S2000

[Colin G]

Unfortunately a lot of M100 owners just whine can complain about everything, instead of checking and maintaining their cars they just blame previous owners and moan that a 14 year old car needs a few things repairing on it!

 

Ask them how long they have had that problem and why they haven't got it fixed. There's no excuse; the fuel tanks can easily be plastic welded and the brakes are crap because they are the same floating calliper as a 1990 Astra and the £20 sliding pins on them need replacing.

 

I just took a perfect fuel tank out of a 1990 Elan.

Just tell them to get their cars fixed and stop whining about it like a girl with PMT.

 

I sold the Elise and the Esprit and kept the M100 because its so competent in all conditions.

 

 

As I'm new to the forum I don't know you, but your replies read like you wouldn't accept anything said in a negative way against the elan no matter what it was. Childish name slinging really doesn't help to further your case any, it comes across like a tantrum. Clearly the car is a favourite of yours, but you have to face up to the fact that it's not a car for everyone, as is the case with every other car from every other marque ever made.

[Guest surferphil]

I'll make this clear Colin.

I don't accept that just because a car has repairable fault its a bad car.

If you have a car that needs servicing its your responsibility to get it serviced and repaired, not the people who built the car.

 

I know its not perfect its a machine, machines aren't perfect, they have moving parts and moving parts get worn and break. I believe the reason you would not buy an Elan it is because you don't like it, not because its a bad car, it simply isn't a bad car, its very good and incredibly well engineered car (that is my observation not my opinion).

 

The M100 Elan isn't a super car and never was, its really quite old now 25 years old, it's not as easy to get most parts and even harder to get some parts, finding a very good one usually requires more than £5k or a lot of work/luck. But the values over the past 8 years have held well and may well be on the rise. Not may cars can boast that.

 

The Porsche range doesn't appeal to me, I used to have a soft spot for the 944 and 928 all those years ago but German cars leave me cold. I like supercars and well engineered cars, but this topic is S2000 and I chose the Lotus over that, my friend chose the S2000 over the Elan, I'm sure Bibs can make his own mind up but whilst the Elan is being criticised here I feel as its a Lotus Forum I am right to question those criticisms.

 

I like automotive engineering, I love it. I am a fan and I love my job and have an informed opinion and learned understanding of automotive engineering and production. Not just Lotus but many other cars, I have never worked for Lotus but I pulled a few apart and put them back. I've had a fair number of European and Japanese cars, never had an American car or driven one (I have a list if I ever go to the USA) but I have driven a lot of different cars - more than my fair share.

 

The Elan suites me, I cannot find anything to match as its peerless, I want to find a replacement but I can't, the later Evora is the closes I have found and of course a very different package and price so I'd probably keep an Elan if I bought an Evora anyway.

 

Trying to continually find fault with a bloody good car is pointless, I will argue when I disagree and I disagree.

 

As for "childish name slinging" - your now insulting me; seems you go from slagging of a good car to slagging me of, I was replying to Travis anyway. If someone said to me 'my car is crap because the brakes don't work' I would say: get them fixed and stop whining about it.

 

I have no tolerance for people who don't look after their cars, and to say the car is bad because things go wrong is wrong, if you cant look after your own car then pay someone who can, lack of maintenance is inexcusable.

 

Clearly my arguments are logical and I never insulted you or Chris; despite being insulted by both of you. That's a sign of maturity.

[Colin G]

Very good. You've said your piece here, so you won't need to send me any more PM's regarding it. I won't be editing my post as you asked, and I won't contribute any further to the derailment of the thread.

[Guest surferphil]

Well seeing as you can't keep a private conversation 'private'; Good! 

[Colin G]

Right, back to the case in hand. Another thing I liked about the S2000 was the simplicity and driver focus of the cabin. Though I think there was a lot of complaints at the time that it would be better described as basic! I loved that there was never any need to remove your hands from the wheel in order to use any of the (little) equipment in the car, allowing you to always concentrate on the driving. No distraction because of gadgets in cars is nothing new to Elise and Exige owners of course, but it wasn't really the norm in anything else at the time. It's actually one of the reasons I love my Evora over the 911 it replaced, the dash isn't like something out of the starship enterprise. Did a little digging and found a few pics of my third and last S, taken a few days after I picked it up from new. This car was treated like one of the family although it was only a weekend toy. When I sold it two and a half years later the guy who bought it reckoned it was indistinguishable from brand new!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest surferphil]

Phil,

 

I'm not saying that the M100 is a bad car or the S2000 is better etc. I'm saying that the Sporty Honda's S2000, Integra Type R, NSX, Prelude VTEC are all great cars and the build quality is high. If you get a chance to try a good one do, they are fun reliable cars. and the VTEC units are fantastic. If I could find a nice clean Prelude VTEC i'd snap it up. The 4ws gives it slalom handling on par with an Esprit.

 

Regards My friend. I can't say anymore than he worked at Lotus and told me about the design/engineering, he was at the coal face so I trust his words on the development etc. The engineers are great, but the funding is low compared to the likes of FORD, HONDA, BMW etc..

Honda have supposedly never had a warrenty claim on a VTEC unit.

 

Regards the orginal post, as I said before get an S2000 their a great car, even Clarkson likes em!!

 

Oh and I nearly bought an M100

 

Honda build quality is good, I have driven quite a few and was very close to putting a deposit down on the Civic Type R Gen2 way back in 2001 when they launched it here, when the dealer messed me about the 2nd time I backed out. My ex MIL had a 2009 model I drove about on occasion. I have driven various other Honda's but never really fell for one, Horses for courses and all.

 

A friend and colleague had an NSX back in 1997 he sang it's praises and it was a lovely car but I never drove it, I still want to drive one, but where do you hire one?

 

Lotus engineering development for their own cars seems to be on an ever decreasing budget since GM sold the company to Romano Artioli back in the early 90's. However the engineering development for the M100 was not on a shoe string, Lotus was a very different story back then and with big GM behind them. The engineering development budget for the M100 was £35 million and that's a lot of money in 1987 especially when you can choose any drive train from the GM Group and use the knowledge of front drive engineering they had from their consultancy for mainstream manufacturers.

I suspect your friend is from the latter era of Lotus engineering?

[Bibs]

Bought another car instead now, picking it up tomorrow

[Simon350S]

Oh hello..... What is it??

[Sparky]

He's so enigmatic.

[punky]

I want Pictures!

[HowardRoark]

My friend had one, great car.  I drove it a bit but I'm too tall and my knees were smashed into the dash.

 

The '00-'01 had a plastic rear window, and a stiffer suspension IIRC.  The '02+ had a glass rear window (which is nice) and a bit softer suspension, though still fun.  Reminded me of a Lotus Seven with how close your rear is to the rear wheels!

 

I have a Honda Integra DC5 with the 200hp K20a2 2.0L Vtec-i engine.  I now have over 223,000miles on it with a lot of hard driving (redline all the time, and some track days), and that engine doesn't use any oil and there are no leaks!  The only maintenance it has needed is coolant change once in a few years, oil, spark plugs every 110,000 miles, and a valve adjustment at that same time.

Interesting to know Travis! I have an Esprit V8, and an Acura Integra GS with 220,000 miles on it, and new Type R interior in it now. Most reliable and fun daily driver I have ever had.

[mc21.8]

I got an s2000 and love it