Poll. First time Lotus owner V returning Customer

[au-yt]

I'm amazed at just how many people have owned more than 6 Lotus cars, bibs needed to add some more numbers !

[Neal H]

Once you’ve driven a Lotus, nothing else will do.

[Xynagy]

I will most likely jump from 5 to 6 next month. 

[Techyd]

22 hours ago, Neal H said:

Once you’ve driven a Lotus, nothing else will do.

That's exactly it! I'm on my second and know it won't be my last, conversely, my E-Class is on the 'can't wait to get rid of' list, in fact I'm already starting to think about swapping it out and I've only had it since January! ! !

[jep]

The harsh truth is that not many who drive a Lotus do ultimately stand by the mantra that 'nothing else will do'. 

How many on this forum only have a Lotus? Silly question of course, 'cos Lotus don't make a SUV/cross-over/family hatch; but if they did, would we all buy one? 

If the mantra were true, the Evora would have been a sales hit, with many Elise/Exige owners adding Evora or swapping to Evora. In reality, many do love Lotus but only as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, weekend car, toy, track..... And that is not a sustainable business model for car production in the long term.

Geely's task will be to widen the Lotus range and hope that not only us lot of believers will buy the product but to also attract a much wider audience. 

Presently, Lotus is like your favourite chocolate. You adore it but you don't want it for every meal. 

Justin

 

 

 

[cweeden]

It's an interesting question Justin. I was actually excited at the thought of a Lotus SUV for a moment there. My wife is looking for a new car right now and is currently favouring an Evoque (😒), if Lotus had an option that was fun to drive, comfortable interior and kudos (to those who know) I'd be promoting it to her. At the moment the current range is a huge amount of fun but lacks a certain amount of practicality. They can be daily drivers but not without a level of compromise, a compromise my wife is not ready to make.

[Frickin_idiot]

47 minutes ago, cweeden said:

It's an interesting question Justin. I was actually excited at the thought of a Lotus SUV for a moment there. My wife is looking for a new car right now and is currently favouring an Evoque (😒), if Lotus had an option that was fun to drive, comfortable interior and kudos (to those who know) I'd be promoting it to her. At the moment the current range is a huge amount of fun but lacks a certain amount of practicality. They can be daily drivers but not without a level of compromise, a compromise my wife is not ready to make.

If a Lotus SUV is released - I'll be in there like a shot.

[au-yt]

All this discussion is making me want another Classic Elan S2, although I am flirting with the idea of a Plus 2. must be my age

[LOTUSMAN33]

Just a few of mine over the past 30 years..... love em or hate em they are like magnets dragging you back every time you break free then see one on the road 😁
My current fix 😉, long live lotus madness with no current cure! 😂

Dave  

 

 

 

[stephenwhyte]

Quite a collection Sir👍👏👏

Any idea what happened to the Red Turbo Dave? Would love to see that one restored.....

[LOTUSMAN33]

Not sure Stephen, I must message the owner although I believe he wanted a FYEO replica like Fabian less the ski’s.
I tried talking him into original but he wasn’t sure it was for him.

Dave  

[Spinney]

Out of all the different Lotus cars I’ve owned (11 at the last count), my one regret is that not one of those was an Esprit. In the past I’d always gone for the older cars, Elans mainly, and it’s only been my most recent 3 since 2009 that were from the current range. 
Oddly enough, it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that I now appreciate the Esprit for what it was. The irony being that I couldn’t now own one for precisely the same reason I sold my much loved V6 Exige - my ageing frame wont allow to get in or out without pain! 😤

If I could turn the clock back 20 or so years, an Esprit would most definitely be sitting in my garage. 
It’s difficult to explain to the uninitiated exactly why I love the Lotus brand so much, but love it I do and have done since seeing my first in 1959. From that moment on, I devoured anything Lotus related that I could get my hands on and that wasn’t easy to come by until the 60’s when Jim Clark started to regularly win races. Whilst other kids were spending pocket money on the Beano & Dandy, I would buy car mags even if they only had a picture of a Lotus. 😁

In 1963, I pestered my parents to buy me an Airfix racing set (alternative to Scalextric) simply because one of the 2 cars in the set was a green Lotus 25, then joy of joys, a year or so later, Airfix brought out a Lotus Cortina slot racer. 
I spent hours painting and detailing that car with the classic green stripe and matt black grille etc. Oh how I loved those 2 cars in particular. 
Then wind forward to the end of the 60’s, I was driving and had the opportunity to buy a proper 1963 Mk 1 Lotus Cortina, with ali boot, bonnet and doors and the troublesome A frame rear suspension. Mine had already been converted back to leaf springs by the previous owner but he included all the original suspension in the deal. 
Great deal though it was, I almost didn’t buy that particular car, simply because it had been repainted from the original Old English white and green, to dark blue with Blue Mink stripe, but that was why it was so cheap. 
As it turned out, the colour change made it a great ‘Q’ car, since few people knew just how quick it was. Sadly I don’t have any pics of that car but it is a very much loved part of my Lotus history. 
I eventually sold that car to fund the deposit for our first house but missed it so much, it wasn’t too many years before another Lotus was sitting in the garage.
I haven’t looked back since!!!😁

 

[Neal H]

My collection has always been modern Lotus, mainly Elise based plus a couple of Evora’s, with the 2-eleven being my favourite. Lately though I hanker more for a classic, maybe an Esprit (S3 Turbo is my favourite closely followed by an S4), but I also really like the Elan Plus 2, such a pretty car and more affordable. I also have a thing for 60’s style vaneer dashboards 🥰 

[au-yt]

I’m with you on the +2, for me there is A touch of style, and handling according to the junos better than the baby Elan.

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

I bought my first Lotus in '87, a '67 Elan S3 SE, lovely car. After that I had a Caterham ( almost a Lotus, I loved it but not in the wet! ), then after a long gap came a Series 1 Elise, followed by an S2 111 and finally an Evora S IPS, which again I absolutely loved. None of them were trouble, like Neal H, I never got stranded once, don't even recall needing the AA/RAC. One had a few more niggles with one than the other's, the S1 Elise used to fill up with water in the rain but I was younger and didn't mind the foot bath. The only car that refused to budge on one occasion was the Caterham. Not a bad record... 

[Suddabym]

On 26/09/2020 at 08:24, LOTUSMAN33 said:

Just a few of mine over the past 30 years..... love em or hate em they are like magnets dragging you back every time you break free then see one on the road 😁
My current fix 😉, long live lotus madness with no current cure! 😂

Dave  

 

 

 

Blimey. And I thought I was doing well.

[LOTUSMAN33]

And that’s not all of them 😁

[Suddabym]

2 hours ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

And that’s not all of them 😁

Blimey. BTW, if your Elan reg ends in SUY, then I owned that one too, once. If not, then I didn’t.

[exeterjeep]

Just got my 10th.

1981 bought first lotus -lotus Elite 501 pll370w,

excel a671llk ice blue, excel c323bym silver , excel se d888xcf white , excel se g643xrk red, all excels bought form london lotus centre.

elite s2.2 (chapmans car) altair green ncl463v owned for 21 years, eclat s2 oon278x - black , eclat s2 mcf123x -blue

evora s fl63aot and now evora gt430 lj18dsy.

For many years owned 4 at the same time.

a full history needs a book....

[williamtherebel]

Got my Eclat in 1989 so have been driving it for 31 years. Used as my everyday car (my only car) for all of that time until my father passed away 2 years ago and I inherited his Focus.

Toured Scotland and down to Devon with the missus and 2 kids. Driven in all weathers - Rain, Hail, Snow etc. Apart from the regular failure of the UJ's and a couple of times the clutch cable, before I did the cog/chain conversion its been very good.

Now got my Esprit S1 so the Eclat will have to share the outings!

[Kimbers]

If I win the Lottery would defo get an Esprit again and an updated Evora. However I have regretted selling each of these, Especially the Esprit.

 

 

 

[au-yt]

When I started this thread I wasn't expecting the shear number of people that have owned multiple LOTUS cars, gosh Ive "only" owned 4, Cannot count the 7 as its a Caterham even though here it is registered as a LOTUS

Buy by the numbers I'm almost the average Lotus person if there be such a thing.

[jep]

It don't surprise me at all. 

What does surprise me is how many people have owned an Elise and do not keep it and/or move on to other Lotus models. 

And they drive fat, dead steering bits of compromise instead.

Justin 

 

 

[au-yt]

My term for for the latter is hotted up white goods, compliance has made it so hard for manufacturers to to make low run cars, I'm just so glad Lotus still do

[Kimbers]

Non car people don't understand what they are feeling with the Elise/Exige. It is a pure drivers car and the feedback/driving experience is second to none. However after reading a review a while back from a lady who sold her Elise and bought a Boxer and then gave the Elise 1 star and Boxer 5 I realised some people just don't understand cars, handling and pure driving experience and just want a nice comfy car and can boast about the badge on it.... "I drive a Porsche, I drive and Audi, I drive a BMW" are the normal ones I find. (sorry if you own any of these but its true).