Will £20-£30K budget give me reliable everyday use ?

[Simply Mono]

Hi all

For the last 7 months I've been driving a 10 year old 911, but wanted something a bit faster . I have however been using the car everyday , putting around 7K miles on the car without a hiccup.

So for a budget of between £20-£30K can I really run a TVR for say 15K miles a year with minimum hiccups, as long as properly serviced etc ? If so , which TVR do you recommend ? Reliability is biggest consideration.

If the answer is, no, then if I stick to £15-20K & use it as a weekend car, which model is most reliable please .

Thanks in advance for your advice & looking forward to 1st test drive in a TVR (never been in one to date )

Dave

[bsdnazz]

I'm 6 years into using my Chim 400 as a daily drive. I budget £2k a year for tax, service, MOT, and the unexpected.

It's gone technical on me a few times:

hole in rad
immobiliser died
top mount of a front spring/damper unit sheared off

Added to that I've managed to flatten the battery a couple of times and flood the engine.

I'm keeping it until I've replaced the chassis, body and engine a couple of times. I can then hand it on to my son!

[Englishman]

For that budget you will get a good example of whichever model you prefer, Sagaris excepted. Yes they can be used daily and still be reliable if looked after.

As everyone will tell you, buy on condition rather than age or mileage. However, in your position I'd either go for as late an RV8 model as you can find or a post 2004 S6 model.

Edited by Englishman on Tuesday 27th October 19:55

[Chris71]

I presume that budget is to buy it and run it for a year? Either that or you really need to question the invoices which have come back from the Porsche garage.

What do you actually want out of the car? If you're prepared to look at the older (and generally thought to be more reliable) V8 cars then you've got a huge choice from Chimaeras and Griffiths (or even Wedges and the S-Series) through to T350s and Tuscans. You've got convertibles, coupes and targa tops; you've got woofly muscle-car Rover V8s, spine-tingling flat plane crank AJP V8s and several different iterations of the Speed Six; you've got a very considerable range of performance from addequate to insane and also rather different levels of upkeep. So what do you want?

Incidentally, if I had that budget I'd go straight for a T350C. Just unbelievably gorgeous cars, they sound beautiful, frighteningly fast and I'm led to believe they handle well too.

[Mr MoJo]

Admittedly I don't use mine as everyday transport, but it has done 6ooo miles over the last year and not let me down (break down wise) once. A good late RV8 car as long as its properly maintained should be a good reliable everyday car.

You'll get a lovely Griff within your 20-30k budget too, the best looking TVR

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1260829.htm

I was going to link to the red SE at Fernies too but it appears to have been sold.

Edited by Mr MoJo on Wednesday 28th October 10:30

[stimshady]

great pic!

[Zippee]

That Griff is nice but it's an awful lot of money for an 8 year old TVR. An equivalent Chimaera could be had for 12-14k, they're exactly the same just with different bodies!

[Mr MoJo]

Zippee said:

That Griff is nice but it's an awful lot of money for an 8 year old TVR. An equivalent Chimaera could be had for 12-14k, they're exactly the same just with different bodies!

There can never be an equivalent Chimaera, everyone knows Griffs are the special ones

[Zippee]

Mr MoJo said:

Zippee said:

That Griff is nice but it's an awful lot of money for an 8 year old TVR. An equivalent Chimaera could be had for 12-14k, they're exactly the same just with different bodies!

There can never be an equivalent Chimaera, everyone knows Griff owners are the speshal ones

Edited by Zippee on Wednesday 28th October 15:21

[Mr MoJo]

Zippee said:

Mr MoJo said:

Zippee said:

That Griff is nice but it's an awful lot of money for an 8 year old TVR. An equivalent Chimaera could be had for 12-14k, they're exactly the same just with different bodies!

There can never be an equivalent Chimaera, everyone knows Griff owners are the speshal ones

Edited by Zippee on Wednesday 28th October 15:21

[JoePublic]

Mr MoJo said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1260829.htm

£27,000? I'd expect it to be made out of a composite of platinum and rocking horse poo for that.

Get two normal ones for that. Or a very smart T-car.

Edited by JoePublic on Wednesday 28th October 17:13

[Mags]

I've just done the same thing, bought a Griff as a useable 'regular' car with the idea that along with Chim's they are likely to be better in the reliability stakes (i've got a couple of classics but need something to always be ready to use and not in bits on the floor)
I did part with a lot of money for a Griff 500 but it was a real nice one. The theory is that a couple of years with a Griff assuming it doesn't go horribly wrong and then I move onto to an AJP Cerbie
Don't get me wrong, I lurve Griff's but I don't care for the soft top and there's something about Cerbie's that makes me want one badly, I just couldn't do with the potential risk of it being unreliable or very costly to run at the moment.

Mark

[Simply Mono]

Thanks for all the advice

Budget was to buy the car , but I'm expecting a reasonable amount for servicing etc.

As for what do I want from the car, well I find all TVR's attractive, but even more so the newer ones. The T350C really does look special & as for the Sagaris !!!!! Maybe I should save a bit more As I expect most people do, I would like maximum performance balanced against reliability & not too insane running costs (fuel aside).

I'll start to read more about the engine choices & possibly have a look at a few cars. Any recommended outlets near Cheltenham, Glos ?

Thanks again

Dave

[tubbystu]

Simply Mono said:

Any recommended outlets near Cheltenham, Glos ?

Thanks again

Dave

David Gerald is over in Worcester http://www.davidgeraldtvr.com/

[-Jamie-]

buy a car for 20K and spend 10k upgrading

Edited by -Jamie- on Wednesday 28th October 20:19

[Shabs]

-Jamie- said:

buy a car for 20K and spend 10k upgrading

Edited by -Jamie- on Wednesday 28th October 20:19

T350 + Power 4.3 engine that comes with the 5 year unlimited milage warranty...

[Targarama]

Yes, any recent model TVR can be pretty reliable and excellent examples are available for the low 20ks. However, you could get an iffy car which needs more work (in other words buy carefully), and have you done many miles in recent model TVRs? Try one then decide whether you can live with it daily - they really are easy to drive, but some people will not want to do it, especially through the winter.

[WorAl]

I would do something like this, drive it everyday until it/if it lets go then do this and keep the remaining money from the purchase in a high interest account (if poss now) until such times you need it.

Edited by WorAl on Thursday 29th October 10:04

[Simply Mono]

tubbystu said:

Simply Mono said:

Any recommended outlets near Cheltenham, Glos ?

Thanks again

Dave

David Gerald is over in Worcester http://www.davidgeraldtvr.com/

Might pop over there tomorrow Thanks

[Simply Mono]

Shabs said:

-Jamie- said:

buy a car for 20K and spend 10k upgrading

Edited by -Jamie- on Wednesday 28th October 20:19

T350 + Power 4.3 engine that comes with the 5 year unlimited milage warranty...

I've never been in to modding cars, based on the fact you never get it back when reselling, or actually make the car harder to sell. Appreciate if you keep the car for years it's not such an issue, but I seem to change cars every 12 months or so