A&Q about Lotus
Q:
Thanks guys I appreciate the ideas. If anyone has any more please post them up.
I will record the data logged into the cars computer. When the customer returns we will scan the memory and check shifts points, speed, acceleration/deceleartion and the like. I will also set alarms that go off at certain RPM and speed.
In addition to this, I will probably monitor the cars whereabouts via gps. I know the cars will be tracked, I do not want them destroyed. Afterall, one of these cars will be in my garage at home alot, and I dont want someone else roaching it.
A:
Parking facing uphill in rain (or when washing the car) = water in trunk. There's an aftermarket drain kit which can help.
I guess the issue of the toe-link brace is that the toe-link nuts are notorious for coming loose. This can lead to metal fatigue and failure in the associated bolt. There are threads around here with stories and pictures. One way to handle it is to just re-torque the nuts every now and then; it can be done through the wheel well with a deep socket and some extensions, or whenever you have the car up on jacks for routine maintenance such as an oil change. sector111 also has some "nord-lock" washers sized for these nuts that should keep them from coming loose in the first place.
There are sharp edges scattered throughout the car. Most are not directly exposed, but there's a known one on the carpet edging in the driver's footwell for example. Driving without shoes or with very open footwear can be a bad idea. I think there's a plastic edge somewhere in the cabin that cut me once, but I don't recall where it was.
There are parts of the car exposed in the cabin that will get very hot during normal driving. Especially under the dash and I think in the footwells. This is a basic design problem with the heater, plus the fact that the radiators for the coolant and oil are up front meaning hot fluids are constantly flowing through the sills. Hot air from the vents when the heater is off is normal. There's a heater bypass kit someone came up with that can help with some of it.
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I didn't see this posted before. You should replace the stock batteries to a sealed unit. You don't want to reimburse your renters for damaged items in the boot.
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Wash the sides of the cars OFTEN.
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One factor , you are in Chicago ( I was just there for a long weekend, great city ) I have been told the winters can be pretty damn harsh and snowy. The Elise was not designed to run in the snow, period. The manual even recommends not driving the car in snow. You might want to take them off the rental market for the winters, which seems counter productive to making a profit on a car if it is in a warehouse for 6 months out of the year?
A:
Yes, I am in Chicago and its probably not the best time to infleet these. I plan on grounding them for awhile during the harsh months, Dec to March.
But if our winter is anything like last years they will be on the road during those months. Last year we had three measurable snows.
In addition to the rental biz, the garage organization biz, the body shop I also plow about 125 driveways in my neighborhood. At one end I pray for snow for one biz and hope for mild winters for another biz.
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This is way more of a hassle than I went through renting a 360 Spyder worth 180k. I put down a 10k deposit, put the car on my own insurance and was out the door. No timed events/races was the only restriction that people have mentioned here. Plus no off roading.
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For another view point about renting Elises, check this thread:
It's got 25K miles and going strong...
And apparently at least a couple of poeple on this forum have rented that same car and made the desision to buy an Elise. Maybe it's not a bad idea after all...
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This place in California is saying "Coming in October". I punched in a 2 day rental in October and it came out to a little over $1,000 ! Anyone else think that's just a tad outrageous??
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Originally Posted by Crow331
This place in California is saying "Coming in October". I punched in a 2 day rental in October and it came out to a little over $1,000 ! Anyone else think that's just a tad outrageous??
I punched in a 2-day quote at SF Airport and the price is $601.90 including taxes, the same at LA Airport is $1086.83.
Yikes, in LA they want $943 for 2-days in the Audi A4 convertible which I bought my wife 10 days ago.
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I will probably have a few different rate structures for the elise. 149-159 during the week and 199 on the weekends. The weekends will require a two day minimum.
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Somebody on one of my Miata lists just talked about renting an Elise from you Zen. They said it was well worth the $199/day price of admission.
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Already PM'd Zen about this, but I'm actually disappointed that Budget now offers the Elise in my area. I was very seriously considering buying one this coming week, a 2005 Red one. On my way home from work Friday night, I notice the Budget 1/8 mile from my house has two sitting outside with signs saying RENT ME. I flipped my lid..they have a red one and black one. There are only TWO in my area and you see them very very very rarely. I've since made my mind that I cannot buy one because everyone will think I'm driving a rental car and that it isn't mine. Time to think of something else unique to buy???
Oh, and I stopped there Saturday morning to inquire about them. They are 134.95/day with a 200 mile limit. I might rent one some day, but sure as heck can't buy one. The only option I have is buying a different color than what they offer as rental and the only other color I like is yellow..but theres already one in the area
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Originally Posted by BoostedAWD
Already PM'd Zen about this, but I'm actually disappointed that Budget now offers the Elise in my area. I was very seriously considering buying one this coming week, a 2005 Red one. On my way home from work Friday night, I notice the Budget 1/8 mile from my house has two sitting outside with signs saying RENT ME. I flipped my lid..they have a red one and black one. There are only TWO in my area and you see them very very very rarely. I've since made my mind that I cannot buy one because everyone will think I'm driving a rental car and that it isn't mine. Time to think of something else unique to buy???
Oh, and I stopped there Saturday morning to inquire about them. They are 134.95/day with a 200 mile limit. I might rent one some day, but sure as heck can't buy one. The only option I have is buying a different color than what they offer as rental and the only other color I like is yellow..but theres already one in the area
They rent Ferarri's near me too, but I sure as heck wouldn't care if I owned one the same color as a rental! I say get what you want, the hell with other people. You're buying it for you, not for what other people think, right?
A:
Originally Posted by NMRJock
Somebody on one of my Miata lists just talked about renting an Elise from you Zen. They said it was well worth the $199/day price of admission.
Paul, send them directly to me. I am still working on my addendum and restrictions. I currently only have two in, the chili is mine and the ST will go into rental service. I have only rented it to a few friends so they would not abuse it during the break in period.
As far as rate is concerned, I think that Budget renting them at 134 is going to have some issues. The car is fragile and you do not want every idiot off the street renting it. I would rather keep my rate high and utilization low to avoid potential problems.
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Originally Posted by Spudboy
They rent Ferarri's near me too, but I sure as heck wouldn't care if I owned one the same color as a rental! I say get what you want, the hell with other people. You're buying it for you, not for what other people think, right?
It's so much that, its the fact that I wanted something unique that nobody around here has. The fact that they got same color and everything as I was going to buy made it worse though. I'm thinking about an NSX now.
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Originally Posted by zen garage
Yes, I am in Chicago and its probably not the best time to infleet these. I plan on grounding them for awhile during the harsh months, Dec to March.
But if our winter is anything like last years they will be on the road during those months. Last year we had three measurable snows.
In addition to the rental biz, the garage organization biz, the body shop I also plow about 125 driveways in my neighborhood. At one end I pray for snow for one biz and hope for mild winters for another biz.
at least you won't have a problem with corrosion!
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Just a side point. Someone on one of the Miata mailing lists thinks renting an Elise is a great idea: .
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Yes, I believe that customer is in the market for an elise now. He had a grin ear to ear when I checked him in
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I wondered if that was your place...