Why does the Exige garner so much negative attention?

[Butters]

^Yeah. Or, "Your dad? You mean the guy who raped your mom and gave her AIDS so she could give birth to an AIDS rape baby like you and then die of a broken heart because of how much of a spectacular failure at life you are? That guy?"

[Garrett1021]

Originally Posted by Butters

^Yeah. Or, "Your dad? You mean the guy who raped your mom and gave her AIDS so she could give birth to an AIDS rape baby like you and then die of a broken heart because of how much of a spectacular failure at life you are? That guy?"

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[Surge]

I only get praise driving in a black Elise...

Not sure, probably it's due to your location or the car (out there color?) or the Exige specifically.

I've noticed that other drivers will LET ME IN, when I signal, something that just doesn't happen in a normal car (even a Porsche) here in Toronto.

I think smaller cities have a different mentality. Toronto is quite wealthy and very international. Ferraris are a dime a dozen... People respect wealth and the Lotus looks much more expensive than it is.

I actually find it annoying that people won't stop complementing it!

[VisualEchos]

Just about 100% positive here, but in all honesty, I can see the looks of "yeah, you have a Lotus, but don't rev on my Mazda 3 at this light or I'll take you down". Sad part is, it's probably true. The N/A Exige leaves much to be desired in the strait-line performance arena. Had this car come out and ran a mid 11, there would be a lot less snickering from the people in the know. Just sayin'.

[Butters]

^I'm pretty sure that is an accurate assessment. People who are in the know would know that. But people who tend to be in the know about this car would tend to be car guys. (I would presume, anyway. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic.) Thus, they would probably appreciate it for what it is. The kid I mentioned just seemed like a bottled-up groin accident waiting to happen so I'll pity the little protein stain. Besides, even if I **had** actively instigated him to want to drag race me (I mean, besides sitting in a sweet car looking all hot and handsome) I would've blown the weather stripping off his beater jalopy and taken his girlfriend for a ride. (I think I would've had to wait a year or two so I didn't go to jail.)

[Zinhead]

In five years I have had numerous people try to race me, but no negative comments.

[bbs350z]

i dont get any negative comments from it. i get "cute" every once in a while. or if i say "yea its kinda slow" the person will respond with something along the lines of "who give a sh1t this thing looks great" i do get revved at alot by the truck guys, and notice alot of people take pictures, and the "is that a ferrari, or damn arent those cars like 250k?

[Garrett1021]

Originally Posted by bbs350z

i dont get any negative comments from it. i get "cute" every once in a while. or if i say "yea its kinda slow" the person will respond with something along the lines of "who give a sh1t this thing looks great" i do get revved at alot by the truck guys, and notice alot of people take pictures, and the "is that a ferrari, or damn arent those cars like 250k?

I don't even own one, but am on this site constantly, people will see over my shoulders what im looking at and say wow those are those lotus cars theyre like $300,000... And when I tell them no you can have one for a tenth the price of that, they say I don't believe you.... So I show them the for sale section... This has literally happened a half dozen times, damn nosy people!

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[shay2nak]

In 6 years I've never had any negative comments. Only 2 *******s on the fwy. First was the very night I bought the car - 405fwy some mustang revving. Last was E92 M3 coupe being an idiot a couple years back on 101E.

Then again I don't really drive that much. Maybe 3500 miles the last 3 years. And all of those miles are in the canyons.

[sleekgt]

Originally Posted by Kimgt

[snip] Some dumb kid that thinks so highly of his dad's C5 Corvette. He approached me to talk about the car, and was trying to one up me the whole time.

"yeah its quick but my dad's vette will walk away from you top end"
"50k, you're stupid, my dad only paid 26K for his vette"
"its rare, but its not a supercar"
yadda yadda yadda, wanted to punch that little sh#t

Oh, these kids do manage to grow up into adults with no change in personality. And that includes talking about Daddy's assets and tearing down others because they have nothing of their own. Very annoying having to work with these people

[Retsillacm]

Well, in my opinion these people lashing out at you from their cars aren't just "jealous". People think a lot when they are driving typically. Some obsess over the negative aspects of their life more than the positive. When you mix somebody who has a generally bad attitude, or someone who is having a bad day, with someone who has the tendency to get angry or jealous easily, this can lead some to lashing out at others. You driving the Exige will most likely make them assume, gee look at this assclown in his fancy car. Probably some snobby doctor or lawyer. The anger they already felt by other things in their life is only heightened by seeing someone who is successful, and most likely happy because of it. Obviously the people screaming negative comments at you only make up a small percentage of the drivers perceive you on the road. While most do compliment you, you will always have those angry/jealous people who will snap at you for driving in what their minds is an expensive car. Then you have just the immature teenagers who are secretly jealous, but will call you things such as faggot to vent their frustration. There's nothing wrong with the Exige, it's people dude.. just people.

[plastique999]

Think a couple of factors come into play: color of car and demographics of where you live.

In SoCal, exotics are pretty common so they seem welcomed and I haven't had any negative comments about my old Matte Orange race prepped Elise. The orange though popped like crazy and harbored too much attention, but all pretty positive.
I have a black 430 Spider which gets less attention than my old Elise (if it were red then I'm sure it would be more). All ages like this car. My AM DBS is a metallic gray and is more understated, but the people who recognize the car really stare at it for a long time - mostly older males. But have had quite a few kids take a few pics, and surprisingly a young mom at my kid's school say "Sweet car!"

So opinions depend on color of car and where you live, and of course what type of car.

[mr.woolery]

I'm also in SoCal and haven't noticed any negative reactions to the car. Occasionally I see other drivers become...inspired(?)...to drive aggressively when they see my Exige on the road. I think they want to "play", but I generally ignore that kind of pseudo street-racing stuff and don't consider it a negative reaction, just bad driving and poor impulse control. That doesn't happen with just the Exige, it pretty much happens with any of my performance reputation cars (Exige, Atom, Miata, Porsche).

As for what people say while on the road...nothing but positive comments about the Exige thus far.

[GuppyCaptain]

Originally Posted by ItsThaMonsta

I've had the Elise and now have the Evora. Most negative comments I got about the Elise were do to it's size. The Evora pretty much eliminated that altogether. Also, a lot is just jealously in general. But to be honest, the Elise was about 70/30 on the positive/negative scale, while the Evora is about 95/5. Size matters.

Another thing to note is that unlike the first 2.5 years I had the Elise, Lotus is no longer an unknown brand. It went from everyone asking what is that to people now calling it out when I drive past. Personally I liked it better when no one knew what it was though lol.

So which one's the bigger head-turner, Elise or Evora? Of course, it matters what colors you had, too.

[GuppyCaptain]

Originally Posted by Butters

^Yeah. Or, "Your dad? You mean the guy who raped your mom and gave her AIDS so she could give birth to an AIDS rape baby like you and then die of a broken heart because of how much of a spectacular failure at life you are? That guy?"

LMFAO

The dumbass would have deserved a comment like that. Unfortunately when I get pissed off I lose my wittiness and composure.

[GuppyCaptain]

Originally Posted by plastique999

Think a couple of factors come into play: color of car and demographics of where you live.

In SoCal, exotics are pretty common so they seem welcomed and I haven't had any negative comments about my old Matte Orange race prepped Elise. The orange though popped like crazy and harbored too much attention, but all pretty positive.
I have a black 430 Spider which gets less attention than my old Elise (if it were red then I'm sure it would be more). All ages like this car. My AM DBS is a metallic gray and is more understated, but the people who recognize the car really stare at it for a long time - mostly older males. But have had quite a few kids take a few pics, and surprisingly a young mom at my kid's school say "Sweet car!"

So opinions depend on color of car and where you live, and of course what type of car.

Bingo! That's SOOOO true. I live in the country and about 20 mins outside of a small, old ex-coal mining city. If you don't drive a truck or big displacement car then you're just not man enough. With that picture painted, can you imagine how much my Chrome Orange Elise stuck out? It got tons of positive attention and comments, but then you got the idiot/jealous rednecks that just can't help themselves. Morons.........

And before anyone on here bashes me for the redneck comment, consider that I'm a big-time bowhunter, have an old 93' Chevy diesel that I use around the "homestead" and for my rental properties. The difference is that I don't think the displacement of your car's engine measures how much of a man you are. I love the United States, but not that macho bullschit aspect of the American mentality.

[Im_Not_In_San_Fran]

Regarding the redneck issue. Yes you don't even need a shiny car to get negative attention from small-towners of the same gender as you: just be an unfamiliar face doing something.

That reminds me, I had a knife pulled on me at a bar north of Santa Barbara because their alpha male stood next to me and I ignored him. Northern British Columbia rocked too...

[sofla]

Originally Posted by plastique999

So opinions depend on color of car and where you live, and of course what type of car.

Concur. Black exige in Miami ain't the head turner amongst the daily parade of super exotics.

[lotusforsale]

I've owned 2 Exige and 3 Elise and the only real negatives were the never ending challenges to race.

Got far more hate with the 84 Esprit I owned.

Was filling up my first Lotus, a 70 S2 Europa at a small gas station in a small town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Guy pulled into the station, right up next to my car, and asked me what kind of pickup truck it was. He was serious. He thought it was some kind of little El Camino or Ranchero.

[s2kjoe]

I basically drive the same exige as yours but down south in tacoma. No one has every given me any negative comments. Just 30 miles down!