Lotus Esprit on Craigslist $5800

Hmmm that could tempt me away from my Focus.... ;-)

 

That seems awfully cheap, if it's in decent condition. You'll spend more than that for the first service.

 

That seems like a good buy, you don't see those for sale very often. $5800 plus $20 for a drip-pan, to keep your garage clean. $5820 seems like a pretty good deal to me.


Ming

 

Location?

 

I always liked the Esprit. Great car. My wife and I owned a 1978 Esprit S2 for awhile. I always wanted to get a turbo model, but figured if I did, I would get either a 1986 or '87 since they went to fuel injection then. Since this is an '85, I'm guessing it would still have the twin Dellorto DHLA 45 carb's.

Still a heck of a car for the money! I notice it's also listed in the New York "Craigslist" too, with a different price:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/car/602462281.html

Mike

 

Smells like a scam to me.

 

I think you're right. When I look closely at the bottom right hand picture, that looks like a NY plate on the truck in the background.

The odd thing is that I saw a red Esprit very similar to this one running around Beaverton a few days ago.

 

I've got a black one up for sale in my area also on craigs its a few years newer (1991?) anyway its black and going for 18k.

 

I sent the seller a short email note asking "where" the car was located and if I could see it.

Here's his response below.

Big time SCAM that comes with -FREE- shipping!

------------------------------------------------------------------

I am so grateful that you have taken a few minutes of your time to look at my car. That I must say is a wonderful car. I just moved in Paris , France with my work and due the fee so high to register a car from United States im forced to sell it back to US .The shipping will be FREE OF CHARGES for you and will be done through Capitol City Shipping & Escrow Company . Me not you will pay for shipping. So that none of us loose money we will use Capitol City Escrow based also in Constantine , MI for this transaction. I have $10000 deposit in Capitol City Escrow database for buyer protection. I will start the transaction in a private case where you and me are fully protected. If you are really interested in buying my car please email me with the following information:
-Your full name;
-Your shipping address;
-Your home or cell phone #;

I look forward to hearing from you, so that we can move forward with this transaction!

Regards

Jacob Edery

[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------

 

+1, screw with him to see what you can get out of it.

 

That listing looks liek a Scamoloio.

I too have seen the local red lotus. I think the owner lives on Barnes. Swear I saw it the other day parked at a house between St Vincent's and Leahy road intersection.

 

I'm not at all trusting with strange ppl on the web as a rule, but have to confess I'm naive with how the scam works. I mean, what exactly is this guy going to do with "just" your name, number, and address? Can't imagine him buying a house in your name with this info?

So, while I can't say I myself would give the info, if I were really interested in the car, I might be inclined to at least dig deeper into the "proposal".

Just can't see the damage with this information; not saying it's not possible, just that I don't see it.

 

...and furthermore, if he didn't write in broken english (pretty much the tip off right there) what else is the clue that this is a scam? The fact that he's using an escrow service? I thought that was the "safe" thing to do....

 

Well, reading it ONE MORE TIME I guess the fact that he's doing free shipping on a $5800 is pretty silly. And having a 10 grand retainer on a $5800 is also r-tarded.

Ok, I guess it reeks.
Sorry for all the posts, I'll shut up and go to bed now.

 

Heard recently that LOTUS stood for "lots of trouble, usually serious" & in this case I think its correct.

 

This one has already been removed.

There have been others in OR and WA for pretty cheap. The S1 Esprits are pretty cheap, mostly because they a)weren't very fast and b)were horribly built. Actually, the Esprits were garbage until late in the 4-cyl turbo production. A family friend bought one new and the transmission literally fell out of the car (the mounts broke and the whole works rotated --hitting the pavement.)

Most of the problems (like in the Elan and Europa) have long since been solved, so they are fun cars. It's possible to pick up non-Turbo cars for under $10K, which is a heck of a buy for a car with such amazing handling. Power isn't great, but not really that much under contemporary exotics (like 2V injected 308s/Mondial8).

And we don't want to get into acronyms...I have dozens for all different makes.

 

+1, but the Esprit's do have problems. I really haven't heard of many problems on the Elises and Exige's... there's not a whole lot that can break.

 

Nice Godsil... You know we can't let you live this one down.....

 

The fact that they are using Toyota engines may have a lot to do with the increase in reliability.

 

...and actually, those Toyota engine have been garbage in the Celica GT-Ss they came from. Lotus did some slight editing.
I wish they'd gone with the Honda Integra VTEC motor like the Sun International cars. Ah well.