Asking the hive to tear this car apart.

John Welsh said:

In this old Georgia listing you can see this tag that says this is a Canada Market Car, as written in English and French as required by Canadian law.  

 

The ad does not show speedo/odo better than this photo.  Hard to read the numbers but it looks like the 3 digit numbers come on early which would lead me to believe this is a km speedo.  

This image from the Chicago Dealer.  Yeah, I think km. 

This is good sleuthing.

I looked at the Georgia listing. It really tells a bit more of the story. I don't think I'd have kept the Alcantara. I like the look of the car sans those extra lights, but I can't find any support in Googling for Canada cars having lacked those lights. The only image search results I see are photos of this one car. I guess this makes sense - Lotus probably wouldn't fab a whole new clam mold for Canada. I'm not good enough at math to have a speedo in KMs. I'm also afraid registration or insurance or something will eventually become unpleasant.

I've never found the traction control button on the shifter surround on anything earlier than 2006.

Is that 100% not a thing in 2005, is it rare, is the button somewhere else?

In reply to NOHOME :

Some of the roads really are terrible, such that I feel bad about subjecting the 4Runner to it. This car has been a long time coming though, and I can't see diverting to a WRX or something and still being happy. I'll just have to be careful.

Titan4 said:

I agree that something is wrong with the front of the car.  Compare to the one below (also an '07 Elise).  The clamshell and bumper cover have been modified to remove the smaller set of lights.  Why do that?  I'm going to guess a collision that damaged the clamshell.   I suppose the owner could have done this repair himself so that the insurance company didn't get involved and total the car.  But I think it's more likely the car was totaled and the title washed.  I see pictures of the car on the internet in Georgia, etc. so it has really been around.  I would pass.

 

 

Shaving of the front lights isn't that uncommon 

local Elise shop has been doing it since 06 . 
 

I dd my elise in St. Louis and Chicago and Boston 4 years. 16k miles a year 

drive it like a motorcycle and you will be fine 

gunner said:

The only issue I see driving it in winter is the front clip is hard to find and very expensive to replace  if it gets damaged. If you've got the green, go for it.

Elise body shops that replace the front and rear clams with new ones, keep and repair the old ones. They sell the repaired clams for 1/3 the cost 

currently between the 3 elise shops in la, there is 27 front clams and 54 rear clams available (as of thanksgiving) 

SVreX said:

 

I'd look at it harder.  Could be very innocent, like Canadian spec.

no. It's been deleted/modified 

additionally if you look closely at the pic, front plate area has also been deleted. 
 

front plate, front inner light delete, front plinth delete, and converting the slats to grilles, are common mods Lotus owners do 

Since it is a Canadian spec car and the speedo is in km/H, I'd ask a local inspection shop if they have any concerns with passing an emissions inspection on a Canadian Spec car.

As cool as the Elise is, I really want one just can't justify the cost at the moment, the XJ220 in the back of the photo would make a trip to the dealer worthwhile all by its self.

 

Feels guilty driving a 4runner in the snow. Buys Lotus Elise for winter duty.

Man, I love this place.

Brotus7 said:

Feels guilty driving a 4runner in the snow. Buys Lotus Elise for winter duty.

Man, I love this place.

I mean, you're not wrong.

I know someone who brought an 80's euro Capri into the States. Here in Michigan literally the only thing the Police did to approve it for the state was to check if the Speedo was in mph. It was a British car so it was, but the headlights pointed to wrong easy and they didn't care, just the speedo. 

Yeah, that Canadian speedo is going to haunt you; I'd anticipate that getting it registered and every subsequent inspection and then resale will all require some amount of effort over normal, which is already high (actually finding a shop to inspect my Elise near DC took 6 months of trying and getting turned away due to it being peculiar and some OBD software quirks. Yay, Lotus...)

For the money, you could get a clean, no-history '05 with the cable throttle. You absolutely don't need TC - it only has 190hp and that's at 7,800rpm. At 3,000rpm, it won't get you into any trouble. Plus, it is something like 60+% rear weight. Traction just isn't a problem unless you're being an idiot. 

As pointed out, asphalt colored cars get.....overlooked too easily.  If I were gonna drive something that exposed I'd want it to be Skittle colored.  Yellow, green, orange.  Make it stand out, cause a brodozer is gonna flatten that one.

the inner lightdelete makes these look a lot better in my opinion.  

xflowgolf said:

the inner lightdelete makes these look a lot better in my opinion.  

I like to say it is also Lotus' opinion since they removed them themselves for 2011+. At least that's how I justified it to myself, haha

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

As pointed out, asphalt colored cars get.....overlooked too easily.  If I were gonna drive something that exposed I'd want it to be Skittle colored.  Yellow, green, orange.  Make it stand out, cause a brodozer is gonna flatten that one.

The missus really is hoping for a more subdued color, and I'm willing to compromise. Isotope green isn't happening, I'm afraid.

I've always wanted one of these, and should've done it when they went for 25ish, but I did not.  I got to ride in one before they were legal to import.  It's an awesome ride.

Mike said:

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

As pointed out, asphalt colored cars get.....overlooked too easily.  If I were gonna drive something that exposed I'd want it to be Skittle colored.  Yellow, green, orange.  Make it stand out, cause a brodozer is gonna flatten that one.

The missus really is hoping for a more subdued color, and I'm willing to compromise. Isotope green isn't happening, I'm afraid.

Two points: my wife got rear-ended in her yellow Sky Redline by an inattentve driving. Color won't make a difference when they just aren't looking. 

Second point, no subdued color will reduce the attention you get from random people in this color. I say embrace it, but at least go into it expecting at least one conversation per errand.