elan m100 to buy..

[tollytuff]

hello all

ive decided to shelve my BMW540 plan for a bit and buy somthing fun for the summer. as a current BMW owner im used to bombproof reliability so i thought perhaps a spell of M100 ownership might be in order.

ive checked the classifieds on here; nice blue one, lots of history, but in scotland, far too far to go, im in south east london! and another good one, with history, thats only 8 miles away (apparently) but its red, cant be doing with red cars unfortunatly..

also been on fleabay for a bit and also autotrader.co.uk... nothing catches my eye.

question is then, is there anywhere else i can look to buy one?

im looking at the bottom end of the scale at 5k, and obviously want the world! i found the elan central site, but i think its an american site (?).

any leads gladly received

cheers tt

[Mrs Trackside]

Elan Central isn't American, but I'm afraid Elans are quite a rare car. We were/are looking for one around the 7 to 8 grand mark, and we've been looking for over a year for the right car to come up. We thought we'd found one, but couldn't get finance for it at the time

[tollytuff]

ouch! i was hoping to get one for THIS summer! i think i saw your post when i did a search for M100, mrs trackside.. o well, maybe i will have to look at some red ones after all... it'll clash with my eyes though, ho hum

on my morning trawl, i found this car
elan

but its too expensive and still too red....

>> Edited by tollytuff on Thursday 4th May 09:46

[robbie_toys]

TT, definitely stick with elan central, for looking around. They are a pretty friendly bunch & will help you avoid buying a real dog of a car. You also seem to get quite a few trading hands on there.

Good luck

[wildoliver]

Or you could just bite the bullet and look outside of London?

Believe it or not there is life above Watford Gap............Its called the big bad North

[tollytuff]

wildoliver said:

Or you could just bite the bullet and look outside of London?

i get a nose bleed if i cross the thames mate!

[Mrs Trackside]

Personally, I think if you're looking around 5K, you're looking at either a red or BRG car, probably high mileage and/or high owners.

If you only want it for the summer and then plan to get rid of it, then maybe you could afford to be less fussy with your criteria?

[JonRB]

Mrs Trackside said:

Personally, I think if you're looking around 5K, you're looking at either a red or BRG car, probably high mileage and/or high owners.

I agree.

A lot of cars were bought in Calypso Red - it's a very common colour, as is British Racing Green (BRG).

I wouldn't say that high owners is necessarily a bad thing though, given that these cars are often bought as summer toys and then sold on again after a season or two.

[robbie_toys]

Anyway whats wrong with red or BRG? Admitedly many of the red Elans have gone a shade of pink, but if you find one that hasn't then they don't look bad, not ideal, but certainly better than silver or black. Some of the metallics look a little dated to me as well.
Best colours for the Elan (at least to me) are BRG & NM (yeah mine is BRG)

[tollytuff]

bugger!

just missed out on this
www.pistonheads.com/sales/73802.htm

spoke to the owner last night and it sounded really very nice. but someone turned up early this morning and snapped it up... going to the pub to sulk.

[Dico]

Just to confirm this http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/ind is LEC's website, I think some searches lead you to the old site which originated in America.
There is a section specificaly for M100 sales on it.
They are a VERY difficult car to sell, probably because of dealership servicing charges, hence you can pick up a good car for low money.

The link you posted with the pacific blue one looked like a reasonable buy.
Good luck with your search.

P.S there is also a section on LEC were you can post under 'UK cars wanted' may b worth registering and showing your interest.

[Blipi]

Hello Tollytuff

Hello fellow LECers

Good choice TT. You'll never look back. Hopefully I'll see you around. Say Hi to me on LEC!