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What 46 owners told NHTSA about the 2005 Lotus Elise
These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.
1 of 46 complaints match · Visibility & wipers · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters
May 4, 2010Visibility & wipersCrash
I OWN A 2005 LOTUS ELISE. WHILE DRIVING THE VEHICLE DURING A RAIN STORM THE FRONT DEFROSTER WOULD NOT OPERATE, WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY REDUCED MY VISIBILITY AS A CONSEQUENCE, AS I WAS GETTING READY TO PULL OVER TO THE SIDE AND SIT, I RAN INTO FLOOD WATER AS A RESULT OF NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE PROPERLY. I CONTACTED THE DEALERSHIP WHERE I WAS INFORMED THAT THE REASON THIS HAPPENED WAS THE FAN MOTOR PACK NEEDED TO BE REPLACED WHICH WOULD COST ME 1900 DOLLARS. LOTUS PUT OUT A BULLETIN THAT HOLES NEEDED TO BE DRILLED IN THE CHASSIS TO PREVENT THIS, ALTHOUGH THE PREVIOUS OWNER HAD THIS DONE BUT DID NOT HELP THE SITUATION. WITH THEM KNOWING THIS IS A WELL KNOWN PROBLEM THEY SHOULD BE LIABLE TO FIX THIS ISSUE!! MY VEHICLE ONLY HAD 10,500 MILES ON IT AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. *TR
NHTSA ODI 10328853
Working with the data? Download all 46 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 18, 2026
How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your
pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the
full 2005 Lotus Elise verdict →