Cerbera or Chimeara

[peterh83]

Hello everyone
I'm a new member on the site and I have signed up cos I need some help. For many years now I have wanted a TVR and am now in a position to buy, budget of £10k and I'm torn between a Cerbera or soft top Chimeara. Not looking for performance to be a deciding factor. What kind of issues should I be looking for when buying, rust, engine problems etc etc. I want my first purchase to be a good one. If anyone has any advice then please feel free to drop me a line or ten.
Thank you, Peter in Glasgow

[Steve_T]

What do you have in your budget for running costs? Cerbs cost more to run the Chims and you'll be getting an older Cerb than a Chimaera which will tend to increase this differential.

[Zippee]

Totally different cars - a Cerb is not just a 4 seat Chim with a roof! Drive both before you decide.
Also 10k will get you a bloody good Chim but theres unlikely to be many good Cerbs for that kind of money.

[dirty boy]

peterh83 said:

Hello everyone
I'm a new member on the site and I have signed up cos I need some help. For many years now I have wanted a TVR and am now in a position to buy, budget of £10k and I'm torn between a Cerbera or soft top Chimeara. Not looking for performance to be a deciding factor. What kind of issues should I be looking for when buying, rust, engine problems etc etc. I want my first purchase to be a good one. If anyone has any advice then please feel free to drop me a line or ten.
Thank you, Peter in Glasgow

Budget of £10k will get you either car.

However, firstly, what can you 'realistically' afford to spend per year on servicing?

That will strongly dictate what we advise you on, as my service was over £1k and that was with sod all needing to be done.

[Phil Dicky]

Have a good look on here about running cost of both cars and you will soon see the Cerbs are not cheap to run. Where as I ran an sorted Griff 500 for 2 years with next to no issues.
Don't try to run a Cerb with a small budget it will bite you hard

[CHGRIFF]

With a budget of £10k, don't consider a Cerb. For them you need deeeeeep pockets. £10k will buy you a very nice Chim with sensible running costs and near zero depreciation. Many Cerb owners annual budget exceeds service schedule costs by up to £3000 per annum.

[JonRB]

As a very, very rough rule of thumb, a Chimaera will cost you around £1k-£2k per year to run assuming nothing much goes wrong, whilst a Cerbera will be roughly double that.

The Chimaera is also far more the "jump in it and go" car (within reason, obviously) of the two.

[Mr M]

I have a Cerb and love it to bits. Out in the pouring rain the other day and it was driving magnificently, and the 4.2 AJP makes it an addictive car. Personally I don't think you can't beat the Chim for sound though - it's glorious, and you'll never need the top speed of a Cerb on the public road anyway. Just my thoughts if it helps.

Edited by Mr M on Monday 13th July 17:12

Edited by Mr M on Monday 13th July 17:14

[TT Tim]

Get a Chim' 500, if you can get a good one for the money, run it for a year, and 'trade up' to a Cerb'.

It'll be obvious after a year if TVR ownership is for you.

Cerb' ownership can be expensive, very expensive, I speak from experience, and I've not even had an engine rebuild yet!

I had a Chim' 500 and it was a wonderful car, aural excitement as well as bags of torque. A really good introduction to TVRs.

As has been said before I know there are Cerbs out there at sub £10K, I've even thought about getting one myself, but I wouldn't suggest anyone without TVR knowledge buys one, unless they want a whole heap of trouble.

Tim

[peterh83]

Firstly a big thanks for so many quick responses, its really appreciated, Running costs and budgets were gpoing to be my next questions and you have sort of answered them, words from the wise is always great to get and should be taken seriously. I will try to get to drive both cars but it really was the soft top that was on the top of the list.
I do need to go drive one and very soon, summer is here, yes even in Scotland we get sunshine, any more hints and tips at what I should look for when road testing?
Thanks again everyone, for taking the time...

[walt762]

As has been said many times on these forums, buy on condition and the most critical component to check in either of these cars is the chasis particularly the outriggers as it is tubular steel & prone to rusting if not looked after properly.
You should also try the search function on here as any question you can think of will have been asked before.
If you are keen you should come along to either the Central Scotland TVR Car Club meeting at Broomhall castle in Menstrie 12:15 1st Sun of each month or the West of Scotland meeting at the Maletsheugh Inn 1:00 3rd Sat of every month (this Sat)

[Chris71]

For me the roof would decide it, and the possibility of having an extra couple of seats in the Cerb (well, as long as your children are amputies).

I also tend to think of the Cerb as the first of the modern TVRs. I know it's structurally very similar to the Chim and Griff, but the styling cues and the engine options just seem to feel more like a 21st century T-car than the distinctly retro Chimera.

There seem to be a lot of myths about the Cerbs being widdow makers, which as far as I can tell are exagerated at best, but I think the consensus is that the Chimera is more chuckable and easier to drive quickly if you like throwing your cars around. The Cerbera in either form is also supposed to be an order of magnitude more expensive to maintain than the Rover V8 cars.

Personally, I'd say: A lot of people desperately crave Cerbera ownership, and if you're one of them then go for it. If you're looking for 'a TVR' the Chimera (or Griffith or S) would probably be an easier proposition and you may find the open top and the gruff burbbling V8 appeal more than the coupe.

[philh]

a lot of people say it costs xx thousands to run a cerb but are these people taking it to the garage to get everything done? I realise some jobs are best left to garages but can this budget be halved if your prepared to do some work yourself??

[markh1]

philh said:

a lot of people say it costs xx thousands to run a cerb but are these people taking it to the garage to get everything done? I realise some jobs are best left to garages but can this budget be halved if your prepared to do some work yourself??

Obviously if you can do work yourself then it will reduce costs but I think it is essential you keep the serivce history up to date to preserve the value of the car and to make it easier to sell.

Although they look similar the mechanicals on a cerb are completely different to a chim. The brake pads for the AP calipers are a lot more expensive than the chim's, the disks, again are hundreds of pounds. The clutch costs about 500 quid on its own plus you are looking at about 4 hours fitting. Slave cylinder is also not much less than a clutch replacement in costs. The tappets on the AJP need to be manually adjusted every other service (12,00 miles) and there are other examples> Basicly even if you could do everything yourself on a cerb it would still cost you more than a chim to service.

[peterh83]

walt762 said:

If you are keen you should come along to either the Central Scotland TVR Car Club meeting at Broomhall castle in Menstrie 12:15 1st Sun of each month or the West of Scotland meeting at the Maletsheugh Inn 1:00 3rd Sat of every month (this Sat)

Is this near Newton Mearns??

Cheers

[Byker28i]

philh said:

a lot of people say it costs xx thousands to run a cerb but are these people taking it to the garage to get everything done? I realise some jobs are best left to garages but can this budget be halved if your prepared to do some work yourself??

Yup, I provide my own oil but 6K Cerbera service is about £400, 12K service about £600.

Mot just cost me £100, £52 for the MOT and the rest for replacing/removing cats.

If you get a good one then you can be very lucky with costs, I know I have been, but be prepared to put away the money to cover eventualities.

[Mr M]

philh said:

a lot of people say it costs xx thousands to run a cerb but are these people taking it to the garage to get everything done? I realise some jobs are best left to garages but can this budget be halved if your prepared to do some work yourself??

I haven't spent thousands either..yet. 6000k service last year was £300. 12000k this year + coolant change tappets etc hopefully not more than £750. And I drive it quite often, but not in bad Winter weather.

Edited by Mr M on Tuesday 14th July 14:39

[sf]

With the superior seating capacity, the Cerbera makes an interesting alternitive to a Renault Espace as a sensible family car while the Chimaera is a true out and out sports car. I hope this helps.

[Chris71]

sf said:

With the superior seating capacity, the Cerbera makes an interesting alternitive to a Renault Espace as a sensible family car while the Chimaera is a true out and out sports car. I hope this helps.

I do think there is a fundamental difference between a realtively contemporary 2+2 super-coupe and an open top retro roadster though.

[RedLeicester]

Worked for me!