Exige 240 story - The drama of a car
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Lotus Exige 240 story - The drama of a car
Hi to all. Let me tell you my story with my Lotus Exige 240.
I ordered my Lotus Exige S Performance Pack 240CV in December 2007, new, from an official Lotus dealer in Rome (i am italian), swapped with a Porsche Cayman S, the last of three Porsche i had and used every day (almost 300,000 kilometers in total, without any problem). My intention was to use the Lotus as my everyday car.
I paid € +64 thousand euro for this car.
The time for delivery, scheduled for next month, January 2008 (the car was already on order for several months on behalf of the dealership, they told me) have not been met and the car was handed to me in early March of 2008, 2 months later than the programmed delivery date.
Well, i took the car from the dealer in March, in ultra-fuel reserves. I then I had to stop at the first distributor to refill and I could see that the button that turns the low beam headlights was not working and would not let me turn off the lights themselves. Returning to the dealer, the piece was changed immediately but with a button with the small light of a different color, blue instead of green (I think) (they used the air conditioning one) not having any other type available.
At the evening i left the car parked uncovered in a hotel and at night there is a thunderstorm. In the morning I found about 3 fingers of water inside. Not only that, the water went also inside the boot (where my laptop was..). Also, the sidelight on the passenger side front was filled with water and condensation. All this after less than 24 hours after pick up the car at the dealership (what about some factory quality controls?!).
Back in the workshop (luckily I had not strayed too far from Rome), where I was given the car for a day, the hard top has been re-sealed, because of flooding procedure, was modified the seal of the luggage compartment and changed the sidelight with another new one. I come back home, not without the car was completely lined with a funny [Censored] Roman in a parking lot (Ludovisi park @ via Ludovisi) from 25 € per day (never reimbursed).
The first months progressing without major problems, apart from the fact that if you leave the car in the garage for more than 10 days (even without closing it), then you must charge the battery or use a booster to be able to start. What!?
In July of 2008 (the car was then 5 months and 9.000km) suddenly breaks down the radiator. The Lotus dealer of Padua, contacted to ask if he could wait half an hour after the closure of the dealership (if I remember correctly the 17.30) to give me a way to bring the car, he replied in a negative way and the car was taken to the Aci nearest shop. Of course, at my expense.
Afterwards, always at my expense, the Exige was taken at the dealership Autocommis of Verona for the repair of failure. I chose Verona although it wasnt closer because I have had not had a good feeling with the staff of the Padua dealership. It was mid-July, I only needed a new radiator. I also inform the dealer workshop that, when I press the accelerator to the bottom (to overtake, for example) and I have the air conditioning turnbed on, the car has a vacuum of power (not a declin but a total lack!) (not the best feeling you can have when overtaking, very dangerous!)
After a few weeks without news of the car with which I had to go on holiday, i call the dealer who tells me to be waiting for the piece to change. I wonder why it takes so much and I have to get another rental car to go on vacation. At the end of August (after 40 days), needing a vehicle to move every day (the Exige was my only way of transportation), i call the dealership trying to understand my position and pushing for a quick resolution of the repair. But I was told that the pieces had not been dispatched by the factory.
At this point I also wrote to the factory to understand how an almost new car could have a similar fault and how could be possible to wait for more than a month. I noticed that, unlike any other car maker, Lotus has no phone number, toll-free number or an individual office sites in Italy, to be contacted directly.
This, among other things, involves a continuous discharge of liability by Italian dealers in respect of the factory. I received a reply from the factory a few days later, when I was promised to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
With the evolution of the matter, I find that the dealership had made a mistake and had never ordered the radiator (they say)..
In mid-September, I take back the car, and they make me pay 210 euro for the service. They say that he don't know anything about the problem for the air conditioning but have updated the ECU with the latest software available (i will discover 1 year later that was impossible, no updated software was available at that moment) Well, after 40km the accelerator - air conditioning problem persists as before. Winter was approaching and I do not care much about that. In my research I find on Internet an article about this problem but only on 2007 cars due to a bad working relay (passenger side in LHD cars, above the wheel).
The 2009 was not running in a good way from the beginning. The gear in the spring (after 1 year and 14-15000 km) begins to scratch when cold between 2 and 3 and, with the first warm days of spring, the throttle problem with the a/c on returns.
I take this opportunity to present the problem to another workshop Lotus, which makes me a diagnosis (and tells me they found no updates to the ECU), control the car (while I'm watching an exige CUP, which was almost new, disassembled on the bench with broken synchronizers) and he proposed to change the A / C relay to try to see if the car will imrpve. For the gear problems, however, since the problems were not too bad, we do nothing, but was reported to Lotus.
Miraculously (the problem to the relay should be limited to the cars of 2007) AC / accelerator problem disappears almost entirely, while the gearbox problems worsens slightly in summer 2009.
Meanwhile, the water falls again in the sidelight, the same changed in warranty in 2008 and, during the service of 17,000km, was opened and resealed the seadlight (at my expense) and was also fixed the driver's side window, which guide was detached from the door and was working badly (always at my expense).
In summer 2009, the brakes, after 1 hours of intense use, went wrong, the brake pedal trembling at every brake also in slow speed. Ask for information and I was told that is a known defect in the larger brakes, including the performance pack (for which I spent about € 4k more), which are installed on my car and in fact the latest models does not mount this kind of discs but a newer one. I ask if the pieces, as they know that problem and as the car has 15k miles, can be replaced under warranty but I was told that Lotus does not change them under warranty. Later on, fortunately, the discs arranged on their own, but I got to know other people with my own brakes, and less km, which have had to change them at their own expense spending about 600 €.
At the end of 2009 I begin to feel a "stok" noise while accelerating in the first and second gear. I bring the car at the dealer and, after two days, I was told that they were not the engine mount but the intercooler's bolts that were loose and therefore the intercooler slams against the back window. Nothing serious, but four days of workshops, taxi, train... even in this case I paid even though we are talking about car under warranty (which for now has been almost 3 months of the workshop in less than 2 years)
After this latest problem, my Exige become to suffered for another problem; the water temperature above 5k rpm falls sharply below the threshold indicated by the display (74 °), causing the intervention of the limiter (as if the unit understand the engine was cold). I decide to change, at my expense, the gearbox oil, keeping the old one to see what the state had been. Of course it was full of ground glass. I put it in some bottles and in February 2010 (02/17/2010) i took the car to the dealer, together with the old oil in the bottles, asking for warranty repair of the gearbox and repair of the problem of the water temperature.
From here begun another ordeal, the car remains stationary for a further three months, until May 28. 3,4,5 and 6 gear was changed and after persistent calls by the end of the 2nd month, after 75 days or so, I took back my car (I note again that the shop is 200km away from home and each time I I have to arrange). But, just after 3 km, I realize that the problem of water temperature was not been fixed. Brought back to the car dealer, much altered and wonder why, in three months, the car was not repaired even from that defect. I'm being told that they had not found anomalies. I had to return back home (anothers 200km ) at my expense. The car stay at the dealer for 3 moth. At my request for clarification, the workshop tell me that Lotus did not want to send the entire gearbox and has waited a long time to send the pieces (same version later refuted by Lotus who contacted me by phone to ask how things went). I had the gearbox repaired (not changed) but i had to pay 25 euros for the gearbox oil.
As mentioned above, in the meantime Lotus factory calls me from England asking how the facts were and, in the second call, they apologize with me and offer me a warranty extension till December of the same year. I agree and thank you, in any case not happy to have left the car in the workshop for 6 months in 2 years of use. We are talking about a car paid € 64k.
I used the Exige for another 3k miles and during the summer break the internal partitions of the original Lotus exhaust Stage 3, the backlight of the dash and the backlight of the instrument panel for heating. WOW. Other 12 days in the workshop. All was changed under warranty. But after giving me back my car comes again the problem of the air conditioning, which creates a lack of power when you push the full accelerator and a strange behavior of the engine at idle. Mysteries of electronics ..
Tired and destroyed by all these continuing problems, I sell the car in November 2010.
PS: To avoid misunderstandings and to clarify, the machine described above was use as an everyday car, treated with all the care of a Lotus enthusiast (i had about 5 Lotus), never damaged and serviced every 7500km at Lotus workshops. He had no mechanical or cosmetic mods but only the Lotus Stage 3 exhaust (which went broken) and has 7/8 trackday (less than 1 hour each) in 3 years.
PS2: I sent this message to Lotus Cars on 25/11/2010 and on 29/11 but i have not received any response.
Sorry for my english. I hope i was clear.
Hi to all. Let me tell you my story with my Lotus Exige 240.
I ordered my Lotus Exige S Performance Pack 240CV in December 2007, new, from an official Lotus dealer in Rome (i am italian), swapped with a Porsche Cayman S, the last of three Porsche i had and used every day (almost 300,000 kilometers in total, without any problem). My intention was to use the Lotus as my everyday car.
I paid € +64 thousand euro for this car.
The time for delivery, scheduled for next month, January 2008 (the car was already on order for several months on behalf of the dealership, they told me) have not been met and the car was handed to me in early March of 2008, 2 months later than the programmed delivery date.
Well, i took the car from the dealer in March, in ultra-fuel reserves. I then I had to stop at the first distributor to refill and I could see that the button that turns the low beam headlights was not working and would not let me turn off the lights themselves. Returning to the dealer, the piece was changed immediately but with a button with the small light of a different color, blue instead of green (I think) (they used the air conditioning one) not having any other type available.
At the evening i left the car parked uncovered in a hotel and at night there is a thunderstorm. In the morning I found about 3 fingers of water inside. Not only that, the water went also inside the boot (where my laptop was..). Also, the sidelight on the passenger side front was filled with water and condensation. All this after less than 24 hours after pick up the car at the dealership (what about some factory quality controls?!).
Back in the workshop (luckily I had not strayed too far from Rome), where I was given the car for a day, the hard top has been re-sealed, because of flooding procedure, was modified the seal of the luggage compartment and changed the sidelight with another new one. I come back home, not without the car was completely lined with a funny [Censored] Roman in a parking lot (Ludovisi park @ via Ludovisi) from 25 € per day (never reimbursed).
The first months progressing without major problems, apart from the fact that if you leave the car in the garage for more than 10 days (even without closing it), then you must charge the battery or use a booster to be able to start. What!?
In July of 2008 (the car was then 5 months and 9.000km) suddenly breaks down the radiator. The Lotus dealer of Padua, contacted to ask if he could wait half an hour after the closure of the dealership (if I remember correctly the 17.30) to give me a way to bring the car, he replied in a negative way and the car was taken to the Aci nearest shop. Of course, at my expense.
Afterwards, always at my expense, the Exige was taken at the dealership Autocommis of Verona for the repair of failure. I chose Verona although it wasnt closer because I have had not had a good feeling with the staff of the Padua dealership. It was mid-July, I only needed a new radiator. I also inform the dealer workshop that, when I press the accelerator to the bottom (to overtake, for example) and I have the air conditioning turnbed on, the car has a vacuum of power (not a declin but a total lack!) (not the best feeling you can have when overtaking, very dangerous!)
After a few weeks without news of the car with which I had to go on holiday, i call the dealer who tells me to be waiting for the piece to change. I wonder why it takes so much and I have to get another rental car to go on vacation. At the end of August (after 40 days), needing a vehicle to move every day (the Exige was my only way of transportation), i call the dealership trying to understand my position and pushing for a quick resolution of the repair. But I was told that the pieces had not been dispatched by the factory.
At this point I also wrote to the factory to understand how an almost new car could have a similar fault and how could be possible to wait for more than a month. I noticed that, unlike any other car maker, Lotus has no phone number, toll-free number or an individual office sites in Italy, to be contacted directly.
This, among other things, involves a continuous discharge of liability by Italian dealers in respect of the factory. I received a reply from the factory a few days later, when I was promised to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
With the evolution of the matter, I find that the dealership had made a mistake and had never ordered the radiator (they say)..
In mid-September, I take back the car, and they make me pay 210 euro for the service. They say that he don't know anything about the problem for the air conditioning but have updated the ECU with the latest software available (i will discover 1 year later that was impossible, no updated software was available at that moment) Well, after 40km the accelerator - air conditioning problem persists as before. Winter was approaching and I do not care much about that. In my research I find on Internet an article about this problem but only on 2007 cars due to a bad working relay (passenger side in LHD cars, above the wheel).
The 2009 was not running in a good way from the beginning. The gear in the spring (after 1 year and 14-15000 km) begins to scratch when cold between 2 and 3 and, with the first warm days of spring, the throttle problem with the a/c on returns.
I take this opportunity to present the problem to another workshop Lotus, which makes me a diagnosis (and tells me they found no updates to the ECU), control the car (while I'm watching an exige CUP, which was almost new, disassembled on the bench with broken synchronizers) and he proposed to change the A / C relay to try to see if the car will imrpve. For the gear problems, however, since the problems were not too bad, we do nothing, but was reported to Lotus.
Miraculously (the problem to the relay should be limited to the cars of 2007) AC / accelerator problem disappears almost entirely, while the gearbox problems worsens slightly in summer 2009.
Meanwhile, the water falls again in the sidelight, the same changed in warranty in 2008 and, during the service of 17,000km, was opened and resealed the seadlight (at my expense) and was also fixed the driver's side window, which guide was detached from the door and was working badly (always at my expense).
In summer 2009, the brakes, after 1 hours of intense use, went wrong, the brake pedal trembling at every brake also in slow speed. Ask for information and I was told that is a known defect in the larger brakes, including the performance pack (for which I spent about € 4k more), which are installed on my car and in fact the latest models does not mount this kind of discs but a newer one. I ask if the pieces, as they know that problem and as the car has 15k miles, can be replaced under warranty but I was told that Lotus does not change them under warranty. Later on, fortunately, the discs arranged on their own, but I got to know other people with my own brakes, and less km, which have had to change them at their own expense spending about 600 €.
At the end of 2009 I begin to feel a "stok" noise while accelerating in the first and second gear. I bring the car at the dealer and, after two days, I was told that they were not the engine mount but the intercooler's bolts that were loose and therefore the intercooler slams against the back window. Nothing serious, but four days of workshops, taxi, train... even in this case I paid even though we are talking about car under warranty (which for now has been almost 3 months of the workshop in less than 2 years)
After this latest problem, my Exige become to suffered for another problem; the water temperature above 5k rpm falls sharply below the threshold indicated by the display (74 °), causing the intervention of the limiter (as if the unit understand the engine was cold). I decide to change, at my expense, the gearbox oil, keeping the old one to see what the state had been. Of course it was full of ground glass. I put it in some bottles and in February 2010 (02/17/2010) i took the car to the dealer, together with the old oil in the bottles, asking for warranty repair of the gearbox and repair of the problem of the water temperature.
From here begun another ordeal, the car remains stationary for a further three months, until May 28. 3,4,5 and 6 gear was changed and after persistent calls by the end of the 2nd month, after 75 days or so, I took back my car (I note again that the shop is 200km away from home and each time I I have to arrange). But, just after 3 km, I realize that the problem of water temperature was not been fixed. Brought back to the car dealer, much altered and wonder why, in three months, the car was not repaired even from that defect. I'm being told that they had not found anomalies. I had to return back home (anothers 200km ) at my expense. The car stay at the dealer for 3 moth. At my request for clarification, the workshop tell me that Lotus did not want to send the entire gearbox and has waited a long time to send the pieces (same version later refuted by Lotus who contacted me by phone to ask how things went). I had the gearbox repaired (not changed) but i had to pay 25 euros for the gearbox oil.
As mentioned above, in the meantime Lotus factory calls me from England asking how the facts were and, in the second call, they apologize with me and offer me a warranty extension till December of the same year. I agree and thank you, in any case not happy to have left the car in the workshop for 6 months in 2 years of use. We are talking about a car paid € 64k.
I used the Exige for another 3k miles and during the summer break the internal partitions of the original Lotus exhaust Stage 3, the backlight of the dash and the backlight of the instrument panel for heating. WOW. Other 12 days in the workshop. All was changed under warranty. But after giving me back my car comes again the problem of the air conditioning, which creates a lack of power when you push the full accelerator and a strange behavior of the engine at idle. Mysteries of electronics ..
Tired and destroyed by all these continuing problems, I sell the car in November 2010.
PS: To avoid misunderstandings and to clarify, the machine described above was use as an everyday car, treated with all the care of a Lotus enthusiast (i had about 5 Lotus), never damaged and serviced every 7500km at Lotus workshops. He had no mechanical or cosmetic mods but only the Lotus Stage 3 exhaust (which went broken) and has 7/8 trackday (less than 1 hour each) in 3 years.
PS2: I sent this message to Lotus Cars on 25/11/2010 and on 29/11 but i have not received any response.
Sorry for my english. I hope i was clear.
Edited by Leogasp on Wednesday 8th December 16:02
Edited by Leogasp on Saturday 21st January 08:40
What a shame.
Sounds like the major problem here is the Lotus dealer network in Italy. You bought a Lotus brand new - all small-production high-performance manufacturers have what we call 'niggles' - little faults that all get fixed in the first year by the first owner. My car (same as yours, 240PP with Sports pack, but a 2010 model) filled with water in the first month after we had heavy snow - the sealant between the front chassis and the passenger cell wasn't *complete* and snow melting to water found its way into the foot wells - causing the carpets to soak and freeze! Brand new car (€64k sounds around right for the FX rate at the time).
I'm hoping my brakes don't have the same problem yours did (mine are the big brakes too) but I've got a weird clutch problem under hard acceleration and fast gear-changes, which someone else here also has. Hopefully this will be diagnosed and fixed under warranty…
If all of the problems you had with your car were treated *well* with *good* customer service from your dealer network in Italy, would you have stayed with Lotus and continued to own one? Perhaps your car was what we call a 'lemon' - a car with too many faults to be average - a 'bad apple'. In cases like this, it's best to trade the car for another one…
I too am a Porsche enthusiast but the only Porsches that interest me now are the GT3 range, and they are too expensive to take to track days on a regular basis. Hence I will stick with Lotus. Unlike yourself, I've had nothing but fantastic customer service from my local Lotus dealer.
It sounds like Lotus need to sort out their dealer network in Italy - you Italians are hardly short of passion for sports cars, but your best sports cars are insanely expensive and beyond the reach of most Italian enthusiasts - Lotus are cheaper than, say, Ferrari… but if the dealer network is awful and customers are treated badly, why bother?
Incidentally - have you had better customer service from Porsche dealers in Italy? I've been treated pretty badly by Porsche dealers in the UK… and have always used independent specialists, who are both better at customer service but also more affordable… I've not yet felt I've needed to use a specialist independent Lotus dealer because the 'proper' dealers have been great. Are there any specialist 'independent' Lotus experts in Italy you can trust your car with?
Don't give up on the basis of one bad car unless the entire dealer network is s
te. From the ambitious roadmap we've been presented with by the new owners, the current Exiges and Elises may be the last of the Lotuses we have come to love…
Sounds like the major problem here is the Lotus dealer network in Italy. You bought a Lotus brand new - all small-production high-performance manufacturers have what we call 'niggles' - little faults that all get fixed in the first year by the first owner. My car (same as yours, 240PP with Sports pack, but a 2010 model) filled with water in the first month after we had heavy snow - the sealant between the front chassis and the passenger cell wasn't *complete* and snow melting to water found its way into the foot wells - causing the carpets to soak and freeze! Brand new car (€64k sounds around right for the FX rate at the time).
I'm hoping my brakes don't have the same problem yours did (mine are the big brakes too) but I've got a weird clutch problem under hard acceleration and fast gear-changes, which someone else here also has. Hopefully this will be diagnosed and fixed under warranty…
If all of the problems you had with your car were treated *well* with *good* customer service from your dealer network in Italy, would you have stayed with Lotus and continued to own one? Perhaps your car was what we call a 'lemon' - a car with too many faults to be average - a 'bad apple'. In cases like this, it's best to trade the car for another one…
I too am a Porsche enthusiast but the only Porsches that interest me now are the GT3 range, and they are too expensive to take to track days on a regular basis. Hence I will stick with Lotus. Unlike yourself, I've had nothing but fantastic customer service from my local Lotus dealer.
It sounds like Lotus need to sort out their dealer network in Italy - you Italians are hardly short of passion for sports cars, but your best sports cars are insanely expensive and beyond the reach of most Italian enthusiasts - Lotus are cheaper than, say, Ferrari… but if the dealer network is awful and customers are treated badly, why bother?
Incidentally - have you had better customer service from Porsche dealers in Italy? I've been treated pretty badly by Porsche dealers in the UK… and have always used independent specialists, who are both better at customer service but also more affordable… I've not yet felt I've needed to use a specialist independent Lotus dealer because the 'proper' dealers have been great. Are there any specialist 'independent' Lotus experts in Italy you can trust your car with?
Don't give up on the basis of one bad car unless the entire dealer network is s
te. From the ambitious roadmap we've been presented with by the new owners, the current Exiges and Elises may be the last of the Lotuses we have come to love… 
Very sorry to hear of your troubles. I know the feeling as i had that happen with my sagaris and the nearest place to service was another country. I hate to say it but had i went to the right garage i think most everything would have been fixed. It sounds to me as if the italian dealerships are very bad. Not that it helps you much. I also recieved a 240 exige in 2008 and luckily its had no real problems at all. Same with my elise from 2005-2009. I think you were just very unlucky and i wouldnt think it's the factory finish. I know that doesn't make things any better as once you can't trust your everyday car then it won't be long until you can't stick with it as you know. Hopefully your next car wont be so unlucky!
That's a terrible story ...
I can't blame you for steering clear of Lotus now.
I too have a broken gearbox but mine is kindof self inflicted because of increased power .. the syncro issue however is not power related and I too had a crunch between 2nd and 3rd ..
Interestingly my daily runaround is a Yaris .. slow and crunchy syncros here too .
Come on Toyota build better boxes !
I can't blame you for steering clear of Lotus now.
I too have a broken gearbox but mine is kindof self inflicted because of increased power .. the syncro issue however is not power related and I too had a crunch between 2nd and 3rd ..
Interestingly my daily runaround is a Yaris .. slow and crunchy syncros here too .
Come on Toyota build better boxes !
jfk01 said:
the syncro issue however is not power related and I too had a crunch between 2nd and 3rd ..
Interestingly my daily runaround is a Yaris .. slow and crunchy syncros here too .
Come on Toyota build better boxes !
Odd. I too had that problem at 4000 miles but it went completely on its own and at 16k miles the gearchange is one of the best I have ever known. And I have been driving for 45 years.Interestingly my daily runaround is a Yaris .. slow and crunchy syncros here too .
Come on Toyota build better boxes !
I'm sorry to hear of the OP's problem which very definitely is not typical. In fact it sounds as if much of his difficulties are with the Italian garages rather than Lotus themselves - selling as few cars as they do, Lotus have no real ability to control their retail outlets. However, even here in the UK I would not consider a Lotus for everyday transport. It doesnt remotely have the build quality and robustness of Porsche
Edited by bordseye on Friday 20th January 07:41
Scrambled said:
Apologies if I am not convinced.
- Mine S 240 --> above the story..- 240R --> chaged for a Quaife sequential
- Standard 190cv --> rebuilt with stronger 2nd and 3rd gears + syncro
- Cup 260 --> rebuils as above
- S240 --> sequential
- cup 260 --> rebuilt
It is no coincidence if Eliseparts are buildng a flange to match with the Honda K20 gearboxes..
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f25/eliseparts-men...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=8&a...
Shocking "Man buys lotus which continually goes wrong and main dealer useless in trying to resolve issues" story...
Unfortunately sounds very similar to my tale after buying (thankfully second hand) a 2006 NA exige. Gorgeous, gorgeous car but sadly despite only being 2 years old with 15k miles on the clock everything that could go wrong with it did.
Hope you went and bought a porsche (with 64k euros to spend on a lotus it sounds like the prices are a little different over there!) I now drive japanese cars after a brief stint with an unreliable BMW and I don't think i'll ever be going back!
Unfortunately sounds very similar to my tale after buying (thankfully second hand) a 2006 NA exige. Gorgeous, gorgeous car but sadly despite only being 2 years old with 15k miles on the clock everything that could go wrong with it did.
Hope you went and bought a porsche (with 64k euros to spend on a lotus it sounds like the prices are a little different over there!) I now drive japanese cars after a brief stint with an unreliable BMW and I don't think i'll ever be going back!
Si_man306 said:
Shocking "Man buys lotus which continually goes wrong and main dealer useless in trying to resolve issues" story...
Unfortunately sounds very similar to my tale after buying (thankfully second hand) a 2006 NA exige. Gorgeous, gorgeous car but sadly despite only being 2 years old with 15k miles on the clock everything that could go wrong with it did.
Hope you went and bought a porsche (with 64k euros to spend on a lotus it sounds like the prices are a little different over there!) I now drive japanese cars after a brief stint with an unreliable BMW and I don't think i'll ever be going back!
I spent considerably more on my Toyota than I have on my Elise in a couple of years. Unfortunately sounds very similar to my tale after buying (thankfully second hand) a 2006 NA exige. Gorgeous, gorgeous car but sadly despite only being 2 years old with 15k miles on the clock everything that could go wrong with it did.
Hope you went and bought a porsche (with 64k euros to spend on a lotus it sounds like the prices are a little different over there!) I now drive japanese cars after a brief stint with an unreliable BMW and I don't think i'll ever be going back!
Any cars can have troubles - and it will cost a hell of a lot more if it's a Porsche that goes wrong.
Unfortunately small manufacturers like Lotus will always have more trouble - the cars are pretty much hand made.
Shame the OP isn't near Lallio as P.B. Racing are real enthusiasts who know their stuff. We've had good service from them on Stelvio runs. Before they became an official dealer they stepped in to help once when the castrati at the (thankfully now closed) dealership in Merano were utterly useless.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 20th January 19:46
Leogasp said:
Scrambled said:
Apologies if I am not convinced.
- Mine S 240 --> above the story..- 240R --> chaged for a Quaife sequential
- Standard 190cv --> rebuilt with stronger 2nd and 3rd gears + syncro
- Cup 260 --> rebuils as above
- S240 --> sequential
- cup 260 --> rebuilt
It is no coincidence if Eliseparts are buildng a flange to match with the Honda K20 gearboxes..
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f25/eliseparts-men...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=8&a...
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