I took my wife to the hospital to give birth in my 1998 Elise. Had to take the roof off to get her in/out. My wife loved the car though… riding in the car was the only time my daughter-to-be would stop kicking her insides. My daughter’s middle name is Elise.
I drove it from London to Frankfurt for work with a stop at the Nurburgring. Drove it all over Scotland. And once to Rotterdam via the Chunnel. I loved that car. I had it two years. Zero unplanned maintenance. Sold it for more than I paid for it when I moved back to USA. Spoiled me for cars.
I want to confirm the friendliness of Indian people. I recently sold a car to an Indian couple and the wife looked at my apartment, which is somewhat messy and disorganized, and offered to clean it😂. They were the absolute nicest people I've ever met. And, yes, Doug's accent is pretty funny
I just did the same thing this summer. I flew from Madrid to London, bought a Lotus Elise with broken AC (the seller didn't mention it) and had to drive all the way back to Spain with the windows down. But I actually loved the road trip
About 20 years ago, I drove a 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR about half-way across Canada in the winter time. It was very snowy, and the road conditions were not great. The car handled it like a champ, but it was torture to listen to the 105 kmh alarm bell for the entire trip. I got home, and immediately disassembled the gauge cluster to remove the bell.
Coincidentally, driving through the desert in summer with no AC your car was probably the same color as where you were on the dehydration level by urine color chart
I bought my 05 Elise at the age of 24 and within a few months I took it on a road trip from NC to Maine and back. The heat wasn’t as bad as the blister on my foot after doing an 800 mile day. That was 18 years ago and now my annual mileage is below that number many years, but I still have the car.
I had an 07 Elise with working AC. But working AC in an Elise means that the air first goes through the hot heater core, then gets cooled. So it goes through cycles of cool then hot then cool. A common fix in the Lotus community is to run a valve in the heater host that goes to the core and switch it to bypass the core for the summer. This makes the AC nice and mediocre. The other fun thing is that the AC relay does not have a reverse diode on the coil section. What happens then is that the relay is commanded to shut off. It does and the collapsing magnetic field throws a negative voltage to the ECM, shutting it down for a quarter second. So you're driving along with working AC and the car shuts off for a quarter second then turns back on. A fix is to solder in a diode backwards on that coil of the relay or spend $18 for an upgraded relay with the diode across it. Lots of fun stuff like that if you keep your Elise for a few years like I did.
Even with a working AC in an elise you have to pour water on yourself when it's getting really hot! Bought a 2018 S3 Elise in June and did a 1600km drive from northern germany down to southern france for vacation. Around Bordeaux it was over 41°C in the shade and I had to stop several times for cold water. Especially my feet werde cooking. The engine cooler is right above your feet and radiates a lot of heat towards the footwell. But in the end it was totally worth it. Driving the elise through the bendy roads of the basque country over the pyrenees to spain and back with an open roof was a lifetime experience. For a hilly and bendy terrain like the basque country / pyrenees there is no better car than an elise.
Elise owner from Bordeaux here, I can confirm in the summer it's too hot for this car :D (my S2 doesn't have A/C anyway...). I agree about the roads in the Pyrenees, I went to Pamplona and back through the mountains and it was amazing.
What's crazy is 5 years back I flew from Dallas TX to Tampa Fl to buy a 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano that I drove all 1,200 miles back. No cruise control, no ac, etc. but it was actually really nice. Granted, I'm sure the Alfa is more geared towards highway cruising than an Elise is, but for all of its faults it was pretty comfortable most of the time. I think the key is that I did that road trip in October. The weather was very nice and mild. It's funny to see a story about another tall guy in a small car taking trips you really shouldn't lol
Years ago I flew from Pittsburgh to Burlington Vermont to buy a Milano Verde sight unseen. It drove well enough, but never buy an Alfa that lived in Vermont. Every bolt was seized, the rocker panels and spare tire well had the structural integrity of puff pastry, and bad grounds throughout the car. It was so bad I eventually bought another one. 😂
@MarkDenovich Oh man! That's rough. The owner of mine tended to fix it after it broke and it sat a lot. No rust but it had plenty of issues when I had it. When buying an old Italian car, it pays to buy the nicest one you can find. Can't wait to own another one someday.
@@originsofarceus6645 2 Spiders, 3 Milanos, a 164S and a 164QV. All purchased on a tight budget so I paid for it down the road. I think I got it out of my system. 😀
It mostly depends on the roads. While not a Lotus, I bought my MR2 Spyder in New Jersey and drove it back to San Antonio. I’m taller than average and was certainly cramped, but it wasn’t a bad drive once I got out of Maryland. My goodness, it’s like Maryland put speed bumps on the highway every 50 yards. Once I hit the Texas state line, I knew I was home and our rural highways would be smooth.
When he said 2011...July...yeah, that was Hell. 2011 was the year Austin, TX reached 100 degrees or more 90 times. Last Summer was the hottest on record, but that was only because we hit 105+ more than in 2011. I can't imagine living without AC in your car.
I flew from Maryland to South Florida for an R53 mini, race seats, no cruise control the whole way back, 10/10 road trip experience would absolutely do again.
NO WAY THAT WAS YOUR OLD LOTUS? Man i used to see that car in my yearly visits to family in abilene! Always put a huge smile on my face. what a small world sometimes
I flew one way to California and bought an 86 Subaru BRAT. Drove it home to Ontario Canada in 3 days. Slept once. This was 12 years ago. I still got the BRAT! This was in march so it was a great temperature until we got to Michigan...the heater couldn't keep up! It was freezing haha! We found out later one of the grommets on the firewall was off. Good times..
I drove a bit more than halfway across the country in an Elise. I managed to sleep on top of a pillow on top of a gas can in the passenger seat bent over. 06, this one was silver and all the old guys at Denny's loved it 😂
Used to own a Lotus. So much fun. It blows my mind that people would hate the idea of riding in it, but it makes sense. Very small cabin, bumpy, etc. However, I can ride in it all day.
I met a guy in his 70s earlier this year at Barber Motorsports Park outside Birmingham, AL who had driven his Elise from Colorado to do a track weekend. My back hurt just with the thought of the road trip.
you know the 2005 Lotus Elise was one of my regrets of not buying, but at the same time glad I didn't.. back in Spring of 2009, I was on the market for a 2 door convertible for no more than 20k, So choices were a used 2006 Porsche Boxster, 2005 Lotus Elise, 2007 Chrysler Crossfire, 2005 Ford Thunderbird.. but then I decided I wanted a car that no one else had, so the ruled out all the big brands, leaving just the Lotus Elise, that is until coincidently GM announced in April 2009 they were getting rid of Pontiac, and suddenly the brand new inventory of Pontiacs, were being liquidated with new vehicles being sold as used.. So suddenly a brand new 2009 Pontiac Solstice entered my price range and I couldn't resist jumping at the opportunity to have one, ended up with an orange 2009 Solstice "Street Edition".. So while I do regret not going with the Lotus for it's "exotic car vibe", at the same time I don't regret how fragile those cars are and undoubtedly necessary repairs and maintenance to keep it in good shape. Meanwhile I still daily drive that Solstice 15 years later today, and it's had zero major mechanical issues, no expensive repairs, the worse thing that happened to it is the shifter refused to shift to park and key stuck in ignition (but this was covered by warranty/recall), and other than this, I had to replace the ignition coils and a front right wheel bearing, both of which I did the repairs myself, other than that, it's been bulletproof, so due to this, I don't regret getting the Pontiac over the Lotus..
Where did you live that a 3 year old Boxster and a 4 year old Elise were under $20k?! In the Spring of ‘09, I was also looking for a roadster, preferably mid-engine, and didn’t see those models priced that reasonably. I checked out a new Miata carryover because Mazda was discounting them nicely to about $18-20k, but I ended up with a low mileage MR2 Spyder since I had wanted a first generation MR2 since I was a kid.
@@AFTER_MIDNITE California.. boxsters were pretty cheap at the time. If i remember right, they were only about 40k brand new, but they diminished in value hard after a year and after a few years, easily could have carte blanche, your choice of any boxster, for 20k and under.
@@AFTER_MIDNITE forgot to mention, if you're old enough to remember car buying before the end of last decade, you may remember that it was not like today where you can't get a car of this type for under MSRP, instead you were easily able to even get a new car for well under MSRP, and same goes with used, able to snag for well under a dealer's asking price. I did the same even with the Pontiac I ultimately got, the dealer listed it as 26k, i got it for around 17k and some change with gap insurance and warranty included. I shaved 10k off the price, got them down to around 15k, by simply attempting to walk out of the GM dealership and them desperate to keep me there to close a deal, so with warranty and such, brought it up to the 17K and some change I paid. Another thing I also remember, before I settled on wanting a 2 door convertible, i actually considered a brand new 2009 dodge challenger, when the third generations were new, during when I was still just window shopping at the end of 2008, a dealer was willing to accept just 20k for one out the door taxes, etc included. brand new (this is actually why I settled on my wanting a car for 20k or less at the time). You need to remember the late 2000s was a completely different time.. car companies were struggling, obviously with GM going bankrupt, hence why they were killing brands (such as Pontiac) and reclassifying and liquidating new stock fresh from the factory floor as used. Ford, Dodge, etc were struggling as well, needing bailouts from the federal government, not to mention even the European brands were struggling, hence why some were bought out by foreign companies around this time (i.e. Jaguar). Then the government ontop also doing their federal used car buyout "Cash for Clunkers" program. Because the nation was in a hard recession at this time, no one was buying cars and car companies were dying, so to attempt to help stimulate car sales and further help the car manufacturers by getting olders cars off the streets and people's garages and buyers get $4500, even if the car was only worth $1, to turnaround and spend at a dealer for a new or not too old certified used vehicle. It was a complete buyer's market and dealers and used car dealerships were slashing prices left and right and desperate to negotiate and sell cars at this time, so yes, a used Porsche Boxster was cheap af. I think the one i was eyeballing was around 14k in Yellow.
@@LycanWitch All good points. I do remember shying away from both seemingly affordable Boxsters and SLKs under the presumption I wouldn’t be able to afford repairs, but I also remember my local dealer wanting a pretty penny for an Elise. That being said, I almost bought a diesel Excursion for like $6k during the late 2000s oil crises because people were desperate to get rid of their gas guzzlers. In about 2010, my girlfriend at the time wanted a Mustang, so we test drove the new Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger all on the same day. Nobody had markups, cars were in stock, and they didn’t even demand a credit check beforehand… we just walked in and asked for a test drive. It was definitely an interesting time in the automotive marketplace.
I drove through the desert in Nevada in a rented vette, it said 114f on the display. It was July too, I couldn't imagine being less comfortable and not having AC. Probably had PTSD
I did a trip from LA to DC in the middle of the summer of 2004 at 21 in a highly modified 1978 911SC that did have AC or a radio! I decided to take I-15 up to I-70 instead of the more direct route across I-40 hoping it would be a little cooler. It probably was a little cooler but it was pretty miserable!
Did very N. Ca. {13 mls from Oregon on the coast}to South Central Missouri in August. 65 Vette hardtop no A/C. Thought I was going to have a heat stroke. Drove it back, didn't look at it for 2 years.
I picked an one up in the bay area in 2010 at the same age. Drove up from LA in a cheap rental and drove back the same day/night in pouring rain on bald tires but I made it back without issues. I haven't seen a single one of these cars with working AC. One of my driver side window regulators has broken off inside the door from normal use, now the rear corner sags. The hardware that holds the hardtop on failed on the freeway one day, so orange hardtop just flew away. now I have a carbon one that saved about 30lbs but it has no upholstery, and it's basically see-through. The only thing this car is good at is track use. You can drive the piss out of it and it will get you home afterwards, but it's a pretty low quality car for every day use.
I had a 2010 Elise for about 8 years. A/C worked fairly well whenever I needed it... which wasn't that often, living in northern Canada 😄. Did several long (14 hour) road trips without issue. Traded it in on an Evora S, which is admittedly a much more comfortable car.
Lotus headlights are ineffective. And because the car is so low, the headlights of oncoming cars are at head level so you basically get blinded. Driving a Lotus at night is bad in different ways to driving it in the heat during the day.
@@arranree This is true, i owned an elise as a daily for 5 years and driving at night was fairly scary due to the terrible visibility. Also peoples headlights would dazzle you on unlit roads. It is a great car if you plan to travel for up to an hour somewhere during the day though. Out of all the cars i have had i think an elise is the one i would own again.
So this is nothing. I drove from Bakersfield CA to Charlotte NC in a Saturn SL1 packed with clothes and a tube TV. Basically I-40 the whole way. The mountains were TORTURE! Did it in 39 hours with only 2 hours of sleep. I then recreated that same trip with an E34 525i. Now THAT was a fun trip!
I don’t think you realize how comfortable and roomy an SL1 is compared to an Elise. Not only are the seats more comfortable, but so is the suspension. And Doug is like 6’5”.
Bay Area gets hot as heck in the summer, man. You definitely can't be without AC. lol I know he's thinking the towns immediately around the bay like Oakland and San Francisco, but, I can't imagine.
Dude it is NO JOKE getting into/out of an Elise with the top on. I'm 5'7" and used to valet part time 10-15 years ago($250 in like 4 or 5 hours lol). One of our regulars had an Elise, weather had been warm so the top was always off. Yeah I just kinda jump in and sit down with the top off. Well I had been having back issues and wasn't as limber/able to bend like I was used to. Anyways, cool night, top was on. I put my right foot in, proceed to hop in and bang my head so hard that I lost my balance and ended up ass first, splayed out on the pavement.
I once saw an Elise parked in a handicapped parking spot and was surprised to see it had a disabled veteran license plate. I joked that the driver couldn’t be very disabled if they were able to get in and out of that car. When the owner applied for the disabled plates, I wonder if the clerk was familiar with the type of car they drove and made a face like “Really?” 😂 (Before anyone attacks me for this comment, yes, I know there are many kinds of disabilities, some more limiting than others, and some that don’t cause constant suffering and instead flareup so a person may function fine one moment but not minutes later.)
Grew up in Atlanta. Didn't have AC in my house or car until I was 26. Now I wouldn't want to go without it but I keep my thermostat on 77F. I hate how cool stores and restaurants are kept.
No such thing as a bad road trip unless your injured or incarcerated. Even the most nonsense and BS filled road trip with a buddy is better than sitting at home.
Doug the kind of guy to figure out cruise control and use it on long trips. I should really get around to that at some point. Maybe next time I drive on a freeway. When will that be? I dunno. (shrug)
currently on a cross country drive in a 1986 toyota pickup no cruise no AC but it is november so its been all right. philadelphia to long beach to ship the truck to honolulu. in vegas now
I think it would have been worth it to have just had the roof panel shipped home ahead of the car lol When I was a kid in the 70s/80s it was common not to have A/C, but now that i'm 52 and am on medications that make me extra sensitive to the sun and heat, I can't imagine living without it. Convertibles *might* be an exception. When I was in high school and for a few years afterwards, I had several convertibles, and that top was down 90% of the time or more. Sometimes if in *Heavy* rain (in light rain, you just drive faster and it goes right over you ;P), and sometimes if it was crazy cold enough, or when it was going to be parked for a while. Otherwise, top down babay! :O *BUT!!!* in the true convertibles I had, you could put the top down whenever you wanted. And in the Targa I had, you could put the roof panel under the front hood. I *cannot imagine* a "convertible* where you couldn't store the top in the vehicle itself. That's ridiculous :O I'd be looking into ways to have it sawn into pieces that could be put away somewhere in the car and reassembled when needed, or something lol Maybe a vinyl collapsible top that could be stored away? Duct tape? 🤣 I dunno, I'd have to figure out something, cause I'd want the top off any time I didn't *have* to have it on. Oh, and yeah, tall guy ;P Part of the reason I love convertibles. *unlimited headroom!* ~~^_^ As for convertibles without A/C... Well, none of the ones I had back in the late 80s/early 90s, had A/C, most of the cars my family had didn't have A/C either. Sort of like Doug said, back in the 70s, people would "just do that". Head out on road trips with no A/C. And even if your car *did* have A/C, actually using it was somewhat discouraged (it was coming off the fuel crisis, and anything that decreased gas mileage was frowned upon) But in a convertible I don't ever remember having a problem with the heat. Of course, I always had the top off, and traffic jams anywhere within 60 miles of here only happen during major events, and you almost never have to wait more than a minute and a half at a stoplight. So I virtually always had airflow. But I was also much younger, and wasn't on meds that increased my heat sensitivity. Anyway, I don't know if I'd *still* be okay driving around in the summer heat with no a/c and just having the top off, or not... But I *do* intend to find out :) Cause I bought a $350 1980 Fiat X 1/9 that I intend to get back on the street, and *of course* it doesn't have A/C 😅 So once I get it all put back together, I'll be finding out if I can survive the summer heat just by taking the top off, or if I'll end up having to retrofit A/C onto a 40 year old car that was never really designed to have it in the first place ;P
Blegh... Elise is a nice car. If you buy one, you get the looks and tons of fun. Handles like a dream. No AC? I never use AC. I do not have Elise.. but Opel Speedster. (vx220)
I always find it hilarious when anyone complains about not having cruise control, or when purchasing a vehicle they talk about functioning cruise or even weirder, adaptive cruise (not even sure what that is) being a deal breaker if missing or non op! I really just don't get it's importance to some and short of having my right foot cut off, there's no way I ever will! I've been driving since '94 and I've only turned the cruise on in exactly one of the fifty some odd vehicles I've owned! The best part is, it was way back at car #2, which was/still is my '78 Cutlass the day I bought it, in like 1996... and surprisingly it actually worked!
Adaptive means it will slow down if the traffic in front of you slows down, and then speed back up to the target speed when the coast is clear. Sometimes traffic pattern is just a bunch of unnecessary braking and then speeding back up, and the adaptive thing makes it less annoying to cooperatw with impatient drivers, and perhaps give your right ankle a break on a long ride
The later models would probably be more fun imo. Manual but with some amenities, I like the Exige models honestly. As long as they have a Toyota motor of course lol
back when i was a kid a dude who lived in my area drove one of those. I saw him maybe a dozen times and he always looked miserable in it. weirdly he looked just like doug
He does not mention it, but the radiator is in the front and the hoses go to the back where the engine is. It has an aluminum tub and aluminum radiates the heat of these hoses like nothing else. Every thing gets hot on the sill on the right hand side. Then there is the fuel tank that is directly rear to the seats and because of the fuel return also gets warm after about an hour of driving. The car already gets really hot on drives when it is only 25 degrees, but in the desert it gets hotter than an oven!
I took my wife to the hospital to give birth in my 1998 Elise. Had to take the roof off to get her in/out. My wife loved the car though… riding in the car was the only time my daughter-to-be would stop kicking her insides. My daughter’s middle name is Elise.
I drove it from London to Frankfurt for work with a stop at the Nurburgring. Drove it all over Scotland. And once to Rotterdam via the Chunnel. I loved that car. I had it two years. Zero unplanned maintenance. Sold it for more than I paid for it when I moved back to USA. Spoiled me for cars.
You should write to Elisa Artioli and tell her that story.
Doug's only 50% commitment to doing the Indian accent is hilarious
@@check4v I thought he was about to launch into a full impression- sad he didn’t lol
I want to confirm the friendliness of Indian people. I recently sold a car to an Indian couple and the wife looked at my apartment, which is somewhat messy and disorganized, and offered to clean it😂. They were the absolute nicest people I've ever met. And, yes, Doug's accent is pretty funny
You know he has the Apoo accent stashed away for private times!
.
Doug is a prime example of the success that comes with being unapologetically yourself. Never change you quirky man!
What 😂
Hard work and personal growth.
There’s way to many famous TH-camrs that have no personality for that to be true boss 😂
@ did I say it was his only positive attribute? Nope. Dude obviously works hard. Enjoy getting worked up about TH-cam comments all day boy
He reminds me of the Why Files host in that way
@@christianporto264 naw what you said was fkin returded 🤣 “unapologetically yourself” 🤣
@ like I said, enjoy getting upset about TH-cam comments kid 😉
As soon as Doug said that the owner was Indian and their mother was very traditional, my thought was "he's about to get fed."
That would have been my favorite part of the trip!
@Evan55 I was half expecting Doug to say that she also offered him a place to sleep as it was far too late and he shouldn't be driving at night.
Doug on VINwiki is chef's kiss worthy.
Too much quirkiness 😅
Doug is the type of guy to go to vin wiki and then do his own car trek.
I just did the same thing this summer. I flew from Madrid to London, bought a Lotus Elise with broken AC (the seller didn't mention it) and had to drive all the way back to Spain with the windows down. But I actually loved the road trip
Do you have to pay customs and tax for importing outside EU?
That time in the Lotus market was wild. The best and worst Elises were the same money. $30k all day long.
Up until 2018, they stayed those prices too! Picked up a 2005 Elise with 17k miles for only $29,000 back in 2018 from a Sergeant in Georgia.
I shopped for one in 2009, as I recall, the dealership in my city wanted $50k.
About 20 years ago, I drove a 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR about half-way across Canada in the winter time. It was very snowy, and the road conditions were not great. The car handled it like a champ, but it was torture to listen to the 105 kmh alarm bell for the entire trip. I got home, and immediately disassembled the gauge cluster to remove the bell.
1:00 those pants are a CRIME 💀💀💀
That my friend is the essence of Doug Demuro
Coincidentally, driving through the desert in summer with no AC your car was probably the same color as where you were on the dehydration level by urine color chart
Tell me you're current/former military without telling me! 😂
The greatest car reviewer/automotive vlogger on TH-cam. A living legend in car community
I bought my 05 Elise at the age of 24 and within a few months I took it on a road trip from NC to Maine and back. The heat wasn’t as bad as the blister on my foot after doing an 800 mile day. That was 18 years ago and now my annual mileage is below that number many years, but I still have the car.
It sounds like you need to sell it to me instead of letting it rot from disuse. 😉
I had an 07 Elise with working AC. But working AC in an Elise means that the air first goes through the hot heater core, then gets cooled. So it goes through cycles of cool then hot then cool. A common fix in the Lotus community is to run a valve in the heater host that goes to the core and switch it to bypass the core for the summer. This makes the AC nice and mediocre. The other fun thing is that the AC relay does not have a reverse diode on the coil section. What happens then is that the relay is commanded to shut off. It does and the collapsing magnetic field throws a negative voltage to the ECM, shutting it down for a quarter second. So you're driving along with working AC and the car shuts off for a quarter second then turns back on. A fix is to solder in a diode backwards on that coil of the relay or spend $18 for an upgraded relay with the diode across it. Lots of fun stuff like that if you keep your Elise for a few years like I did.
Even with a working AC in an elise you have to pour water on yourself when it's getting really hot! Bought a 2018 S3 Elise in June and did a 1600km drive from northern germany down to southern france for vacation. Around Bordeaux it was over 41°C in the shade and I had to stop several times for cold water. Especially my feet werde cooking. The engine cooler is right above your feet and radiates a lot of heat towards the footwell.
But in the end it was totally worth it. Driving the elise through the bendy roads of the basque country over the pyrenees to spain and back with an open roof was a lifetime experience. For a hilly and bendy terrain like the basque country / pyrenees there is no better car than an elise.
The radiator is a long way away from the footwell.
Elise owner from Bordeaux here, I can confirm in the summer it's too hot for this car :D (my S2 doesn't have A/C anyway...). I agree about the roads in the Pyrenees, I went to Pamplona and back through the mountains and it was amazing.
"Before I begin my story, I'm going to show you some of VINwiki's quirks and features..."
What's crazy is 5 years back I flew from Dallas TX to Tampa Fl to buy a 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano that I drove all 1,200 miles back. No cruise control, no ac, etc. but it was actually really nice. Granted, I'm sure the Alfa is more geared towards highway cruising than an Elise is, but for all of its faults it was pretty comfortable most of the time. I think the key is that I did that road trip in October. The weather was very nice and mild. It's funny to see a story about another tall guy in a small car taking trips you really shouldn't lol
Years ago I flew from Pittsburgh to Burlington Vermont to buy a Milano Verde sight unseen. It drove well enough, but never buy an Alfa that lived in Vermont. Every bolt was seized, the rocker panels and spare tire well had the structural integrity of puff pastry, and bad grounds throughout the car. It was so bad I eventually bought another one. 😂
@MarkDenovich Oh man! That's rough. The owner of mine tended to fix it after it broke and it sat a lot. No rust but it had plenty of issues when I had it. When buying an old Italian car, it pays to buy the nicest one you can find. Can't wait to own another one someday.
@@originsofarceus6645 2 Spiders, 3 Milanos, a 164S and a 164QV. All purchased on a tight budget so I paid for it down the road. I think I got it out of my system. 😀
It mostly depends on the roads. While not a Lotus, I bought my MR2 Spyder in New Jersey and drove it back to San Antonio. I’m taller than average and was certainly cramped, but it wasn’t a bad drive once I got out of Maryland. My goodness, it’s like Maryland put speed bumps on the highway every 50 yards. Once I hit the Texas state line, I knew I was home and our rural highways would be smooth.
When he said 2011...July...yeah, that was Hell.
2011 was the year Austin, TX reached 100 degrees or more 90 times. Last Summer was the hottest on record, but that was only because we hit 105+ more than in 2011. I can't imagine living without AC in your car.
I flew from Maryland to South Florida for an R53 mini, race seats, no cruise control the whole way back, 10/10 road trip experience would absolutely do again.
This team-up is pure gold!
Should of done it sooner they both live in Georgia I bet hoovie had something to do with this 🙏
NO WAY THAT WAS YOUR OLD LOTUS? Man i used to see that car in my yearly visits to family in abilene! Always put a huge smile on my face. what a small world sometimes
I flew one way to California and bought an 86 Subaru BRAT. Drove it home to Ontario Canada in 3 days. Slept once. This was 12 years ago. I still got the BRAT! This was in march so it was a great temperature until we got to Michigan...the heater couldn't keep up! It was freezing haha! We found out later one of the grommets on the firewall was off. Good times..
That car in Abilene Texas might as well be a McLaren F1
I drove a bit more than halfway across the country in an Elise. I managed to sleep on top of a pillow on top of a gas can in the passenger seat bent over. 06, this one was silver and all the old guys at Denny's loved it 😂
Used to own a Lotus. So much fun. It blows my mind that people would hate the idea of riding in it, but it makes sense. Very small cabin, bumpy, etc. However, I can ride in it all day.
I met a guy in his 70s earlier this year at Barber Motorsports Park outside Birmingham, AL who had driven his Elise from Colorado to do a track weekend. My back hurt just with the thought of the road trip.
Doug,... You ever been to India?
The last owner just ran the Heater.
Best to ya 🏁
I bought my 2020 Evora GT at 1100 miles, it was my daily for 3.8 years. It ended when the engine blew at 104k miles. Best time of my life.
That's actually not bad 👍 pretty reliable for you to have been driving daily for 3 years
How much for an engine replacement?
i hate to hear this about a car ive idolized from the 2000s. That orange GT3 Lotus Exige "concept car" was and is my ultimate dream car.
Mine too. I would take an Exige over most modern sports cars, preferably in orange.
you know the 2005 Lotus Elise was one of my regrets of not buying, but at the same time glad I didn't.. back in Spring of 2009, I was on the market for a 2 door convertible for no more than 20k, So choices were a used 2006 Porsche Boxster, 2005 Lotus Elise, 2007 Chrysler Crossfire, 2005 Ford Thunderbird.. but then I decided I wanted a car that no one else had, so the ruled out all the big brands, leaving just the Lotus Elise, that is until coincidently GM announced in April 2009 they were getting rid of Pontiac, and suddenly the brand new inventory of Pontiacs, were being liquidated with new vehicles being sold as used..
So suddenly a brand new 2009 Pontiac Solstice entered my price range and I couldn't resist jumping at the opportunity to have one, ended up with an orange 2009 Solstice "Street Edition".. So while I do regret not going with the Lotus for it's "exotic car vibe", at the same time I don't regret how fragile those cars are and undoubtedly necessary repairs and maintenance to keep it in good shape.
Meanwhile I still daily drive that Solstice 15 years later today, and it's had zero major mechanical issues, no expensive repairs, the worse thing that happened to it is the shifter refused to shift to park and key stuck in ignition (but this was covered by warranty/recall), and other than this, I had to replace the ignition coils and a front right wheel bearing, both of which I did the repairs myself, other than that, it's been bulletproof, so due to this, I don't regret getting the Pontiac over the Lotus..
Where did you live that a 3 year old Boxster and a 4 year old Elise were under $20k?!
In the Spring of ‘09, I was also looking for a roadster, preferably mid-engine, and didn’t see those models priced that reasonably. I checked out a new Miata carryover because Mazda was discounting them nicely to about $18-20k, but I ended up with a low mileage MR2 Spyder since I had wanted a first generation MR2 since I was a kid.
@@AFTER_MIDNITE California.. boxsters were pretty cheap at the time. If i remember right, they were only about 40k brand new, but they diminished in value hard after a year and after a few years, easily could have carte blanche, your choice of any boxster, for 20k and under.
@@AFTER_MIDNITE forgot to mention, if you're old enough to remember car buying before the end of last decade, you may remember that it was not like today where you can't get a car of this type for under MSRP, instead you were easily able to even get a new car for well under MSRP, and same goes with used, able to snag for well under a dealer's asking price.
I did the same even with the Pontiac I ultimately got, the dealer listed it as 26k, i got it for around 17k and some change with gap insurance and warranty included. I shaved 10k off the price, got them down to around 15k, by simply attempting to walk out of the GM dealership and them desperate to keep me there to close a deal, so with warranty and such, brought it up to the 17K and some change I paid.
Another thing I also remember, before I settled on wanting a 2 door convertible, i actually considered a brand new 2009 dodge challenger, when the third generations were new, during when I was still just window shopping at the end of 2008, a dealer was willing to accept just 20k for one out the door taxes, etc included. brand new (this is actually why I settled on my wanting a car for 20k or less at the time).
You need to remember the late 2000s was a completely different time.. car companies were struggling, obviously with GM going bankrupt, hence why they were killing brands (such as Pontiac) and reclassifying and liquidating new stock fresh from the factory floor as used. Ford, Dodge, etc were struggling as well, needing bailouts from the federal government, not to mention even the European brands were struggling, hence why some were bought out by foreign companies around this time (i.e. Jaguar).
Then the government ontop also doing their federal used car buyout "Cash for Clunkers" program. Because the nation was in a hard recession at this time, no one was buying cars and car companies were dying, so to attempt to help stimulate car sales and further help the car manufacturers by getting olders cars off the streets and people's garages and buyers get $4500, even if the car was only worth $1, to turnaround and spend at a dealer for a new or not too old certified used vehicle.
It was a complete buyer's market and dealers and used car dealerships were slashing prices left and right and desperate to negotiate and sell cars at this time, so yes, a used Porsche Boxster was cheap af. I think the one i was eyeballing was around 14k in Yellow.
@@LycanWitch
All good points. I do remember shying away from both seemingly affordable Boxsters and SLKs under the presumption I wouldn’t be able to afford repairs, but I also remember my local dealer wanting a pretty penny for an Elise.
That being said, I almost bought a diesel Excursion for like $6k during the late 2000s oil crises because people were desperate to get rid of their gas guzzlers. In about 2010, my girlfriend at the time wanted a Mustang, so we test drove the new Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger all on the same day. Nobody had markups, cars were in stock, and they didn’t even demand a credit check beforehand… we just walked in and asked for a test drive. It was definitely an interesting time in the automotive marketplace.
Doug: "I'm tall, between 6ft4 and 9ft7" 😳😵💫
1:53 I did it in my brand new 2009 370z. Los Angeles to Manhattan. 🇺🇸❤️
Always great to see Doug Demuro stories to start the day!
Dry heat ain’t nothing compared to humid heat
He went through Arkansas in July......
Didn't think Doug Demuro was the type of guy to say "funzies"
I think he’s the exact type of guy to say funzies.
I live near Wales and drove my old Elise S1 to a wedding in Spain this summer - it was great fun. They were made for road trips!
I drove through the desert in Nevada in a rented vette, it said 114f on the display. It was July too, I couldn't imagine being less comfortable and not having AC. Probably had PTSD
I did a trip from LA to DC in the middle of the summer of 2004 at 21 in a highly modified 1978 911SC that did have AC or a radio! I decided to take I-15 up to I-70 instead of the more direct route across I-40 hoping it would be a little cooler. It probably was a little cooler but it was pretty miserable!
Did very N. Ca. {13 mls from Oregon on the coast}to South Central Missouri in August. 65 Vette hardtop no A/C. Thought I was going to have a heat stroke. Drove it back, didn't look at it for 2 years.
I've driven coast to coast in the summer with no AC too. Got a room partway thru day one and did the rest of the trip at night
Wait Doug…so what you’re saying is that the Lotus wasn’t a fantastic GT car? Lol, who would have thought!🤣
I picked an one up in the bay area in 2010 at the same age. Drove up from LA in a cheap rental and drove back the same day/night in pouring rain on bald tires but I made it back without issues. I haven't seen a single one of these cars with working AC. One of my driver side window regulators has broken off inside the door from normal use, now the rear corner sags. The hardware that holds the hardtop on failed on the freeway one day, so orange hardtop just flew away. now I have a carbon one that saved about 30lbs but it has no upholstery, and it's basically see-through. The only thing this car is good at is track use. You can drive the piss out of it and it will get you home afterwards, but it's a pretty low quality car for every day use.
The most surprising thing about your story is it had bald tires since most owners probably don’t drive them often.
I had a 2010 Elise for about 8 years. A/C worked fairly well whenever I needed it... which wasn't that often, living in northern Canada 😄. Did several long (14 hour) road trips without issue. Traded it in on an Evora S, which is admittedly a much more comfortable car.
I’ve made a cross country trip like that multiple times! 1981 VW Rabbit pickup! Though after once without AC, I made sure that never happened again…
did it not occur to you to just sleep during the day and drive after dark the whole way?
Lotus headlights are ineffective. And because the car is so low, the headlights of oncoming cars are at head level so you basically get blinded.
Driving a Lotus at night is bad in different ways to driving it in the heat during the day.
@@arranreewhat utter nonsense.
@@drew699 Indeed. @arranree has 100% accurate internet knowledge.
@@drew699 what a well thought out rebuttal.
You really proved me wrong with your substantiated reasoning.
@@arranree This is true, i owned an elise as a daily for 5 years and driving at night was fairly scary due to the terrible visibility. Also peoples headlights would dazzle you on unlit roads. It is a great car if you plan to travel for up to an hour somewhere during the day though. Out of all the cars i have had i think an elise is the one i would own again.
Doug's the type of "car guy" who doesn't like Lotus Elise's ....let that sink in.
Doug Demouro "I have this youtube channel where i do stuff" is the most underrated statement on here
So this is nothing. I drove from Bakersfield CA to Charlotte NC in a Saturn SL1 packed with clothes and a tube TV. Basically I-40 the whole way. The mountains were TORTURE! Did it in 39 hours with only 2 hours of sleep.
I then recreated that same trip with an E34 525i. Now THAT was a fun trip!
I don’t think you realize how comfortable and roomy an SL1 is compared to an Elise. Not only are the seats more comfortable, but so is the suspension. And Doug is like 6’5”.
Doug is just one of the best personalities in the automotive world love these
Bay Area gets hot as heck in the summer, man. You definitely can't be without AC. lol I know he's thinking the towns immediately around the bay like Oakland and San Francisco, but, I can't imagine.
Man, that is a good story! Wish we could get more long form content stories.
Damn… and I thought a 12 hour drive from Central California to Idaho in my BRZ was bad! Haha
I used spray bottles filled with water for my air conditioning when I was in those situations.
Owned an 05 Lotus Elise with no AC as a 23 year old in Marco Island Florida as a daily driver. Absolute hell! haha
Definitely memories one will never forget... cheers.
Dude it is NO JOKE getting into/out of an Elise with the top on. I'm 5'7" and used to valet part time 10-15 years ago($250 in like 4 or 5 hours lol). One of our regulars had an Elise, weather had been warm so the top was always off. Yeah I just kinda jump in and sit down with the top off. Well I had been having back issues and wasn't as limber/able to bend like I was used to. Anyways, cool night, top was on. I put my right foot in, proceed to hop in and bang my head so hard that I lost my balance and ended up ass first, splayed out on the pavement.
I once saw an Elise parked in a handicapped parking spot and was surprised to see it had a disabled veteran license plate. I joked that the driver couldn’t be very disabled if they were able to get in and out of that car.
When the owner applied for the disabled plates, I wonder if the clerk was familiar with the type of car they drove and made a face like “Really?” 😂
(Before anyone attacks me for this comment, yes, I know there are many kinds of disabilities, some more limiting than others, and some that don’t cause constant suffering and instead flareup so a person may function fine one moment but not minutes later.)
Driving highway 17 between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz at night in a Lotus!
What FUN!!
Great story!! When I think back to things I did in my 20s, yes, I must have been crazy too lol
Doug i live in Abilene,me and my family run a auto shop here, ill have to keep my eye out for it!
Did he just describe the U.K. as “exotic”😂😂 I can assure you all it is not 😂😂🇬🇧
Once back from a gig Paradiso Amsterdam I had to snooze a bit. And on vacation to Avignon France after 33 traffic jams I just had to....
I assume you know what LOTUS stands for: Lot's Of Trouble, Usually Serious.
Grew up in Atlanta. Didn't have AC in my house or car until I was 26. Now I wouldn't want to go without it but I keep my thermostat on 77F. I hate how cool stores and restaurants are kept.
1:39 that license plate tho XD
No such thing as a bad road trip unless your injured or incarcerated. Even the most nonsense and BS filled road trip with a buddy is better than sitting at home.
The next person I'd like to see here is "Scott" from *Scotty's Garage* ... let em tell us crazy car fix stories...
Doug the kind of guy to figure out cruise control and use it on long trips.
I should really get around to that at some point. Maybe next time I drive on a freeway. When will that be? I dunno. (shrug)
currently on a cross country drive in a 1986 toyota pickup no cruise no AC but it is november so its been all right. philadelphia to long beach to ship the truck to honolulu. in vegas now
What a baby. I've taken a non-ac 260Z across country several times. Put in some earplugs and just go. Sheesh!
That was every long trip we made in the 1970s, Doug.
I think it would have been worth it to have just had the roof panel shipped home ahead of the car lol
When I was a kid in the 70s/80s it was common not to have A/C, but now that i'm 52 and am on medications that make me extra sensitive to the sun and heat, I can't imagine living without it.
Convertibles *might* be an exception. When I was in high school and for a few years afterwards, I had several convertibles, and that top was down 90% of the time or more.
Sometimes if in *Heavy* rain (in light rain, you just drive faster and it goes right over you ;P), and sometimes if it was crazy cold enough, or when it was going to be parked for a while. Otherwise, top down babay! :O
*BUT!!!* in the true convertibles I had, you could put the top down whenever you wanted.
And in the Targa I had, you could put the roof panel under the front hood.
I *cannot imagine* a "convertible* where you couldn't store the top in the vehicle itself. That's ridiculous :O
I'd be looking into ways to have it sawn into pieces that could be put away somewhere in the car and reassembled when needed, or something lol
Maybe a vinyl collapsible top that could be stored away?
Duct tape? 🤣
I dunno, I'd have to figure out something, cause I'd want the top off any time I didn't *have* to have it on.
Oh, and yeah, tall guy ;P Part of the reason I love convertibles. *unlimited headroom!* ~~^_^
As for convertibles without A/C...
Well, none of the ones I had back in the late 80s/early 90s, had A/C, most of the cars my family had didn't have A/C either.
Sort of like Doug said, back in the 70s, people would "just do that". Head out on road trips with no A/C.
And even if your car *did* have A/C, actually using it was somewhat discouraged (it was coming off the fuel crisis, and anything that decreased gas mileage was frowned upon)
But in a convertible I don't ever remember having a problem with the heat.
Of course, I always had the top off, and traffic jams anywhere within 60 miles of here only happen during major events, and you almost never have to wait more than a minute and a half at a stoplight.
So I virtually always had airflow.
But I was also much younger, and wasn't on meds that increased my heat sensitivity.
Anyway, I don't know if I'd *still* be okay driving around in the summer heat with no a/c and just having the top off, or not...
But I *do* intend to find out :)
Cause I bought a $350 1980 Fiat X 1/9 that I intend to get back on the street, and *of course* it doesn't have A/C 😅
So once I get it all put back together, I'll be finding out if I can survive the summer heat just by taking the top off, or if I'll end up having to retrofit A/C onto a 40 year old car that was never really designed to have it in the first place ;P
Had my Elise S2 111S since 2005. Never once missed the AC. Must be because of my English sang froid.
Blegh... Elise is a nice car. If you buy one, you get the looks and tons of fun. Handles like a dream. No AC? I never use AC. I do not have Elise.. but Opel Speedster. (vx220)
wow opposites land in America. I needed a belt tensioner for my 2zzge celica and the lotus one was cheaper here. Same part!. Australia is weird.
I always find it hilarious when anyone complains about not having cruise control, or when purchasing a vehicle they talk about functioning cruise or even weirder, adaptive cruise (not even sure what that is) being a deal breaker if missing or non op! I really just don't get it's importance to some and short of having my right foot cut off, there's no way I ever will! I've been driving since '94 and I've only turned the cruise on in exactly one of the fifty some odd vehicles I've owned! The best part is, it was way back at car #2, which was/still is my '78 Cutlass the day I bought it, in like 1996... and surprisingly it actually worked!
Adaptive means it will slow down if the traffic in front of you slows down, and then speed back up to the target speed when the coast is clear. Sometimes traffic pattern is just a bunch of unnecessary braking and then speeding back up, and the adaptive thing makes it less annoying to cooperatw with impatient drivers, and perhaps give your right ankle a break on a long ride
Cruise control is great for long distance travel. I’ve never owned a car that had it, but I’ve rented a few and it was glorious.
Great story great storytelling!
The later models would probably be more fun imo. Manual but with some amenities, I like the Exige models honestly. As long as they have a Toyota motor of course lol
back when i was a kid a dude who lived in my area drove one of those. I saw him maybe a dozen times and he always looked miserable in it. weirdly he looked just like doug
I just bought a brand new 4Runner at bighorn Toyota glenwood springs!
Even my Pontiac Turbo Firefly has air and cruise control.
So Doug is 36, looks 46, acts 66
I took a 2 hour road trip with a lotus and carbon backed seats. It was pretty bad.
As a Kansas resident, they will pull you over for the smallest thing
None of them have operable A/C. Thats the joke with Lotus. It even says so in the user manual in roundabout terms.
Me thinking about buy a lotus for the exact same reasons this past weekend....
Bro. I grew up seeing that car. All the time
I went to college out in Abilene, sadly I never saw the Lotus :(
Wimp! My Elise was my daily driver from 02 to 18 (with a two year break in a company car). Oh course I had the advantage of the English weather
He does not mention it, but the radiator is in the front and the hoses go to the back where the engine is. It has an aluminum tub and aluminum radiates the heat of these hoses like nothing else. Every thing gets hot on the sill on the right hand side. Then there is the fuel tank that is directly rear to the seats and because of the fuel return also gets warm after about an hour of driving. The car already gets really hot on drives when it is only 25 degrees, but in the desert it gets hotter than an oven!
Ditto, any mid engined car.
Its about time you two get together, i mean you both live in Georgia.
Doug left Georgia eons ago.
Doug lives in San Diego.
Last I know he was in Georgia
@@check4vI thought he was still in Georgia
That is, the country of Georgia
Some vehicles are only meant for us short kings
People have gotten so weak. Put the windows down and drive. AC is not necessary. Cruise is even less necessary.
There's nothing wrong with being comfortable. AC and cruise are awesome.
@@bwofficial1776 Yes but it is no necessary.
Who is the guy in 1 shirt?
Pretty long video just to say: The car was hot and smol
only 1 t-shirt?
And I thought you were a car guy!
Who's surprised that Doug is too soft for an Elise...?
guys get a new light, he's at least two stops underexposed
The side of his face is green from the green screen.
I wish we all lived in doug's head and could figure out what the hell is always so funny
Thats why I avoid Lotus like a Plague I need a certain baseline level of comfort. Porsche does it very well.