DD'ing a Lotus?

"Money Hustard" (moneyhustard)
09/23/2014 at 23:14 • Filed to: None

How did I get so many respondents !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (check hidden replies) who daily drive or know someone who daily drives a Lotus? No one mentions just owning one, but actually DD'ing. There's so many reasons I wouldn't want to do this, mostly because I'm 6'7", and like to occasionally use my car to transport items larger than a shoebox. But what surprises me here is the odds.

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We're talking about a car company that makes around 1000 cars a year worldwide . You gotta figure only about a third of those are sold in North America, tops. To further thin the herd of potential commenters here that claim to DD a Lotus there are those Lotuses that are immediately pressed into track-only service and the garage queens that only come out on special occasions. Or maybe they just don't want to DD a car that only has 40 dealerships in the entire US. A half dozen or so of these owners happened to read my comment today?

Look, I'm not some Lotus hater, I happen to love cars with a very specific purpose. I just don't think there is any world in which the Lotus's purpose is puttering around a suburb running errands and schlepping you to work. Just like Chevy Tahoes don't belong on a track.

I kind of want to believe there could be that many Jalops out there hooning what are essentially track cars on a daily basis. The odds are slim though.

DISCUSSION (21)

Textured Soy Protein > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:17

So you have one person who says their friend DDs an Exige, and another person who says they know "several" people who DD either an Elise or Exige.

You know what they don't say? How tall those people are.

Money Hustard > Textured Soy Protein
09/23/2014 at 23:18

I just edited the article, the folks who claim to drive them are grayed out.

I have to imagine 4'11" or something.

EL_ULY > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:20

I work at a Lotus dealership (ex tech, current parts clerk)

Money Hustard > EL_ULY
09/23/2014 at 23:21

So when someone says:

"I have an Evora that I daily, and it's pretty easy to live with. Much better than my Mazda CX-7 is."

Does that make any sense to you?

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:22

I'm 6'5" and have sat in a track prepped Elise at a car show. It is not comfortable, there is not enough leg room, and my eye level was above the windshield.

Textured Soy Protein > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:23

Ah, yeah I didn't go thru and expand the replies to replies. Because fucking kinja.

Not that it's quite the same but I DD'ed an NB Miata for 4 years. I'm 5'11" and kind of a linebacker type build—when I got the car a friend asked,

"Why'd you get such a small car? You look like Big Bird in that car."

I don't think I'd fit in a Lotus well enough to DD It though.

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:24

My friend's dad used to DD his Elise, though I think that only lasted for a summer. He retired it to weekend duty after he realized that, in fact, he was an old man who needed something more comfortable to commute in to the city. The dude was somewhere around 5 and a half feet or something, so that probably helped.

Money Hustard > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O)
09/23/2014 at 23:26

An Elise is especially not suited for that sort of work. Denial is a potent mental impairment, though, ESPECIALLY when it comes to cars.

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:29

Oh, yeah he found that out pretty quickly. He was super excited about it for a few months and gave all of his son's friends rides, but I think his spine told him to go back to driving his BMW. The Elise was not for commuting by any stretch of the imagination.

EL_ULY > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:32

Very very few people DD these. The highest mileage if seen so far is one guy that has 34k ish on 2011. I can compare it to DDing a Corvette or Cayman lol but not a CX-7 hell no. Evoras are not the best built vehicles. We also sell Aston Martin here and trust me when I say the "Handcrafted in England" is not something you want to see. British engineera do not build these cars, regular ass blokes do. I don't mean to crush anyones feelings or anything.... but after 13 years of wrenching on vehicles form gas station service centers to high end dealerships..... up until MY2014.... the Evora is without a doubt the worst quality car ever made. It's almost bedtime for me and I don't have the energy to list specifics, but it is pretty sad. My dealer does sort of sell Evoras but with an Alfa Romeo opening a couple blocks away, I think Lotus overall will not last more than a couple years.

Bad Idea Hat > Money Hustard
09/23/2014 at 23:49

DD'ing a Lotus seems like something on the frustration scale between watching The View and arguing about politics.

Money Hustard > Bad Idea Hat
09/23/2014 at 23:50

Yes, that. You nailed it.

Conan > Money Hustard
09/24/2014 at 00:35

My cousin DD's an Esprit. He's also 5'8" and a mechanic. Elise? Evora? Nahh.

FlyingV > Money Hustard
09/24/2014 at 07:25

BTW I also daily drove my Elise SC, but that was hard to live with - very loud, drone-y and tinny. Visibility was poor (side view) due to the low drop in the roofline and you can't see out the rear. All you see is tires. I did it for years, but it was one of the reasons to change to an Evora. The Evora is like driving a sports sedan - extremely composed, smooth over battered roads, and squeak/rattle-free. It's lacking the frenetic childish nerve of the Elise, but it handles just as well on the track. For someone 6'7", I wouldn't think of either Elise or Evora, because they're just too small. I'm 5'11" - in the Evora I'm comfortable but I think past 6'2" and you'd be really cramped. Same goes for most sports cars, I would imagine.

FlyingV > EL_ULY
09/24/2014 at 07:31

I smell a troll, starting with your comment about few people dailying them. Every Lotus owner where I live dailies their car. One of my buddies here has an Elise and parallel parks it ALL YEAR in snowy Montreal in the middle of a congested neighborhood. We're two Lotus at work every day, all Spring/Summer/Fall they're parked in the lot alongside the other toys. I've also never had a problem with either my Elise or my Evora other than a CEL for a loose gas cap, and neither has my friend with 50,000 km on his Elise. Come to think of it, other than a recall for an oil line and a headliner readjustment for another friend with an Evora, I've never heard of anything major. If you're really a parts clerk for Lotus, you'll know that the weak spots for the Evora are the early clutch throwout bearing issues on the pre-2011, the door latch issue (fixed post-2011) and some trim issues on the interior.

Anyways, most of these Jalopnik discussions are a waste of time. The percent of people on these forums who have been behind the wheel of any of the cars we talk about (Lotus, Ferrari, Porsche, etc) is probably less than 5% so these arguments are a bit hollow.

FlyingV > Money Hustard
09/24/2014 at 07:35

BTW the Mazda CX-7, with it's droning turbo 4 pushing around 4000 lbs, is anything but plush. The stock tires make it a miserable drive and the suspension is woundup like a sports sedan. I test drove one several years ago, and remember thinking it felt like a wagon on wooden wheels.

EL_ULY > FlyingV
09/24/2014 at 09:10

Well buddy, My screen name is EL_ULY but that is short for Ulysses. You can email my at ulysses@starmotorcars.com Houston's Lotus dealership. I'll gladly send you some images and stories from my service department :]

turblow > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
09/24/2014 at 09:19

I am 6'4", 230#s and I dd my Elise. I'm about at the limit of what fits, but it works. And I do it b/c the car makes me laugh while driving it every time. Life's too short to drive appliances.

DoglegFirst > Money Hustard
09/24/2014 at 10:08

Torch's review of the Evora made it sound like DDing one isn't too extreme

Enite > Textured Soy Protein
09/24/2014 at 11:57

I also drove an NB Miata, and I'm 6'1". Loved that car, but never again.

Textured Soy Protein > Enite
09/24/2014 at 14:21

Yeah, I don't think I would do the Miata DD thing again. I live in Wisconsin and would cram myself in there with a big coat on in the winter time (I ran Blizzaks).

Now I have a BMW 135is which is about as small as I'm willing to go on the inside. I don't drive it in winter because I have an old Grand Cherokee for winter. But even though the 135is has more room inside than a Miata, I don't fit so well with a big coat on because the seats are more aggressively bolstered.