Lotus Elise in America

[SamuraiGti]

Lotus without a doubt!!

Z4 and SLK it's for the ones who like to drive with hair off the car. Lotus is for the great drivers and conneseurs...

[hemi_fan]

Id take the lotus over the other two because its so much quicker. If it were an SL55 or Z8 however, things would be different. I'd like to see the Elise for sale in Canada. It seems fairly affordable and a good bargain, but I wonder how it would hold up in the winters here. Does anyone ever drive an elise in the winter?

[gottacatchup]

if i fit in the elise i'd take it but i doubt i will

[oldsnail]

i really think toyota should put the 2zzge engine in the MRS instead of letting lotus use it.
i mean, i thnk it will work better if they put it in their own mid-engine car. the MRS currently uses the weaker solar verstion (1zzge) 140bhp engine also offered in base model celica's and corolla's.

[aawil]

The elise is the only one of the 3 that I would even have.I saw one here in the states about a year and a half ago and it's stunning in blue. It's a shame their so expensive. $39,000 before you get the hardtop is a little high I think. But I love the car.

[SamuraiGti]

Elise expensive? For the car that it is, I don't think that is so expensive.

Here in Portugal the price of an Elise goes around the price of a S2000, about 40000€. For the SLK and for the Z4 how much you pay?

[stradale]

You can find some clues about what it's like to run an Elise as an everyday car in evo's end of term report for the Elise 111S which they ran as a long term test car.
For other reports, check the fast fleet section of http://www.evo.co.uk


Lotus Elise 111S

The Elise's dynamic credentials have never been in doubt (it remains one of the best handling sports cars in the world), so when our 111S arrived at about the same time as the winter of 2002, we didn't need to discover whether or not we liked driving it, we wanted to know whether or not we could live with it. That's the thing with full-on sports cars - they're great for a week-long road test where all you've got to do is drive the living daylights out of them, but prolonged exposure has the potential to turn a minor foible into a major gripe. And the Elise is famous for foibles.

When Lotus launched the mk2 111S it was with the promise that it would bridge the liveability gap between the hardcore Elise mk1 and 'ordinary' roadsters like the Audi TT and Porsche Boxster. Sounded appealing, so we gave it a try.

By chance I'd just bought a mk1 Elise, so it would be easy enough to see if Lotus's claims about enhanced practicality, convenience and driveability rang true. It would also spark a debate about which of the two is the better looking, and now that the mk2 has returned to its maker, I don't think I'm any closer to the answer to that one.

With the miseries of winter upon us the 111S immediately scored points for a hood that not only didn't leak as much as my mk1's, but was also comparatively simple to take off and put on again. It's a personal mantra, but if you've bought a soft-top, you drive with the roof off - in the mk1 this means you need a degree in marquee erection, but with the 111S you could remove the roof (though not put it back on again) while sitting in the car. The optional (£1295) air-conditioning in the 111S was also a boon, meaning that you didn't need to demist the car for 20 minutes before departure.

The 111S is also far easier to get in and out of with the hood on than my mk1, but let's not confuse that with true convenience - at my local railway station I once had an entire track repair crew crowd round the Elise to see how it was possible to thread a normal-sized human through such a small gap. If you can get in, you'll be surprised how much luggage you can take with you, provided you pack carefully - I once took with me all my camera gear, car cleaning kit, and clothes for a couple of days away at the Nürburgring. That particular trip through Belgium and Germany revealed how exotic the little Lotus appears away from its home market - wherever I stopped, people literally queued to have their photograph taken next to the Elise.

Our particular 111S began life as one of the original launch cars (it had 8244 miles on the odo when we got it) and if you sit in the Lotus reception area you may still be able to watch it being thraped eternally sideways around the Hethel test track. Which is to say it's hardly surprising that it had a rattle or two, the worst of which was from the driver's door window winder mechanism.

We encountered other problems, too. At about 12,000 miles the engine warning light came on for the first time. Although the car was running alright we sent it back to Lotus for a check-up where it was diagnosed with a dicky HT lead. Soon after this 'fix', however, the 111S blinked its little warning light again and started to run roughly - after much head-scratching the fault was traced to a defective cam follower, replaced under warranty.

Laziness prevented me sorting out a couple of other difficulties before the car went back, although with the in-car entertainment I did make a bit of effort. The standard Clarion CD-tuner was never keen to pick up radio stations outside Norfolk and when its CD function packed up, too, I simply stuck in a new Alpine head unit. Although I could now play CDs, I still couldn't tune in to radio stations; the latest spec Elise has a coating of tin foil on the underside of the engine cover where the aerial is mounted to improve reception. As for an alarm that enjoyed getting me out of bed at 2.00am, well, I never bothered setting it ever again...

That may sound like a catalogue of woe, but it didn't seem so at the time, and the bit I will always remember about the Elise is the sublime driving experience; my day brightened every time I dropped into its low-slung bucket and grabbed its chubby little steering wheel. But can you live with it day to day? I did and would again if I could afford to buy our 111S from Lotus, yet I concede it's a car you have to learn to love. On the few occasions I left it around for others in the evo team to drive, very few of them took up the option of more than one night home in it. The physical contortions required to get in and out with the roof on scared a few of them off, while the rattly window convinced others (erroneously) that something might soon drop off.

Truly, though, Elise life was hugely satisfying, more practical than I originally gave it credit for, and it meant that grey journeys turned technicolour.

Words/Pictures: Brett Fraser

Date acquired December 2002

Duration of test 10 months

Mileage this month: 12,274

Average consumption 34.9mpg

Servicing costs £235

Consumables (tyres, oil, etc) £10.99 (oil)

Extra Costs £163 (replacement ICE)

Price new £29,290 (inc air-con)

Trade-in value £20,000 (during winter)

Depreciation £9290

[redbaron]

The Elise, but not for the everyday ride.

B.T.W I heard we will get the 190bhp toyota-engine in Europe in the new Exige

[Leo_M3]

BMW Z4 for me its no where as crude as a Lotus.......

Its got leather seats, climate control, and all the goodies you need
It still drives remarkably well too 8)

[HeilSvenska]

Purity is all that matters with a Lotus.
If purity is wanted, inpurities must be removed, even if it means losing some comforts. Of course true sports car afficionado wounld't mind. That's why there are Radicals, Lotus/Caterham Sevens, and Ariel Atoms.

[jinxed84]

id have to go with a z4 over the new lotus. if it uses the toyota engine like i heard, you really have to drive the piss out of that thing to get it to move. although it is fun when it gets up there, id rather have a nice BMW I6 under the hood. and im 6'2" and the elise looks downright TINY.

[Wutputt]

Originally Posted by HeilSvenska For those interested in the US-spec Elise, The US-spec gets... -Toyota 1796cc 190hp/138lb ft 4-cyl -6 speed 'box -Yokohama Advan Neova tires -Exige style central exhaust -Exige style rear vents above the diffuser -Radio/CD player as standard

mmm, US-version will be something like the 'luxury-version' 111s here in Europe?
Standard Elises don't get any radio or other electric stuff you don't need for driving, because of weight saving.

And it will have a central exhaust like the mkI Elise? So the US-version will differ quite a lot.


Well an Elise is not a car for every day use. It's more a car for track driving use
It's really fast for such a little car. But getting in and getting out is not that fast, certainly not for me. I'm 1m90 tall and have to do some acrobatic moves to get in and to get out of the car

[HeilSvenska]

America needs some trackday cars. Hopefully Elise and such cars can stop more of those horrible "tuned-up" Hondas and Toyotas from sprouting.

[MPoweredKid]

YES, the elise kicks ass!!!!!!

if you choose to get the larger width front tires from lotus, you have the best handling car in America