Evora market watch, for discussion and to help those searching!

[C8RKH]

Congratulations on the new car Eddie @a7esk

Heard it get a mention on Duggystone Radio this morning which was great, but you do need to educate your fellow presenter on the reliability of the Evora and "modern" Lotus in general.  

[a7esk]

Yes 👍 he drive a Land Rover lol 

[C8RKH]

37 minutes ago, a7esk said:

Yes 👍 he drive a Land Rover lol 

Oh the irony!  Good show this morning though. Really enjoyed the music especially "the story of the blues" from the Mighty Wah. Hadn't heard that for ages....

[scotty435]

Looks like Will B looks like he as a couple of new Evora’s in. The one in liquid Blue looks a great example, thought it was my old NA for a moment. Both cars look really competitively price. 
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/11660116

[CharlieGee]

Yeah, the bottom of the Evora market looks a very different place this week, four on at under £28.5k.

[a7esk]

32 minutes ago, scotty435 said:

Looks like Will B looks like he as a couple of new Evora’s in. The one in liquid Blue looks a great example, thought it was my old NA for a moment. Both cars look really competitively price. 
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/11660116

Like the Wheels nice .

 

[windymiller]

i doubt it will be for sale for long at thaqt price !!! 

[Barrykearley]

There’s even an S on Facebook for £28.5k with 27k on the clock.

bargains to be had.

[windymiller]

wow now thats keenly priced !!! still think the bubble will burst as inflation has spooked the markets today !!! when i say that i mean the economic market in general not necessarily cars but of course they are all linked but in a niche market if you dont have to sell then dont sell and prices are pegged 

[pete]

do love a pessimistic economist😉😏

[windymiller]

love to be an optomist at the mo but ..... and so economist no, white van man yes,  but wifey has spent 30 plus years in financial services and ran her own ifa for years so i have a keener eye on the bubble and the trends are always upwards but there are dips on the way,i do think economically we are in a better place to recover now we are out of the eu (and sorry i voted remain and i was wrong in my own view) "if" there could be some agreed global mark down of debt  (not the great reset which is such a pile of socialist poo) then maybe we can all stutter then move forward rather than have a "correction"

[mdavies]

I'm guessing that the spread of prices between the early Evoras and the 400/410s will widen after the Emira emerges.  Surely I'm not the only one saying that I can't/won't pay the money for the 6cyl Emira and I don't want anything without a gear stick.

So I'll be wanting an Evora in due course - but only a 400/410. Else I'll have to go non-Lotus. (Had an NA and an S already.)  So I see early ones continuing to decline whilst late ones maintain their price or even rise with plenty of demand.

All classics eventually I imagine, but by then I'll likely be seeking a bathchair with a proper stick-shift.

Edited May 11, 2021 by mdavies

[windymiller]

cant follow that in that you feel later models will hold value but earlier models decline ? if we wana be daft "all" second hand values rose at just over 7% recently (weird) why would early ones decline ? and late ones rise ? i dont follow that (and yes ihave a launch edition)

[Daveb99]

9 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

There’s even an S on Facebook for £28.5k with 27k on the clock.

bargains to be had.

Cat D, £29.5k.

[windymiller]

ah !

[Hughesy83]

Yea this was up for sale at £25k 6 months ago but has had new gearbox clutch done now I think. Looks a nice car that.

The cars Will has up for sale look nice and are at realistic prices considering they are being sold at a dealer. 
 

I am torn on wether to go N/A or S at the moment.
 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

That liquid blue LE looks a steal. Lovely colour, all packs, best forged wheels, close ratio gearbox, low owners, reasonable mileage. Only down sides for me are all black interior and chrome effect door handles, but that wouldn’t put me off.

[EGTE]

Try them both, Hughesy. I did and I preferred the (perceptible to me) lightness of the NA, which surprised me.

[Celica]

4 minutes ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

That liquid blue LE looks a steal. Lovely colour, all packs, best forged wheels, close ratio gearbox, low owners, reasonable mileage. Only down sides for me are all black interior and chrome effect door handles, but that wouldn’t put me off.

Would close ratio gearbox in an LE be likely from factory or retro fit would you think out of interest? 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Factory optional extra ticked, like the wheels. Might even be press fleet car, optioned by Lotus themselves.

[jep]

Rumour had it that all the early press cars had CR box. I would think a few other early cars did also but cert of provenance will confirm any particular car. Mine is 2010, so just after Launch Edition and had CR from factory.

I prefer the NA to the S but I have only done 400 miles or so with S compared to 20,000 in NA.

Justin

[Bravo73]

1 hour ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

Factory optional extra ticked, like the wheels. Might even be press fleet car, optioned by Lotus themselves.

It’s a GN plate though (Kent). A factory car would most likely be AU. 

[C8RKH]

2 hours ago, Hughesy83 said:

I am torn on wether to go N/A or S at the moment.

Forget the engine as a differentiator, both are great options with their own merits. Buy based on condition, history and your preference re spec. The NA is a sub 5 second car so hardly slow and the S gives you an extra .3 off the 0-62 time and a bit more torque for overtaking, however the NA is the sweeter engine, lower centre of gravity and far cheaper to run (tyres, tax, and fuel) and you get to really "drive" the NA whereas you can make rapid "lazy" progress in the S.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

[mdavies]

7 hours ago, Hughesy83 said:

I am torn on whether to go N/A or S at the moment.
 

Not looking at any particular car, I think most who have owned them would agree that “both are great options with their own merits” but I offer some more specifics, (freely opinionated!) from my experience.

My NA was a 2010 2 seater (weight saved!) with the CR gearbox - misnamed, as the ratios are excellent “general purpose” ones, not close ratio “sprint type”. Essential to have in my opinion.  Having tried the “long” box, I’d name it a “double over-drive”. At 1,000 rpm in top: CR 27.5 mph, Long 37.5 mph. (Close numbers, from memory.)  It was no surprise when someone at Hethel confirmed to me that all press Launch Model cars had the CR.  So there are some early ones around.

My S was a 2014 Sports Racer with the various improvements made for that year, notably to the gear change.

The NA is physically lighter (80-100 lbs from memory, lot depends on options), and importantly in driving feels very noticeably “lighter on its feet and steering” than the S.

The basic NA looks faster than it is - inadequate for comfortable overtaking in today’s traffic IMO. The torque/weight of the NA is 253Nm/tonne and the S is 278 Nm/tonne. (My Fiesta ST, mildly Mountuned, is almost as the S at 272 NM/tonne.)

The NA can be readily – and for me must be – taken to at least 300 bhp. (Hangar 111 for instance.)  I did it my own way with a Sports exhaust and a Radium-based intake that I developed quite a bit. (Extensively documented on here.)  All my testing was done on the hub dyno at TDI.  (The S can be tuned too  – bigger supercharger one way.)

The peak torque of the NA is 258 lb ft at 4600 rpm and of the S is 295 lb ft at 4520 rpm. My tuned NA reached midway, 276.7 lb ft at 4620 rpm (similar I expect from 300 bhp conversions today) and hence approaching the torque/weight of the S. That made the NA certainly enjoyable, and was “enough”.

Noticeable fuel consumption differences, naturally.  Driven so as to enjoy a Lotus (on same decent roads), I would get 17-18mpg from the S and 22-25mpg from the (tuned) NA. In gentle cruising, 22-23 from the S and 30 from the NA. 

Yes, both great cars, but I’d have only a tuned CR NA now.

[TdM]

As you say, I think overtaking is the only real downside of the NA. It's still quick enough to blow past things quite quickly but you do fall back toward predicting gaps a little more than with a more torquey engine. The only other thing I miss is easy, no effort, power on oversteer but that's mainly because it's rear-biased weight MR rather than FR of my old car.

Generally, it's plenty fast enough (unless you are being chased by a McLaren 570 like I was last weekend, but I don't think an S will fix that). I actually prefer the fact that I can drive this car properly rather than my last car which was just pick a number and tickle the throttle to reach it. Warp speed by the next corner loses it's appeal on the road quite quickly.