Buy This 5000-Mile Lotus Emira V6 For £34k Less Than A New One

So, you want a Lotus Emira V6. We don’t blame you – it’s a lovely car. There’s a problem, though: as of this week’s range of updates for the British market, a new six-cylinder Emira is now £92,500.

That’s rather a lot, especially when you consider that (for as long as you can still buy one) a Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 costs from £75,300. The car from Stuttgart offers similar performance to the one from Norfolk, and both get sonorous six-pot engines and the choice of a manual gearbox. The Porsche's also, if we’re being honest, probably a slightly better car.

But we get it. You like the Lotus. Us too. As always, our solution is to head to Auto Trader, do a search for manual V6 Emiras, and hit our favourite button: the one that says ‘sort by price – low to high’.

That’s led us to this, a 2022 Emira First Edition in the rather fetching shade of Seneca Blue. It is, to all intents and purposes, pretty much the same as the current V6 Emira. It has the same 400bhp from its 3.5-litre supercharged Toyota V6, the same surprisingly roomy interior that’s a massive step up in quality from past Loti, and those same gorgeous junior supercar looks.

This one also has some desirable options – Sports suspension rather than the softer Touring setup, which will please the heel-and-toe crowd, and the higher-end KEF audio system.

It’s covered a mere 5000 miles from new and, while we can’t see the plate to take a look at its history, it’s apparently on a 72 registration, so it’s probably not old enough to have had its first MOT yet anyway. Essentially, what we have is an Emira that someone else has done the hard work of running in on, and it’s being offered for £57,980 – or more than £34,000 less than a box-fresh V6.

You’re probably wondering what the catch is, and to be honest, so are we. Don’t like the colour? You’re in luck there too, because the very same dealer has another one at the very same price (albeit with a whole 6000 miles on the clock), but in yellow. Really, you’re spoiled for choice.