A&Q about Lotus
Q:
Just join recently to the forum. Good forum and lot of info. Hope can learn few things or two.
Back to subject, how do you inspect if the elise has been repaired by body shop? I would assume since it's fiberglass body, the paint would be different? How do you see it? Spider web on the body?
How do you inspect whether the chassis is impacted or not? Welding on the chassis? Do you need to open up the clam to inspect the chassis?
A:
A significant portion of the chassis can be viewed by putting the car on a lift and removing the front and rear access panels (though a lot can also be seen by leaving them in place). Any repairs will be obvious - Lotus did NO welding of the chassis at the factory, so that's one quick thing to look for. I'd carefully inspect each of the points where the suspension a-arms mount to the chassis - this is one place where a repair might be more likely to be attempted, yet also more tricky to get done right (note that there is no factory approved method of repairing any part of the aluminum chassis).
Inspecting the body could be tough; I'd expect the exterior of a repaired clamshell to look perfect; there'd be extra material on the inside though so perhaps you could lightly tap it to listen for differences? Repairs to the clamshells do not necessarily indicate a bad accident though, it could be as simple as someone backing into the car in a parking lot.
A:
Originally Posted by crislee
I would assume since it's fiberglass body, the paint would be different? How do you see it? Spider web on the body?
Unfortunately I have some first-hand experience with this. There is a guy named Sam who runs Premier Mobile Group - he's based out of San Francisco and installs clear bra treatments. He's seen so many of these cars cars that he immediately spotted a difference in paint texture on the right front of my clam when he first walked up to greet me. It was so obvious to him that he basically looked past me at the spot while he extended his hand for a hand shake. "Hi I'm Sam, what happened right THERE??"
To this day, I can only see it with his help. Air brushing or whatever they call it.
So my answer is
YES, there is a paint difference
NO, you might not see it
YES, you should bring a professional like Sam along to inspect it
A:
Benles, so you mean on your Elise?
MattG, I notice that the Elise has a flat bottom (unlike other cars), so I would assume front and rear access panels meaning removing these bottom (is diffuser the right word?), correct?
A:
Originally Posted by crislee
MattG, I notice that the Elise has a flat bottom (unlike other cars), so I would assume front and rear access panels meaning removing these bottom (is diffuser the right word?), correct?
Yes, bottom panels. The diffuser is one of those panels, though there's another panel under the engine that can be removed without removing the diffuser. I'm not so sure there's much to be gained by removing the diffuser, though it's not very difficult to do so, just a few more bolts.
A:
Great, thanks for the input. What else should a buyer be aware to when looking at Elise?
A:
Originally Posted by crislee
Great, thanks for the input. What else should a buyer be aware to when looking at Elise?
Request an ECU dump. This will give you some idea of how harshly the car has been driven. The ECU data is a factor when deciding whether or not to cover repairs under the warranty. In particular Lotus does not like to see standing starts (wheels spinning but car not moving) or over-revving (above 8500 RPM).