RS Grant

Just been having a wee look through the For Sale adverts on PH and there are numerous Tuscans that have had a full engine rebuild between 15k-25k miles?!

Are TVR's really that bad reliability wise!??

Are the 4.2 and 4.5 Cerberas more reliable than the newer Tuscans, just that I dont remember hearing too many peeps complaining about full rebuilds with them..


Cheers,
Grant

The Chief

I'm no TVR expert but one of our supliers had a Cerbera speed six and he it went back to TVR twice through engine problems, one of which was a full rebuild.

I've heard the 4.2 is by far a more robust unit, the speed six however is crap.

This guy loved it btw but due to the problems, bought an M3

Tasberley

a mate of mine had a tuscan s a couple of years ago... to say he had a few issues with it is a bit of an understatement... 2 boxes,, 2 rebuilds in about 30k... poor build quality but what an awesome car..... superb road presence... very twitchy

SPEN555

At my last track day at Croft there were loads of Tuscans going for it on track. All of them seemed to be okay until it started raining

Petem95

The early speed six engines fitted in the Tuscan and Cerbera Speed Six were very problematic - something to do with the valves not being up to much.

The newer versions of these engines have had the problems resolved, and like you say many of the earlier ones have been rebuild, or had new valves fitted.

Tuscan is a STUNNING car tho - to get more of a 'wow' factor, you'd need to be driving a Lambo or Zonda or something.

Dick Cheese

A lovely TVR story here

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing...&f=25&t=188045

I'm sure it's all fun when you're young and on a road trip with other petrol head mates, but when you actually want to get somewhere on time without worrying if your car will fall apart...

Chris L

Speak to some of the guys on Pistonheads. I know one guy who has owned 14 over the years and he wouldn't have anything else. As long as you're not expecting it to be as reliable as your average japanese hatchback, you should be OK. Every car has horror stories though. I think I would be a little bit hesitant about having one as my everyday car though. Damn fine looking car the Tuscan

dpb

far about of scaremongering as far as i can tell......

but as chris says..!!

Petem95

I went on a 2000-mile European roadtrip this summer in a TVR Chimaera 4.5 and it ran great, even in sweltering Southern France in traffic! That TVR is my mates daily drive.

I also known 2 others with 4.5 Chimaera's (one of them has owned it for 7years from new), and no major problems!

Never going to be as fault free as a mass-produced car, but they arent as bad as the reputation implies!

ADP

I had a mate with one, his went back to the factory for new engine and box and pipes...........I have a mate who has one now, his has been a list of nightmares.........I love em but cant do it, Iknow Ill be entering into a whole world of hurt and cost

The Chief

I have noticed a lot of early 4.2 Cerbera's for around the 14-17k mark now - a lot of supercar for that -if they can stay on the road!

Type R

Im hopefully buying a T350c, reliabilty is an issue with them, but they are getting much better, my old Elise cost me an absolute fortune so in comparison the T350c will be fine.

You can get a TVR warrenty for £900 IIRC which is well worth having if buying private, I think it is subject to an inspection at the Factory though.

RS Grant

So the earlier 4.2 Cerberas are a more "canny" used buy rather than spending the extra wedge on a 4.5??

I agree, a friend has a Tuscan Red Rose S and its absolutely stunning....... I dont think there is such an imposing car for less than £110k.

...and the noise?!


Cheers,
Grant

Scumbag

And three year warranty on the new ones !!!

Chris L

Got to say - it's seriously tempting. This is a lot of car for the money

Kevin Groat

How about a 2000 car for £17k *cough*

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2000-TVR-TUSCA...QQcmdZViewItem

Roojai

Been on track with some TVR boys and all 3 of them had problems of one sort or another. Little scooby wagon did well against them (sort of - it is modified a bit) but managed to get all the stuff in the back and tow one of them off to be collected by RAC

Petem95

Why is that so cheap? Must be a cat c/d or have some problems hes not mentioned?...

Cheapest one ive seen by a long way.

What went wrong with the Elise? I thought these were supposed to be very cheap to run, and fairly reliable?

ukdave

to be fair most people i knows scooby engines are rebuilt that frequently you gotta remember all highly tuned cars arent gonna be as reliable theyre under a lot more pressure your looking at supercar performance for a fraction of the cost-if you wanted a car to be reliable at that power go price up some porsches/ferrari`s/nobles etc let me know how many you find under £20k its just a case of ya get what ya pay for.

RS Grant

I see what you are trying to say there about most performance cars needing a rebuild if they are driven the way they are intended. But, most people I know that have blown a Subaru engine usually do it around 60-70k miles, if not higher.. thats a fair bit of a difference to the miles that those people have had to rebuild their TVR Tuscans. Also, is a TVR engine as easy/cheap to rebuild as Subarus are!?

A Noble isnt stupidly expensive mate, IIRC the M12 is around £48k new??

Anyway, I still dont know many people that would say "...its ok that it needs a rebuild after 15k miles..... it only cost me 40k to start with"



If you know peeps like that, then you obviously mingle in higher social circles than I do.


Cheers,
Grant

dpb

The one i looked at was going to come with motorcare warrenty covering mosy things excluding renewing the loom - beacuse its inside the chassis