OT: Why so many

Elise's on ebay for sale? Who has driven them and what are your thoughts?

I've read a lot about these cars and test drove one a few months ago - probably an awesome track car, but not a daily driver. The car is really stiff but not strong. I'll bet you could knock the suspension out with one small pot hole in the road. Great engine reliability, however, with that Toyota motor in the back.

looks like a very fun car to drive around in.. what do you mean by "not being strong", the specs says it can do 0-60 times un under 5 secs.

I was on the market, test drove one, put down a deposit, and had to wait 6 moths. New Boxster came out, was so much better, I bought the 987S instead. There was a flurry of posts on the Elise here a while back. You can do a search. There was a buying frenzy early on. People were selling their spots on the wait list for over $1000. Dealer markup of $15K - $20K was not unheard of. The dealer I was dealing with was considered a truly honest and honrable man because he was selling the cars at MSRP. Some people ordered two, sold one then sold the second as well since people were willing to fork out so much moolah. As more and more cars came in, and the reality of what the Elise is, demand rapidly dropped. What I believe the reason for the flood of Elise's on e-Bay is the backwash of speculative buyers turned sellers, and a small market niche of consumers that has now been saturated. The Elise is a nice car, a great car for it's intended purpose, but is priced too high and too close to better cars like the 987S.

hmm wondering how soon i will get bored of the car.. looks nice on the outside, a little dull on the inside..

i had an elise. it's a wonderful car, and in some respect much better than ANY porsche every made, that inc CGT or 911RS. but in many respect it's not a car, it's a toy. we like to think we are hardcore driving and tracking porsches. now elise is truly hardcore. it's the kind of car you either love it or hate it. no torque, all high rpm hp, encredibly tossable, i drove it home literally sideways 1/2 of the way, and at 2000 lbs it's just unbelievable. i can't really explain it, you need to go drive one. if one can have 3 or 4 cars to himself, it would be a BIG mistake not to have one. why i sold mine??? i have a unrelenting wife. i buy cars when she's not looking and sells them when she wonders why the garge is full again. really. the inside is not dull. pure and simple alum extrusions. a complicated radio that spits out noises to bleed your ear... but other than that it's purely functional and makes our porsche look like a video arcade console.

This makes me wonder who the unrelenting one really is.

the reason why there are so many for sale in my opionion, is because people didn't really know what they were getting. i sold my 01 c2 for one and i love it and dont regret my decision. when dealers were taking deposits for them, people jumped all over the idea of getting a car like that for 50 grand. i mean, where else can you get a super exotic looking car, that performs like a beast and looks like 100 grand for 45-50k. i think that was the reasoning for a lot of people. then, once they drove it, the novelty wore off for them and the car became to them what it really is, a track car. its not cushy like a porsche and doesnt have any bells and whistles. it is very raw and i think people looked over that fact initially.

i don't think the elise looks like a $100k car.. imho it looks like a $15k to $20k kit car, and probably the same to 95% of the population.. but most people that buy the car don't buy it for that purpose.. it's really a vehicle not made for anyone else but oneself to enjoy.. just like your own personal video game console... one thing i've noticed, whenever i see someone driving them on the streets, they drive pretty damn crazy.. i don't think i've ever seen an elise driving actually "obeying" any of the traffic laws..

my point was that alot of people bought them for the wrong reason and those people are now selling them. the people who currently have them either love the elise or are stuck with it. im sorry you think the styling of the elise is that of a $15,000 car to each his own

Hi, I owned a lotus Exige S1 for a Year, not sure if they sold the S1 exige in the US but it was basically a tuned up lighter version of the elise (with a hard top roof which made getting in and out fun). It was a great car (0-60 in 4.6 seconds) and I had some great driving days in it. It was my only car though and while it was very reliable, driving it was quite draining as the suspension is so hard, I have sports suspension on my C2, but it feels like a bently compared to the Exige. It really is a car for the weekends only. After a Year I started looking around for something a bit more pracitcal which is why I now have my 1999 C2. Since getting the porsche ive never looked back. - (Although if I one the lottery id probably go out and by an exige again as well) If you have the money for a Lotus and an porsche great, but if I had to choose ill stick with my 911. I couldn't upload a photo, but heres what the exige looked like. http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elis...ige/exige.html

exige is a hot looking car.. definately not very practical.. looks more like a futuristic go cart though..