Car and Driver

October 2003

We've heard it all before, but this time Lotus says it's set in stone. The lovely little Elise will go on sale in America next spring as a 2005 model. The U.S. car will be powered by a version of the 1.8-liter Toyota four-banger found in the Celica GT-S. It will make 190horsepower and come with Toyota's six-speed manual transmission. The company expects to sell 2500 of them a year for about $40,000 through 37 dealers. It will be slightly heavier than its Euro counterpart but will still be a featherweight at about 1800 pounds. Air conditioning will be standard. The company says there are still 75 Esprit models to be built, as that model dies a slow death.

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