I just sold my 06 Exige, not an 07 S, but I feel the pain too. I was shocked at how much it depreciated in a short period of time. And I even bought mine used, but I still feel a bit betrayed by lotus for their involvement in how much and how quick it depreciated.
Obviously, cars depreciate... that is to be expected. But I don't think anyone expects the prices to fall off the cliff like it did. For example if you look at any general car, if you lease, the average expected depreciation is that the car looses about half it's value over 3 years. So for say, a loaded $65k MSRP 06 Exige, in 2009 it should be worth around
$32,500. The depreciation is also not linear, meaning that the first year or from new to used is the biggest drop, then the drops become less and less after that. If you just average the estimated depreciation from the example above, and you calculate it linearly for ease sake, it comes to about $11k per year in depreciation. These numbers might shock people, but it is common knowledge. I would even say that in my opinion the whole Lotus line will depreciate more than half in 3 years due to the almost constant model changes and specialty market for these cars. There is no need for me to speculate on what I think the 3 year depreciation percentage number is, because that would really hurt the resale values even more. Just like the guy who broke the $40k barrier for 06 Exiges did when he sold below this support level.
If you like the car, buy it and enjoy it. The depreciation is the cost of enjoying it.
