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Subject: Re: [MGS] sort of ot
From: "Phil Bates" <jello@ida.net>
Date: Thu, May 24, 2007 10:11
To: "oliver" <sumton@sbcglobal.net>
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There's actually a very good reason for the low mileage, and it's not the
always broken answer. I have a 1991 lotus elan - not the model of choice
for most people, but quite the car. Lotus makes a very reliable car. The
powerplant in the Elise is a Toyota motor. The powerplant in my car is an
Isuzu motor. The reason they have few miles is that they are generally
purchased to race. You don't put many miles on a car you race. And a lot
of them don't see the road. This is sad because they're great road cars -
although the suspensions tend to be a little stiff. I talked to a guy
that had a honda s2000 and a lotus elise. He said people complain about
the hard suspension on the s2000, but they just didn't understand - you
get in an elise, and you know what a purpose built car is - purpose built
to race. So those low miles are generally very hard on the car. And it's
not infrequent to see a car with performance mods to boot.
I bought my 1991 elan February of 2006 for daily driving. When I bought
it, it had just over 37000 miles on it. I drove it to Idaho Falls, Idaho
from San diago in a day and a half. It now has over 70,000. It's gone to
Las Cruces, NM, Boise, ID, Jackson Hole, WY, Sun Valley, ID, El Paso, TX,
Denver, CO, and many more places, and has had no problems whatsoever.
It's been a great car, and as long as I don't have performance tires on it
it's even good in the snow (it's front wheel drive) and it will never rust
(fiberglass).
One of the really nice things is that when I get enough miles to need a
rebuild, it's a $1500 Isuzu engine rebuild. That's about the same as
rebuilding an MG engine (obligatory MG content), and one fifth of
rebuilding a porsche motor (I know about that too, unfortunately).
Phil Bates
> because i really like the new lotus, i started watching (just for grins,
unfortunately) Loti on ebay.
>
> i've been struck by the number of very low mileage older Loti i've seen.
>
> then it hit me - they're always broken ;-)
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