Lotus Elise

A rich motorsport heritage informs the way Lotus builds its cars, especially when it comes to weight saving. While it may mean holding back on some of the luxuries this does bring other benefits, such as only needing a small and relatively frugal engine to deliver performance that outclasses much bigger, thirstier performance cars. True sports car performance with hot hatch mpg is your reward, the CO2 emissions also pretty good for the performance. Less weight also means less strain on tyres, brakes and other components so maintenance will be reasonable for such a focused sports car. True, the asking price is pretty steep and the Alpine A110 and Porsche 718 Boxster offer comparable thrills with much more in the way of usability and equipment. But the Elise holds its value well so your money will be reasonably safe, especially in the case of this Final Edition version.