Used Car of the Day: 2008 Lotus Elise California SC

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

It's so cold outside that I've started Zillowing homes in Florida. And with certain exceptions, I don't much like Florida. Well, I can at least look at convertibles and dream of warmer weather. Such as this 2008 Lotus Elise.


For $47,500, this Elise has an upgraded suspension, brakes, and rotors. It also has some minor cosmetic blemishes and is on its third owner. The Vermont-based seller calls it a 7/8 out of 10.

I call it a nice reminder that summer does exist.

[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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  • Vap65689119 Vap65689119 on Dec 25, 2022

    Buy an SC430 for less than 1/3

    • VoGhost VoGhost on Dec 26, 2022

      Or buy an SC430 and also a manual SC300, and still save $.



  • JMII JMII on Dec 27, 2022

    I got my C7 Z51 for less then this and I guarantee its more comfortable and usable while still be quicker around a track.


    And living in FL I can assure you a Lotus is NOT the car you want down here because our roads here are flat and straight thus you would never really get to enjoy it.

  • Mebgardner I owned 4 different Z cars beginning with a 1970 model. I could already row'em before buying the first one. They were light, fast, well powered, RWD, good suspenders, and I loved working on them myself when needed. Affordable and great styling, too. On the flip side, parts were expensive and mostly only available in a dealers parts dept. I could live with those same attributes today, but those days are gone long gone. Safety Regulations and Import Regulations, while good things, will not allow for these car attributes at the price point I bought them at.I think I will go shop a GT-R.
  • Lou_BC Honda plans on investing 15 billion CAD. It appears that the Ontario government and Federal government will provide tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades to the tune of 5 billion CAD. This will cover all manufacturing including a battery plant. Honda feels they'll save 20% on production costs having it all localized and in house.As @ Analoggrotto pointed out, another brilliant TTAC press release.
  • 28-Cars-Later "Its cautious approach, which, along with Toyota’s, was criticized for being too slow, is now proving prescient"A little off topic, but where are these critics today and why aren't they being shamed? Why are their lunkheaded comments being memory holed? 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' -Orwell, 1984
  • Tane94 A CVT is not the kiss of death but Nissan erred in putting CVTs in vehicles that should have had conventional automatics. Glad to see the Murano is FINALLY being redesigned. Nostalgia is great but please drop the Z car -- its ultra-low sales volume does not merit continued production. Redirect the $$$ into small and midsize CUVs/SUVs.
  • Analoggrotto Another brilliant press release.
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