Scottish Elises

Looking for peoples thoughts on this / experience in the past year or so.

I've been looking at S1 prices recently and they seem to be hovering 8/9/10k for a (98/99 year depending on mileage) to a 12/13k for low miler or 2000 cars.

I'm considering tipping in 8/9k over the next 6 months, do we think these values will rise or hold fast over the next year ?

Not many available at the lower end of the price bracket.

They've risen since summer. I bought mine for £7500 in August 2015 and there were 4 or 5 S1's (not write-offs) around that price within 100 miles of Aberdeen. Now there are none!

Good examples well maintained will be a sound long term investment - look at what has happened to S1 Exige values although Elise's will always trail due to numbers produced. In the short term I think a steady upward slope with some seasonal blips

Prices reached their low point some time ago, buy wisely and an S1 should now never depreciate.

Thanks to S_E their numbers decrease annually.

tut

There seems to be a few Cat D and even C's around.

A chrome orange Cat C in Edinburgh, anyone know it ?

Cat C must have tub damage ? I would assume Cat D is mainly fibre glass bodywork.

CSK_423 wrote:Cat C must have tub damage ? I would assume Cat D is mainly fibre glass bodywork.

bit more random than that...

in theory, chassis damage should be Cat B but I have seen a few as Cat D's

As Simon says, you have to take each case as different. A car could be written off as D with what appears to be superficial body damage because that was enough for the assessor to decide that it was beyond economical repair. He will not even look further. So it looks as if you are getting a good deal because it just needs some body repair if you buy it at auction.
However underneath it could have severe mechanical damage or even chassis damage, which would reduce it to a C or even B.

They wrote off N3 for purely clam damage even though they paid out £18K. I bought it back for £4.8K and sold it on in good faith to Luca, who only found out the extent of the damage including chassis when he stripped the bodywork off.

My advice is to get a CAT car checked out thoroughly even if you have to pay to do so or you may well regret it and it could turn into an expensive bargain.

tut

tut wrote:However underneath it could have severe mechanical damage or even chassis damage, which would reduce it to a C or even B.

Or worse, Tut could have owned it

Must admit, with all the recent crashtastic action, am getting scared to take mine out :-/

Same

For an S1 to keep its value I believe you do have to invest time and money in keeping it tip top. So values do hold but it isn't free motoring. Much fun though

Think you will struggle to get a decent s1 at that price now. I looked at a few and ended up with a VX220 instead, and even those are creeping up in value now. Depends if you're heart is set on the s1 tho

IMHO, a cheap elise (esp S1) will be a false economy. The cheap ones are tired un-loved examples that will need a fair bit of cash thrown at them to bring them up to handling / reliability / cosmetic standard. I would also be very wary of the high priced very low mileage examples that come up from time to time due to the recommissioning work required. I think the smart money is in a regularly used and well maintained example. While the value of the car may mildly appreciate year on year, the cost to maintain it, (mechanically and cosmetically) will considerable out weigh any appreciation gain. I try to keep mine mechanically tip top, and from time to time lavish some cosmetic expense on it, to try and stay off the slippery slope of sheddiness. That means typically spending £1500 - £2500 per annum, to cover circa 4K miles per annum.

I think it's cost me a bit less than that in the last 3-4 yrs, and certainly feels like better value than running just about any other commensurate sports car. Except an Evora

This is proving more difficult than I first thought.

So far I've trawled pistonheads, SELOC, Autotrader, ebay, gumtree, car and classic, lotus approved - anywhere else ?