Buy a Lotus Elise with 100 000 km - Good idee ?

[chabli]

Hi everyone, after years of waiting, I can finally afford a little Lotus Elise.  

I'm interested in a 2007 1.8i S 136hp which costs 24000€ (RHD). Never been on the track.

What worries me a bit is that it has over 100,000 km and I'm afraid of having to make major repairs...

In your experience, is it a good idea to buy an Elise with so many km on the odometer?

Thank you very much,

Chab

[Kevin Wheeler]

Mine has 130,000 miles on it and it still goes lke a rocket.

So long as it has been well maintained, it should be fine.

To show my faith in mine, I am driving it to the Spanish border next year, when it may have 140,000 miles on it (224,000 km).

Mine gets better with use. If it stands for too long, things go wrong. 100,000 Km over 16 years is only 6,000 per year. That is a reasonable mileage in my opinion (because that is about what I do!)

[Techyd]

My Elise is on 94,000km with the Rover sourced k-series engine, whereas yours looks like the Toyota engine which are known to be very reliable and solid.

There is not a lot to repair to be honest, they are not complicated engines I don't think.  Places like Elise Parts make keeping on top of maintenance pretty easy.

[Escape]

An Elise is always a good idea, so if you like the car and it checks out, definitely don't let the mileage hold you back!

As above, to cover those miles, she needed to be reliable, which means the owner will have cut no corners and (probably) made sure all maintenance and repairs were done as needed.

[jep]

100,000km is really not much mileage.... kilometers. 

Nothing to worry about on the engine if serviced correctly.

If the car has been garaged all of it's life, that is ideal. If it has lived outside, ancillary parts can suffer and are going to throw bills more than the oily bits. As would be the case on any older car.

Justin 

[ADF]

Hi @chabli getting an elise is one of the best decisions I ever made, I'm sure you won't regret it. (Even with everything I've spent I've still probably doubled my investment)

100k shouldn't necessarily be a problem in itself, especially if many are smooth road/motorway miles. However, with any old car it's really down to condition.  I got my s1 at about 47k and it was a project/dog with many issues.

It should obviously sound OK and drive well but the most important thing IMHO is the condition of the chassis (apart from damage to the underneath) the area of most concern and needs checking is at the front were the top wishbone front bush mounts. This is very thin and can corrode around the bobbins.  If you turn the steering you can have a good look with a torch to see if its clean, if not give a little clean to check the surface for corrosion. (rusty bobbins are also not good).  These are very simple cars with little to go wrong.  Salted roads are really unfriendly to the aluminium and some Elises are tucked away in heated garages whilst others can be daily drivers so the condition of them can vary immensely.

Best of luck

[Chris_Edeson]

My Elise is a 2010 car 1 owner from new before me and did 72,000 and its great. serviced meticulously over its life and feels as good as cars with 20,000 on.

 

DO IT!