Equipment
2,174/215hp turbocharged four, 5-speed, OZ wheels, factory cassette stereo, power windows, air conditioning.
Condition
#3 Good
Runs and drives well. Flaws not noticeable to passersby. Most common condition.
Sound, lightly faded and detail scratched original paint with a few chips on the nose and mirrors as well as a large chip on the rear bumper. Cracking in the wood dash, which is common even on Lotuses this new. Significant wrinkling to the seats, more so than you would think given the 17,557 miles showing, but not terrible. No service history and the card both gets the interior color wrong and claims it has a two-barrel carb, none of which is encouraging. Then again, it looks quite good and the miles are low.
Market commentary
A strong price for a four-cylinder Esprit with some flaws, but not excessive and even at this number it's a great value compared to other exotics of the era. Faced with competition from Ferrari and others, Lotus doubled down on "add lightness" to create their own definition of high performance. With legendary performance and psychic handling these Lotus Esprits lack only one thing, build quality. The buyer of this one is placing no small reliance on prior owners to deal with those issues but that is encompassed in the modest price.