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So those of you who saw my previous thread know that I'm shopping for a V8 Esprit and thx for all the input so far. I've had a few owners contact me with vehicles for sale and I'm also looking at a one local to me.
So the two I have most info on right now are somewhat similar in modifications and have a lot of things that I would want to do myself so both attractive that some of these have been done already. The main difference is mileage and I wanted to get more informed opinions on this.
So the first car is actually listed on this site.
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f94/1998-lotus-esprit-twin-turbo-sale-178002/
I've been chatting with Harold over the past few days, seems like a nice guy and seems to have put a lot of effort into his car. He's done the center exhaust mod that I like although has left the rear lights but has used the clear turn signal cover which freshens it up a bit. Also has done steering wheel upgrade and some performance enhancements, so overall quite an attractive car to me.
The other car I'm looking at is currently listed on ebay.
Lotus Esprit Turbo | eBay
This one is local and I'm going to look at it today. It has the rear light mod which is nice, does have upgraded exhaust but not the center exhaust mod, and has performance chip upgrade also. Nice interior mods including new steering wheel.
So to some extent these are similar however Harold's car has 27,800 miles and the silver one has 38,520. Not necessarily a huge difference in most cars but maybe more so with this type of car. The kind of curve ball here on the silver one, and where I need more input, is that while it seems to have good service history, and had its "C" service at the approved mileage, this was done seven years ago, so yeah the car has only been drive some 3K miles in 7 years. The back story is the owner was an older gentleman who actually had other esprits, but fell in bad health, sold the other ones and kept this one to see if his health improved but has now decided to sell it. The dealer that is selling it is a personal friend of his so is selling it for him. I talked to the dealer yesterday and he said that he actually has had the car since late last year and has been driving it to iron out any issues of it sitting and not been driven.
So the sort of questions I have are should I be concerned about the time and low miles since the last C service? I don't believe either car has had a new clutch so given that the silver one has almost 40K miles should that be a concern? I'm going to drive it today so at least I'll get a feel for it but Iv'e never driven an Esprit so don't have anything to compare against other than I've driven manual sports cars my whole life. Is a car with below 30K miles a more attractive proposition given that it does have its "C" service coming up?
I'd appreciate peoples thoughts on this who are more experienced. Also if any of you guys know either of these vehicles it would be great to hear, especially Harold's as I can't see it in person. Wouldn't mind hearing peoples thoughts on valuation, both have pretty much the same asking price and both have not sold for that, so I suspect some wiggle room but would just like to hear what folks think. I don't mind paying for what I want, obviously no one wants to pay to much but this is a purchase for pleasure and something I will hopefully keep for quite a while so I'm more concerned about getting the right vehicle.
Anyhow enough rambling, lol, looking forward to hearing peoples thoughts.
Jerry
So the two I have most info on right now are somewhat similar in modifications and have a lot of things that I would want to do myself so both attractive that some of these have been done already. The main difference is mileage and I wanted to get more informed opinions on this.
So the first car is actually listed on this site.
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f94/1998-lotus-esprit-twin-turbo-sale-178002/
I've been chatting with Harold over the past few days, seems like a nice guy and seems to have put a lot of effort into his car. He's done the center exhaust mod that I like although has left the rear lights but has used the clear turn signal cover which freshens it up a bit. Also has done steering wheel upgrade and some performance enhancements, so overall quite an attractive car to me.
The other car I'm looking at is currently listed on ebay.
Lotus Esprit Turbo | eBay
This one is local and I'm going to look at it today. It has the rear light mod which is nice, does have upgraded exhaust but not the center exhaust mod, and has performance chip upgrade also. Nice interior mods including new steering wheel.
So to some extent these are similar however Harold's car has 27,800 miles and the silver one has 38,520. Not necessarily a huge difference in most cars but maybe more so with this type of car. The kind of curve ball here on the silver one, and where I need more input, is that while it seems to have good service history, and had its "C" service at the approved mileage, this was done seven years ago, so yeah the car has only been drive some 3K miles in 7 years. The back story is the owner was an older gentleman who actually had other esprits, but fell in bad health, sold the other ones and kept this one to see if his health improved but has now decided to sell it. The dealer that is selling it is a personal friend of his so is selling it for him. I talked to the dealer yesterday and he said that he actually has had the car since late last year and has been driving it to iron out any issues of it sitting and not been driven.
So the sort of questions I have are should I be concerned about the time and low miles since the last C service? I don't believe either car has had a new clutch so given that the silver one has almost 40K miles should that be a concern? I'm going to drive it today so at least I'll get a feel for it but Iv'e never driven an Esprit so don't have anything to compare against other than I've driven manual sports cars my whole life. Is a car with below 30K miles a more attractive proposition given that it does have its "C" service coming up?
I'd appreciate peoples thoughts on this who are more experienced. Also if any of you guys know either of these vehicles it would be great to hear, especially Harold's as I can't see it in person. Wouldn't mind hearing peoples thoughts on valuation, both have pretty much the same asking price and both have not sold for that, so I suspect some wiggle room but would just like to hear what folks think. I don't mind paying for what I want, obviously no one wants to pay to much but this is a purchase for pleasure and something I will hopefully keep for quite a while so I'm more concerned about getting the right vehicle.
Anyhow enough rambling, lol, looking forward to hearing peoples thoughts.
Jerry