Anyone Know This Car?

[Sausage]

My workmate is finally getting close to taking the plunge and buying an Elise after years of drooling over them. He has looked at one for sale at a TVR dealership, it's an S2 111S, think the colour is gunmetal, reg no. LB02 YUG.

Does anyone on here know anything about this car? He is worried because the oddometer has been replaced.

[Simon G]

Don't know it, try on www.seloc.org

 

Sounds suspect, does the service history match up to the story with the car etc? You can get a print out from the ECU that will give you clues as to the use of the car.

[Simon_111s]

Jon E had all sorts of problems with a gunmetal S2 of around that age, might be worth checking with him

[Fiona]

The RAC Data Check service says no matching reg number found. This is a link into the DVLA site so you can tell number of owners, etc.

 

I put the reg number into Elephant's insurance quote site and it did recognise it as a 111s.

 

There are loads out there so if he is suspicious he should walk away.

 

Fiona

[AndyPeat]

I spoke to Jon R on one occasion and he said there was an issue with the gunmetal paint flaking, so check it closely

[ally]

Sounds very dodgy. 'If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is'

[AndyPeat]

Just noticed I put Jon R, erm sorry Jon E. Wonder where that came from (He's got a 111r)

[Maxf]

There should be paperwork to accompany the ODO change which states the 'old' mileage. Also, most people who swap ODOs tend to supply the broken unit with it to confirm the story.

 

Your mate is safer buying a car with these question-marks from a dealer than a private Joe, but with the huge supply why bother with the hassle?? Buying from dealers is a big con too - get your mate to save a few grand and buy private with the car checked over by a reputable specialist. He can buy a warranty for a few hundred quid.

[Sausage]

Further information.

I now believe this car had a private plate "B4 CUS" prior to being at the TVR garage.

[ally]

I bought a car that previously had a private plate. It is the job of the previous owner to change and re-register the car under its new plate. There are a series of documents that will come with the car (from the dvla). That need very close inspection as it is quite easy to dodge HPI checks that way (i believe). I am suprised the dealership hasnt already re-registered the car. It isnt looking good for them.

[Jonathan E]

fwiw,

My gunmetal 111s was well dodgy on the paintwork front,back to dealer, back to factory etc etc.Although they did seem to sort it in the end,just don't leave it outside on a cold or frosty day.

They don't do Gonemental as a colour choice anymore,speaks volumes imho.

HTH

Regards

Jon

[ally]

Interesting you should mention that Joh> I own a silver s1 (not sure if its gun metal though) and i develped some MAJOR paintwork issues after a frosty spell. Bad batch????

[Jonathan E]

Ally,

Don't know about a bad batch as the S1 clams are hand laid and the S2 are pressed and finished off with high pressure water jets(so I'm told anyway)the problem with any grp product is that air pockets can be present between layers or in the pressing,this isn't really a problem for most Elises as they live in a nice garage and so never see the kind of temperature that causes the moisture in the said air pockets to expand,when it expands this forces the paint off the car.Most Elises of a certain age have micro blisters somewhere on the bodywork this is mostly caused by the same problem,and was one of the reasons Lotus started to get the panels pressed in the hope of averting the micro blisters and air pockets,on the whole the clams are much better than hand laid ones.Gunmetal was a notorious colour for showing up imperfections in the clams,anybody thats seen the paint inspection dept at Hethel will no doubt have seen lots of Gunmetal panels/clams with big circles indicating the imperfections,alot of time was spent with Dupont trying to sort the problem but I suspect in the end they just dicontinued the colour.The only solution to the problem on my S2 was to replace front and rear clams with new ones,having them resprayed just stopped it from happening in the short term.I spoke to someone at the NMM with a silver S1(apologies for not knowing the name)but the inside of the drivers door was covered in micro blisters the only real way to get rid of these is to re-bake the panel and repaint although they will come back eventually,sadly it is a shortcoming of grp panels,they don't rust but you can suffer in other ways.

The paint fell off my 111s in chunks the size of 50p pieces,I might have put up with a few micro blisters

Sorry for the long post but my advice would be steer clear of Gunmetal unless you can keep it in the garage,the sad thing is I think it was one of the best colours that was available for the Elise and obviously they aren't all affected like mine was but I know for a fact that alot of them were.

hth

Regards

Jon

[ally]

Its a small world Jon, I am the silver elise owner with micro blisters on the insides of my doors, the blistering is also on the front radiator hood and roof. As you say this winter was the first it spent out in the cold as before it had been garaged, and low and behold blisters everywhere. Outcome is yet to be decided.

I assume it was my S1 at NWM. Was i chatting to you?

Ally

[Jonathan E]

Ally,

Yep I'm pretty sure I was talking to you,sorry I didn't realise.Thats one of the problems with these meets maybe we should all wear little name badges in future

"Outcome is yet to be decided"

Where did you buy it from,I take it the dealer is looking into this???

My Nautlilus S1 had a similar problem on the clam nose millions of little blisters,had it from N Whale and they did try to get out of doing anything about it,however they finally agreed to respray the nose it was fine after that but I sold it 12 months later so I couldn't say if the fix was permanant or not.

Regards

Jon