help near to buying need advice on 2 cars

[bmx]

ok im near to buying an exige, i would like to know what you guys recon. i plan on using the car as a weekend toy and maybe the odd track day. i have 2 cars in mind a 2006 with sport pack and 3 owners. or a 2007 with new type dash airbags and super touring pack 1 owner.

what would you recomend?

what is a super touring pack over a touring pack?

pros and cons ?

i prefer the sport seats but like the dash and stearing wheel

[doggydave]

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

[deany]

Super touring is the touring pack plus some extras such as driver/passenger airbags, leather covered steering wheel, cup holder, engine start button and leather handbrake sleeve and gear shift knob.

One owner and newer car would probably be your best bet for being in better condition.

Edited by deany on Friday 11th December 20:12

[bmx]

yeh thats what iam thinking,pure lotus had the sport one and i had a drive, seemed ok. battery was flat so they had to booster started it, and he advertised it as "2 owners" not 2 previous owners, so kind of put off by this one now, didnt fill me with confidence. off to look at the touring one today, fingers crossed

[deany]

bmx said:

yeh thats what iam thinking,pure lotus had the sport one and i had a drive, seemed ok. battery was flat so they had to booster started it, and he advertised it as "2 owners" not 2 previous owners, so kind of put off by this one now, didnt fill me with confidence. off to look at the touring one today, fingers crossed

I actually phoned up about the exige at Pure lotus and was given the impression it was 2 owners as well. It was originally owned by a lotus manager (checked this with lotus) and then the car was bought from Lotus by JCT600 and then sold to the second owner who Pure Lotus bought the car off to sell (Previous customer to them).

Do you know who the third owner was?

Good luck with the car today.

Kevin.

[bmx]

no i didnt look it said 2 previous owner and he gave me the spiel about a lotus manager owning it or something.


just back from seeing the other one, and it was ok but had swirl marks in the laquer all over it and a sruffy front splitter. rest of it was fine needed a good detail. but i must say it was alot more friendly on the ears ans seemed to handle the bumps better. gonna start my search again after xmas. think i really want a sport and touring lol

[S Works]

doggydave said:

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

Really, how did you work that out then from the massive amount of detailed information posted above? Honestly, are you really being serious or having a laugh? It could be fine for all you know.

To the OP. Buy on condition, interrogate the history file, and the current owner. Speak to the last garages who serviced it and see what they think. If in doubt, get your local specialist to check over any potential purchase. It'll cost you about an hour and a half's labour, but it'll tell you everything you need to know about the car, and what's likely to be required to keep it tip-top in the next 12 months.

If you're going to have the car as a weekender and do the occasional trackday, I'd highly recommend making sure you get a performance pack car (if for no other reason than the seats). Sooner or later you'll want to get harnesses (if the car doesn't come with them already), if you get serious about trackdays (they make a HUGE difference), and the cost to retrofit isn't cheap (even if you can find some for sale in the classifieds). When I bought a set of Motorsport seats for my car they were ~£750 a seat plus another £130 for new runnners.

I've never really understood why anyone would order an Exige (a trackday oriented car), without it.

[S Works]

bmx said:

no i didnt look it said 2 previous owner and he gave me the spiel about a lotus manager owning it or something.

Sounds perfectly plausible to me. Quite a few people have bought these cars with no issue at all. boggy who posts regularly on here has had at least one. Ask him about his experience.

bmx said:

just back from seeing the other one, and it was ok but had swirl marks in the laquer all over it and a sruffy front splitter. rest of it was fine needed a good detail. but i must say it was alot more friendly on the ears ans seemed to handle the bumps better. gonna start my search again after xmas. think i really want a sport and touring lol

Unfortunately you'll find this is probably quite normal. Lotus paint is notorious for not being great and the laquer scratches easily. Pay someone to detail it properly and you'll see the real car underneath. See the SELOC detailing forum for many examples.

Regarding it's handling. Do you know if the suspension was different on the cars you tried? Or when they were last geo'd? Any idea if either of them had had any work done on suspension components... ball joints, tie-rod ends etc.? Also what tyres were they running. Even this can make a difference like you wouldn't believe.

Many factors can make a Lotus feel good/bad/indifferent. The more you know about the car the better.

[doggydave]

S Works said:

doggydave said:

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

Really, how did you work that out then from the massive amount of detailed information posted above? Honestly, are you really being serious or having a laugh? It could be fine for all you know.

I didn't say it wasn't fine. The two words used are "more likely". You obviously have a thing about cars with 3 previous owners.

[S Works]

doggydave said:

S Works said:

doggydave said:

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

Really, how did you work that out then from the massive amount of detailed information posted above? Honestly, are you really being serious or having a laugh? It could be fine for all you know.

I didn't say it wasn't fine. The two words used are "more likely". You obviously have a thing about cars with 3 previous owners.

No, I am a fan of facts, and frankly I believe you're giving poor quality advice based on no more than what you "reckon".

Or have you got any indisputed facts to back up why a 3 owner car vs. a 1 owner car is "more likely to have been seriously abused"?

[TIPPER]

doggydave said:

S Works said:

doggydave said:

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

Really, how did you work that out then from the massive amount of detailed information posted above? Honestly, are you really being serious or having a laugh? It could be fine for all you know.

I didn't say it wasn't fine. The two words used are "more likely". You obviously have a thing about cars with 3 previous owners.

I don't understand your thinking.
Lots of Elises and Exiges pass through multiple hands for no other reason than the cars are often bought buy people for their looks and not how they drive: these sort of people soon dikscover they should have bought something else to pose in.
That's the more likely reason for multiple owners.
Its easy enough to see if a car has been abused by getting the cars ECU interrogated.

[bmx]

the sport one made alot off clunking from the gear stick when you were selecting, the seller and "lotus expert" said they all do this. but the touring one didnt do it even if i tried. so that was a lie. a couple of other things they said were. the sport has a suspension tie bar on the rear joining both sides together. and said the touring doesnt.

[S Works]

bmx said:

the sport one made alot off clunking from the gear stick when you were selecting, the seller and "lotus expert" said they all do this. but the touring one didnt do it even if i tried. so that was a lie. a couple of other things they said were. the sport has a suspension tie bar on the rear joining both sides together. and said the touring doesnt.

To be fair mate, any of that could be "normal" or nothing to worry about. If you're new to the Elise platform you'll soon find that there are a lot of knocks, bangs, judders and noises that you worry about initially, but in time realise is just down to the fact that you're not driving an over-insulated eurobox/barge anymore, and are hearing things that you'd hear in any car if it weren't for all that soundproofing.

Dunno what a suspension tie bar is, do you mean an anti-roll bar?

Perhaps if you posted up links to both cars we could give an opinion based on that. Bottom line though, you need to drive a few to work out what you like, and what's good or bad. As Tipper notes though, don't be put off by multiple owners alone. Check the history, talk to the vendor and find out as much as you can about the history of the car. If it's a dealer, ask them for a contact name and number of the seller and see if you can have a chat to them about the car. Anyone worth their salt should be able to help introduce you to them (data protection may prevent you getting their info directly), and be happy to do so. If they've nothing to hide...

[doggydave]

S Works said:

doggydave said:

S Works said:

doggydave said:

Go for the 1 owner car. The 3 previous owners car is more likely to have been seriously abused.

Really, how did you work that out then from the massive amount of detailed information posted above? Honestly, are you really being serious or having a laugh? It could be fine for all you know.

I didn't say it wasn't fine. The two words used are "more likely". You obviously have a thing about cars with 3 previous owners.

No, I am a fan of facts, and frankly I believe you're giving poor quality advice based on no more than what you "reckon".

Or have you got any indisputed facts to back up why a 3 owner car vs. a 1 owner car is "more likely to have been seriously abused"?

The only people in this case who have the true facts are the previous owners. We are all giving advice on what we reckon. With the small amount of information given at the start I gave an opinion based on nearly 30 years of buying and selling my own cars. Most have been good. I've had only one shed. Common sense usually dictates that a one owner car is better looked after than a car that has changed hands frequently. However I do accept Tippers remark that the Elise paltform cars may change hands more frequently than most others. But to say that I was having a laugh is laughable. I do know people who buy performance cars, thrash the backside off them for 6 months during summer and then get rid before they get any big bills.
BMX, do all of the checks to satisfy yourself that you are getting the best car for your money. If you are not sure at all about any car, walk away. There are lots of good cars to choose from. Goog luck

[S Works]

Poor choice of words then.

[griffter]

There's a prejudice against multi-owner cars which I've never found held true. For sure 1 loving, caring owner is a good thing, but 1 abusive, ignorant ape is not. Multi-owner cars mitigate the likelihood of serial abuse and have the benefit that new owners normally put a bit of money into the car they buy (service / upgrades / fixing niggles).

IMHO multi-owner cars are 'typical' and you need to be wary of 1 owner cars; they can be very good or very bad.