# BMW ///M3 vs. Lotus Elise



## -=Rousseau=-

Which one is better? I'm looking at buying a new car in about 4 years (I plan way ahead) when my current car is heading towards old, and I'm starting saving up now. I'm leaning towards an M3 because of quality and ride so far.


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## daamon_vexion

quality, ride, customer service, availabilty of parts, speed, man the M3 is in completely different class than the Elise. Seriously, the only thing i like about the Elise is the looks. If I had to go with Lotus, I would go with the Exige, at least it has some power to back up the agressive styling.


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## paulhol

Depends what you are looking for out of the car. The Elise will be much, much more fun to drive and to own but on the flip side the M3 is a more practical car and will be easier to live with/maintain etc. I would prefer to have an Elise as one of a few cars, but if it were my only car id get the M3 every time.



p.s if you're buying brand new in 4 years the E90 M3 will be out. 400bhp 4.0 V8 and possibly a DSG-type gearbox


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## -=Rousseau=-

I'm looking to buy an M3 in '10, meaning the '08 E90 M3 should be in my range  The M3 would be my only car, so yeah... the M3 will be quite a step up from my current car: a C230K with 190 HP, 1.8L I-4. Literally twice the power, with less weight


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## paulhol

Be careful not to kill yourslef then!

Oh, and whatever you do dont get the first model year out, especially with a brand new engine as highly strung as that 4.0 V8 is going to be. It's asking for trouble, wait 12 months for the teething problems to be ironed out


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## daamon_vexion

thats true, also watch for both companies and any recalls they might have, lotus makes nice cars, but their mechanics side of the book arent the greatest, lately they have been having Ford help them out


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## daamon_vexion

oh and in reference to the Elise being more fun to drive than the M3, that is only cus it is like driving a Go-Kart on the road.. tiny, not a lot of power with awesome turn in, however the M3, may be larger, but it performs almost as well, just not with the flair of the Elise


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## Fr4665

im going for the m3 cause its more practical. the elise 1. can seat 2 so ur screwed its more of a track car 2. um traveling maybe like luggage 3. kids i duno if ur planning way ahead haha (or maybe u already have kids)

all my friends have e46 m3's and e36 m3's. if you want more power on the beast just throw a turbo on and u got ur self a nice comfortable car with 4 seats and some luggage room. also if you plan on doing mods ... bielstein bss9 coilovers and eisenman race exhaust is a must (sounds uber beastly with that titanium one) intake and chamber plates ... then u have a big gokart with lots of power 

edit: i almost forgot the new bmw 335i twin turbo (i think thats it) is also a looker u might want to consider that as with some tweaking im sure the stock hp ratings can be easliy increased


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## -=Rousseau=-

haha, found this thread 5 years later - I ended up going with an E46 M3 (couldn't quite swing the cost of an E90/E92). Loving it so far, much more fun than I even anticipated (plus it's actually faster than the Elise, at least on paper).


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