I don't even look at Boxters... but when I see an Elise, I'll stare at it until it's out of sight.

 

Boxter.... There's a guy here with an Elise.. He gets a lot of looks, but he says it's like driving a go kart. Absolutely fun, but not in traffic.

 

Anyone drive one everyday?, how is it in the rain. Have you had any maintenance issues with it?

Just curious

 

pm LotusTracker. He's got one.

 

checkout elisetalk.com a lot of very devoted loti people there. Yes, many daily drive them, last time I saw a survey like that it was around 20-30% use them as their only vehicle. With the LSS package they are not great in rain, mainly due to the tires. The standard suspension cars are fairly good in rain, but again make sure you keep good tires on the car. I don't own one, but researched them heavily for about 6 months and wussed out and got a S2k instead. So my experiences aren't first person, but from the information I gathered. If you had an LSS equipped car and replaced the tires with something more suited for rain, and longer life, it would probably be pretty good in the wet.

The car needs very little maintenance outside of the basics, though the warranty is voided easily, 3 standing starts saved in your computer means you no longer have a drivetrain warranty, they define a standing start as any start from a stop where the clutch was dropped above 3k rpm's with wheel spin. Steering racks are some what common to have go extremely early, and are moderately involved to replace. Rear toe links can be a problem, they just need to be tightened at every service, or before a track event, you can install nord washers and never have to worry about it again. The biggest problem with the car is that it is very fragile compared to most cars, minor collisions result in expensive body damage and moderate accidents are prone to tweaking the chassis, which can't be repaired, and totaling the car. Front and rear clams are expensive and are not repairable according to lotus, but many have repaired them with no problems. Factory batteries tend to have a short life and are common to leak, but it's hardly a big problem. The engine and transmission are nearly bulletproof, of course you here of a few isolated failures, but that is true of any car. Mechanically and surprisingly electrically these cars are very reliable.

 

^ one of my co-workers was gonna buy a Elise for her husband...but when she mentioned it to him he was like ...meh (I quess he didnt think she was serious)... so she got him a BMW X3... LOL at him... I would have been mad...

 

Thats exactly what i wanted to know haha! I am goin to do a little more research because when i get out of college i might consider one.

 

This is some great info!

 

If you've never driven one or been in one you should try to find a friendly Elise owner who, at the very least, would take you for a spin. Elise owners, from my experience, are very supportive of younger, knowledgeable enthusiasts. I've driven a number of elises and an exige - none were super charged it is the most sublime driving experience you can find these days, there are plenty of elise/exige owners who have owned big buck exotics and sold them for the Lotus, to them the Lotus is just plain more fun to drive, and it's reliable and down right cheap when you think of the total package.

I'm planning on keeping my S2k until I'm 30 and if the Elise's electric brother continues in the direction it's going I will seriously consider it, unless my cheap side gets the best of me again!

 

Merged the two Elise related topics. No real reason to have two separate topics about essentially the same thing...

 

FYI, I searched for Daily Driver in the General forum over at elisetalk and got 999 results... so that's probably a good place to start

 

Boxter ftw!

Lotus' are IMHO

 

Thanks for the comments. I'm kind of leaning towards the Lotus due to its unique style and the fact that there aren't that many around. There are too many Boxsters around in Toronto.

Found this video online. I'll take her and the car.

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Well, for the unique aspect, and you stated it's a weekend car, then the Lotus would be quite cool. I just can't have a weekend car yet......

But the woman's voice...Argh.... She says in her opening sentnec that she is not into small packages...Hmm, I wonder what she would sound like if I had her legs by her ears and I was.............Um, nevermind.

 

As an owner of both (not a boxster) I can tell ya I get much more over the lotus than any porsche (cgt aside) will ever get!

 

For a strictly weekend/track car, the Exige by a mile.

 

unless you have a commuter for winter then neither...

Ontario is COLD! No way a Lotus will make it through the winter there and the Boxster would be kinda pushing it too.

If you've got a beater then I'd say totally go with the Lotus. After test driving one I feel that it'd be a great car to beat on once in a while on the weekends while having a diff. car to go to work in.

 

My 2004 TSX is my beater and have a 2008 highlander for the winter. I won't be using it on the track but want something that I can enjoy driving around on the weekends. It sounds like the Boxster is more reliable than the lotus but it doesn't have the curb appeal like the lotus. I wish I can buy both.

 

Sounds like repping your semi-baller status is more important to you, so I'd go with the Lotus. But since you aren't tracking it - I think you'd get sick of it pretty quickly even as a weekend car. At the end of the day, creature comforts count for something.

Good luck with your decision and post pics.

 

Not really sure about how reliable either of those cares compare against each other.

From my limited knowledge about the Lotus I recall them coming with a toyota motor at one point or another. If that's still true then the reliability on the Lotus is a HUGE thumbs up as would be any drivetrain maintenance costs.

 

As it was said I don't think I would rank either one higher then the other in terms of reliability, both are known to have a few common problems, most of which are fairly easy to deal with. From what you've said it sounds like the Lotus is more of what your looking for, it's more "organic" then the Boxster and will turn more heads. As it gets closer to when you are going to buy, you owe it to yourself to drive both a few times. I have driven both and love them both, but for different reasons, they are both amazing cars. Despite being thought of as direct competition to one another, with a similar layout: two seater, mid-engined and rear wheel drive they employ a very different approach to the same problem and both are the pinnacle of innovative engineering in their own regard.

 

boxster/cayman

 

http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/thecar/engine/

so I guess it is a Toyota motor from '04+

 

The elise that is in this country is known as the "fed" elise and has a number of minor changes from other S2's and only came from the factory with the toyota/yamaha engine.

 

^ but it's still a toyota engine right?

 

It's a 2ZZ-GE Toyota engine(which was developed by Yamaha) in the Elise it has unique engine management compared to other vehicles that come with the same engine, this engine management is developed by lotus.

 

wasn't the boxter voted the gayest car or something on another thread?

nuff said

 

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Love the look of this thing! I'm going to test drive it this summer and see how much the dealership is going to budge. It sucks there's only 1 Lotus dealership in Ontario.

 

Enuff with the mouse voice - drive the friggin' car.

 

The only people who think boxster's are gay are narrow minded people who have never driven one.

nuff said

 

Ya I was hoping she would drive the crap out of that thing but no.

 

It's a great car. Let the snobs think otherwise.

 

yes I'm narrow minded, but I have driven one. My friend let me "car-sit" his 99 silver auto boxter a while ago for almost a week while he was away and his old lady's car sat in his garage.

I think its still pretty gay though

 

^ The Boxster is one of the best handling Porsche's ever and can even give the CGT a run for its money in the slalom. Yeah, that's so gay....

 

You have to drive them both. I have no experience with the Lotus (other than drooling over them) but I have heard many times that it isn't a great road car.

The complaints typically stem from the extremely rigid ride (personally I'm cool with that). This isn't a complaint on the Boxster, it has incredible handling abilities and can run on the track, but it was designed for the street.

The Lotus on the other hand was designed for the track but can be driven on the street. If you are looking for all out cornering ability, I think the lotus wins. If you are looking for an all around sporting roadster, I think the Boxster wins.

+1 to the Boxster for having that wonderful flat 6 right behind your head though, the sound is intoxicating.