Car And Driver Comparison Test: 2004 Lotus Elise

Here is a great comparison test from the July 2004 issue of Car and Driver. They pick the brand new Elise as the winner by a hair over the Honda S2000. Sixteen years later would you do the same?

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Take a look at the final tally and you’ll see that the numbers were very close. The Cobra always seemed out of place here and was an obvious distant 5th place. With over a decade of hindsight, we’d love to see it swapped out for a BMW Z4 3.0 or a Boxster S or even an Ariel Atom. Though lower on power, maybe a late NA Miata instead of this NB would make it more of a comparison of icons these days. Whatever the mix, we love comparisons like this and the way the data was thoroughly presented.

We’ll post this to the Elise Model Page and also make it available on future Elise listings.