1999 Elise - Good buy?
Discussion
Hi all,
I've been offered a 1999 Elise, 40k miles, all Lotus service history, hard top + soft top, 5 month's MOT, VGC for £10k. Would probably accept an offer slightly below.
My thought is that I could try it for 6 months, and probably sell at a profit in the Summer (when soft tops are in demand)... possibly by a large enough margin to cover my insurance for this period.
Possibly I won't be able to bear to part for it, but can't see myself losing money if I do.
Any thoughts/general advice?
I've been offered a 1999 Elise, 40k miles, all Lotus service history, hard top + soft top, 5 month's MOT, VGC for £10k. Would probably accept an offer slightly below.
My thought is that I could try it for 6 months, and probably sell at a profit in the Summer (when soft tops are in demand)... possibly by a large enough margin to cover my insurance for this period.
Possibly I won't be able to bear to part for it, but can't see myself losing money if I do.
Any thoughts/general advice?
buy and enjoy it.Thanks for the replies and encouragement...
Have also been looking on ebay, and one of the ads mentions
Is this fair comment?
Have also been looking on ebay, and one of the ads mentions
ebay said:
In other words the shiny, polished, "never tracked" cars might look the dogs nuts, but their heavily "zymoled" skins hide a multitude of sins; at the very least they will need new ball joints, new wishbone bushes and new ARB bushes and that's guaranteed. Try asking them when they last changed the ball joints (if they know what they are), chances are they won't because they don't drive it much and wouldn't notice the difference. Even a car with very badly worn ball joints (enough to make the handling really dodgy) will still fly through an MOT. On top of that stuff like play in the steering rack won't seem much to an MOT tester and will in fact be within tolerances for the ministry but its critical for a car like the Elise which is all about the perfect chassis and geometry.
Is this fair comment?
I'd say there was an element of truth in what he says but at the end of the day he's trying to drum up a good price on a shockingly tatty S1. The truth is that a garage queen car might also well be mechanically sound if taken to a good independant (I agree with him on over priced/under delivering dealer servicing).
True, and will thus be easier to sell on.
Not necessarily, a good owner will take care of the car as a whole, the service history and receipts should give you an insight into this.
Load of tosh.
Whilst he might have a point about a fair proportion of Elise owners I think he's doing a great many a disservice here.
Makes it sound as though the car will be dangerous with these worn components. Truth is you simply wouldn't be getting the best out of the car handling wise.
Again, his was a very tatty early car which I wouldn't pay more than 7.5k for, no matter how mechanically sound it was.
Happy hunting!
ebay said:
In other words the shiny, polished, "never tracked" cars might look the dogs nuts,
True, and will thus be easier to sell on.
ebay said:
but their heavily "zymoled" skins hide a multitude of sins;
Not necessarily, a good owner will take care of the car as a whole, the service history and receipts should give you an insight into this.
ebay said:
at the very least they will need new ball joints, new wishbone bushes and new ARB bushes and that's guaranteed.
Load of tosh.
ebay said:
Try asking them when they last changed the ball joints (if they know what they are), chances are they won't because they don't drive it much and wouldn't notice the difference.
Whilst he might have a point about a fair proportion of Elise owners I think he's doing a great many a disservice here.
ebay said:
Even a car with very badly worn ball joints (enough to make the handling really dodgy) will still fly through an MOT. On top of that stuff like play in the steering rack won't seem much to an MOT tester and will in fact be within tolerances for the ministry but its critical for a car like the Elise which is all about the perfect chassis and geometry.
Makes it sound as though the car will be dangerous with these worn components. Truth is you simply wouldn't be getting the best out of the car handling wise.
Again, his was a very tatty early car which I wouldn't pay more than 7.5k for, no matter how mechanically sound it was.
Happy hunting!
Many thanks for that. Definitely sets my mind at rest.
If anyone's wondering which ad we're talking about, it's
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43114&item=4512716154&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
If anyone's wondering which ad we're talking about, it's
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43114&item=4512716154&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
By the way, with respect to your 6 month plan Blueski, I seem to recall that yellow and green, despite being Lotus colours, are not the easiest to sell. Azure Blue and Titanium are the most popular iirc.
Be interesting to see what that eBay car goes for, would make a nice fixer upper at it's current price.
Be interesting to see what that eBay car goes for, would make a nice fixer upper at it's current price.
Can believe that about the colours... I think titanium would be at the top of my list, but the yellow one seems the best deal at the moment. It's rare to find a 1999 car with hard top, low mileage and a full Lotus service history for under £10k.
How feasible would it be to fix up the ebay car? The panels look scraped and cracked in places, and presumably hard/expensive to sort out.
How feasible would it be to fix up the ebay car? The panels look scraped and cracked in places, and presumably hard/expensive to sort out.
Welcome mate. Had mine for a year now. Had the best year of my life!! Done about 20 track days and not one once of a problem. I had the same idea but couldn,t part with it!
Bought mine for 9000 and still think I will get my money back when I sell it. Going to get the car cleaned up with new trimmed seats and sills plus get the calm sprayed.
Sell it in the spring ready for summer. You could probably make 500 quid.
Notlaw1977
Bought mine for 9000 and still think I will get my money back when I sell it. Going to get the car cleaned up with new trimmed seats and sills plus get the calm sprayed.
Sell it in the spring ready for summer. You could probably make 500 quid.
Notlaw1977
I've worked on hundreds of elises and I'd say the ebay ad is VERY honest.
To say that most cars won't need suspension work is a load of tosh to be honest - I'm sure you know your cars Chris W, but I probably know a little more.
I'll wager that the vast majority of elises for sale will need either track rod ends, steering rack gaitors, ball joints, ARB bushes or a combination of the above. That's not tosh.
To say that most cars won't need suspension work is a load of tosh to be honest - I'm sure you know your cars Chris W, but I probably know a little more.
I'll wager that the vast majority of elises for sale will need either track rod ends, steering rack gaitors, ball joints, ARB bushes or a combination of the above. That's not tosh.
I have had a look at the add and feel like after having an Elise for 5 years (a 1999 from new) and know nothing about the car.
The chap maybe is being truthful and it maybe mechanically sound. The clams are shot and it needs paint oh and some of the statements as you would expect in his favour.
Paint can put you back £1K to 2K. A front clam without paint rough guess £500 rear clam £500. Get new Lotus clams £1k front £1k rear when you take VAT into account. Mounts up. Oh and he quoted other bits are needed like lights front & rear. May seem a good buy but you will have to pay to get it road legal. A complete car with MOT for that age can be £10K.
If the car was so good why does it not have a MOT.
Enough of the emotional retort.
If you look at the ebay car get it checked out by a specialist to give you a full report on the car. His words you can trust. Many of the specialists read these forums but do not post due to contributors that think they know best.
Steve (elise) Williams God. Carl from Specialist God. Pay them for an audit and see what they think of any car that you wish to purchase. It will be worth every penny.
Take a look at Seloc.org quite a few chaps use these every day. I have done 85,000 miles in my S1, a light wait compared to some, a few S1's out there above that. To Mr ebay, I am on original shocks, only 1 ball joint & wishbone changed due to an accident. Oh and the car is not a death trap.
Good luck and happy hunting. I hope you find the car you really want. It is a dream to drive an Elise always a smile on your face.
The chap maybe is being truthful and it maybe mechanically sound. The clams are shot and it needs paint oh and some of the statements as you would expect in his favour.
Paint can put you back £1K to 2K. A front clam without paint rough guess £500 rear clam £500. Get new Lotus clams £1k front £1k rear when you take VAT into account. Mounts up. Oh and he quoted other bits are needed like lights front & rear. May seem a good buy but you will have to pay to get it road legal. A complete car with MOT for that age can be £10K.
If the car was so good why does it not have a MOT.
Enough of the emotional retort.
If you look at the ebay car get it checked out by a specialist to give you a full report on the car. His words you can trust. Many of the specialists read these forums but do not post due to contributors that think they know best.
Steve (elise) Williams God. Carl from Specialist God. Pay them for an audit and see what they think of any car that you wish to purchase. It will be worth every penny.
Take a look at Seloc.org quite a few chaps use these every day. I have done 85,000 miles in my S1, a light wait compared to some, a few S1's out there above that. To Mr ebay, I am on original shocks, only 1 ball joint & wishbone changed due to an accident. Oh and the car is not a death trap.
Good luck and happy hunting. I hope you find the car you really want. It is a dream to drive an Elise always a smile on your face.
340ragtop said:
I've worked on hundreds of elises and I'd say the ebay ad is VERY honest.
To say that most cars won't need suspension work is a load of tosh to be honest - I'm sure you know your cars Chris W, but I probably know a little more.
I'll wager that the vast majority of elises for sale will need either track rod ends, steering rack gaitors, ball joints, ARB bushes or a combination of the above. That's not tosh.
Hi Bruce, would always defer to your superior knowledge of cars (particulalry the black art of making super sticky headlamp cover tape
) and I'd probably agree that the majority of Liz's would require some suspension work. But to guarantee that fact as the ad suggested was a bit strong. My old Liz would probably qualify as a garage queen as I bought it as a road car that I never intended to track (too valuable). That said I never felt the need to laiden it down with ally tat or up the power (standard exhaust etc) and all the non-service expenditure during my two years with car was on items to keep it driving correctly - Advans, track rod ends (surprisingly cheap if you know your Rover parts numbers), new shocks etc.
My point is you shouldn't tar all tidy looking cars with the same brush. The best advice with respect to Blueski's purchase is to take any prospective cars to a good, trusted specialist who should let you know what lies ahead for that car.
Re:Colour
Titanium and New Ali/Azure are popular colours as they are metallics in keeping with other modern cars on the road.
BRG does seem like the least popular choice for an S1
I hated yellow when first looking and ended up with a new ali/navy S1. but have since had 3 of them (due to choosing mileage/condition over colour) 2 Elises and an S2k. Trust me - they are easy to sell in Yellow if they are a good nick car and they look ten times better than the popular colours on a bright sunny day.
My advice and what the guy on EVO who just bought a green exige
"If you buy a silly car you've gotta buy one in a silly colour"
Titanium and New Ali/Azure are popular colours as they are metallics in keeping with other modern cars on the road.
BRG does seem like the least popular choice for an S1
I hated yellow when first looking and ended up with a new ali/navy S1. but have since had 3 of them (due to choosing mileage/condition over colour) 2 Elises and an S2k. Trust me - they are easy to sell in Yellow if they are a good nick car and they look ten times better than the popular colours on a bright sunny day.
My advice and what the guy on EVO who just bought a green exige
"If you buy a silly car you've gotta buy one in a silly colour"
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