Chris J

Thanks for that. The window drop seems to have died completely now so I'd better get something sorted. Looking on Deroure I don't see anything labelled as an actuator on the parts list, you wouldn't happen to know what part it was they replaced?

Following on from this, last night the window drop on the passenger side started throwing a fit every so often. While the car was running every electrical change (headlights on/off, indicators, lock/unlock the car) resulted in the passenger door jerking up and down 4 times or so. While the car was parked overnight (plugged into a ctek), I heard it spasm up and down around 15 times in a row at around a 10 minute interval. It was still going strong this morning so i dropped the window a fraction and taped over the gap to save the window motor from burning out.... Battery is only a few months old so is this going to be time for a new door latch to replace the window microswitch or could it maybe be damp elsewhere in the electrics given this incident coincided with the first wet autumn night?

If you can wait a year or so, how about the new TVR? (apologies if already mentioned and i missed it) 5 litre v8, 1200kg, 500hp...

Here's a photo...

Mine is like that all year round... C-tek cable comes out of the boot in the corner, there's enough latitude with the seals that the tailgate latches and locks ok.

I'd have the S1...

Having not touched the car for a day I noticed today the window was back up in position... I then unlocked the car, opened the door and the window threw a bit of a fit, lurching up and down about 10 times before settling in the correct position. I then shut the door and the window repeated the performance, stopping in the up position. Since then today it's been as good as gold. I'll swap the battery tomorrow morning as the new one arrived today (thanks tayna batteries) but it looks like another thing to watch and see if it repeats...

The 100k mile one went quickly for 24k as I recall. I don't think it had all the packs either did it? 2 years ago my early 2011 with 50k miles was 28k and i think the market has firmed up since then. When you come to sell, if you put the S1 on SoR with one of the main dealers I don't think there would be any issues shifting it quickly. As Andy said, I think around 25-30k price the market demographic opens right up (to include the likes of me). It's hard to tell where the 400s will settle out as the SR's seem to be holding firm in the low 40s...

Resurrecting this thread, I lost the drop in the passenger window yesterday, so it is permanently dropped whether the door is open or closed. I tried the reset, with no success. I just tried disconnecting the battery, and reset both windows. The drivers side reset just fine, the passenger side went all the way up, and then dropped (with the door closed)... so something clearly believes the door is open. The instrument panel shows the door position correctly and the interior lights come on as you'd expect. So, what'should the most likely culprit? It looks like an original varta blue battery, but the car is kept on a ctek so shouldn't be a problem. Is it likely to be the door latch micro switch given the door position shows ok on the instrument panel? What else might be the culprit? I'm 50 miles from the nearest indy or 100 from the nearest official dealer so I don't want to spend more time than I need trekking up and down the motorway...

You say you've had the car back since last May and it hasn't left your house. My advice would be sell it, it's obviously not the car for you anymore. From the way you write you've bonded with your Porsches, so take the car to lotus Silverstone or a n other main dealer and have them put it on sale or return.

When was that? Assuming they are going at the asking price then looking at adverts they are going the other way recently.

2011 N/A with 2bular, barge boards declared, kept on the drive - £350 with Admiral, protected NCB, legal cover etc... Had a quote from Henderson Taylor for £511 including track day cover which seemed pretty reasonable, shame I don't have the time to get on track at the moment.

It's car #2, and child #2 arrived on the scene this winter so at the moment is tricky to get out without needing a rear facing car seat... In the summer child #1 becomes big enough for a fwd facing seat using the seat belt and I expect mileage to go up after that point!

It belongs in Beverly Hills though, it might stand out a little much for me in exmouth high street!

Would you want to?! A 410, I wouldn't think twice, but those 400s, they're a bit common...

Reading that I would take away mostly that going to Toyota to learn how to produce a car cost efficiently saved Porsche... I'd suggest there is a certain amount of hyperbole in that article given they were promoting the latest Boxster (the 4 pot with the crap soundtrack...) and working through the sales figures on the website I linked before suggest that other than in the year 2000 the 911 has consistently outsold the Boxster/Cayman by quite a margin. But anyway, even the cheaper, slower, more basic Boxster was still a £35k base price (I think, struggling to find official prices) which is a different ball game for profit margins compared to the Elise at ~£20k(?) in the late 90's...

As I understand it the front half of the 996 and Boxster were more or less identical so the cost to build either shouldn't be hugely different. From this site: http://carsalesbase.com/european-car-sales-data/ Porsche in 1999 (year or so after introduction) sold 12000 996's in Europe compared to less than 8000 Boxsters (or 2800 Elises, almost the peak of sales). Given the profit margin on the 996 would be a lot higher than the Boxster you would have to say if anything the 996 gave the bulk of the profit that then let them develop the Cayenne (which then shot their bank balance in to the stratosphere and led to Porsche becoming an SUV company with a sports car division...). It's hard not to conclude Lotus have been at the wrong end of the market to make money for the last 20 years.

They do shine there, but there is no profit margin, so no cash to develop future models and no long term survival without being under the umbrella of an automotive giant. How many small British sports car manufacturers have to go bust to prove that? As for the Evo twin test, there was just no need to mention the 911. Yes it is a 'better' all-round car, more comfortable, as fast, good perceived interior quality etc, (& more expensive...) but there was absolutely no need to bring it in to a twin test between a Nissan and a Lotus. Just leave it as there's no outright winner, the Nissan is faster/more brutal and the Lotus has better feel or whatever they said, and stop right there.

Maybe at this end of the market, for road use, the lower running costs of the N/A give it a certain desirability. Obviously if you're intending on using the car on track then the tuning potential of the S will be a big plus. I am surprised how strong prices are, it seems like mileage rather than age is the big driver for depreciation.

I'd have to paint it to match the car... Good model for how the roadster could look though!

For both my Lotuses I've travelled. For me I can get most of the way to a deal on phone, email and internet, but I want to sit in the car and know it's for me. My Elise was bought from an independent in Cardiff and my Evora from Bell and Colville, which is a fair old trek from Devon (though about 100 miles less than you...). With the Evora probably 4 times out of 5 you'll be able to get background information on a particular car from the forums, which helps massively to that warm and fuzzy feeling before you commit from a distance but asking the question and flagging up the car can be a double edged sword as the good cars sell quickly - Jamie at B&C said that he'd had a few solid inquiries on the car I bought based on a thread I'd started on the se loc forum asking about the car so I committed to a deposit before I drove up to Guilford for the test drive...

For me it is massively lifted by the highlight of the Oyster stripe running across the doors and dash, but then I would say that as that's what I've got...

The climate in my 6 year old Skoda is near as perfect for me. I've left it in Auto (other than using the Max demist when the weather's foul) since I first found what temperature I wanted. The Ford Focus I had before that was rubbish, it blasted you with an icy gale for 5 minutes on start-up in Auto no matter what temperature you had set or what time of year it was...

I love the styling of the S1 Evora dash and I wish they could have retained some of it for the 400. The ergonomics not so much, I find it easier to operate the window switch with my left hand, which is absurd, and the air-con controls look beautiful but I wish they could have fitted proper climate control so I could set them once and never have to touch them again as they are a pain to get to on the move! The oft quoted one of the buttons you can't see doesn't bother me as the only ones hidden when I'm driving are buttons I've never needed on the go (petrol filler cap, boot release etc...) Otherwise simplicity is always good, especially on the steering wheel. Cruise control and basic stereo controls only at most for me please! I drove from Devon up to Heathrow in a hire car recently and it was only 10 miles from London I discovered the thing had cruise control, as the controls were on a stalk hidden behind one of the huge fat spokes of the steering wheel. Why oh why...? Sometimes you wonder if the designers ever drive the vehicles they work on. Having said that about simplicity, Peugeot and Citroen are IMO going to far the other way pushing everything onto the touchscreen, which then needs a really good software interface to avoid it becoming cumbersome and distracting, and the last few of those I've driven they certainly haven't managed that!

Assuming they are the latest V105s then I would say there is very little wrong with them. Have had them on mine since the summer with no regrets.