Do I take my S2 Elise to US
Discussion
I am lucky enough to have had an S2 for about 18 months now although the last 6 months I have been working in the US - North Carolina. So the wife has been lucky in having two cars in England with mucho posing. Seemingly it is relatively cheap to ship the elise across to the US, about 800 quid, on top of that would be insurance over here which I think I can only get third party and the flights and travel to the various ports to transfer the car. That bit seems straightforward and how cool would it be to be driving a car that probably has never been seen on the roads around NC especially with UK plates on.
The problem is what happens if it goes wrong? There is a Lotus dealer in South Carolina but thats about 4 hours away - what about getting hold of tyres or parts. Also worrying is the heat, even in the UK it overheated - not sure whether the fan is kicking in, although it will be checked and serviced before coming out. It will probably need a secondary fan installed? Also no Air Con. How does the paintwork and interior trim stand up to the heat? Anyone got any knowledge of the above?
The problem is what happens if it goes wrong? There is a Lotus dealer in South Carolina but thats about 4 hours away - what about getting hold of tyres or parts. Also worrying is the heat, even in the UK it overheated - not sure whether the fan is kicking in, although it will be checked and serviced before coming out. It will probably need a secondary fan installed? Also no Air Con. How does the paintwork and interior trim stand up to the heat? Anyone got any knowledge of the above?
Also worrying is the heat, even in the UK it overheated - not sure whether the fan is kicking in, although it will be checked and serviced before coming out
Overheated? Not heard about that on the S2 yet..
The S2 will go up to 103/104 degrees before the fan kicks in and brings it down to 98 degrees again according to the service manual.
Mine does exactly that.
Bye, Arno.
I was stuck in a traffic jam for a couple of hours in the summer in my s2 in St Tropez - about 110 degrees and the cooling system worked fine, just like Arno's - would suggest you get yours checked out before shipping.
Best of luck if you go ahead - think you can keep it over there for a year on UK plates IIRC.
Best of luck if you go ahead - think you can keep it over there for a year on UK plates IIRC.
Nice try with the drive from Baltimore, I think it will come in to Northern Florida - still hesitating though. What about the interior with the sun. Also servicing and the problems that are bound to occur and probably in the first few weeks that it is here. Are there any K-series specialists or Lotus specialists other than the dealer in the not so local South Carolina. Parts can be a problem even if you live in Norfolk what are my chances out here. Do you reckon that I get in touch with the factory and maybe they may support my idea as a ginuea pig for if they introduce the Elise officially in 2005?
Engine-wise you should have little problems, especially on such a relatively new car.
Just run it on US 'premium' fuel (usually 92 octane in the US and comparable to 95RON here in europe) and don't put the lower octane types in as the K-series doesn't have a knock sensor and can't compensate for low octane fuel.
Oil filter, sparkplugs and such can be found when cross-referencing with other types.Should be no problem.
Some parts like a timing belt might need to come from europe or lotus-usa. They should have the parts as there are several motorsport Elises running around in the US.
Remember, the K-series is a very basic and simple engine that does not require any specialist skills.
Even if a very bad thing happened and you for example to blow a headgasket it should be no problem to order a new gasket from either the UK or Lotus-USA and get it installed by a competent mechanic.
Buying the service manual would help such a mechanic a lot.. (and make sure he knows how to jack up an elise and how *not* to do it..)
I guess you would need some contacts in the US that can get you to a good (independent) mechanic if you don't want to do your own maintenance.
The Elise is basically a very, very simple car (the complete parts list is only 1 binder..) and definitely not rocket-science to maintain.
I'd say go for it.. It would probably make a wonderful weekend and track-toy in the US. Should get you plenty of attention
Bye, Arno.
Just run it on US 'premium' fuel (usually 92 octane in the US and comparable to 95RON here in europe) and don't put the lower octane types in as the K-series doesn't have a knock sensor and can't compensate for low octane fuel.
Oil filter, sparkplugs and such can be found when cross-referencing with other types.Should be no problem.
Some parts like a timing belt might need to come from europe or lotus-usa. They should have the parts as there are several motorsport Elises running around in the US.
Remember, the K-series is a very basic and simple engine that does not require any specialist skills.
Even if a very bad thing happened and you for example to blow a headgasket it should be no problem to order a new gasket from either the UK or Lotus-USA and get it installed by a competent mechanic.
Buying the service manual would help such a mechanic a lot.. (and make sure he knows how to jack up an elise and how *not* to do it..)
I guess you would need some contacts in the US that can get you to a good (independent) mechanic if you don't want to do your own maintenance.
The Elise is basically a very, very simple car (the complete parts list is only 1 binder..) and definitely not rocket-science to maintain.
I'd say go for it.. It would probably make a wonderful weekend and track-toy in the US. Should get you plenty of attention
Bye, Arno.
Without wishing to put a damper on your enthusiasm, from reading posts on this and other Lotus BBSes, I got the impression that you can get into serious trouble bringing an Elise into the States if it isn't brought up to US spec (hence some of the projects to put Honda engines etc into Elises stateside).
I think if you just privately imported an Elise and started driving around in the US you'd have it confiscated by the DOT in pretty short order, that's if it was even allowed out of the port. There was even a story recently about some people getting arrested for importing Elises illegally into the US.
If it was simple to get an Elise into the US, I'm fairly sure Lotus would be doing it themselves, as car enthusiasts over there have been crying out for it for years.
Any American PHs care to confirm/rubbish what I'm saying?
Will O'Brien
B.A.R F1
I think if you just privately imported an Elise and started driving around in the US you'd have it confiscated by the DOT in pretty short order, that's if it was even allowed out of the port. There was even a story recently about some people getting arrested for importing Elises illegally into the US.
If it was simple to get an Elise into the US, I'm fairly sure Lotus would be doing it themselves, as car enthusiasts over there have been crying out for it for years.
Any American PHs care to confirm/rubbish what I'm saying?
Will O'Brien
B.A.R F1
Nobbles
If your serious, take a good look at this guys website; www.tvrfreak.com/
He imported his own tvr cerbera and elise to california and traveled around the world with his cars. He has some interesting stories, like carrying a windscreen back from the UK hand luggage! Which makes interesting reading.
Anyway he is really helpful, sure he wouldnt mind you emailing him if you have any questions.
>> Edited by markda on Tuesday 14th January 17:24
If your serious, take a good look at this guys website; www.tvrfreak.com/
He imported his own tvr cerbera and elise to california and traveled around the world with his cars. He has some interesting stories, like carrying a windscreen back from the UK hand luggage! Which makes interesting reading.
Anyway he is really helpful, sure he wouldnt mind you emailing him if you have any questions.
>> Edited by markda on Tuesday 14th January 17:24
I moved to Boston for a year in 1999. At the time I wanted to bring in my Ford Puma for the year. This turned out to be to much bother for me to go through with on the following counts...
1) Import of not emissions/crash test approved vehicles limited to tourism only
2) Couldn't get insurance
3) Needed to re-register the car (US Plates) in Massachusetts after 30 days .. but they wouldn't register non emissions/crash test approved vehicles
At the time I chatted with an owner of a Scooby 22B who was trying everything he could to get his car into Seattle to no avail. He was up against the same problems. When companies and authorities didn't know the car, they immediately erred on the side of refusal.
If you can find an insurer, my advice would be to bring the car over for a holiday, do a road trip and then send it back to the UK.
Justin
1) Import of not emissions/crash test approved vehicles limited to tourism only
2) Couldn't get insurance
3) Needed to re-register the car (US Plates) in Massachusetts after 30 days .. but they wouldn't register non emissions/crash test approved vehicles
At the time I chatted with an owner of a Scooby 22B who was trying everything he could to get his car into Seattle to no avail. He was up against the same problems. When companies and authorities didn't know the car, they immediately erred on the side of refusal.
If you can find an insurer, my advice would be to bring the car over for a holiday, do a road trip and then send it back to the UK.
Justin
The easiest plan is the one-year deal, but you have to send it back after the year is up.
Insurance didn't seem to be an issue for me. I've been with Allstate for a while with other cars and called, gave them the VIN and a car make/type (Sun International RS Spider Type E - a.k.a. Lotus Elise with Honda VTEC :-) that they had never heard of,and told them what it cost, and they got back to me with a reasonable quote with no restrictions.
You can get parts shipped from UK dealers, but the US Lotus dealers can get all the parts for any Elise, just takes a week or so.
Good luck (BTW, I'm in CA).
with that SIR conversion they are ripping you off big time. i've done research for importation of a subaru and for parts and everything.. even for the honda engine.. they are asking way too much. I wouldn't go that route unless they have massaged the DOT to the point of any car that goes through their shop is able to come into the US...
It looks as though it will be coming over in maybe 4-6 weeks. Got to get it serviced in UK first and the radiator fan checked out. Then hopefully it will be picked up taken to southampton and put on the ship. Insurance was the most difficult thing to get, have to recheck the authenticity but $399 for six months sounds OK thats including insuring my Karmann Ghia convertible and my clapped out Volvo. Only in the US the more cars you have the cheaper it becomes. The car will go over as a non resident import - although only for one year. Just need a couple of documents at the port and thats it. Nothing needs to be done to the car and it can be left on UK plates. I have been recommended to go to the DMV (driving license/plate place) to get a document of authenticity that will register the vehicle in the system. Seemingly the car becomes a magnet for the police and this enables them to run a check before they pull you. Also to go to the local police station and maybe explain and show paperwork etc. I'll keep you posted..
Any Lotus type car clubs in the NC/SC area....
Any Lotus type car clubs in the NC/SC area....
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