Bad news first-

If you weigh more than 200 lbs. or are tall or need to wear a helmet with one of the two types of tops on...you will not be comfortable. This car is SMALL, inside and out. The right side of my left foot hits the clutch pedal when placing it on the dead-pedal it's so tight in the foot well. I am 5'10, 215, I know I need to loose a few pounds but damn. Getting in and out, especially with a top on requires a masters in yoga. You more or less fall into the seat.

This car makes the S2000 look like an Accord for practicality. Almost no trunk, half or less of an s2000, no cup holders, no shoulder room.

The shifter absolutely sucks. It's too long and the gates are loose feeling. The tranny seems fine but man....that shift feel is crap.

By the way I owned a 2000 S2000, so I know first hand what I am talking about.

Price...I guess that's relative but I think it's a high, especially if you decide to pay over sticker.

Now the good-

It's fast, it handles great (non-power steering), brakes are good, ride is good, (drove touring package) visability is good. It looks like a mini Batmobile, much more sculpted than the pics in the mags show.

I would buy one for dedicated racing/autocross or as a THIRD car. This car is too hardcore even for a "fun" weekend car in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the review!

I can't wait to hear a few more but it sure LOOKS cramped in that compartment so I'm not expecting to hear anything different about that.

Practicality is practically a zero in that car.

 

how does it compare to your evo, e.g. steering feel, acceleration, driving position, etc.?

 

I put a deposit down on one a couple of weeks ago... really looking forward to it. We'll be swapping out our 2001 s2k for it. As long as we can get a couple of briefcases in it, it's going to be the daily driver during the summer months

I think we're something like 84th on the list with the local dealer, deliveries starting sometime now. It should be just about right - end up taking delivery in the spring next year. We had a look at some other roadsters, but there's nothing else we really fancied apart from another s2k.

I haven't driven a US spec. Elise yet. The dealer just got his demonstrator so we'll try that in the next few weeks. That's a real shame if they've muffed up the shifter. I was hoping that they'd use Honda engine and transmission in the US. Sounds like it's going to be painful moving from the s2k which has the best gear box of any car I've every driven.

Regarding practical, nevermind practical. This is one of the best handling production cars in the world! We'll worth a bit of contortion to get in and out I reckon. As for the cost, it is a Lotus don't forget. So personally I think it's not unreasonable (you should try buying cars in the UK for a while, then you'll know what expensive is...).

 

how does it compare to your evo??

 

Two briefcases, probably not, unless you put one in the passenger seat.

Compared to the EVO.

Ergonomics are FAR inferior as I mentioned, but it is of course apples and oranges for this particular comparison, the styles are too different.

Steering in the few miles I drove seemed to be...believe it or not inferior to the EVO. In the reading I have done, the Elise should hold the skid pad better, and if pushed I believe it would. But on the road, the EVO wins.

Acceleration was smoother altough there still was a kick when the "vtech" kicked in. I was not able to truly push the Elise because it only had about 150 miles on it, but I did jump over the threshold for a bit to see how it felt. That and the salesman who went with me weighed even more than me. So a good review here is just not possible. And yes I know that Toyota doesn't name it's cam change-over "vtech", I was just too lazy to look up their acronym.

Once in the car the seats and driving posistion are much more comfortable than I thought was going to be the case by just looking at the car. The seats are VERY thin but somehow they felt good. As you would expect, your legs are nearly straight out in front of you, but it works. My main complaint for driving position is the dead pedal issue I mentioned at the start.

Brakes felt good, and I was able to hit them relatively hard a couple of times. The pedal had a good feel, the car didn't do anything odd on braking. I would say the Elise won on brakes, but again this was only a test drive situation.

The transmission felt very nice, all the gears were spaced right it seemed. I was not able to cruise for any lenght of time, but at 60ish in 6th gear the car was quite enough and felt good.

Overall quality wise the cars were about the same, and I am DEFINATELY not a huge Mitsu fan as far as quality goes. The center "console" in the car I drove was a bit loose and the paint on some of the other cars looked a bit "off". The liquid "bra/paint protector" they apply to the car on the front and other areas will definately develope a dirt line in time, unless you are SUPERANAL about keeping it clean. If you daily drive it, I believe this dirt line will be unavoidable. The car did not have a Honda/Toyota quality feel to it for sure.

jonnyg- exactly as I stated, this car is hardcore. I am speaking mostly from an S2000 standpoint as well as a current EVO owner standpoint. The S2000 (and the EVO) gives up very little performance wise against the Elise, with both the other cars being far more usable in most situations. Hell you can drive the EVO all year in the snow with the right tires, which I do. Another point you made I totally agree with, the s2k tranny/shifter is the best, period. I guarantee you will puke the first time you shift the Elise, that shifter is an automotive abomination.

Looking foward to your opinions...post again if you have any further question.

 

What price were they asking? How much of a markup? In your opinion is it worth over $40K? I know you really didn't get too much of an oportunity to open it up, but is it easy to drive fast? Meaning if you bought the Elise and took it to a race course, do you think it would be easy to click off faster times than in your EVO?

 

cupholders are for pussies

 

Interesting review. Thanks for sharing.

BTW - VTEC doesn't have an 'h' on the end (V-tech makes phones), and Toyota's variable valve system is VVL or VVTL-i (the latter combining a VTEC-like variable lift system with variable valve timing).

 

I wanted one.
At 6'3" FORGET IT.

 

They had a few on the lot, I think 6, most were sold, I don't know which so I will give the @ range I saw. The cheapest was about 42K and the highest was about 45K. If you wanted the available one(s) on the lot it would cost you a $10,000 premium over the sticker he said. If you wanted to place a deposit and wait about 1 year for your car it was whatever the sticker ended up at.

Like I eluded to in my second post here, I don't think either the EVO or the S2K give up enough in performance to justify the added cost or the lack of usability. I don't think the Elise is worth the price, I wish it was, I was serious about trading the EVO for one. And if you put that @10k difference into the EVO or S2k it wouldn't even be close then.

As far as race times go, man it would be close, on any given day, on any given course, with any given driver, I would say it would go either way. The numbers in the mags give the edge (stock for stock) to the Elise but I think it would be determined by the drivers in the end, the cars are just that close. Just FYI, I have never raced on a course, I have done several autox's and drive fast sometimes on the street but no street racing.

Yeh GREGPOL, you would get bugs in your teeth (slight exageration there).

Westsidebilly- I stand educated on acronyms, thanks.

The dealership I went to was found on the Lotus website. The dealership is in Illinois. My salesmans name was Bill Jr., nice guy if you need to know and live near here. The dealership deals in new Lotus' and Lambo's, and they have a ton of cool used stuff on their lot all the time. It's hard to keep your eyes on the road when you drive by.

 

it's ugly... that's all i know...

 

im 5'10 175...i think i can manage

 

I live in the Northwest so I need a car that can handle rain wind occational snow and although I'm not that tall I do like the room in the evo. I did look at this car briefly but after your review and what I saw I don't think its right for me