Never had a plastic car before

[mopalak]

Being basicaly fiberglass, does the Elise's body respond differently to door dings than the usual aluminum and steel bodied cars? Does it get little dents or is it flexible like the Saturn's plastic body panels? Does it scratch or crack?

I figure these answers will have something to do with my choice of color. If the Elise is a lot more resistant to parking lot dings, I may go with a darker color.

[bogie]

I find it really resistant as It does absorb a lot of the shock. Ive got a metallic black S2 and dont have nay probs with the paint. However if someone REALLY bumps it (2x this year for me) and dents it then it cant be pulled out obviously - its time for filler and a spray

[nobbles]

I have an ice blue S2 and it is experiencing its first hot summer 90 degrees (not so hot birmingham last year)it is standing up to it well, personally it is my favorite colour and it doesn't show up all the stonechips that it is recieving at the moment. The heat is lifting the leather on the door panels (second set as the first were replaced under warranty). Other than that it seems fine.

[SydneySe]

Normal Car park "shopping trolley" dings and those form inconsiderate types opening their doors to wide certainly effect a fibreglass car FAR less than steel/aluminium panelled cars which get multiple "dimples" in their flat panels..

[j_s_g]

It kind of depends on the amount of pressure applied, too. It's quite easy for the fibreglass to get cracked underneath the paint, and you'll get a crazy-paving effect under the paint. I've seen this on a few boot lids when they've been pushed down hard, rather than just "dropped" shut.

The other thing you may find is that the paintwork can start to bubble as it gets older (some kind of reaction with the fibreglass); had this start to happend to the front of my '97 Elise's hard-top about 6 months ago. Only thing to do was get the paint stripped off & have it resprayed.