Elise Resale Options

[ameeriklane]

I've been looking at buying an Elise, and I'd like some advice on resale options.

I suspect I would keep the car for around 2 years and then want to get rid of that point (due to some future personal plans).

I live in Estonia, and it's a very small market with a population of 1.3m. There are 3 Lotuses in the entire country, and all are 2007 models since the Lotus dealer just opened up last year.

They currently have a 2007 Europa S dealer demo (2,000km on the odometer) going for 39k EUR+tax, and they expect 2 new Elises to arrive in early June. There are no used Lotuses on the market at all.

My issue is that if I got a Lotus this year, either new from the dealer, or used from Germany or the US, then what are my options after 2 years? The market here is so small, so I could be stuck trying to sell a car that no one is interested in buying.

If I get a new Lotus from the dealer, they can offer a lease and that puts the responsibilty on their side for selling the car when the lease is up. A 1-year lease and they do 35% depreciation (i.e. 65% residual value), and if it's a 2-year lease, they do 50% depreciation (50% residual value). I see from searching the forums that 50% depreciation afer 5 years is more common, at least in the US. I suspect I have some room to negotiate on residual values, but I doubt I can get them to move too drastically.

Note that I don't actually need financing for the car. It would be purchased through my company, and the company can pay cash for it. The only reason to do a lease is to ensure a clean exit after 2 years.

Are there any other options I'd have? I was thinking of asking the dealer if I can just sign a deal with them where they agree to buy the car back after 2 years at a fixed price.. a bit like a put option in financial terms. They may do this on a new car that they sell to me, but I'm less doubtful they'll do this if I bought a used Elise from abroad.

What have others done in terms of trying to ensure they'll be able to sell their car after a few years? Maybe there are some other possibilities I didn't think of.

I owned an Esprit years ago when I lived in the US, and I'd love to get a Lotus again, but I really need to be careful about being stuck with a car 2 years from now that I can't re-sell.