX5 please. No point in being different for difference sake.

Has it crossed your mind that some people might prefer these to an MX-5?

Plastic, Front wheel drive and ugly? No, it didn’t actually.

[Sion111R]

Numeric said:

ajprice said:

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

Is the rear bumper a Kia part? That grille along the bottom split into two with the exhaust on one side is triggering some OCD, and don't get me started on the bolt on fog light

Lotus Elan rear.

Kia Elan rear.

Edited by ajprice on Sunday 5th November 11:34

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I prefer the Kia lights. I don't like them per se but i prefer them to the Lotus original which always seemed bland to me, and actually going for the circular small lights was quite a fashion thing at this time - after all the Elise had gone that route.

But I'm sure I read something that said this drove a bit differently, possibly a very different set up even if the basic architecture was the same, softer and less dynamic, maybe it was a German magazine but i can't remember now.

Like others I think the price is very fair and I'm sure it's a fun thing to punt around.

The rear bumper area looks a lot tighter and improves the overall shape.

[MightyBadger]

ajprice said:

The original M100 lights were from the Renault Alpine GTA / A610, maybe with something tweaked to make them slightly different, so they will be rocking horse st by now to swap them in.

Is the rear bumper a Kia part? That grille along the bottom split into two with the exhaust on one side is triggering some OCD, and don't get me started on the bolt on fog light

Lotus Elan rear.

Kia Elan rear.

Edited by ajprice on Sunday 5th November 11:34

Lotus looks much better at the back imho.

Didn’t mind the KIA version too much until I saw this minor detail.