Paging El_Uly and people with Lotus experience.

"jkm7680" (jkm7680)
05/31/2015 at 09:50 • Filed to: None

Are these things reliable. Like, they’ve got Toyota based ZZ engines in them so how bad could they possibly be right?

DISCUSSION (25)

Jobjoris > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 09:54

Just search on LaLD for user ‘13’, he drives an Exige.

jkm7680 > Jobjoris
05/31/2015 at 09:55

Cannot find him

whoarder is tellurium > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 09:59

I cant help much other than knowing they’re fast when hooked up right and theres a wheeler dealer episode on one they purchased:

(rover k series powered brit version)

Jobjoris > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:00

Look harder .

djmt1 > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:02

I’m guessing they are considering how well they have held their value. Ł10,000 for a 15 year old, not particularly rare, 2 seat, mid-engined rag top says something or maybe it doesn’t, I don’t know. Either way if I had Ł10,000 I’d buy a V10 M5. I want an M5.

jkm7680 > Jobjoris
05/31/2015 at 10:03

Ah, I was trying to search his Kinja .Url but didn’t know that the rest of that stuff was in it. Thanks.

MultiplaOrgasms > djmt1
05/31/2015 at 10:04

If its a 15 year old Elise it’ll have a K-series instead of the ZZ.

Jobjoris > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:21

Me neither ;-)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:22

A friend of mine has one. Drives it on the street occasionally but it’s mostly used for autocross. He’s had it going on ten years and as far as I know it has only needed basic maintenance, mostly tires and oil changes.

Flat Six > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:24

It is shockingly easy to total these. Engine is not the problem. A small crack in the body work from a fender bender can cause your insurance company to write it off. Problem is the fiberglass is hard to repair and expensive to replace.

Variance > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:28

My Elise only has somewhere around 10.5k miles on it, but I practically daily it during the non-winter months and have taken it on several 500+ mile trips, so I’ll chime in. I have only ever had to do oil changes, tire replacements, and replace a broken clutch pedal return spring. The 2ZZ-GE and C64 transmission are pretty dead-nuts reliable.

jkm7680 > Variance
05/31/2015 at 10:40

Awesome! Great to have an owner drop by.

Have you owned it since new?

jkm7680 > Flat Six
05/31/2015 at 10:41

Yeah, I read that replacing the clamshell or whatever it’s called costs upwards of $4,000.

Variance > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 10:45

Nah, I’m the second owner; I bought it back in late 2011 with just shy of 4k miles on it (it’s an ‘05, and according to the original dealer sheet, the 50th car in the US). I only live about 10 minutes from work, so despite the fact that I practically daily it, I don’t accumulate mileage particularly quickly.

jkm7680 > Variance
05/31/2015 at 10:49

Ah, nice. Any complaints about it?

Fujimo > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 11:01

This site always has rebuilt lotus cars for good deals:

http://wirewheel.com/NEW-INVENTORY-…

PheeNoIVI > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 11:06

Drive train reliable yes. You’ll constantly be searching for rattles and squeaks. And places where water is getting in. But nothing major out of the blue should really come up.

jkm7680 > PheeNoIVI
05/31/2015 at 11:07

I guess that’s why carpet isn’t included :o

BeaterGT > Variance
05/31/2015 at 11:16

This is exactly what I want to use it for. Plus NJMP is close.

BeaterGT > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 11:17

Starting to think we have the same list of cars to own.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 11:45

Just remember: the engine may be reliable but there’s still plenty of other stuff that can go wrong.

Variance > jkm7680
05/31/2015 at 11:55

To be honest, not really, but it’s definitely a car that you have to get in to with the right expectations. There’s basically no sound deadening and the interior plastics are cheap, but the car weighs under 2000 lb while still having power windows, air conditioning, and a radio.

If I had to pick out the main “cons”, then they would probably be the following:

1.) Ingress and egress can be kind of a pain. I’m 6’2”, and I comfortably fit in the car (I can even wear a helmet), despite the roofline being at my waist, but getting in and out is an exercise in flexibility and strength in muscles you didn’t even know you had. You have to develop a certain technique for it, and I actually find that climbing out of the car backwards is easiest for me.

2.) The car is so good that daily-driving it gets, well, frustrating. The 2ZZ is a very rev-happy engine, with a redline of around 8600 RPM, and when you put it in such a light car, it feels like the car itself encourages you to floor it and drive quickly. When you’re spending most of your time sitting at stoplights or cruising at 45 MPH in 6th, I find myself annoyed that I’m not on a twisty backroad with no traffic. I actually occasionally drive my beater for a few days to help this stress dissipate.

Variance > Flat Six
05/31/2015 at 12:01

It’s actually relatively difficult to total the car from body damage alone, unless you manage to damage both clamshells, which could lead to a repair bill of $10k+; even the earliest US cars are still worth around $25-30k, so it makes it a little more difficult for the insurance company to justify a total loss, thankfully. The major issue is that there is no Lotus-approved method of repairing the aluminum tub that comprises the passenger compartment. Although people have fixed them in the past with no issue, any damage to the tub is essential grounds for a total loss. Fortunately, the front and rear chassis sections are replaceable, but if the accident is severe enough, they will transmit enough force to damage the tub.

Variance > PheeNoIVI
05/31/2015 at 12:09

Most of the leaking issues can actually be solved by adjusting the windows (there are 3-4 adjustments that you can make to the closed positions of the glass), since they don’t do the best job of it at the factory. My car only has one pinprick leak that shows of in extremely heavy rain, and only when the car is sitting stationary. Unfortunately, you still can’t get around the fact that neither of the roof panels have good drip channels on the edges, so opening the door will always result in water dripping down onto the interior side sills.

I 100% agree on the squeaks, however. My car doesn’t really rattle, but it squeaks around corners, over bumps, etc. Supposedly you can get rid of most of them by insulating the interior plastic panels against each other (buddy of mine used thin felt strips on his Exige), but they’re not really significant enough to bother me, so I just tune them out. I have an aftermarket exhaust, so you can’t hear them over 25% throttle, anyway.

Flat Six > Variance
05/31/2015 at 13:15

Thanks for the clarification.