bye bye Exige...

Well, after about three years of Lotus ownership, boredom and fatherhood prompted me to sell the Exige S.  Initially, I intended to keep this one forever, as it was rather hard to find (had it shipped here from a Lotus dealership in California).  Plus, there are only about 300 of them in the country, so to see one in person is a pretty rare occurence (I've only seen one other before).

I got bit by the Lotus bug over 20 years ago and became a fanatic after seeing this 1990 Esprit SE in the movie Pretty Woman...

I test drove a few Esprits over the years but never found the "right one".  After that, I kind of lost interest in Lotus until the Elise came to the US in 2005, which we ended up buying one of those a few years ago, only to sell it to buy an Exige.  That brings us to today.  I was actually thinking about selling it out of boredom earlier this year, but Anna encouraged me not to.  Just recently, though, with Anna and I expecting, I decided it would be selfish to keep it, as I'd be the only person getting any use out of it over the next several years.  So, with only 7,500 miles on the odometer, up for sale it went on a Lotus car forum.  A handful of people were interested from all over (including California, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, Canada, and even Peru), but it ended up going to a guy in Greensboro, who picked it up Monday evening.

The older I get, the more I realize how much I inherited the "car buying/selling gene" from my father.  I just realized since Anna and I have been in SC (a little over 4 years), we've somehow ended up owning/buying/selling 9 vehicles (including a motorcycle) during that time.  Not quite on par with dad, though.  I remember him telling me once when he was 18 years old, he went through about twenty cars in just that one year.  He passed away about 5 years ago.  I'm sure he wasn't too happy with the Lotus purchases.  He was never into any of that kind of stuff.  But I'm sure he was happy with the end result... ownership was essentially "free" over the past three years, as we ended up selling them for exactly the same amount we had invested in them.  Sold the Elise for a little less, and the Exige for a little more.  This one was for you, dad ;-)

Unfortunately, as of the 2012 model year, Lotus is no longer offering a streetable version of the Exige in the US. It is only being offered here as a track-only car that cannot be licensed and driven on public roads... http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/08/2012-lotus-exige-headed-to-u-s-as-track-only-car/

A few pics before it was picked up...

And one the new owner sent me after it reached it's new home...