4C or Elise in 2025?

To me the Elise is more special, it's tiny and track-oriented.
As good as it could be, the 4C is just another road sports car; it's not a niche product like the Elise: it has more potential customers but also a lot more competition.

 

Why not Alpine ?

 

I have owned both. I love everything about the 4C except for the way it drives, especially at high speeds. Completely non-confidence-inspiring, and yes, I had it "setup properly".

The Elise is the better car to drive. And it has a manual transmission, and it's extremely light, and it has a great engine. Just feels so special. I want another one.

 

Your initial perspective is to see what people think about future appreciation for either of these cars. I see both cars as never appreciating and difficult to sell.

Outside your question, both cars could be great fun if they fit your body (check the Elise) and driving conditions.

 

As a 4C owner, I can't say I disagree. The car really doesn't settle down, it's always twitchy.

I think a large part of this is that the looks and configuration say "baby exotic" but the driving experience is a bit more "rally car". It's light, with a lot of torque from a highly turbocharged engine, and has relatively skinny tires. So if you want to, you can chuck it into corners, break it loose, and drift out. On certain canyon runs, it feels like it gets in a nice smooth rhythm, but most of the time you are always aware of the "edginess". Which can be huge fun but might not be what everyone is looking for?

 

Hmmm, forse hai un mercato diverso in Italia rispetto agli Stati Uniti?

In the US, the 4C coupe used market has the 2015 cars in the $40-48k asking price range while the 2018 4C are at $55-60k. 2015 asking prices are about $15k below 2018 which suggests depreciation is still going on in the US. This perspective does disregard the Covid upward blip that occurred, but I think is done now.

In the US, the Elise has a similar downward asking price with age, but not quite as wide as the 4C, common for cars much older overall (around 2005 for Elise versus 2015 for 4C).

 

The 2015 cars are all coupes, which might account for some of the price difference

 

I much much much prefer the Elise especially for longer term ownership

 

Perhaps, the US 2018 spiders on Autotrader have asking prices $54k, $55k, $59k, $60k, $69k, one car asking above $60k. One 2018 coupe listed at $55k.

2017 coupes have a new listing at $70k,others at $53k, $58k, $60k, $62k, $65k

 

Drive the Elise and you will not consider anything else if you can fit. Watch this video first



I drove an Elise as part of my son's car shopping and if he didn't buy it, and my wife would have let me get another car, I think I would have gotten one. FYI: He put a deposit down on the Elise. Once you are inside it's pretty amazing and is such a perfectly balanced car. There is a lot of aftermarket support for the Elise as well including adding a gated shifter, which solves the only driving downside of the car which is finding the right gear when shifting.

I should also mention he test drove an Evora, and said it drives the closest to my 430 but with less horsepower.