[SKYVUE]

Yes, I pulled the plug. I traded in the '05 Lotus with 43,000 miles.
We've had a great two and a half years with no problems and a million smiles. The Lotus IS the best handling car on the planet! My sessions on Buttonwillow and Streets of Willow tracks gave me some of the best times of my life. The trips with other Lotus owners gave wonderful memories and the friends we met on LOTUSTALK the friends are keepers!
While the Lotus Elise is a great car, I slowly realized this is not for Terry (my wife) and I. Although I drove the hell out of the Elise (about 10,00 miles a year), I didn't drive it enough to justify it. I wanted more comfort for longer trips and more luggage capacity, allow Terry to drive it more and still have good acceleration and handling that we can experience on the track and in the canyons. That's why this brought us to the CaymanS.
We'll still be here, we still have the sports car soul, but we mellowed. For YOU, the Lotus is PERFECT for you! We'll still have canyon drives, track sessions and trips. Please don't ban us!

--Hal & Terry

 

[shokwaves]

You got a CaymanS, you are certainly still in the sports handling high performance zone, just a little more quiet and practical. Good choice of trade.

 

[lotuselise7]

Congrats! Where are the pics??

 

[...m...]

...sorry to see your elise go, but the cayman is a wonderful car, worlds apart from the lotus...i'm sure you'll quite enjoy it; congratulations!...

...have you measured yet how much more aperture it can swallow?..

 

[SKYVUE]

Drove Mulholland today...

Pics soon.
Tiptronic thumb drive is definitely a TRIP!
I'm a hard core stick shift guy (all of my cars were 5 or 6 speeds),
but this tiptronic auto/manual is amazing.
My left leg is becoming numb!rotfl

Did anyone here have experience with this tranny?

--Hal

 

[cdn_alien]

Hal,

If I couldn't have the Elise, and needed a more practical car, it would definitely be the Cayman S. Did you mean to say PDK transmission, or was it really a Tiptronic?

 

[Darth G-F]

10k mile a year! That's huge for a Lotus! I did 10k miles in 2 years!

CaymanS is nice. Enjoy!

 

[SKYVUE]

Hal,

If I couldn't have the Elise, and needed a more practical car, it would definitely be the Cayman S. Did you mean to say PDK transmission, or was it really a Tiptronic?

Yep, it's the 'ol Tiptronic with thumb switches on the steering wheel. It's going to take a while to get use to it, but my wife LOVES it! I wonder what it will do on the track.

The 43,000 Lotus miles scared me when I traded it in. The Elise was in fine shape, but the "competition" on E-Bay for '05 Elises aveaged less than 10,000 miles! It would be easy to find '05 Elises with LESS THAN 5,000 miles on it! I'm amazed that people own a Lotus and hardly use it!
The dealer gave a fair trade-in price, considering the mileage.

The Cayman will be used for weekend canyon fun, short trips, long trips and sometimes daily drives too! When I buy a car, I drive the car!

 

[shay2nak]

congrats on the Cayman, Hal!

 

[Murix]

Congrats. I think you will be very happy with your choice. Good car. I think for a lot of us here it was the other car in consideration. It would have certainly been the more sensible choice. Enough so that I would not need two cars which also would have made it the cheaper choice.

 

[daysineuropa]

Damn Hal, if I had known you were serious I would have talked you down or at least made you let me swap all your good bits for my stock stuff

I tried to buy a Cayman just before the Elise, but I am destined to never own Porsches.

Did you buy from Rusnak or Auto Gallery?

You won't have to worry about traffic now, but I hope to see you in a supercharged Evora in a few years.

 

[Allan Gibbs]

Congratulations. Was it a 2009 Cayman?

 

[Exigent]

Another Lotus guys moves on to a Porsche. :clap:


I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much or even more. Good choice.

 

[SKYVUE]

Thanks for the good feedback, LTers!

So, I registered with a Cayman Forum and I found that the forum format is IDENTICAL TO LOTUS TALK. I posted a "hello" post two days ago. Ten people looked at the post but NO REPLIES!!:huh: If it was LT, the response is almost immediately! What's with the Porsche guys??
I also noticed the posts there are no way near the activity that Lotus Talk! Maybe the Cayman drivers are driving instead of posting?:shrug:

Yes, it's a '07 Cayman S with 19,000 miles fom Westlake Rusnak. Arctic Silver with black interior. It is the Tiptronic S tranny. I hope I didn't make the wrong decision with that. At the dealership, there was a 2006 Cayman S with a SPECTACULAR Metallic dark Green Black paint and a beautiful beige interior with Chrono, PASM, Sport mode 6-speed, only 8500 miles at the same price as mine!:drool::drool:
But I was determined to get automatic/manual tiptronic so my wife will drive sometimes.

As it is, this Cayman S is FAST! Even Auto mode. I'm getting use to the thumb buttons in manual mode. We took it to Latigo Canyon today and it handles extremely well. Powering out of the curves. The power band is immense! 295 HP!:up: Of course it weighs 3000 lbs

--Hal

 

[Aedo]

Hal... :no:




You've been here long enough to know the rules! New car - post pics! Chop-chop!


PS: enjoy your new toy

 

[mopho]

So, I registered with a Cayman Forum and I found that the forum format is IDENTICAL TO LOTUS TALK. I posted a "hello" post two days ago. Ten people looked at the post but NO REPLIES!!:huh: If it was LT, the response is almost immediately! What's with the Porsche guys??

Perhaps they are just not sure how to react to you waxn' poetic about how the Caymen changed your life, that you will never be the same after driving it and how you will now live, sleep and dream Gaymen, oops I mean Caymen....... -poke- rotfl

 

[SKYVUE]

Perhaps they are just not sure how to react to you waxn' poetic about how the Caymen changed your life, that you will never be the same after driving it and how you will now live, sleep and dream Gaymen, oops I mean Caymen....... -poke- rotfl

Yep. You're one of a kind, Morgan. I mean "Dad" Morgan!

 

[Marlonius]

You did get the extended warranty, didn't you?!?!?! :crazyeyes

 

[apk919]

Another Lotus guys moves on to a Porsche. :clap:


I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much or even more. Good choice.

Why not have one of each?

Oh, and congrats Hal... we'll still see you at HPDEs, I hope?

 

[jhnmdahl]

So, I registered with a Cayman Forum and I found that the forum format is IDENTICAL TO LOTUS TALK. I posted a "hello" post two days ago. Ten people looked at the post but NO REPLIES!!:huh: If it was LT, the response is almost immediately! What's with the Porsche guys??

They're probably all in clinic. Try posting with a medical question of some sort and see if you get more responses rotfl

I've thought of what my "next" car will be when the Elise just isn't practical and I've gotten my fun out of it, but I'm definitely going to wait for the Evora before seriously considering a change...

John