Elise/S2000? I’m really not a fan of either car, but I’d take the S2000 and pay boot to keep from being stuck with an Elise.
The Elise is classic Lotus… small, cramped, EXCEEDINGLY difficult to get in and out of, with next-to-zero luggage space and a body that you can crack by looking at it the wrong way. My buddy Bill bought one of these the year they came out and still has it. It spends most of its time in his garage. He offered it to me one weekend to autocross, and I was very disappointed with the handling. I still can’t figure out how Lotus got it to understeer at the limit, but it does – I took out 2 outside pylons on a wide, decreasing-radius right sweeper. About a year into his ownership, he asked me what I honestly thought about the car. I told him that I was really glad that he bought the damned thing instead of me.
All that said, the Elise has to be the biggest chick-magnet I’ve ever encountered. I’ve got several funny stories about that, but suffice it to say that women, in general, think it’s gorgeous. One other amusing thing about the Elise is that there’s a storage compartment behind the engine that might hold a small briefcase if you didn’t have too many papers in it. There IS, however, an ‘escape pull’ in case someone ever gets trapped in there!
On the Honda side, I’ve had two friends with S2000s. Although they’re small; they’re real, usable cars. Aside from some early problems, they’re generally trouble-free and handle great. You can flog the pee-diddle out of them and the chassis will always tell you when you’re near the limit. The trunk is small, but you can actually pack a weekend’s worth of soft luggage in there. You can also add a luggage rack, something not that easily done with the Lotus… a Lotus luggage rack will set you back about $600 for the ugliest pile of tubing you’ve probably ever seen – with two suction cups to hold the back ‘legs’. There are also roof-racks, but I’m not even going there!
