Car started leaking oil.
Idle was rough.
Problems with the indicator lights coming on during high speed driving.
Car was running hot.
Had difficulty getting parts.
Was losing boost pressure, had to get the turbo redone at 17,000 miles.
Had to replace the fuel lines, the car was smelling of fuel in the cabin.
Interior trim started fading, driver's seat bolster was getting worn down, dash was taking a beating.
For the first 5,000 miles the car ran great.
At about 12,000 miles I started having problems one after the other. Every time I took it out it wouldn't be too long before I had something that needed repairing.
At 130+ mph you can tell it's not solid, lots of rattles.
I was disappointed, I looked far and wide for a Lotus S4S with the lowest miles I could find, I figured I would get at least 20,000 miles out of the car before I was going to get major problems.
My Lotus 1995 S4s is everything I hoped. Solid, fast, great handling and more unsolicited praise than any of my previous fun cars ('73 MGB, '69 E-type Jag, '60 MGA, '64 Corvette, '91 Porsche Turbo).
35,000 miles on it when I got it 18 months ago. Easy driving in both stop-and-go traffic, country roads and highway.
Looked at four S4s (Cincinnati, Atlanta, Scottsdale and Huntington Beach) before buying the one in California.
Since you spoke of rough idling and a turbo problem, I may suggest that your ECU was at fault.
When an ECU fault occurs the car can no longer run at full boost and will chug heavily when idling.
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