[MikeAR303]

This may be depressing for some of you who were waiting to test drive the federal car before putting in a deposit... quoted from Clyde of LCUSA from a post on another board:

"No dealers have the federal car for test drives and won't until April."

 

[ace3]

I'm flying down to Austin next weekend SOLELY to take the "traveling Elise" out for a little spin. :-\

 

[MikeAR303]

Damn...

You do know that the car you'll be driving is a euro spec Elise though, don't you?

 

[Randy Chase]

On the other hand, I can't imagine why someone would need to drive the federal car in order to tell if they like the car, if they fit in the car, if they think the car will handle well enough.

Drive the Euro car. Put down the deposit.

Worry about the federal car later.

 

[LarryB]

That isn't too surprising. The will have a few pre-prodcution around for the shows and press. Until you take delivery and take care of the paper work you haven't committed to buying the car. Have driven the Euro Elise demo cars, heck the spec for that car or the Fed car where enough to put down a deposit/stay in line. Even if your in line for a first month car, you can give the dealers demo car a good shake down. Then your own at delivery to what ever degree your comfortable with. The hard part is if your early enough in line that you have to place your order in before the demo car is here and want to check out a certain option/package before hand (LSS for me). Hoping for at least a more detail press write up on that type of thing.

 

[jml1952]

At this point, I don't really need another test drive. While it might be fun to try out the US version of the car, I know that I want the car, so that's good enough for me. When you scratch a mosquito bite, you get temporary relief, but then it itches even more than before. I have a feeling that a brief test drive would not satisfy my Elise itch, but simply aggravate it.

I'm more excited about checking out how the whole package looks, picking a color and choosing options. The LA Auto Show should scratch that particular itch!

Then it's just a matter of time until we each get our cars.

 

[ConeFusion]

Drive the Euro car. Put down the deposit.

I put down a deposit, and have never even seen one! I hope that the dealer will get at least the Euro car back before I place the final order, but they didn't have any information when I asked about it.

 

[Modern Wedgie]

I put down my money 5 months before I got to drive the car.

It's worth the deposit. Otherwise, you'll be kicking yourself when the car comes out and then you put the deposit down...and it will be a year before you get your car and you will be tormented by all of us driving around in our elises.

 

[zvezdah1]

As a heads up.
Someone on SELOC posted that they saw two US elises under covers at the Lotus factory this week, least that's what the guide apparently said, they are going to be at the LA show.
Chris

 

[YvoTuk]

ConeFusion, don't worry, you won't be disappointed!

I've walked the same road as you did.. had a Scooby before... fell in love with the Elise and hey.. here I am

It's just one of the best handling cars ever made.. no big need for power upgrades, the first thing you realise is that you'll have to upgrade yourself

BTW.. if you guys are flying around in the states for a tesdrive, why not hunt down a couple of cheapskate tickets to Europe and do a tesdrive here.. you could also enjoy our beer while you're over