Great cars. If you can do without the rear seats and boot space do it and by the look of your Clio it will be a better match for you.
Vauxhall versus Lotus. Easy choice for me as I have a Lotus – but I did consider the VX and do like them. It is basically a Lotus anyway with it being a reworked Elise built at Hethel – the styling was done by some Aussie so there isnt really much of Vauxhall in it aside from the mechanicals. I think they just needed something to try and give a bit of sparkle to their other cars that are all dull.
Dont discount the Lotus. It is a nice thing to have and mine makes me feel really special when Im driving it knowing that I am in a car from a company that revolutionised F1 and had the likes of Mansell and Senna driving for them. Im not a badge snob (Im going to by a Renault FFS), but if you are a true petrolhead having a Lotus will do it for you.
All that stuff about running costs being more is a bit far stretched. They are no less reliable with one using a Vauxhall unit and the other the Rover K-Series, the hourly rate is a little more at Lotus but they are better trained to deal with your car properly as that is all they do – not Corsas and Vectras with the odd VX. But if you want to save a packet go to a specialist.
One VX I cant argue with though is that Turbo. A lot of people in the know rubbish it for its power delivery but it is astonishingly quick. There cant be a better value performance car out there – imagine that turbo chipped too!
Buy a Lotus (or a Vauxhall badged Lotus) and youll get totally uncompromised sports car. Youll be a better driver after 6 months/a year. They are very, very quick too. All that stuff about a 182 reeling one in is wishful thinking. When you drive an Elise (or VX) you soon realise that spec sheets dont tell you how fast a car is. 0-60 in under 6 seconds is only part of the story.
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/49118.htmclick here to look at my one
There are some nice Vauxhalls on there too.