Noble V TVR reliability !!

[barefoot]

I recently posted on the Noble forum under "Jousts Marcos pictures" about the Noble's interior and how quick my T350 was on a track especially against the Nobles. As usual got some stick back about TVR reliability.

This is my reply. It makes very interesting reading!!

[quote]I always think the TVR’s interior looks best on the back of a tow-truck, which is where I tend to see them most…;-)[/quote]

Having read Joust's diary I thought it only fair for all the Noble owners that call TVR's unreliable to just take a moment and look @ these findings;

Sept 15 02...1st 2 days with new Noble
8th Nov...flat battery
6th Dec...flat battery
27th April 03...RAC BACK TO FACTORY
29th April... engine replaced under warranty
24th May...car back bill for £5,670 for buying diff exhaust LSD track day sump etc
24th June...engine temp starts to climb
Early July...engine temp still very high won't start once warm has to be towed
18th July...BACK TO FACTORY
30th July...car delivered to Autocar/Noble track day after being fixed but overboosts so BACK TO FACTORY
9th August...Pick car up from factory after having new turbo fitted car smokes on way home
10th August... taking back to factory the car is abandoned so towed/trailered BACK TO FACTORY
20th Sept...Car returned after rebuild to engine number 2
12th Oct...Serious engine problems car trailered home then BACK TO FACTORY
16th Nov...Running car in again after another engine rebuild
12th Dec... Picks car up from factory after another 1st service car has a misfire on way home
13th Dec... Find breather pipe loose from top of crank replaced cures misfire

Approx total of 125 days off the road/BACK TO FACTORY in 14 months!!!!

I know TVR have problems and the early Speed Six engines in particular but please don't try and say Nobles are any different!

It seems that the factory are brill in looking after their customers but if/when they sell as many as TVR I am sure that will change.

Every credit to Joust for his diary and honesty and I think Noble are very lucky he has been such an enthuisiast.

[pbrettle]

From my understanding Noble are a pretty reliable make in general and except for a few noteable exceptions have proven to be pretty good - they have suffered very public failures too (suspension failure on an Autocar test), but they are pretty specialist at the best of time so you need to be aware of what you are getting into.

The problem is that people seem to want to stick the boot in on TVR - yes there have been some nightmare stories, but fortunately these are rare and certainly not the norm. What is worrying is that there are a number of supposedly "reliable" manufacturers who suffer these serious problems. Merc have massive problems with electrics on SL55's (and pretty much every other marque), BMW still have engine failures on M3's and current figures suggest that a VW Golf 1.6 is the most unreliable new car available.....

Do people still believe that Mercs are well built? That BMW's are unburstable and that if only everything in life was as reliable as a VW....? Perspective is what we need and TVR's arent that bad....

[Plotloss]

The difference here though is how Noble have handled the issues. Its not purely down to reliability its down to the handling and the attitude of the manufacturer when a problem arises.

A region, dare I say, where TVR could work a little harder in my experience.

[S3 Kieran]

Plotloss said:

The difference here though is how Noble have handled the issues. Its not purely down to reliability its down to the handling and the attitude of the manufacturer when a problem arises. A region, dare I say, where TVR could work a little harder in my experience.

I'm not in the Speed 6 league, so have only read a few stories in passing, but I was under the impression that TVR were pretty good at sorting the problems, especially when compared to more mainstream manufacturers.

My experience is that Speed 6 has had a bad run through the rumour mill, but only as a continuation of the old and rather tired TVR bashing in general.

Bearing in mind that mine's over 10 years old now, I guess mine should be falling to bits, so here's my diary.....

June 03 - bought car - got sunburnt on the way home!

Summer/Autumn 03 - many happy trips, big grins, Mid-Essex meet on hottest recorded day - got sunburnt on the way home!

November 03 - serviced at Peninsular - no problems except usual exhaust patching due to many bumpy road/sleeping policemen incidents.

Winter 03/04 - not using much - leave outside under Leven car cap - starts first time, every time.


There you go, more reliable than a Swiss watch - in fact, I sent my Swiss watch to the jewellers for a battery/seal change, and it took 5 weeks to come back!

I rest my case

[gaston]

Another triumph of marketing over build quality. So many of these guys are guilty of building one car carefully (and expensively) for press use and then throwing together the production run for paying customers. It's a crying shame.