Thoughts please ladies and gents...

[ed]

Sensible minor upgrades, big important service just done, main thing to check will be number of owners and detailed history. Get in!

my thoughts exactly!

Might I know this friend?!!!!!

Not sure if youve met!

[ryanaldo13]

Looks really nice and seems to be well cared for, I'd say it's a good buy but I'd want a hard-top with it aswell.

[campbell]

Easy to add later, although need to check if the clips need updated.

[StiflerMR2]

Back to the thread, AFAIK the car was collected about 2 weeks ago...

Mark

Was on the phone to Ali about it on Saturday and he said it was still there

Will give the boy a phone and see if he has it back yet

[Tom]

Looks tasty!(I would also say that as it's the same age and colour as mine... ).

May'98 onwards was steel brakes I think (so that would be R'98). Sept 98 onwards got the moulded boot also.

Can't work out why it's had a C service though . It should've had 2 timing belts by now, and as it's the same age as mine it should've just had either an A or B service with timing belt (as mine has). Goes something like AABAACAABAAC.

Anyway, details schmeetails... Tell your friend to drive it and buy it. (maybe take along someone who's driven them before just to check.... )

[campbell]

I think time and mileage can skew the schedule, especially if your mileage is higher than 10k per annum.

Fundamentally, at 50k miles and approaching 10yrs, all that matters is a C service has just been done. IMHNTO. Obviously if you were the owner approaching 10 yrs without a C service you are dancing with the devil

(in my humble non technical opinion)

[ryallm]

it's old

And to quote James May "old cars are rubbish - that's why they aren't made anymore"

[tut]

Last month for MMC brakes was July '98.

tut

[Tom]

Last month for MMC brakes was July '98.

tut

should've known you'd know that...

[GregR]

Looks overpriced to me

[ruadh08]

Looks overpriced to me

Certainly is when you see some of the others on PH!! Car market still doesn't seem to have picked up when you see how long some have been on the market!

[gorrie]

Tambo's 2000 Millenium Edition went for that money... similar mileage....
This looks overpriced to me... imo. £6995 is where it would start to take my interest (with a view to haggling a little off).

My 2p.

[BiggestNizzy]

Tambo's 2000 Millenium Edition went for that money... similar mileage....
This looks overpriced to me... imo. £6995 is where it would start to take my interest (with a view to haggling a little off).

My 2p.

It's the same as mine bloody depressing

[campbell]

This actually brings up a pretty burning question.

At what time / price (if any) are S1 valuations likely to flatten out? Classic Car mag reckoned (albeit a couple of years back) that early S1 prices might eventually level off at as much as £10k (clearly ambitious given what we are seeing). Yet Parker's reckons a tidy S1 of 2000 V vintage (ie, at least 2 years newer than the example in question) is worth little more than £5.5k in private sale and £6k at a dealer.

Perhaps Iain Arfur Daley Boag could tell us what Glass's thinks too?

And then we have "the true market" sitting somewhere in between?

I suppose it simply does just come down to the classic economics of what people are prepared to pay for what is an increasingly rare breed.

I cannot see how anyone could imagine a well looked after S1, almost regardless of mileage, can be worth much less than £7k or so, given what the car offers as a "package". Many of them are in better shape than when they left the factory

[gorrie]

True Campbell, but, to the casual buyer (not the enthusiast) £7K for an 11yr old car that was only about £20K when new is not the bargain of the century. It's still retained a hell of a lot of that value.
Considering there have been 6yr old S2's for £9-10K on the market, that is the sort of thing buyers will look at. S2 prices are pushed further downwards by the sheer fact that newer/better models are still being made. Unless the S1 Elise obtains true cult status, it's ultimately got to be affected by the older S2's dopping in value

IMO the S1 Elise will not gain the cult status that the S1 Exige has enjoyed (largely due to volume/rarety) so, in comparable spec, I'm not convinced an older S1 will ever command a meaningful premium over an S2 to anyone other than a die-hard s1 fan.

I reckon £5K will be the bottoming out in the much longer term... when you see what S2 Elans still go for.

Again, just my opinion.