Originally Posted by TopGear

Hi Andy -

I just traded my 2006 Elise in on an RS60 Boxster. I had the Elise for 2 years and loved it, my car ADD kicks in every 24 months or so and there is no cure except to get a different car! My wife would really like someone to find a cure for this disease...

As a car nut I look at everything when my ADD acts up - I test drove the Boxster S 2 years ago and liked it as well but I wanted something "completely different" at the time.

Here's my take on the differences after a couple of weeks of Boxster ownership-
a) The Lotus is very raw - that's good and bad. The ride with the sport suspension is very tight and the cornering is unbelievable. I had a 22 mile commute on nice freeway / toll road so it was a lot of fun - if you have a lot of broken pavement around it wouldn't be so good. The Porsche is much easier to live with as a DD.
b) The Lotus gets a lot of attention over the Boxster. If you like to have unique cars and enjoy talking to people at gas stations and red lights you'll like the car.
c) The Lotus top takes 2 to 3 minutes to put on - my commute was from garage to garage so I didn't put the top on too often and drove another vehicle if it was going to rain all day but if you have to park outside for work you'll need to get used to putting the top on and off. I did get caught in a few rain showers and if you drive at 50 mph in the rain you won't get wet but it puts the adventure back in motoring to some extent.
d) Build quality and refinement - Porsche is 10x better. The Lotus is a fiberglass car and you'll be tightening things up every once in a while. I would call the Lotus air conditioning and heat "hopeful" - designed for the British climate. I enjoyed the Lotus for it's pure simplicity and am enjoying the Porsche for it's sophistication.
e) Power - Porsche wins hands down. The Lotus philosophy is "less is more" so the car is designed to weigh almost nothing and only has 190hp. The Lotus is more "tossable" - the Porsche more powerful. Both are very well balanced mid engined cars.
e) Safety - the Lotus is smaller and lower than the Porsche and doesn't have things like side airbages. In a crash you'd be better off in a Boxster. You need to drive very defensively in the Lotus - don't drive in other people's blind spots - think 4 wheel motorcycle.
f) "Fun Factor" - you'll have to drive the Elise and decide if you like it.

You'll want to look at what you want to use the car for and the kind of car you like to drive. You can get a low mileage well cared for Elise in the low 30's, an Exige S (more power but no targa top) in the high 30's to low 40's and I just got a terrific deal on a "used" RS60 with 325 miles on it that I stumbled into that shows you can get a great car at a very reasonable price in this economy.

If you want more details PM me and we can arrange a phone call.

Happy driving!