Hi, i am very interested in buying a lotus exige but was wondering if anyone has any experience with them as a daily car? It would be a regular car for me, going to work and using it for every day tasks.
Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
J
Hi James,
Lots of people do use them as daily drives, more so S2 than S1. Do a search for ‘daily driver’ I’m sure you’ll find lots of historical threads.
The best approach I think is to have a crappy daily driver and an Exige and then when you get in the Exige at the w/e or a t’day it feels like a Rocketship
Good luck.
can be used daily BUT i agree with Benja
I agree with the above, it can be done but get a slow cheap second car.
It can be left anywhere you would not like to leave the Exige and having another car makes driving the Exige special. Especially if the second car is slow.
My Exige is my only car so it’s my daily drive, commutes to work, shops, holidays etc. Don’t have any issues with that at all. Very happy with it as an all-rounder.
I did think about buying a shed but realised that given the choice I’d always be driving the Exige so the shed would be a waste of money.
You dont need a second car … the exige is excellent for me, the wife, kid and dog … especially on shopping trips or going abroad. Also, leaving it parked in town gives me no worries at all.
I would follow the advice and get a second car unless the above doesnt apply to you.
Had my Exige for two and half years now and I abosolutely love it - far and away the best car I have ever owned. BUT there is absolutely no way I would want to use it as my daily drive. The very things which make it fun to drive - the responsiveness, the visceral driver involvement, the noise - would just be a pain the the ass driving home from the office in heavy traffic on a dark wet November night. So, I agree with Benja - buy an Exige, but also a hack for daily use (Focus Estate in my case)
Mark
What I say to people about my Exige is :
“When you are in the mood there is nothing like it. When you are not in the mood there is nothing like it”
Hassling GT3’s on trackdays=good times
Being at the limit of human heat exposure in traffic=bad times
Best car ive ever driven, never want to sell it
I suppose another way of looking at it would be if you could only afford the exige and could not afford a hack would you put up with it daily?
I think I would
[quote]What I say to people about my Exige is :
“When you are in the mood there is nothing like it. When you are not in the mood there is nothing like it”
I suppose another way of looking at it would be if you could only afford the exige and could not afford a hack would you put up with it daily?
I think I would
Me too, but in reality if you can afford an Exige you can certainly afford a hack too, given that a) you can get a perfectly useable and reliable car for circa �2K and b) if you rack up lots of miles on your Exige using it every day its you will pay a heavy price in depreciation.
Mark
I have had my Exige S2 for 7 months now, and do use it as a daily driver. I chopped in both an Elise S1 and an MX-5 (which I used daily) to buy it. It has not yet seen a winter, but already I am now beginning to think I should also have a shed.
I am trying not to be too precious about my Exige and take it to the shops/pub etc, but to be fair, I really only commute 2 days a week.
I remember my last Lotus daily drive was an Elan M100. During dark cold wet winter days I sometimes thought: Why am I driving a nice car like this on this sh!t road, behind a line of shopping trolleys and huge trucks getting covered in filthy spray, unable to overtake, and finding every pothole.
Its times like that when I will really want a shed.
But then you get the odd clear patch of road, open it up, and that tedious commute suddenly becomes a joy. There really is nothing like driving a Lotus even when commuting,
Get a second car as your daily driver …like me
My 2nd car is an…Exige !! Cant do much better than that.
well a Mclaren F1 would be more practical for the dog/wife/handbag etc!!! bank manager might disagree though.
I know a few people who have used theirs as a daily car… personally I wouldn’t… but that’s because it’s not ideal for getting stuck in nose-to-tail traffic… but each to their own
There may be an age related issue to all this too.
In my 20’s/early 30’s the thought of an Exige as a daily drive would be a no brainer (I actually had a Europa t/c daily driver for 18 months in my 20’s )
However as I get older something comfy is needed most days, with the Lotus being used when I’m in the mood & at weekends.
There may be an age related issue to all this too
errr… maybe not, I’m the wrong side of 50, thats why I only commute 2 days a week !
There may be an age related issue to all this too
errr… maybe not, I’m the wrong side of 50, thats why I only commute 2 days a week !
Well, I’m the wrong side of 50 too and commute daily and I’ll be doing the Sainsburys run on the way home later today.
I guess I have to make best use of the Exige while I can still get in and out of it
There may be an age related issue to all this too
errr… maybe not, I’m the wrong side of 50, thats why I only commute 2 days a week !
Well, I’m the wrong side of 50 too and commute daily and I’ll be doing the Sainsburys run on the way home later today.
I guess I have to make best use of the Exige while I can still get in and out of it
An interesting thread… I wonder how many Exige Owners are in the different age groups!!! NOT going to define those, but lets just say 50 is a good time to get the weight off so you can still get into the thing!!! (S1 more difficult?!!)
Use mine on sunny days on quiet roads with (I hope!) not too much attention from the speed cameras ETC! Feels very special like that and ALWAYS makes me SMILE!!! Weekday car is slow and economical!
Wave runner …you mean 35 then
Wait till you are the wrong side of 60 then it becomes REAL fun…