Not to open up a can of worms but should I have bought an Exige instead?

Those are fun cars to drive around. I almost bought one the first time I drove one .

 

Yes, whoever placed the order for that combo has excellent taste!

 

I guess I'm referring more to older models/brands. My basic pee off with the lotus was trying to find anything reliable, with records in this neck of the woods, along with being able to buy parts easily.
Styling, 355 is a head turner, and as others mentioned, not the 'cute' car.

 

Looks to me like your still on a search - these are pretty different cars. If your having that thought then i say dont wait - sell it and try a Lotus. If that does not hit the spot, try something else. Then eventually you will realize what you will tolerate in performance, cost, looks, and usability.

The Exige is an excellent drivers car - why not try it. Your 355 needs an owner that loves it. All do all cars for that matter of course.

 

I thought those little Lotus' were cool until a friends shop did a clutch job in one.

80 hrs to change the clutch - BOOK TIME!!!

You basically have to disassemble the entire rear of the car BEFORE you can pull the motor/transaxle combo out. Then you have to disassemble the entire rear suspension (which is attached directly to the motor/transaxle combo) before you can separate the motor from the transaxle.

Then you get to put it all back together AND you have to do an alignment when you're done!

But wait, there's more! My friends particular case was special. They incorrectly marked the part number on the clutch plate. They learned this the hard way when the clutch fried itself 48 hours after it left the shop!

It was a long month for that tech! :-0

 

Personally I think all the current Lotus models are... well.... not very attractive.

And there's a reason why girls apparently "love" the Exige....

The last genuinely desirable car Lotus made was the Esprit.
I wish they still made cars like that.

 

Correct conclusion.

And, good luck getting a really good 355 for £45k now.

 

You neglected to tell us which Lotus model. Exige (the subject of this thread) and Elise book time is around 7 hours. Your description reads like Evora, but even then book time is 21.5 or 30.5 hours, depending on source.

 

I can't help thinking that the Exige is a car that you've got to be in the right mood to drive because it's a little bit too much of a "full on" wanna be race car.

There's no real compromise in the Exige's design for any real comfort for road use, it's pretty much designed to be a track car that is also mighty on the road.

The problem with that is that it can make the car a very busy place to be, which can become a bit tiring on the road, especially if you're not in the right mood. It's almost too extreme for a road car.

The 355 was always designed with an element of compromise to be a fast road car that also had some comfort built in for longer journeys, it was never meant to be an out and out track car as the Exige is.

As for the design of both cars, the Exige has a whiff of kit-car about it to Me, whereas the 355 is destined to become one of Ferrari's all time classics in the same way that the 3*8 GTB/GTS is.

Yes the 355 has a hint of 70's/80's design still about it because of the flying buttress design behind the cockpit, but is that really such a bad thing? - It's a classic Ferrari design trait, and being the last Ferrari to have it makes the 355 a watershed car in their V8 car history which will make it sought after in the future.

I think the Exige is a car that will always have the ability to excite you with it's performance ability, but it's not a car that you could fall in love with.

The 355 on the other hand is a car that will give you as much pleasure with its looks as it will with it's performance.

Put it this way, the Exige is like meeting and dating a nymphomaniac, where the whole relationship is based purely on exciting sex. It sounds like a great situation to be in but then you discover that apart from the sex, you have nothing else in common and don't enjoy spending that much time together day in - day out.

The 355 is more like meeting and dating the love of your life, where your sex life is maybe not quite as adventurous as with the nymphomaniac but it's still very good, and you get just as much pleasure just seeing each other and spending time together day in- day out.

I see the Exige as being a bit of short term fun and the 355 being a long term relationship.

 

Astute assessment by 4rePhill. I do have to be in the right mood to want to take out the Elise or Exige. For driving the hell out of it, in the words of the OP, there is nothing better. It is not the car for a relaxed drive or any extended freeway driving.

 

+1. I just changed out my clutch/flywheel. Nowhere near 80 hours. As a matter of fact, the stock clutch looked so good (after 87k mi) and felt so smooth for my power levels, I was seriously considering taking out my ACT clutch (i had just put in) and putting the original clutch back in. The ACT feels a bit overkill. You do have to align the car after. No big deal.