Commiserate with me - I shouldn't buy a Lotus Elise, Update: But I just did.

[Greenman]

And fate strikes again: During routine maintenance, the shop noticed the car running hot, and a slight film of oil in the coolant.
Sniff test concluded no CO2 leak, so while the oil has come from somewhere, that alone shouldn't be sufficient for the temperature increase.
First swap was done on the thermostat, but that didn't cure it.
Now they'll swap the water pump (hooray), and we'll hope that that fixes it - but the waterpump was just replaced two years ago, and the error mode is certainly not common.
Since higher revs make for worse cooling performance, it is the most likely cause though, so I hope this premature belt and pump service is going to get the car back in my hands, before the autumn season kicks off. At least July saw no driveable days, so so far the loss wasn't immense.

I was annoyed this morning because my 11 year old truck left a tiny oil spot on the driveway. I'm going to go hug it now and be thankful that I don't own a bottomless money pit.

 

[_Rick_]

I was annoyed this morning because my 11 year old truck left a tiny oil spot on the driveway. I'm going to go hug it now and be thankful that I don't own a bottomless money pit.

Believe me, if hugs worked, I wouldn't have to worry

 

[Greenman]

Believe me, if hugs worked, I wouldn't have to worry

It really doesn't sound like a fun car to own.
My truck is fun to own, it has air conditioning, and not much else.

 

[_Rick_]

It really doesn't sound like a fun car to own.

Well, the Rover engine sure makes some things more complex than others, but by now I believe that except for catastrophic clam shell damage and broken glass, everything that could go wrong, pretty much went wrong. Well, I also didn't have any engine-out maintenance quite yet, I'm still awaiting that the block will need a weld, or the head gasket finally goes. I think at that point I might seriously consider a Honda swap, if I see any hope of getting it through the required road-worthiness approval.

 

[Greenman]

There is maintenance that requires pulling the engine?

 

[_Rick_]

There is maintenance that requires pulling the engine?

Not maintenance thankfully, but potential "known issues" - which for a 23 year old car starts boiling down to the same thing eventually

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I was annoyed this morning because my 11 year old truck left a tiny oil spot on the driveway. I'm going to go hug it now and be thankful that I don't own a bottomless money pit.

Lol, my '10 camaro has had a persistent oil leak for about a decade now. It's slow enough to not throw a light between oil changes so I haven't been bothered enough to do anything about it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

It really doesn't sound like a fun car to own.
My truck is fun to own, it has air conditioning, and not much else.

US spec Elise/Exige got the Toyota engine and they are pretty reliable from what I have read.

 

[_Rick_]

US spec Elise/Exige got the Toyota engine and they are pretty reliable from what I have read.

Yeah, but the Toyota-based models also easily gained 10% in weight over the earlier Rover-based models. I'm wondering whether I should put my Elise on BaT, once she hits the magical 25 years in '27 - given the very constrained supply in the US, I'm suspecting I might make more than I would with just selling in the EU, even after shipping.
But on the other hand, I still love the bloody thing, when it actually works

 

[Greenman]

Yeah, but the Toyota-based models also easily gained 10% in weight over the earlier Rover-based models. I'm wondering whether I should put my Elise on BaT, once she hits the magical 25 years in '27 - given the very constrained supply in the US, I'm suspecting I might make more than I would with just selling in the EU, even after shipping.
But on the other hand, I still love the bloody thing, when it actually works

The "when it actually works" part would drive me insane.
I've driven basic pickup trucks my entire life, and have developed certain expectations from my experience with them. Mostly I expect my vehicles to work day in day out without much more than regular oil changes. I expect them to take some abuse through overloading, and I expect 250K reasonably trouble free miles out of them.
Anything less than that is crappy truck that has to be sold or junked.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Yeah, but the Toyota-based models also easily gained 10% in weight over the earlier Rover-based models. I'm wondering whether I should put my Elise on BaT, once she hits the magical 25 years in '27 - given the very constrained supply in the US, I'm suspecting I might make more than I would with just selling in the EU, even after shipping.
But on the other hand, I still love the bloody thing, when it actually works

They’re still less than 2,000lbs in total weight for the early US spec models and that engine makes 190hp so they really scoot. I have driven one and it is a fantastic car that holds its value well. I never see the Rover based Elise for sale here. I suspect it would not command the same price the Toyota powered models do.

 

[_Rick_]

On the upside, the water pump replacement appears to have fixed the issue, still very strange that the pump-shaft connection would degrade this early in the lifetime of the pump.
Downside: They decided not to change the cambelt, so that will need to come off in another 2 years, which will be annoying. At least then I can confidently tell the next shop, to not bother with swapping the water pump.

It's also about time that I spend a bit of money on upholstery and exterior cosmetics, yellow stripe decals are quite frazzled, and the drivers seat lost its rear fabric cover. I'll probably kick that down the road.

Next thing to do is to reprogram one of the key fobs, which apparently lost programming at some point. The procedure is quite hellish (counting red blips on the dash and turning the ignition on/off) - I just hope I don't end up locking myself out.

 

[Greenman]

You really enjoy this money pit?

 

[_Rick_]

When it runs, it's unlike anything else - and to be honest, it's not that expensive. Tires and brakes are cheap enough. Maintaining some zany V8 would pobably cost me as much during the goldilocks phase, never mind the terrible teens.

Would a Miata be cheaper? Yeah, definitely. But I would expect most MR2s to be in a similar price range maintenance wise now (especially, if you start breaking axles ), and the Elise is that much more engaging when you're driving.

I think I need to treat myself to an A110 test-drive one of these days, although I have no clue where the used car market for those sits. And the relative lack of electronics on the Lotus still makes it more of a long-term car, compared to something out of the 2010s, with screens and compressors and electric windows and central locking and automatic gearboxes.

Proper sporty Boxsters are also not really comparable, experience-wise. 70/80's 911s might be close in driving purity, but I cannot imagine that they'll be gentler on my pocketbook

I'm sure most people who have a sporty car pay more on the leasing rate than I am spending on maintenance, and after ten years of ownership, I think I spent a total of 40-50k euro (excluding fuel, but including buying the car) on around 20k miles of driving. For a second car, I don't think that's too bad. But yeah, my primary car has cost me easily 5k euro less (even with two new sets of tires, and a fancy set of golden winter wheels) and it has covered 80k miles in the same time (around 60k in 8 years of my ownership, I think). But one of those is a hobby, and the other is transportation

 

[WelshBloke]

You really enjoy this money pit?

They are really, really fun to drive. Comparing it to a work horse truck is missing the entire point of it!

 

[Greenman]

They are really, really fun to drive. Comparing it to a work horse truck is missing the entire point of it!

If that's what your into then that's pretty much the whole story. I don't begrudge anyone their hobbies. That said, dependability is a huge issue for me. I can't enjoy driving something if I don't have a reasonable belief in it's ability to get me where I'm going.