Elise ownership while poor: How much of a terrible idea?

maj75 wrote: I was just in the BVI and any road there will destroy an Elise. Some of the other islands I've visited aren't much better.

That's kind of the point I was trying to make as well.

Island roads tend to be narrow with high crowns. They're often made of rough, gritty, concrete-like material (black asphalt will melt under the sun). Road edges start breaking down into crumbly pebbles and dust. Driveways are often very steep with sharp break-over angles. And you're frequently parking in sandy areas.

Not ideal conditions for a slammed Eurotrash sports car. You want ground clearance, suspension travel, and good visibility. Stick with a good hot hatch.

^Sounds like you have a great deal of experience with island roads!

A rally car would indeed be more practical on the street, but probably not as much as an offroad vehicle which is why I have the Samurai. My Corolla has less ground clearance and harder springs than the Elise so I know what to expect.

Another thing to consider is that I'm not just looking for a fun car, but also a competitive car. Back when I started swapping the GTS parts into it, everyone in autocross was driving mildly modded sporty econoboxes and the AE92 would've been comfortably at the pointy end of the field when finished. I was usually getting 2nd right behind a guy in a Swift GTI. Today I have to compete with R34 Skylines, 'busa-powered and ~600HP electric sevenesques, a heavily modded AE86 with a frighteningly good driver, and an assortment of boost buggies including an Evo 10 for the overall win. Squeezing any more performance out of the Corolla will get really expensive really fast, and most any car I could get that would be competitive with those is going to have up-front purchase costs in the same league as this Elise.

I saw what appeared to be an abandoned MkIV Supra Turbo, 6 speed sitting at a marina in Soper's Hole, Tortola;)

GameboyRMH wrote: A rally car would indeed be more practical on the street

Solution:

This guy survived:

Mmm dat color scheme...I would probably want this Elise a lot more if it wasn't red. I'd have to plasti-dip it anthracite gray to tone it down.

Only just got confirmation of the $1100/yr insurance quote. They valued the car at the same $24k so any body damage would mean an instant write-off. but that's not an uncommon situation with Elises.

But I'm packing right now and will be away for a few weeks, so I'll keep thinking about it and see if it's still there when I get back.

Well I've decided that even though I can get unusually cheap insurance on this Elise, I'm not going to buy it. The only thing it really has going for it is performance. Going against it are practicality (both physical and social), repair difficulty, the costs of many parts (original, oem-spec replacement, and aftermarket performance), and insurance costs (it's still as much as both my current cars combined). If it had the Toyota engine that might've been enough to tip the scales.

I'm probably going to feel a sharp pang of regret when I see a friend driving it around, so I'll just have to come back and read this again when that happens.

That is a very adult way to thin about this situation, I don't thing I could have resisted.

Years ago (2005 I think) I was in Orlando for the big Supra meet in a Bennigan's parking lot. Titan, Hulk Hogan... all these big name fast Supras there but the one car that stood out was an orange Elise with some kind of really high dollar exhaust. After talking to the guy, I remember how young he was and mentioned it to someone else that was local. Apparently, he worked at some retail job, busted his ass, lived in a trailer with a few roommates and spends all his money on an Elise.

At 20, I did that kind of stuff. Now, just because it's cheap doesn't mean I need to have it. If you really wanted to make it work you could, but you REALLY have to want it.

Just took this thread for a nice, long read. GameboyRMH, whatever happened with that car? Did a friend get it or what?

I got my Elise at the age of 28, as a bit of a stretch car financially. It was between that and the more sensible ( at the time wrt to pricing) S2000. I never regretted the Elise, granted, it wasn't a daily. I didn't have many mechanical issues, had the rad failure that almost all do. Had it replaced while the clam was off for the oil cooler recall, so it saved a bit on labor. I had it 8 years before writing it off in a minor mountain driving off. Insurance paid out about 4k more than I had purchased it for, with about 30k miles added during my ownership.