The real cost of running an Elise

Del Lardo · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:27

I've just finished pulling all the paperwork together for my Elise and have realised that I have receipts for every piece of work ever done to the car along with the original purchase receipt so hopefully some of you will find this information useful/interesting. Me, I'm just planning on scaring myself pooless by finding out just how much it's cost me over the last 2.5 years!!

All prices include parts, labour and VAT.

Sept 99 - Purchased - £29920.00
Oct 99 - 1000 miles service - £110.59
Nov 00 - A Service - £233.88
Sept 01 - A Service - £263.61
Aug 02 - A Service, MOT, Geo - £409.49
Sept 03 - B Service, MOT - £407.78
Sept 03 - Ali tat for interior - £312.57
Nov 03 - Mats and leather door cards - £135.75
Jun 04 - New windscreen - £270.14
Jan 05 - C Service, new front discs, new exhaust downpipe - £1097.87
Jan 05 - Car bought by ME!! Start the calculators - £13995.00
Mar 05 - Oil change - £74.12
May 05 - 4 tyres - £380.02
Sept 05 - A Service, replace O2 sensor, replace spark plugs, fit toe link heat shields, MOT - £520.31
Oct 05 - Front and rear pads Mintex 1144, Front track day Ali-belled groved discs, Huricain induction kit, replace rear toe links - £1192.58
Nov 05 - Replace alternator - £299.64
Feb 06 - Replace ignition leads, spark plugs, battery and exhaust gasket - £424.49
May 06 - A Service, replace OSF ball joint, replace exhaust gaskets - £536.10
Jun 06 - 4 tyres - £236.80
Sept 06 - Oil change, replace coolant temp sensors, replace hazzard and fog light switches, MOT - £441.97
Oct 06 - Replace exhaust manifold - £436.58
Nov 06 - Replace oil pressure switch - £42.54
Jan 07 - Fit Larini Club Sport exhaust - £780.21
Feb 07 - B Service, replace OSF wheel bearing, refit interior mirror and headlamp cover - £578.39
Feb 07 - Fit Pagid RS14 front pads - £160.38
Jun 07 - Fit 2nd hand Koni shocks and springs, reinsulate engine bay wiring loom - £377.90

So my grand total for servicing and maintenance in 2.5 years and 33k miles is £6482.03
Depreciation - £4000
Insurance - £3100
Fuel - £4500 (assuming 30mpg and 90p/litre)

Grand total - £18082.03 :eek:

cymatty · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:31

That's quite a bit but I see a few parts that are upgrades and mods and so not essential to running the car, would be interesting to see the costs excluding these parts.

JonnyT · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:32

Ouch! On the upside though at least you've not had what a colleague's just had - got a Toyota-engined 111R which the Big End has gone on, after a knocking sound & looks like it needs a whole new engine. This 3 months after getting it back after a non-fault accident which lamost wrote it off & splashing out on a load of Exige parts for it!

Serj · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:33

cymatty said:
That's quite a bit but I see a few parts that are upgrades and mods and so not essential to running the car, would be interesting to see the costs excluding these parts.

Yeah i'd be interested in how much the bare essentials were, like services and required maintenance. I was hoping an Elise was fairly cheap to run

pinkaardvark · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:34

Think your mad...

Feb 06 - Replace ignition leads, spark plugs, battery and exhaust gasket - £424.49

For what is essentially an old rover lump... i'm sure you could have brought a lot of those prices way down

Dup · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:35

cymatty said:
That's quite a bit but I see a few parts that are upgrades and mods and so not essential to running the car, would be interesting to see the costs excluding these parts.

Thats only less 2.5kish however. Fuel figure is only an average too so that could be more. But this is over 2,5 years on average milage including the purchase price. So its not all bad.

Lot of replacement parts though, had these failed?

Dogbreath · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:45

Some of those prices are simply insane. On which planet does an alternator cost £300?

Replace ignition leads, spark plugs, battery and exhaust gasket - £424.49

I make that about 100 notes worth of parts. The battery is a little tricky to get to on the elise, but that must be some impressive hourly rate.

Don't you fancy doing some of this yourself to save a lot of money?

Del Lardo · 20 Jul 2007 at 15:56

cymatty said:
That's quite a bit but I see a few parts that are upgrades and mods and so not essential to running the car, would be interesting to see the costs excluding these parts.

The only mod that wasn't done because I was replacing worn out parts was the induction kit which was £160.

Oct 05 I could have replaced the brakes with standard ones and saved ~£200 and the standard pads this year would have saved £80. Replacinig the backbox with the cheapest one available would have saved £250 though it would have resulted in a weight increase.

pinkaardvark said:
Think your mad...

Feb 06 - Replace ignition leads, spark plugs, battery and exhaust gasket - £424.49

For what is essentially an old rover lump... i'm sure you could have brought a lot of those prices way down

Most of this bill was labour as it's a pain in the arse to replace the exhaust manifold to head gasket hence why the bill is so high. Even things like a battery change can take a pro 30 minutes.

I probably could have reduced quite a few of the bills by looking around for 2nd hand parts and doing some of the work myself but that's not how I like to maintain my cars. I freely admit that I am a mechanical numpty so I would much rather have the work done by an expert (I always used specialists) and I would rather pay an extra few £££ to get the best parts I can afford.

Del Lardo · 20 Jul 2007 at 16:02

Dogbreath said:
Some of those prices are simply insane. On which planet does an alternator cost £300?

Replace ignition leads, spark plugs, battery and exhaust gasket - £424.49

I make that about 100 notes worth of parts. The battery is a little tricky to get to on the elise, but that must be some impressive hourly rate.

Don't you fancy doing some of this yourself to save a lot of money?

Alternator was £170 inc belt and delivery. Fitting was £130 inc a rather nifty hand crafted heat shield to prevent premature wear on the alternator.

The 2nd bill was £150 worth of parts and £210 labour plus VAT at £63.

Simon · 20 Jul 2007 at 16:25

Good post on why not to buy an Elise

Del Lardo · 20 Jul 2007 at 16:49

Simon said:
Good post on why not to buy an Elise

Having tried all the alternatives before I bought one I can honestly say it's been money well spent

Tomsk · 20 Jul 2007 at 18:31

Simon said:
Good post on why not to buy an Elise

Sep 99 - Jun 07 - pleasure of driving an Elise instead of a generic tin box - £priceless

Looks like VFM to me

Muncher · 20 Jul 2007 at 18:33

£13,674 for me over 30 months + depreciation (which I'll find out soon when the insurers reach a settlement with me)

That's with a pretty prolific string of modifications though...

The_Dark_Side · 20 Jul 2007 at 18:55

Dogbreath said:
On which planet does an alternator cost £300?

a friend of mine was quoted £504 for an alternator for his Landcruiser, and that was exchange. so he asks if it's possible his could be repaired and is told no, so he replies "why do you want my old one then if it's unrepairable?"

NathanE · 20 Jul 2007 at 19:20

There seems to be shocking amount of Rover-related fixes in there :eek:

Hope my 111R doesn't suffer from some of those "basic" faults

Also "new windscreen"? If it got smashed you can pay most insurers a small sum to have it replaced...

Dogbreath · 20 Jul 2007 at 20:39

The_Dark_Side said:
a friend of mine was quoted £504 for an alternator for his Landcruiser, and that was exchange. so he asks if it's possible his could be repaired and is told no, so he replies "why do you want my old one then if it's unrepairable?"

I suspect no good answer was forthcoming

Morba · 20 Jul 2007 at 20:48

thats shocking. 9k a year is shocking.

Muncher · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:16

Morba said:
thats shocking. 9k a year is shocking.

No, it's just the price you pay for that kind of car and it's worth every penny

Lopéz · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:43

Muncher said:
No, it's just the price you pay for that kind of car and it's worth every penny

Sod that.

Many of those bills are ridiculous, I had no idea being a mechanic was an easy way of printing money, I must start charging for all the "favours" I do people.

Feb 07 - B Service, replace OSF wheel bearing, refit interior mirror and headlamp cover - £578.39

WTF?? In fact most of those bills leave me thinking "WTF" - the Elise uses pretty conventional non-exotic parts in it's running gear.

EDIT
Sept 06 - Oil change, replace coolant temp sensors, replace hazzard and fog light switches, MOT - £441.97

Whaaaaaaat? What did they replace them with, diamond encrusted ones?

Adz · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:47

Lopéz said:
Sod that.

Many of those bills are ridiculous, I had no idea being a mechanic was an easy way of printing money, I must start charging for all the "favours" I do people.

Feb 07 - B Service, replace OSF wheel bearing, refit interior mirror and headlamp cover - £578.39

WTF?? In fact most of those bills leave me thinking "WTF" - the Elise uses pretty conventional non-exotic parts in it's running gear.

EDIT
Sept 06 - Oil change, replace coolant temp sensors, replace hazzard and fog light switches, MOT - £441.97

Whaaaaaaat? What did they replace them with, diamond encrusted ones?

Sounds incredible but it's no different to IT or any other industry. People 'in the know' will charge what they think punters are willing to pay. Everyone has to make a living.