Good luck Richard, it looks great.
You still in Kew? We should have a SW London meet up and have a look-see if you get it!
Hi Benja, thanks, and yes I am still in SW and def up for a meet sometime!
I was down at B&C yesterday and saw the blue car,…it looked fantastic! It also had a ‘sold’ sticker on it, did you buy it Richard!?
Glad you approve! I’ve put a holding deposit on it… test drive on Tuesday (and Steff’s having a quick look at it from a mechanical POV). Just have to work out how to get 2 Exiges in 1 garage (all things going well)! A good problem to potentially have.
Yes it was sat in exactly the same spot in the showroom that mine was when I first saw it,…ahem,…some years ago!
Let us know how you get on Tue…
Don’t expect it to be like your RGB. It will be smelly, lumpy, raw, squeaky, aircon will not work, yipe over bumps… And make a sound like a banshee howling, feed every grain of road texture through the steering, stop with no assistance and a large press of the pedal and in the dry is glued to the road with super glue. Small children will point and stare and everyone gives you a wave (not the special wave reserved for BMW, white van and Audi drivers).
I have an s1 and an s2, the s2 is the better car but the s1 is the keeper. If you can afford it, buy it. I have had mine for 6 years and it has cost me very little, is great fun and is worth rather more than I paid for it.
Love this, saved for posterity!
I took mine out on Sunday morning. Glorious sunny day and it was all of the above. Within the hour I was sweating like a pig and my eyes were stinging (fumes/pollen/suncream in my eye, I’m not sure) but I still took the long way home grinning like an idiot 
That B&C car looks like a good buy, congrats r1chardh!
Thanks - that’s informative and very entertaining! I’ve drive one before, so half know what to expect… I realise the aircon is barely any use but they have promised to get it going at least. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!
My feelings too, a great post.
I’ve never driven a S2 in Elise or Exige form, had numerous S1 Elise, i think in every flavour bar a 190. I often see posts (SELOC…) that an Exige is just an Elise with a roof and what is the fuss about. But with the S1 that thought couldn’t be further from reality.
Elise are all wonderful to drive, tactile and fun absolutely, but generally civilised bar getting in and out (which I think is an exaggerated issue). The Exige is just SO much more in comparison, and to above its not very friendly at low speeds, it squeaks, squeels, rattles and jigs about, but Jesus put a few revs into it and a good B road and what a car… It still noisy (more so), still smelly (more so), even hotter (!) but it really is a wonderful experience. I m grateful I don’t drive it too often, I love the excitement of getting it out of the garage, the warm up routine, trying not to kangaroo as I try and trickle out of our village and those sweaty, smelly, noisy miles when it’s driven just for the joy of driving it… Thank goodness it isn’t “perfect”, it’s a bit like the IoM TT wonderfully unsanitised.
Sadly it was not to be… I think Jamie will be looking at a couple of issues that Steffen identified, so when it comes back on to the market it may well be worth another look, but it’s a no for now. The search goes on!!
Oh well if it’s not meant to be 
Shame, what were the issues?
The main one was that something wasn’t happy in the cooling / thermostat / fan / temp sensor department. Few other more minor bits. Think they are going to do the work, so it may well still be a good buy for someone.
Strange it required an independant specialist to find problems with a used car at a main dealer?!
Indeed. To say that they were embarrassed about the whole thing would not be exaggerating. I believe it is being sold on behalf of someone, and there was a reasonable gap between their initial inspection and finally taking it into stock, so I guess the issues could have happened between the two - I think this was the first time it had been further than the petrol station since they had it in the showroom. Either way they have undertaken to put it right, so I imagine it will return to the market in the not too distant future. Anyone who wants to look at it might want to call Steff at Analogue Automotive for the whole story - I’m just really pleased I asked him to come along.
Not interfering, but if you were keen to buy, and B&C have undertaken to remedy the issues noted, are you not going to wait for the fixes and continue with the purchase? At least you now have sight of everything and being a 15 year old Lotus I doubt many don’t need something fixing!
Again none of my business and a personal decision 100%. Clearly best with what ever you choose.
Sent you a PM with my thoughts. It’s a tough one!
Reduced. Surely this is a steal now? Especially seeing it drop you could no doubt go in at £20-£22k? The market baffles me.
There’s a thread about it on SELOC with a few pics of the suspension, definitely been standing still for a while, and think it’s in Scotland so potentially hard to collect, but you might be right - at least it has some service history, though it has nothing in the last 10 years / 12,000 miles.
Even so, if its not used and off the road with no history for the years its off the road would it really bother you. At £20k surely a £2k-£3k would do a lot to tidy it. Only I have one it would be tempting.