Corvette Car Insurance Rate

Encore for a Muscle Car Legend

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.

THE South Florida humidity squashes down like a Cuban sandwich press, but the men kibitzing by the roadside, both certainly of AARP-qualifying age, seem to take it in stride. Nearby, a fifth-generation Camaro, painted a phantasmagorical green and decorated with gold metallic highlights, idles impatiently, its bulging profile exaggerated by flourishes added to the hood and to both ends.

In this tableau, here in a haven for retirees, something is clearly amiss. Why aren't these guys on a shuffleboard court, drinking iced tea and avoiding the stultifying sun? Surely the car, a worked-over example of a 2010 model that's red-hot to begin with, must have been borrowed from a son -- or, more likely, a grandson.

It is a reunion of sorts. The men have not seen each other for a small lifetime, and they are busy catching up. One of them is Joel Rosen; the other is me. I've come to drive this souped-up Chevy, the latest expression of Mr. Rosen's extreme approach to performance cars.

More than 40 years ago, he conceived and built the pack alphas of the muscle car species. In cahoots with a Long Island new-car dealership, the Brooklyn hot-rodder strayed from the usual one-at-a-time approach of speed shops, instead offering standardized packages that stepped up in horsepower and racetrack-ready preparation.

In some ways, General Motors made the transformation easy: the 396-cubic-inch V-8 available in a Camaro SS of 1967, for instance, could be replaced directly with a Corvette's 427 engine bought from a Chevrolet dealership's parts department, creating a car far more powerful than anything the factory was willing to offer.

Today, the offspring of the union between Baldwin Chevrolet and Mr. Rosen's Motion Performance tuning shop -- not only Camaros, but Chevelles, Chevy IIs, Corvettes and full-size Chevys as well -- are sought after, rare and expensive. In the span of about a decade starting in the mid-1960s, a handful of similar enterprises, with names like Dana, Nickey and Yenko, sprang up and thrived, drawing the blueprints for later ventures like AMG, the Mercedes-Benz tuner, and the M Division of BMW.

How much is auto insurance for a Lotus Elise?

Drivers looking for a vehicle that delivers pure performance will find it in the 2011 Lotus Elise, but don’t expect practicality or daily driving comfort from this tiny sports car. Designed for the track, this roadster weighs in at over 1,000 pounds less than competitors like the Porsche Boxster and BMW Z4 . To achieve this streamlined weight, Lotus designers stripped the Elise of creature comforts like air conditioning, navigation, and power steering.

The 2011 Lotus Elise also lacks electronic stability control, a safety feature that the federal government will require beginning in 2012. As a result, both the Elise and the Lotus Exige will be discontinued in the U.S. until the redesigned models are released in 2015. Compare auto insurance quotes for high-end sports cars like the Elise below or enter your zip code in the box above to view personalized quotes for the Lotus Elise online.

Lotus Elise Auto Insurance Rates

Since production numbers for the Lotus Elise are so low, average auto insurance rates aren’t available for this vehicle. However, similar luxury sports cars like the BMW Z4 and Chevrolet Corvette do have available auto insurance rate information. Edmunds anticipates that BMW Z4 drivers will have paid over $12,000 in car insurance premiums after five years of ownership. The expected annual auto insurance rate for the Z4 is $2,529. Chevrolet Corvette owners are expected to pay higher rates of over $16,000 for five years of auto insurance coverage, or $3,273 per year. The Porsche Cayman and Porsche Boxster are also in the same class as the Lotus Elise, and they are more affordable than the Corvette and the Z4 to insure with expected annual auto insurance rates of $2,329 and $1,936, respectively.

Lotus Elise Repair Costs

Estimated 5-year repair costs for luxury sports cars like the Z4 and the Porsche Cayman generally range from $1,500 to $4,000, Edmunds reports. Edmunds’ projected repair cost figure for the Chevy Corvette is just $1,547 for five years, while Porsches like the Boxster and the Cayman usually cost about $3,300 to repair over five years. The Z4’s repair costs should total about $2,611 after five years.

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