rijowysock

well i went to buy an elise, my dream car ever since i got the s2k and well i finally said screw it.. go for it.. drive to the dealer give the guy w/e he wants take the car off the lot. (Aspen white /Biscuit 06 w/o sport package) after giving him all my info and bank info to buy the car.. he handed me the keys and said... drive it around while we get all the paperwork settled...blah blah (bad choice)

Elise

Looks=amazing, kind of small considering im 6'2", but sexy.
Performance=sounds good, but for a 47k car slower than id thought.
Steering=Like turning a 50lb boulder.. ud think it would at least have power assist... or maybe it does but its like driving an old chevy that weighs 5000lbs and when u go to turn at low speeds takes immense force to steer. especially since the steering wheel is like 8" wide.
Interior=Seats are crap, door panels crap (the litttle 4" piece of suede (alcantara) is nice), dashboard feels like MR-S, Radio is Cheap pos (not user friendly), Speakers (theirs 4) sound worse than the 2 oem s2000 ones. Floor is nice how its bare alum and i like the exposed bolts and such giving a race feeling.

to put it in a nutshell.. i know the elise is a "track car" but for 47k you have to be able to use the car for different tasks as well. when you go on a date... i though the S was small and uncomfortable but the Exige is like stepping into a 4' deep hole.. very difficult to get in/out without a center console. The shifter feels nice and "solid" but the ebrake setup feels very cheap. the view in the car is bad, the rear view mirror is pointless and the side mirrors dont give the ideal view. not to sound condescending on the car but if i had $ to piss away... i still wouldnt buy this car because if i had money to piss away i wouldnt get something as slow and felt as shitty as the elise.

dollar or dollar, lb for lb, hp for hp, getting back into the s2k when getting home was actually a relief... i knew instantly i had made a mistake and am not getting the elise. i could make a tube chassis car and drop an F20 in it and it would feel more comfortable and more daily driveable than the elise as well as more worth every penny..

im sorry for all the other elise enthusiasts outthere.. but maybe some care about different things than me.. i was planning on turbo'ing the elise when i got but right now id much rather build up the S. Ive driven a lot of cars and the Elise felt identical to me as a Toyota MR-S (size/quality/speed/practicality)

Elise:


The baby that won the decision:


even if i had to decide between: S2k on stocks and only having tein flex.. vs the stock elise i would still choose the S2k hands down. also i dont know about everyone hating on tein flex.. but drive an elise and you'll bow down to tein flex.




Riley


btw in the end, i drove back early gave back the car and said forget it, he suggested i keep car for weekend and think it over more.. (its sitting in driveway and obv im not driving it)

digink

elise sucks

rijowysock

i might add/edit more later im tired now from the most disappointing day of my life.

Kyushin

Wow kinda suprising to hear, i heard their steering and so on is flawless, but then again i never drove one. They look great though ^^

rijowysock

when hauling butt down the road the steering is "nice" i guess.. its dead on because no power steering and you feel road but when navigating thru home depot or trying to drive in a parking garage to go to fav restaurant its like HELL. try parking in that spot thats at weird angle... impossible.. like i said for a track only car itd be slight good idea. but if i had 50k to piss on a track only car id buy a porsche tube chassis and get 997 body panels.

Tyraid2K

sorry man, your opinion is wrong LOL, maybe those 2in of height you have over me ruin the elise for you. But I love every square inch of it's crude simplicity and while i agree it's not cheap for what it is (should be a 30-35K car) it rides on rails like I've never experienced, (been in a few S2ks as well)

I'll wait for a used one, there are a lot of 50+ folks buying them and finding what you're finding essentially, it's not an easy car to live with. But once I get my wrench going (maybe K20 swap) the car should blossom for me.

Only thing more desirable may be the ariel atom, but I know thats really not something I could take to work.

CKit

[QUOTE=rijowysock,Nov 24 2006, 08:30 PM] well i went to buy an elise, my dream car ever since i got the s2k and well i finally said screw it.. go for it.. drive to the dealer give the guy w/e he wants take the car off the lot. (Aspen white /Biscuit 06 w/o sport package)

dyhppy

kudos to the OP. if you didn't read, i rented an elise a few weekends ago thinking that it was going to blow my mind being 900lbs lighter than the S. i agree with everything you are saying and more. the engine sounds like crap compared to our high tech revving sound, but it's cool that it's in back of your head.

i'd imagine the exige to be even worse than the elise even though it can be SC into a super duper car.

good for you for not buying it. after my weekend with the lotus, i couldn't wait to give it back.

did the dealer give you a limit on how much you can drive it? and where the heck do you live that they let you do that??

s2k dre

alot of people freak out about those cars, but u got to drive it first, unless u got money to piss away.

Axel6

The Elise has a one track mind (pun intended). It's great at what it does, but it's no multitasker. It's a car to have as a track toy and that's it.

You have to admire it's purity. It was not intended as a GT.