BENA80

I am thinking about a summer car - perhaps a TVR S3C. I know reliability may be crap but I have always fancied a TVR and fancy a convertable for summer - will also help keep miles down on the scoob. Does anyone have any experience of these as they seem very cheap £5-6K?

RESSE

iTrader: (1)

One of the TV programmes reviewed buying a TVR as a summer car (I think it was Driven..), anyway they said to look out for cracked fibreglass and poor repairs as many older TVRs have experienced "altercations" with rural scenary.

Mechanicals should be very relaible, mostly DIY repairs, but panel damage is more of a problem

I have always wnated to do this myself so let us know how you get on.

Richard

Squizz

Have a careful look at the chassis... But otherwise as Rich said. Most of the oily bits are Ford, so cheap as chips.

Seem to think there's a place near me that specialises in replacement glassfibre bits for TVRs and classics.

£5-6K ?? That's blinkin' cheap. Maybe for a 3000M, yeah...

RESSE

iTrader: (1)

Squzz, I think the car they reviewed was a beige and brown (!) Tasmin or Taimar - I think it has the Ford V6 Essex engine as found in the Capri (or I maybe wrong).

I also think the wedge shaped 350 (?) had the Buick V8 as per Range Rover............?

BENA80

Definately S3's for £5-6 K - look on autorader. For a laugh look on Pistonheads.com in the TVR forum at how much people spend to keep cerbies and chimps on the road - one bloke reckons 16 grand in a year - scary stuff - hopefully old clunker S3's will be pocketmoney compared to this - I cant believe ow cheap they seem to be - last year loads were 7-8K.

RESSE

iTrader: (1)

1993 Chimeara on the Autotrader www for £12,000 - go on be brave, very brave

BENA80

You may think chimps (chimaeras )eat bananas, but after looking on pistonheads it appears that prefer crisp £50 notes. I am too mean to shell out that kind of money - thats why I thought about the S series - spares hopefully as 'Cheap as chips'.
Talking of cheap cars there is a 93 chimaera on IXM for about 8 odd grand - previously damaged by minor dash fire but cheap none the less....until it goes wrong. TVR charge more than those theiving bast***** at the Subaru dealership.

[Edited by BENA80 - 3/15/2002 1:25:32 PM]

apn70

Hi
I've run an S3 since 94, until 98 this was my only car and in that time it only failed on me once. Since then I only do about 3K a year in it and again only failed once, so not bad in 8 years.
As far as running cost go I have it looked after by independents which I've never had a problem with, and the costs have been negligible.
Insurance wise it only costs around £250 for a 4K miles per year policy.
Running gear mainly Ford so bits are cheap, I've just had my chassis cleaned and repainted wich cost £160. Body wise I've got 2 very tiny cracks at the corners of the bootlid which have been there ever since I bought the car and haven't grown any bigger.

BENA80

apn70 - thanks for your input - what mileage have you got on the car now - is it the cat model?

apn70

I'm up to 70K, mine is non cat, but it was fitted from new with a 'C' Bonnet (the one with the extra lights). A couple of years ago I put on a Wedge Automotive Sports Exhaust, sounds awesome and gained more power.

GEJL

I used to have an S2, from about '94 to '96. It was a 1990 G with around 35000 miles, I think. It was reasonably reliable, but leaked like an absolute sieve. The problems I had were both electric window switches die-ing within a week of each other, the clutch pedal actuator rod popping out of the master cylinder (just popped it back in, though should have got it properly repaired ), and a small coolant leak around the water pump (err, sold it before I fixed it).

Beautiful noise - somehow they made a V6 sound like a V8. Fairly fast, but not outlandish. It did get very hot in the summer if you have the vinyl seats in it.

I did enjoy it, but sold it for a racing Caterham

For that sort of money (and an S3 is probably better than an S2) I can't think of many convertibles to rival it.

BENA80

Thanks for the replies apn70 does your one leak - will I need to put wellies on if driving in the rain?