Buying advice

[whitham_wannabe]

Well, following 8 years driving a truck, I have finally had enough of sloppy handling, bad brakes and bad ride quality and I think I am mere hours away from purchasing an Elise ...

Need a little positive reinforcement from you guys, and a little advice too, if possible. I'm looking at an Elise that is already fitted with a Sector111 supercharger, having driven both a charged Exige and NA Elise at the weekend ... I prefered the ride/ handling of the Elise and the power of the Exige, so this seemed like the best bet.

What should I look out for buying this set up? Are there any issues with this sc that I should know about, or is it a good package? The car has a little over 12k miles on it, and looks perfect, I just don't want to inherit someone else's problems with a modified car.

Thanks in advance for the advice, I know I am preaching to the choir here, but these are the most fantastic cars!

[kestrel74]

Arm yourself & do a lot of searching/reading.....live in the forced induction threads for a while, and the Uber thread.

[Vishus_1]

Can you share some more details about the Elise - such as what year, is it a factory or aftermarket SC? Have you run a car fax and looked at the undercarriage at all? Any other modifications.

Reason I ask is there are differences between the SC's out there and, of course, warranty will come into play weather it is factory, a factory add on or an aftermarket add on.


The undercarriage can have some hidden damage that, otherwise, those who aren't familiar with the cars can dismiss but could actually be serious enough to warrant totalling the vehicle. I would suggest a data dump of the ECU to tell you how hard or light the car has been driven.

Carfax, as questionable as it is, may expose some insurance claims or accident history. Key word there is "may".

With 12k miles, I would also focus on tires and brakes. The Advans don't usually last that long.

[whitham_wannabe]

It's a 2007, 12,000 miles, clean CarFax (for what that's worth).

The spiel from the advert reads thus ...
"Power Door Locks, Power Windows, Security System, Floor Mats, CD Player, Removable Hardtop, Anti-lock Brakes, Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel, Leather Seats, Lowered Ride Height, Cold Air Intake, Service records, Stage II Exhaust, Extra Key, Touring Pack, Upgraded stereo, Lifestyle Paint, Handbooks, One Owner From New, Ipod connection, Freshly Serviced, Harness Bar, Clear Bra Paint Protection Kit, Sector 111 Supercharger"

Upon inspection the car seemed undamaged etc, in very good condition in fact, but as was mentioned above, there are a lot of ways to hide damage on one of these things. Short of taking it apart, it's difficult to tell what is going on under all that bodywork. I do have a complete inspection report from the dealer where it is consigned to, but an inherent distrust of dealerships means I don't necessarily put much weight on this.

Thanks again for the help ....

[Vishus_1]

Well the Sector 111 supercharger invalidates some warranty items. Others on here can comment better about what to look for on that. I also suspect the ECU has been reflashed which further invalidates more warranty items.

If you dont care about the warranty - which being a 2007 may only have a year left on it anyway - then it sounds like a fairly standard Elise with the touring package. Many of the items listed in the description are part of that and not really extra beyond that. Star Shield is good to have yet some lighter colors show a kind of yellowing affect as it ages more than other colors do. The cold air intake is a little dubious - some really don't work at all and some even hurt performance.

It doesnt say anything about sport package however it points out that it has a harness bar - if this isn't park of a stock sport package, then this may be telling - especially combined with the 'lowered suspension'. This car may have been tracked. Not unusual for some of these cars but may be an indicator of its past and condition.

I would again do that ECU dump - check tires, brakes and undercarriage/chassis damage.

[Mr. Know]

Also be careful and know about smog requirements. If you are in a smog state you need to know whether it will pass for sure (not just sniffer, but visual as well).

[Rainier]

I learnt from experience that its still worthwhile to get an independent inspection (not from the dealer selling the vehicle).

If you can find somone local, experienced with track inspections/preparation to look at the car I'd recommend it.

Also get an ECU printout of the history which might show if their are many hard launches.

Good luck, the Elise will make your old car seem like a school bus!

[whitham_wannabe]

I now have an ECU dump for the vehicle, anyone care to take a quick look for me and give me an opinion?

As the car has 12000 miles on it, I'm assuming the ECU has been cleared at some point, but 40 hours of data, and the same owner since new should mean this data is typical, right?

Once again, thanks for the help. This car has so far checked out just fine, but this is giving me a lot of confidence for the purchase.

Total running time 40:38

RPMs - 8827 8745 8729 8720 8696
Coolant - 84.18 82.93 88.05 87.92 88.05
Max KPH - 197 196 191 189 188
Fastest 0-100 - 25.5

Throttle position -
0-1.5 - 15:33
1.5 - 15 - 21:20
15 - 25 - 0:34
25 - 35 - 0:18
35-50 - 0:18
50-65 - 0:7
65-80 - 0:4
80-100 - 0:14

Engine Speed -
500-1500 - 12:5
1500-2500 - 5:30
2500-3500 - 11:52
3500-4500 - 7:32
4500-5500 - 2:2
5500-6500 - 1:4
6500-7000 - 0:17
7000-7500 - 0:7

[Rainier]

Guess the missing data is due to an ECU change or reflash when the supercharger went in?

The things I'd be looking for on the dump are over-revs and a lot of standing starts and I expect a good mechanic can check for these signs anyway.

FYI my ECU dump has a section "Number of Standing Starts".

[whitham_wannabe]

Mine had the same section, but had 'No Data', which I've seen on a few other ECU dumps I've seen on here. Maybe he just babied the car ... or at least that is what I choose to believe!

Cheers,
Whit.

BTW: Today is the day!

[ksjon]

Originally Posted by whitham_wannabe

Mine had the same section, but had 'No Data', which I've seen on a few other ECU dumps I've seen on here. Maybe he just babied the car ... or at least that is what I choose to believe!

Cheers,
Whit.

BTW: Today is the day!

no one babies a car if a aftermarket SC is installed

atleast they try a 0-100kmh and get it under 25secons