[kramykram]

Well im in the market for a elise. So besides the looks, im hoping it won't be a step down from my 08 350z. I love the looks of the elise and have always wanted one but now they are in my price range. Looking foward to the community.

 

[V-RAPTOR]

:wave:

 

[xtn]

What do you mean "a step down?"

There are a lot of things an Elise will not do as well as your Nissan.

xtn

 

[kramykram]

Didn't mean it to sound as an insult. I have always owned z's. 300zxtt and 3 350z's. they have no disappointed one bit. But no one around my area even knows what a lotus is so I will be the only one. Im not in it for the straight line racing I got my 350 for. The lotus is an all around beatiful car.

 

[xtn]

Sorry I wasn't clear I guess.

You said you hope the Lotus won't be a step down. I'm making the point that it depends on what attributes you value, because in many ways the Lotus is a step down.

Then again in many ways it's a big step up. Like I said, it depends on what attributes you value.

xtn

 

[jesterbot]

Exactly... ride comfort? Step down. Interior or luggage room? Step down. A/C? Step down. Stereo or other luxuries? Step down. Interior build/finish quality? Step down. Torque? Step down. Ease of ingress/egress? Major step down. Parkability? Step down.

Luckily you don't get one for any of those reasons... you'll know once you get behind the wheel of one for a test drive. It's either a car you love or a car you hate.

Will it destroy your Z at a track? No question. Will it turn a million times more heads? Absolutely. Will little kids make their SUV-driving moms parallel you in traffic so they can take pictures? Yep. Will it be more fun to drive? Debatable... but more than likely. It's an experience. It's also cool being so low that the tops of your windows end below the point where most passenger cars (not to mention SUVs or trucks) begin. That's your own form of privacy built in

 

[Whitey#1]

and the Lotus Elise will get alot more attention from girls than the 350Z will. i've seen that with my own eyes. just thought i'd throw that out there in case you were interested.

M

 

[kramykram]

lol i went to atlanta last year and drove my cousins elise. yes i loved the car. she wanted to sell it to me but owed 47k on it after owning it for 2 years. i just couldn't spend that much money. but since used ones are more in the 25-30k range thats more my price line. im in the middle of listing my parts from my z for sale which will give me a nice down payment. plus i have a rental house for sale. i may not be in the next week or 2 but very soon i will own one. im so looking foward to it.

 

[kramykram]

Well the parting out of my 350z has began. I hope soon to have my 10K plus in parts back in my bank account for a nice downpayment with my trade. So looking foward to it. Anyone local to gainsville,florida. They have one down there I want to check out.

 

[kramykram]

wow dealership only offer me 17k for an 08 350z with 9k miles. they must be crazy

 

[RichS]

Will it destroy your Z at a track? No question.

Actually, with a light breathing on the engine and a suspension and tires, the Z will hang quite nicely with an NA Elise/Exige. We have an instructor who drives one every bit as quickly (within a second or two) as a Lotus at Texas World Speedway. So I wouldn't necessarily say that the Lotus will destroy the Z at the track...

 

[RichS]

wow dealership only offer me 17k for an 08 350z with 9k miles. they must be crazy

Edmunds says 18.5 for trade in on a base '08 Z. With the soft market right now 17 isn't that bad of a place for them to start...

Did you try CarMax? They seem to be pretty good on trade-ins.

 

[Green Ghost]

A good well-maintained, decently equipped Elise goes for around 27 to 32. So be careful of something under that price. You don’t want to fix something right off the bat because you thought you where getting the cheaper one.

Good luck on your hunt and I hope you have (a good) one soon.

 

[xtn]

wow dealership only offer me 17k for an 08 350z with 9k miles. they must be crazy

Was that the first number they through out, or was that what you got them up to after a couple hours of hand-wringing negotiations?

xtn

 

[Conan]

What setup do you have on the Z? With the right modifications, the Z is just as fast, if not faster, than a stock Elise, so you may end up being mildly disappointed. I had an '03 Z with a lot of great suspension upgrades and maybe 10 - 15 more HP than stock and it was quicker on fast tracks and nearly as quick on slower, technical tracks than my Elise.

I'm not saying I'm disappointed with the Elise -- far from it. But I DO miss the Z a lot because it was such a great, all-around car. With the changes I made, anyway.

 

[kramykram]

What setup do you have on the Z? With the right modifications, the Z is just as fast, if not faster, than a stock Elise, so you may end up being mildly disappointed. I had an '03 Z with a lot of great suspension upgrades and maybe 10 - 15 more HP than stock and it was quicker on fast tracks and nearly as quick on slower, technical tracks than my Elise.

I'm not saying I'm disappointed with the Elise -- far from it. But I DO miss the Z a lot because it was such a great, all-around car. With the changes I made, anyway.

i have injen intakes, berk hiflow cats, stillen ypipe, agency power exhaust, cusco lsd, central 20 4.083 rear gears, nismo dif cooler, spl solid differential bushings, stance coilovers, spl front upper a arms, spl rear camber arms, stillen toe arms, battle version mid-link replacement bars and aam oil pan spacer. .

lol i know the elise will not be as fast as my z. my z is pretty damn quick. im not looking for all that much more quickness. let alone the beautiful looks of the elise along with the gas mileage. I had an 00 celica gts and i loved how good on gas it was and i loved when it hit lift just like when i drove my cousins elise. made me smile. it was so light and nimble. but doing 100 in that elise is scary compared to doing 160 in the z. Almost forgot my brembo brakes and volk gtf's. I did have a set of 20" custom made Auto Coutures that costed around 8k but I would never see that much out of them so I traded for the volk gtf's and the set of brembo's.

 

[kramykram]

Was that the first number they through out, or was that what you got them up to after a couple hours of hand-wringing negotiations?

xtn

they told me that they do not go by kbb or nada. they said they go buy whats called the dealer black book and what they can get the cars at auctions for. so thats all they have to offer. he said he would drop the elise down to 27000 instead of 275 or whatever they had it listed for. i told em to f*** off. I would rather keep my z than deal with that.

 

[xtn]

they told me that they do not go by kbb or nada. they said they go buy whats called the dealer black book and what they can get the cars at auctions for. so thats all they have to offer. he said he would drop the elise down to 27000 instead of 275 or whatever they had it listed for. i told em to f*** off. I would rather keep my z than deal with that.

So in other words it was the first number they threw out. Telling them to F off is not the best negotiating strategy for getting them to go higher.

xtn

 

[texasluxurymotors]

correction

Well, well, well....I am new to this board but I can't help but respond to this thread! You have this whole thing a bit skewed don't you Kramy Kram.

First of all NO DEALER works off of NADA or KBB, ask ANY of them!

Secondly if you would read my email carefully you will see that I offered you $ 18 to $ 19K for your Z, which was WAY too generous for a WRECKED, prior bodystyle 350Z. I am certainly glad I found out what a [email protected]$$ you are before we went any further because I was being far too generous on your trade.

Third, you wanted me to give you $ 19775 for your Z which is ridiculous for a BASE, previously damaged, old bodystyle Z...that is FULL retail. You can walk into a Nissan dealership today & buy an equivalent '08 base on clearance for less than that!

Fourth, from the start before ever seeing the vehicle you were trying to negotiate the price of the Elise. I am always leery of people who want to start negotiating price before learning about the car.

I run this dealership because I LOVE cars. I buy cars I like, enjoy them while I have them & sell them at very fair prices. This is not my primary business & I do not make my living off of the dealership. Thus I do not have the overheard or the margin requirements of most other dealers. I sell 12-18 cars per YEAR & only average about $ 1,000 a car...but I have a blast doing it. This gives me the luxury of being choosey about my transactions & buyers. Life is too short to deal with people like you...I feel sorry for whomever does end up being on the other end of a transaction with you.

I have posted the whole string of our interaction so that the board can see EXACTLY how the entire conversation between you & I took place.







Date: Mon 15 Jun 22:20:56 EDT 2009
From: Bart
Subject: Re: Lotus Elise
To: kramykram <[email protected]

Get a life "kramy kram", you wouldn't be able to get $19775
out of your car selling it yourself so why should you expect
a dealer to do so. You wanted me to give you more for your
car than it is worth & on the other end beat me up on the
price of a Lotus that is already the lowest price Elise on
the market. Sounds to me like it is you "trying to screw me
out of my hard earned money". Grow up & good luck finding
someone else to give you a "deal"

Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:57:10 -0500
From: "kramykram" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Lotus Elise
To: "Bart


well then ill save my cash and my car till another deal comes along. thanks for your time. but glad to find out that dealerships always have the upper hand on screwing people out of there good hard earned money. first it was kelly blue book, then nada, now its the backdooor,backwoods, blackbook so dealers can screw people out of their money. haha i suppose you will be one of the dealerships that goes out of buisness one day to like the rest of them.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bart
To: 'kramykram'
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 11:32 AM
Subject: RE: Lotus Elise


Hi Randy,

I know I won't be able to reach the 19775 value you reference from NADA. Both NADA & KBB are not reflective of what dealers are willing to give on trade in values. Most franchised new car dealers will use an industry publication known as black book. The black book on your car is around $ 17K. We base our trade values on auction historicals, meaning we are typically willing to give a buyer the same value that we can buy an equivalent vehicle at manufacturer auction (i.e. we buy straight from Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.) for, which is almost always higher than the black book value. In your case a 350Z base with under 10K is bringing $ 18 to $ 19K at wholesale auction. If the accident is referenced on CARFAX you are going to be on the low end of that range.

As for the pricing on the Lotus I can give a little discount but not too much. We have only had the car listed for 11 days & have considerable interest on it. It is priced very aggressively & we do not have too much margin on it. It is the least expensive Elise within 500 miles of Dallas & the only Elise's priced lower in the United States have significant issues with them, i.e. salvage titles, incorrect odo reading, etc.

Thanks,

Bart




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kramykram [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 10:18 AM
To: Bart
Subject: Re: Lotus Elise


i see value on my car in average trade in is 19775 thru nada. it is silver base model with 6 speed. i has been wrecked someone took off my front bumper in a parking lot but no frame damage. i am the original owner. haha let me rephrase that my girl is the original owner i just pay the note and drive it.

here are a few pictures with my rims on it but im putting the stock rims back on before i trade her in.

also how firm are you guys on the price is what im looking at also.

thanks randy
----- Original Message -----
From: Bart
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 9:18 AM
Subject: Lotus Elise


Dear Randy,

Thank you for your interest in our Lotus. It is indeed a beautiful vehicle. It has a clean CARFAX with absolutely no damage or accident history. Please visit the link for this car on our website Texas Luxury Motors for additional pictures. You should be able to download the CARFAX report from there as well.

As to your 350Z I can't give you a definitive trade in value without seeing the car in person, but if you could give me some additional information & email some pictures I would be able to give you a range of value for it:

Transmission?
Color?
Tires (% of tread)?
Any previous paint work or damage to the vehicle?
Any noticeable scratches, dents, dings, etc?

Thank you, again, for your interest.

Bart

 

[Tristar Racing]

Why do I have a feeling with the drop in value of the Elise below the 30k threshold, we will being seeing many more buyers like this...