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Buy a Lamborghini. Just kidding, I would get the Elise. My friend's dad used to race for Lotus, and he drives an '06 Sunset Yellow Elise. It runs like magic and a lot of people around town think it's a Lamborghini. I live in a small town, and yet, there are both NSX's and Elises around. To me the NSX gives me the vibe that the owner is kind of a loser. The car itself isn't bad, just the tradition with good Asian-American cars is that a lot of teens buy these cars to show off, you how it is, right? Running costs would probably be lower with the NSX but Elise would be cooler. My vote goes to the Elise.

Hey April,

NSX hands down. Best thing to do is go to your nearest exotic car dealership, call around if you need to, and TEST DRIVE both cars. You will know instantly which one is for you. The NSX vibe thing that was mentioned, he/sh must definitely be from a small town cause any metropolitan city, ask the exotic car dealers about the nsx vs elise and most will tell you that NSX is much more exotic sports car. I love the elise as well, but overall driving and ownership experience, NSX! By the way, the people who don't know about cars very much thinks the NSX looks like a ferrari or lamborghini as well.

You really need to look at ownership costs on them. I don't know about the NSX but the Elise is very demanding - $5000 per year is a good average. Many people buy a used Elise for $20000 and spend $10000 in the next year or two getting it fit for duty. The timing belt has to be changed every 60K miles and the engine has to be removed to do it. People who fail to change the belt on time are faced with severe damage to an engine with $2000 pistons. I had a Lotus Europa for 6 years and it was a wonder to drive (Lotuses are for driving, not for looking at) but the maintenance costs, even doing the work myself, were remarkable. Every single item that was not in stock doubled in price by the time it arrived. Exotic cars are only for the dedicated.

My personal preference would be to the Lotus. Both cars stand out, it all depends on who's paying attention and who actually cares. Many ppl have never seen either car so they wouldn't know there is a difference. The Acura is bigger, but not better. When considering any car like this you have to look at the larger picture in regards to insurance costs & maintenance. Both can bankrupt ya easily.