Ok now im really confued..so many:censored:models!
Discussion
S2 models :
S2 2001-03 model year
S2 (basic car)
S2 ST (sports tourer comfier)
S2 RT (race tech - more racey *ahem*)
S2 111 (basic trim but vvc engine)
S2 111S (Sports tourer trim but vvc engine)
S2 04 model year on
S2 (basic car)
S2 S (plush electric windows etc)
S2 111 (basic car but vvc engine)
S2 111S (plush electics & vvc)
www.elises.co.uk/models/index.html
S1 118bhp is the standard one
S1 135 - 135 bhp
S1 111s - 143 bhp
These 2 are very similiar - latter with the VVC engine and both give a bit more oomph
S1 160 - 160 bhp
Quite a bit sportier and more orientated to track/weekend use
S1 190 - Track Car
Exige (fixed hardtop) - Track Car/Weekend Car
Really depends on what you want from one in terms of everyday use/uprgradability/track etc
Give us some more detail and i'll make a suggestion.
Pick of the bunch has to be the 111s tho - well....i would say that wouldn't I ;-)
S1 118bhp is the standard one
S1 135 - 135 bhp
S1 111s - 143 bhp
These 2 are very similiar - latter with the VVC engine and both give a bit more oomph
S1 160 - 160 bhp
Quite a bit sportier and more orientated to track/weekend use
S1 190 - Track Car
Exige (fixed hardtop) - Track Car/Weekend Car
Really depends on what you want from one in terms of everyday use/uprgradability/track etc
Give us some more detail and i'll make a suggestion.
Pick of the bunch has to be the 111s tho - well....i would say that wouldn't I ;-)
Viewed the elise locally! what a piece of 
advertised as titanium it was azure blue when i turned up!!!
Wow how many stone chips...marks in paintwork..jesus what was this! my first elise viewing, boy was i dissapointed!
I thought people who had such fine cars would look after them!! then the guy took me for a spin (yes a spin indeed.) he floored the car 0-70 in about 5secs i swear! in a residential area!!!!!!.
Kid who owned it was 22, i walked away thinking god if thats how he drives when im with him (potential buyer) how did he drive it alone!!.
On the other hand i viewed another today, wow i was impressed, in mustard interior was spotless...exterior spotless!..so im doing some
see how it goes!
advertised as titanium it was azure blue when i turned up!!! Wow how many stone chips...marks in paintwork..jesus what was this! my first elise viewing, boy was i dissapointed!
I thought people who had such fine cars would look after them!! then the guy took me for a spin (yes a spin indeed.) he floored the car 0-70 in about 5secs i swear! in a residential area!!!!!!.
Kid who owned it was 22, i walked away thinking god if thats how he drives when im with him (potential buyer) how did he drive it alone!!.
On the other hand i viewed another today, wow i was impressed, in mustard interior was spotless...exterior spotless!..so im doing some
see how it goes!
kelvyn said:
Would not worry about the stonechips to much on the front clam as most elise have stone chipped front ends. You can get the front clam sprayed for about £500 + vat.
Dont think you will ever find a 2nd hand elise with no stone chips unless it has armourfend on it.
The front end stonechips like a bitch, there isnt much that can be done other than touch up paint and intermittent resprays.
Armourfend is an option but quite frankly (IMHO of course) it looks terrible on the front.
So ebar in mind the cost of a respray when discussing the price.
Damage such as gouges or scratches in the bare ali interior are far more serious, as is looking underneath the stuck down rubber sections in the sills under the floor mats (some S1 Elises suffer from corrosion there and Lotus is dragging their feet about it).
The leather trim from the factory is also of relatively low quality and wears badly. (Relatively cheap to retrim).
So unless its major, dont worry too much about the cosmetics - simply use it as your angle to drive down the price.
and if you pay 500 quid for a "hide stone-chips" respray you're being absolutely reamed. You can get the front valance and bonnet etc... stone chip free (looks wise) for about 50 quid. There is no point in a full paint strip and erspray cos it will just pick a load of new chips up as soon as you drive it anywhere....
thanks everyone so helpful!! ive recently looked at an r reg has around 27000 on it, front clam was redone after an accident at about 4 mph! work done by graydons i think has gurantee, has fsh, just appears to be well loved and looked after so im going to hpi it then if thats good im going to get it checked over by williams in bristol, same time as the owner gets the mot and boot release sorted
keep you all informed how it goes...
Hi - Hope you find the car of your dreams!
Don't know if this is standard practice, but I always let the engine warm up to at least 75c before I take it above 3000rpm. If I got in a car I was thinking of buying and it was ranted down the road from cold then I'd walk away...
I've never done this with any of my other cars, but then perhaps that's why they sounded like the engine was full of spoons after a few years...
Any of you other owners out there do this or am I on my own?
Adam.
Adam - am even more retentive than you 
....wont boot it about 3.5 until a) oil temp has reached the 88 or 89 it's always at and b) have been driving for best part of ten mins. This was after advice from Nick Adams of Lotus who strongly sugegsted the car would live a LOT longer that way.....
....wont boot it about 3.5 until a) oil temp has reached the 88 or 89 it's always at and b) have been driving for best part of ten mins. This was after advice from Nick Adams of Lotus who strongly sugegsted the car would live a LOT longer that way.....mister kevlar said:
hey stoker your in bristol, you ever use williams?? what do you think of them??
I bought my Elise new from Williams - The sales guys seem to be very good - I dealt with a youngish chap called Scott (quite tall) and he wasn't at all smarmy, and the guy that runs the servicing dept couldn't be friendlier... I'm due for the first annual service in a couple of weeks, so I'll let you know how much they rip me off!
I've been in a few times with warranty problems and have learned you need to be careful when you take your car in - If you take it in on a Saturday, there's a 50% chance that you won't have a Lotus expert look at it, as the Lotus experienced engineers only work every other weekend.
I'm not saying the Saab guys are crap, but one time they fitted a new indicator light fitment upside down (I wondered why it wasn't flush with the bodywork, and fixed it myself when I got home!) and more recently I've had a springless gear stick, and been informed "We've lubricated the linkeage and it'll get better after a couple of days driving" - 1000 miles later and it still doesn't spring back to neutral...
I don't think there's another company for miles around that can give me the official Lotus service stamp so they've got you over a barrel really.
Regarding the sales side - They seem very helpful, but looking back, there were quite a few options I would have gone for but didn't know they existed, such as an extra £80 for body coloured wing mirrors is something well worth the money when you're spending around £25,000, but I ended up with black mirrors because I didn't know! D'oh!
>> Edited by stoker on Tuesday 7th October 12:23
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