Used Car of the Day: 2005 Lotus Elise

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Want to own a low-mileage Lotus? Now you can. This 2005 Lotus Elise has just 19K miles on the clock.


It has Bemani supercharger, though the supercharger is apparently inoperable at the moment. The car runs and drives, the supercharger is just being bypassed.

There are minor cosmetic flaws and the hardtop is missing the headliner.

Modifications include a harness bar and race harnesses, XXR wheels, carbon-fiber wing, carbon-fiber cooling duct with scoop, upgraded cam, custom titanium intake, custom stainless steel exhaust headers, detachable steering wheel, and more.

The ask is $32,000.

Click here for more.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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  • Analoggrotto Analoggrotto on Dec 06, 2023

    So when the toyota 2ZZ engine is mounted in the Fwd Celica GT-S the YAMAHA casting on the head is prominent but it becomes hidden in the MR configuration on the Lotus cars. You have to pull out the passenger's side rear fender liner to see it.

  • Sobro Sobro on Dec 06, 2023

    My guess is it's just a plain scam.


    Very few pictures? Check


    Price too good to be true? Check


    Enough "real car" info to convince the gullible it's a real car? Check


    Weird story as to its provenance and location? Check



  • 28-Cars-Later Actually pretty appealing (apparently I'm doing this now). On a similar note, a friend of mine had a difficult situation with a tenant which led to eviction and apparently the tenant has abandoned a 2007 Jag S-Type with unknown miles in the garage so he called me for an opinion. Before checking I said $2-3 max, low and behold I'm just that good with the 3.0L clocking in at $2,3 on average (oddly the 4.2 V8 version only pulls $2,9ish) and S-Types after MY05 are supposedly decent.
  • DO I have owned a 2012 LR4 since day one and it has been the best vehicle I have ever had the pleasure of having in the garage. I know how easy it is to hate on Land Rover but this LR4 is comfortable, has a ton of storage room and is so versatile. With 110k miles, mine is now relegated to ‘other’ car use but is still the go to for off road adventures and snow runs. Nice to see one featured here - I think they are so underrated.
  • Tane94 I'd be curious to know whether 87 octane is no longer the most popular grade of gasoline by sales volume. My Costco often runs out of Premium grade and I suspect 93 octane might now be the most popular grade of gas. Paying 40-50 cents more per gallon 87 vs 93 octane because of turbo engines is the real story
  • Redapple2 125 large? You re getting into 911 territory.
  • Redapple2 Industry worst quality prevents any serious consideration. I ll take an Evil gm Vampire Denali first.
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