Lotus Elise (1996 - 2001)
BY ANDY ENRIGHT
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If youre in the market for a used Elise however, these considerations wont matter a jot. You value a chassis so pure its 100% proof, reactions quicker than a fly and the ability to make you feel as if the Queens highway has metamorphosed into an extended kart-track purely for your personal pleasure.
Wheels, engine, suspension, a driving position that almost sits you on the floor and a great deal of exposed aluminium and fresh air are what youre getting with an Elise. Nothing fancy, no high-tech driving aids or luxury accoutrements. Anything that detracts from the driving experience has been ruthlessly junked, and everything else has been pared down to a skeletal dimension. Its possible to specify leather seats, you can fit a stereo system (just) and you get a remarkably effective heater, but that really is about it.
The Elise cabin is astonishingly stark. The standard fit soft-top is probably the cars worst feature. Requiring a complicated combination of folding, dismantling struts, locating high-tension bows and going to work with an allen-key, it might seem worth the effort if the hood looked good or was effective when it was mounted. Unfortunately the hood has been described as looking like either an ill-fitting toupee or a face-hugging nasty from Alien.
As an additional bonus, its loud and has a tendency to leak as well. Best to keep your Elise garaged unless you want to be driving it whilst sitting on a bin-bag in the mornings. Practicality is something of a token afterthought. Theres a narrow space behind the front seats, and a tiny boot, but thats about it.
Entry and exit from the Elise requires a fair degree of suppleness, especially with the hood up, and will deter any female occupants from wearing a skirt. Even Lotus test drivers look like theyre trying to effect a sneaky exit from a curry house toilet window when getting out of an Elise. Best to leave the hood off, the windows down and just step over the door.
Used prices for the Lotus Elise have had something of a roller coaster ride. When the car was announced, used examples were trading for more than new, as a wave of speculators looked to make a quick buck. Nowadays, thats not the case but Elise values are still pretty firm, if not the solid gold investment they once were. Part of the difficulty in valuing Elise models is the fact that they rarely cover significant mileages and, as is frequently acknowledged, the amount of kits, options and aftermarket extras available mean that no two cars ever seem to be alike.
For example, book value for a 1996 P-plate Elise on a dealer forecourt is around £9,900, but youll generally be hard pressed to find one for less than £11,000. A newer 1998 S-plate example should retail at just under £11,400, but again youll often find them on offer between £13,000 and £15,000 dependent on trim, mileage and condition. The rare 111S model starts at around £13,000 for a 1999 T-plated car, and youll pay a similar price for one of the rare Sport 135 variants. Check the paperwork to make sure its an original car and not a standard model brought up to spec after sale.
As with any roadster, if youre after a bargain, the best time to buy is autumn/winter when the nights are drawing in and owners start thinking about Christmas and skiing holidays. Insurance for a standard Elise is Group 17, and the Sport 135 and 111S models are Group 18. It may be best to consult a specialist insurer if your car has been modified extensively, and make sure youre well covered if you intend to tale your Lotus onto a race track!
Whilst many Elises will show low mileages on their odometers, its safe to assume that those miles will largely have been spent being wrung out at ten-tenths. If you know what to look for and can converse knowledgeably with its vendor, theres no reason why an Elise shouldnt make a great used buy. The mechanicals are pretty tough. The Rover K Series engine is a hardy little beast, the main problem being that later cars leak coolant from the sealings around their plastic intake manifolds.
Always ensure that the engine has been treated to frequent oil checks and changes. If the owner has receipts for frequent synthetic oil changes, you know youre onto a winner. The cam belt will need changing every six years or 54,000 miles, whichever arrives first. Negotiate hard on cars approaching this mileage which have yet to have the work done, although the job only costs around £200 to do.
Gear selection should be clean and easy, although many keen drivers will have modified the linkage cable for a quicker shift. The toe-link joints in the rear suspension are particularly prone to wear, but at £11 each, replacements wont break the bank. A rattly pedal box is a recurring Elise problem. Throttle pedal bushes and seizing clutch pedals are not unknown, and you may well have to fix the passenger footrest down, as this can become noisy.
Window winders are another bugbear, becoming very sticky or seized. Hoods are often leaky due to errant seals and youll need to inspect the fibreglass around the two rearmost hood mounting points. This area is prone to crazing and the pins that are screwed into the bodywork have been known to tear loose. If you find an Elise with a boot release cable that works properly, count yourself extremely lucky!
(approx based on a 1999 Elise 1.8) Lotus spares are agreeably cheap, as are servicing costs. The key complaint amongst Elise owners regarding replacement parts is the long wait for replacement body panels. Given the length of the British summer, an eight to ten week wait for a body panel can become a massive inconvenience.
Other spares are far more readily available. Front discs cost £90, a headlamp unit around £95 and a new windscreen is £240. A door mirror is £85, a front shock absorber retails at around £145 whilst a rear silencer, including tail pipes and trim, wont leave you much change from £400.
Whatever faults, inconveniences or costs youll have to contend with elsewhere, this is where the Elise cranks the equation way over onto the positive side. On the right road, in the right conditions an Elise approaches perfection. The 111S and Sport 135 are slightly quicker than the standard car, but they lack its purity, its sensitivity to the throttle in corners and its friendlier spread of torque. With a rest to sixty time of less than six seconds and a top speed of 125mph, the standard Elise is an awesome B-road tool.
Its not so happy droning up a motorway, but thats what Vauxhall Vectras were invented for. The handling is an education for those who have become used to more bloated fare. The steering is telepathically rapid, theres almost no body roll whatsoever, and you can feel every grain, pebble and dimple in the road surface through the seat, the steering wheel and reverberating from the underside of the aluminium tub chassis. Drive on looser surfaces and youll feel like youre sitting inside a tin shed under fire from the buckshot cavalry.
The standard Elise has a handling characteristic that may worry inexperienced drivers. Come into a corner too quickly and either brake or back sharply off the throttle, and the car will start to spin. Youll need extremely quick reactions to catch it, but a measured approach and prior knowledge certainly help. This issue was remedied with the larger rear wheels and rubber fitted to the Elise 111S and eventually ironed out completely in the second generation model.
The driving position is extreme; youll be virtually sitting on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you. At first it feels odd, but it soon becomes extremely comfortable. Step from an Elise into, say, a Porsche Boxster and youll feel like youre sitting on a barstool. One of the upsides of a low weight/modest power setup is astonishingly good fuel consumption.
Even used enthusiastically, an Elise will return over 30mpg, which is around three times as good as an equivalent priced and similarly quick Subaru Impreza Turbo.
The roadster sector of the used market is all about the feel-good factor, so it makes a strange sort of sense to plump for the most feel-good, impractical, adolescent plaything around, and thats the Lotus Elise. You wont find a cheap one; reputation and consequent demand have kept used prices pretty high, but once youve swallowed the initial purchase price, the Lotus is cheap to run, is largely reliable and youll be able to recoup a good proportion of what you paid when the time comes to sell it on. Late standard models are probably the best choice, but whichever model you choose youll have a modern classic on your hands.
