Hi all this is my 1st post here:
A classic case of typical young driver (26) graduating from a FWD hatch (Cooper S) into a light weight RWD car and ar*eing it big style.
Since taking delivery of his new (now crashed) pride and joy in August I’ve only been in his car once but the experience probably put me off and I hate to say it - he had it coming as he was taking liberties to the extreme, I’ve never knew such cockiness from someone who thinks he can drive like Schumacher and thinks just because the Lotus is such a capable machine, he asumed he was invincible. Most of my other friends who had been in his car thought exactly the same.
It happened when he overtook a car approaching a roundabout and even though the car had ABS, with the greasy December roads, he had to exercise a bit of caution…only to stupidly drop from 4th to 2nd and as he entered the roundabout decided to let rip with the throttle to ‘try’ and slide the car on half-cut slicks only to have the back end flip out catching him out hitting the kerb square with both wheels and then off the road missing the lampost by inches.
When he phoned me to let me know what he had done, despite telling him from my past experience of owning an Elise, even on road tyres it is a car that will catch you out in the wet and suggested to him if he was to drive the car through the winter to change into a set of road tyres as those Yokos are a liability. Also told him to take it easy being a RWD mid-engined car he wouldn’t listen and to make matters worse the damage could escalate from �5k initial quote as it needs a new front clam and needs new wheels and other bits, knowing Lotus, I wouldn’t be surprised if it rose to �10k…
…to make matters worse I asked once it has been repaired if he would sell the car, he told me the car was on finance. I asked how much he owed on the car and how much it cost him each month, he told me he financed the �6k deposit on a credit card, �470 a month for 4 years with a final baloon of �13k. I nearly dropped the phone when I heard that.
He also lives at home wishing to move out.
I’ve never heard of such stipidity because he’s going get his a$$ raped when the car is repaired as I expect Lotus will offer him an obscenely low price for the car as they know it’s been in a major accident.
Stupid, stupid lad…
If you see a chrome orange Exige for sale at a silly price in Edinburgh, stay away…I remember he was revving the nuts off it when it only had 300 miles on the clock with running in oil.
I reckon it’s going to take a huuge drop when he comes to sell it back to Murray Motor Lotus…