fazack

I really fancy a 2+2 next and have always admired the TVR. I'd be looking at spending about £20K and would have a full AA inspection. Has anyone done this ? Is it a really stupid thing to do ?

I do need a reliable car to do 20K miles p.a.

Opinions appreciated.

Cider boy

I think TVR's are great motors, but "reliable" isn't the first word that springs to mind

A mate has one and it's stupidly fast, but he also knows his local RAC recovery team more than he'd like to!!!

Matt

scooby L

Not a TVR then..

Lovely Cars, very quick,............


not reliable..

not at all

absolutly not

not a sausage

David_Wallis

my mate has just sold his tamora..

Was a really nice car.. reliable for him (had warranty too) however very expensive servicing.. and noise was a bit too much for him during the day.. also suspension was a little too stiff for roads around here.. (too many speed bumps in leeds)

I liked it though.

David

LiamWR1

Its your choice and IMHO the TVR is a great car

fazack

I can't help it, I just keep trying to justify it to myself, saying things like "Surely a three year old one will have had all the niggles sorted out" and "Surely the running costs can't be any worse than a WRX".

mynickers

Lovely cars indeed, and you might be one of the lucky ones that doesnt' have hassle with theirs, but repuations don't come about for nothing, they are well known for being shall we say tempermental

I think the newer ones are getting over this, sadly for them the repuation will take longer to get rid of..Perhaps they should be bought out by VW worked for Seat and Skoda

How much do Cebera's go for these days, I am sure there are plenty of exciting alternatives that will be better suited to your high millage. 20k is just under double the national average, so probably not a good idea to go for a car that has a repuation for reliablitiy problems

How about a Honda (he he, that's always my answer), NSX not in Cebera money?

wez_sti

kind of just seconding what everyone else has said, being a forum about a performance car, we'll pretty much all share the desire to get a TVR, luuuuuuurvly motors, but 20k a year, no chance!

will depreciate like hell with high miles, cost a fortune to service and engine rebuilds are very common, heard of a guy who needed 2 within 10k miles of eachother!

on a serious note, an owners club recomended having £5k a year spare for general maintenance. and thats for fairly low milage. dunno if these are scare tactics or whatever but they scared me!!!

could you not get a cheap run-around, ie diesel mondeo or simular??? save you a fortune in fuel, even after insurance etc....

Raks

if you want performance motoring, which can be counted on as being reliable, why don't you get an M of sorts ?

Only thing i would have thought they would cost is servicing and fuel bills. oh, and insurance.

Nothing else would really give you what you wanted

M3 :

2+2
considered reliable (take VANOS scares with a pinch of salt)
320+BHP
RWD
comfortable cruiser
Iconic status (both good and bad point)
Loves to be revved

Emms

One of my old collegues at my last hospital's husband had a Griffith. His local TVR mechanic was the best man at their wedding..........

Sounded mean tho

Tiggs

"I do need a reliable car to do 20K miles p.a."

yes you're stupid if you get a tvr...next.

pxr

A friend of mine runs the local tvr club, and get his details if u want them.

But I must say I have watched, tissue's in hand i must admit. As he bought cars like the 2.8 wedge. 550 griffth, and now the tuscan.

All of his cars have been deadicated sunday cars, it rains the hgv size umbrella comes out. But that is only if it manages to start.

Great car, performance is ace, in fact his griffth 550 gave me whiplash when he accelrated in 2nd.

**** reliability big time.

if u get 1, u got to look it as a summers day car that comes out once or twice a week.

gav

LoneGranger

you might want to consider a Chimera - rover engine is great + reliable - I have had a Griff for 10 years - first expense is dampers - but my total mileage is your annual mileage! - I think you should try a 500 Chimera and then run it for a year!

tuscan57

Does depend what your after really but wouldnt suggest high mileage, my tuscan has now done 9000 miles since 2000 without any major problems ( holding my breath now tho) but it is only weekend car etc! they do have there niggles also being hand built etc and some are built better than others, have refitted my exhaust four times i think now! other than that so far all the problems have been leaking g/b oil, and far too much fuel! oh and annoyed neighbours!

steve

Mmmmm

The M thing makes sense.

M Roadsters are bargains, not as quick but still very fast, open topped motoring, thrilling handling without being suicidal, reliable and useable day to day, although the boot is tiny and the fuel tank too.

M coupe is suposed to handle better and has luggage space (top gears drivers car of the year for some years).

But for something totally different to handle 20 k miles a year , hows about some mile munching comfort and a bit of grunt E55 W201 Merc or an XJR Super charged Jag !

Can pick these up now for £20k from dealers with one years warrenty

Still bags of sideways fun on the odd track day

Tiggs

i ran a chim as a daily drive...bag of ****e.

it was a mint, one owner car- loads of receipts- spent ages finding the best one i could.....bag of ****e, god knows what bad ones are like!

mgg

Go for it, buy one.
They are awesome sports cars and sound ridiculously mean! You only come this way once and to own a TVR is a deffinate thumbs up on any persons car wish list!

Just think of all them people staring when you cruise through town shattering shop windows from the stupidity of the engine noise...............excellent!

carl

There was a thread on www.pistonheads.com about this very thing. Conclusion was: don't do 20k a year in one unless you have very deep pockets. And bear in mind that when you sell it with high mileage it will take ages to shift, unless it's very cheap.

Edit: look, I've even found the thread for you...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...f=6&h=0&hw=20k

Martin J Stirling

Fazack,

You really only have 2 serious options here..

1 - Don't by the TVR and buy a different performance car that will be able to cope with the high mileages reliably.

2 - By the TVR, and a cheap diesel. Use the TVR for weekends, and the diesel for the mileages. The saving in fuel alone will pay for the diesel in no time.

NB - To be honest though, using a performance car for high mileages makes no sense! It all amounts to £££ down the drain as they cost more in fuel, cost more to service and will lose loads in depreciation with high mileage. If you really crave a TVR, then option 2 is the best bet mate.

Good luck!

Mart.

carl

Except, playing Devil's Advocate here, you'll then find that you spend most of your time driving a crap diesel. Then, for whatever reason, you won't have time to drive the Trevor at the weekends. If you need to jump in a car to go down the shops, you'll realize that to get the Trevor out you need to juggle the cars around on the driveway, and if you get stuck in traffic it might overheat, and it's a pig to park. So you'll take the crap diesel, and find yourself never driving the Trevor.

If you have a job where you need to drive 20k miles a year, I'd recommend trying to take the TVR in one or two days a week. Or maybe in the summer only.

Tiggs

i never understood the "buy a cheap car as well "idea.

who the hell wants to buy a cheap car?

my original plan was 20k on a TVR and 5K on a daily runner......when i realised what a bag of ****e the TVR was and that i didnt want to even sit in a 5k car let alone drive it i sold the TVR (bloody hard to sell one) and bought a 25k car that i could use all the time.

T

Martin J Stirling

Tiggs,

Not that difficult to understand, quite simple really!

If you do high mileage in your job for example, then as I mentioned, it's financial suicide to use an expensive car everyday. The fuel and servicing bills would be bad enough, but watching the heavy depreciation on a high mileage car would just be madness.

Obviously, if u have money to burn, then this isn't an issue, but for most people 20K is still a big investment. 5K will buy you a decent enough run around these days, I dare say more comfortable and quieter than a TVR or a scoob on long journeys. I think it makes a lot of sense.

Plus, it's always nice to have something special to look forward to at weekends. I love saving my Evo for weekends, it's always such a treat after driving my runaround all week.

Mart.

Tiggs

all i know is that sat in my 25k 540 sport was better than sitting in my 20k TVR or my 5K mondeo!

Prince Popeye

I've also considered a TVR but have come to the same conclusion regarding the reliability. one guy on the Cerbera website hasn't even managed 100 miles without some fault on the car. They also have to be run daily i've heard.
One guy had spent 13 grand in 2 years on bills!!!!

I've owned my Evo 6 for 2 and a half years. Have spent around 1600 quid on this car in total. Can't beat Jap cars for reliability.

Thought about a new M3 or even a lotus Exige(turbocharged) as am bored.

You thought about the Fq300 Evo7 or 8??

CraigH

Depends what you want Tiggs. If I was spending £25k on a luxury car, then something like a 540 would be high on my list. If I wanted something for fun/weekends/trackdays, it wouldn't.

Some people would want their £25k to be more individual than a rep car like a 5, even though it's a high spec one, hence a TVR etc.

I personally think having cars for a variety of purposes is a great idea. 5hitter for town driving, leaving in dodgy places, something mental for the weekend/trackdays and maybe one other. For your £25k I've got the XTR4 and an E30 M3 - and I'd prefer to be in either of those 2 than a 540, because I don't need a 540 at anytime (at the mo)

If things change, then I may do too.

RESSE

iTrader: (1)

Question:

Was the "Speed Six" a smaller engines version of the V8 Cerbera?

Vicky B-H tested a Speed Six on Top Gear a few years ago and I got the impression it was not a raw as the V8 engined car?

Still barking mad though.......................the car not VBH.

carl

Speed 6 is the straight-6 engine that's the same as that in the Tuscan, T350, Tamora, etc. It's 4-litres, dry-sumped in the Cerb.

mynickers

Have to agree with Martin here actually, performance cars are daft for high millage. I know a good friend in here mentioning no names who has a WRX which as it is at the moment standard engine, is doing high miles for work (mostly motorway), and one of his recent fuel bils was £250 for a month - that's an outrageous amount of money to spend by any standards -given mine is about £20 at the moment (granted I dont' do many miles - but still) On top of that expect huge insurance period, but especially if you're on the road that much - milleage sends insurance up too. And lets face it you're going to be beasting it, it's hard not to in a performance car, even if you didn't meant to. So tyres are going to be going pretty quick as are break pads and even discs. Again as Martin said it all amounts to big bucks, you'd be better off with a nice old comfortable C-Class TDI which are dead cheap now to belt up and down the motorway, and get a TVR or better still a Caterham for the weekend!

M - roadster - hate to p1ss on yoru paradae again, but they're ****e (IMO), well the M-engine is obviously wicked, but it's just generally ****e. I would get the M 'coupe', no skuttle shake or dogey open top strengthening under car, and generally dodgey chassis, no hair dresser image of one of the worst sales disasters Beemer ever had and that really is a drivers car and a half, looks are - well debatable, but it's great. Still have the old top gear video in some deep dark part of my attic with Tiff sending it almost back on itself with oversteer around a track with a smile from ear to ear.

Upside is, you don't see many of them about, and they have a more focused driver reputation than the M3 which whilst fantastic is still a car that people will roll their eyes up and make comments about the size of your ****!

Tiggs

"If I wanted something for fun/weekends/trackdays, it wouldn't."

and heres the TVR problem (certainly TVRs under £20k)

they are not fun when they are bust, the weekend needs to be perfect (no rain, not to hot, no traffic and lots of luck) and they are not a trackcar. In fact i can think of few times where the TVR would be faster than the BMW A-B. the 540 was a powerfull car, set up perfectly that only struggled (a bit) with its weight. The TVR was a powerfull car, set up by chimps with a pot of glue and some plastic that pretended that weighing nothing and sounding loud was good enough.

CraigH

I didn't realise you'd graduated from TVRs Advanced Engineering School

I was referring to your "who the hell wants a cheap car" statement.

I'm not condoning owning a TVR because I feel (almost) as strongly as you about them.