It also has a very weak A/C, ingress/egress designed by a contortionist, and bodywork that's very expensive to repair from even minor incidents. Very fun, but a poor DD IMO.

 

But the OP has a different car for daily driving. We were talking about a second "weekend" car.

And if I lived near the Dragon or Hwy 1, I'd buy an Elise... the Atom isn't street legal IIRC.

 

The C6 chassis feels every bit as solid to me, it's very stiff. Steering/road feel leaves something to be desired, but that's a different story.

 

or wait till the EVO X comes knocking in early 08..........

I'm guessing 32-35k as a price.

If I can wait until 08, I'd rather go X but then I'd have the full payments for a used elise but I don't think I want to wait another year and a half for the X to come out.

 

i drove a bunch of the exotics that day, including the f430 coupe and spyder. both were f1 transm and about as fun as playing gt4 on ur ps2. maybe the 6 spd would be better. steering was great, but still felt heavy compared to our go-kart sensation.

but at the end of that day, i knew the S2k wasn't nearly as fast or as good looking as the exotics, but i was proud to go back to it.

honestly, the only things i miss btwn the s2k and the exotics are the great looks of the body and any positive attention they might potentially get you (sad but true)

 

I thought the OP was looking for a weekend car? The Elise FTW in every catagory but comfort, and probably dependability. But as a weekend, or fair weather car, the extra 15K is well spend.

 

A new Elise is more like $50k these days, the Exige upwards of $60k. And most of the Lotus guys add lots of options from there.

 

how many convertibles you know with 250hp (N/A), at 2800 pounds that goes 9k rpm that has one of the best braking and handling that doesn't look like a girls car or mid-life crisis car under $35000??

s2k is a good base to go fast as a drag car, great for time attack, and overall fun car.

Evo/STI is a different sort of fun. triple thread assault vehicle. if there was a war tomorrow, I would be in an Evo, instead of S2k.

 

True, but a new S2000 Lists for 35K and the Lotus lists at 51K. Thats' about a 15K difference. Granted, the Lotus dealer will be harder to talk down.

 

For a new car, I honestly believe that the S2000 is well worth the 30K. I looked at the same cars you are looking at, and if I needed a daily driver I'd be in an STI, but since I didn't....