Is this a good plan?

[Andymx5]

Ok,

Sometimes my excitement gets the better of me and I get all carried away

I only have a Sportsbike at the moment and so I'm looking at getting a car.

Looking around, it seems that I should be able to get a good Elise in the next couple of weeks for around £8k or maybe £10k for a 111s

I was thinking:

Rather then getting some boring shopping trolley to get me through winter, which will depreciate faster then it accelerates; Why not buy an Elise now with the plan to sell it at the Start of June?

I'm assuming this means I'll pretty much get to drive a great car for 5 or 6 months and it will be worth (almost) the same as what I paid for it due to the inflated summer value of the car.

Does this sound like a good plan or am I likely to end up seriously out of pocket?

Thanks guys

[Mark82]

I can't see you loosing out money wise - elise prices are all over the place at the moment, seems that people who want to sell them are having to go pretty low - but the good examples and the dealers are staying at around the 10k - 11k mark...

I've had mine about 3 months now, to be fair it's not too much fun in these conditions - i'm just taking it easy waiting for the grip to come back!

Prefer driving it in the cold sludge though than the rain of sept - oct when the car was a little misty!!

At the very least i'd imagine that you'd not loose much cash if you sold just before summer....Go For It!

[andymx5]

Cool, so it might be a good plan!

I'm a little worried about the lack of grip, but it's less Scary on 4 wheels then the current 2!

[S Works]

It's fine unless there's really snow and bad ice on the road.

Coming from a bike you should be used to delicate inputs etc. and the Elise should suit you well. Go for a well sorted late model car, with lots of history and in top condition.

Don't be afraid of sensible mods (exhaust, induction, suspension etc.) but do make sure you get any potential purchase checked over by a good specialist. Buy a wrong 'un and I guarantee it will cost you.

[Andymx5]

Thanks Guys,

S Works, when you mean get it checked over, do you mean something like a RAC inspection?

Cheers, Andy.

[DSS123]

Good plan Andy with one fatal flaw......


Why would you be getting shot of it in the summer?

If you make it through the frustrations of winter I'll guarantee you'll want to hang on to it when the dry roads return!

Go for it, but take it easy on the greasy roads.

Dunc

[gooby]

DSS123 said:

Good plan Andy with one fatal flaw...... Why would you be getting shot of it in the summer? If you make it through the frustrations of winter I'll guarantee you'll want to hang on to it when the dry roads return! Go for it, but take it easy on the greasy roads. Dunc

Dunc is right, you will be unable to resist the addiction of driving a 'liz.

[piooly]

Yeah I agree with S works on the mods bit.

I always thought it would be a bad idea to buy a car thats been modified but, 1, you will save a forture, it will generally be a better condition car cause the owner wanted to improve it and all mods for the elise are worth while, whether it makes it faster, louder etc.... thats what its all about.

[andymx5]

Well... If it happens, it happens! I was worried about that though! I'll now by then if I can afford to keep both Car and Bike or not.

I thought the frustrations of being stuck behind the 40mph numpties down busy country roads would be enough for the Bike to take over in the appeal stakes once the weather warms up... After all, if the plan works, I can buy another Elise in winter next year!

Thanks for the advice

[S Works]

Andymx5 said:

Thanks Guys, S Works, when you mean get it checked over, do you mean something like a RAC inspection? Cheers, Andy.

Very much NOT. Don't let RAC or AA numpties anywhere near it. Their fine if it breaks down and you have to do the usual roadside dance before they'll agree to put it on a lorry and send it to someone who know's what they're talking about, but the inspections aren't worth the paper they're written on.

Get it checked by a Lotus Specialist. Depending on where you are we'll be able to recommend one for you. Any owner worth their salt, who knows their car should have no issues with this.

[Andymx5]

Cool, thanks for the suggestion

I live near Reading. I know of a Dealer/Service place down in Salisbury and SGT? in Taplow (near Slough) but I don't know if either count as "Specialist"

There's an Azure Blue 111S on Autotrader for £10k which I really like the look of but I haven't had a chance to arrange a Loan yet so it will probably be sold by the time I'm ready to buy.

[RobM77]

The Salisbury one is called "Sportomotive" (www.sportomotive.co.uk). They're a very friendly specialist - I've had a test drive down there and a friend of mine used to get his Elise serviced there. It is on the site of what used to be Haydon's Lotus, and I believe some of the staff may even be the same. I haven't heard anything bad about them.

SGT Lotus have been a complete waste of time for me and a friend in the past. We both had £20k to spend and were considering an Elise or a Caterham. I popped in for a test drive and was given a half hour pep talk about driving fast cars... In the end I told him I was a fairly experienced racing driver, and didn't drive very fast on the road anyway. That didn't tip the balance the way I expected! I *eventually* got a short drive in the car I was interested in, just after the salesman tried to kill me with his idea of 'driving'. As for my friend, they refused him a drive point blank. We both ended up at getting Caterhams in the end - me a lovely VVC from Caterham cars the weekend after my SGT experience, and my mate bought a lovely Supersprint privately.

In SGT's defence I did meet a chap the other day who wrote off one of their demo cars! He'd never driven anything quicker than an ordinary FWD saloon and trashed an Elise within a few minutes of taking it out!... ouch!

[Andymx5]

LOL no wonder they're paranoid about letting people drive them.

I've only got a little bit of RWD experience ( 1.5 years driving a 1.8s mx5) but hopefully most of the ideas from fast Riding will transfer to fast driving.

[S Works]

Well you've got more than I had when I got my first Elise. I went straight from driving Mini Coopers (the originals) so it was quite a quantum leap (although I had driven a fair few fast cars on test drives or courtesy of very trusting friends).

Like I said before, your knowledge of how to handle fast bikes in the wet and slippy conditions of winter will serve you well. Lots of Lotus drivers seem to be bikers or ex-bikers.... bogie for instance on here (who has possibly the nicest Elise I've ever seen - 300bhp Supercharged Honda job).

[RobM77]

Oh yes, I wouldn't worry. We are talking about a road car here with less than 200bhp!!

The guy in question had literally never driven anything quicker than a 2 litre Vectra!

Plus, compared with a bike, you can't fall off a car! A little bit of understeer is barely noticeably, as apposed to pant soiling!

[beachbum]

Went from a Peugeot 106 1.1 XN to an Elise 111R.

Anyone made more of a quantum leap ?

[RobM77]

Crumbs! Bit of a jump! A good friend of mine went from a 1999 Fiesta to an Elise . It was a standard S1, so slower than your 111R, but at least the 106 handles!

I also had a friend that went from a Micra to a Caterham

[Andymx5]

Cool, thanks guys

Starting to get rather excited by the plan.. I must be one of the only people who want Christmas out of the way so they can concentrate on getting a real present

[S Works]

Nah mate, as soon as Xmas is over I have 3 people interested in my car which then means I can start working on "the project"

[Andymx5]

So... are you going to spill the beans or are you keeping it as a surprise?

Hmm... only 30 minutes to go and I'm off... wooo