Recently i had the chance to spend a few days with a Lotus Elise. In the coming days I'll try and write a review on the car. I drove it on free ways, on windy roads, in traffic and on a track.
Of course i mention this because of lotus's involvement in putting the car together. If anyone has any questions about the car you can ask me or you can go and get much more opinions from people who know the car way better than me at
www.elisetalk.com.
I'll mention now what I think is relevant to tesla. Keep in mind that some of what I'm saying may apply only to the car I drove, especially the reliablitiy issues.
Pros: Great road holding, great braking, very well balance car. Go kart feel. Exotic Looks. Convertible. Difficult to climb into(lol, adds to the excitement at first). Reliable Toyota engine.
Cons: Materials used to build car such as fiber glass and plastic, difficult to climb into, The following may be car specific: rattling sounds, trunk/engine cover wouldn't close, reliability, somethings just not working right, strange sounds coming from the chassis or wheels i think.
I'll try and clarify what i'm trying to say, the car is a non compromise car. You've got to be prepared to deal with this.
Its got a reliable engine, but I got the feeling like the car is kind of glued together not welded together.
For pure gokart like feel, this is a great car. It gets you very connected to the road. Not much sophistication, no computers. I believe the lotus motto is(correct me if i'm wrong) "Simplify and add lightness".
This car is a real commitment. I believe the elise starts a 42k although you can get on in the low thirties with very few miles used. At first it sounded like a bargain but after driving the car extensively I decided the car should be cheaper. Of course the exclusivity factor makes the price justified. If lotus made this car in much higher numbers the price would be much lower. There are plenty of cars in the low 20s with better quality interiors for example. Because of its simplicity, this car could be much cheaper imo. However I would say the same thing about porsche and ferrari, that you are paying for exclusivity. But exclusivity doesn't mean anything to me so I'll look at it from that standpoint.
What does all this mean for tesla. Well people have to realize that this car is basically a lotus. The carbon fiber body is a great improvement. Hopefully there will be more improvments. The drivetrain should be more reliable on the tesla. But in terms of quality, I expect it to be similar to the lotus which may not be good for 92k dollar car. The type of people who will be buying the tesla or that tesla is marketing too much not really like a lotus elise I'm guessing. I think they gotta market more to the sports car crowd and by that i mean the lotus crowd who will be able deal with its simplicity. The green people who think driving is evil won't like it and the rich-bently driving crowd probably won't understand it. I am a little worried about tesla roadsters long term viability.
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