Views wanted on poss new motor.

[smartbrabus]

Some thoughts on the MG SV in the latest issue of EVO magazine by Rowan atkinson, one of the handful of owners.

Words here, if you don't want to buy the mag (well worth it though IMHO)
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/fastfleet/56575/mg_svr.html

 

[Thmsshaun]

Relibaility or not. They look and sound awesome and should I ever be able to afford one as a func car then I would have one regradless of Build quality, Relibility issues or whatever.

Performance to money to looks ratio you cant get better IMO :bannana:

Go for it

 

[GRAV888]

Gone off the 4.2 now for the reason stated in earlier post. (He wants £4k and the E55 )
My mate (fellow lorry owner) has an R reg 4.5 with 21500 miles, full tvrsh, new boots all round and is in the mauve/blueish flip.
He wants a deal with my motor.
Best thing about it is the number plate.
R4 SVB = R 4.5 V8
Now I have seen 1 in the flesh and heard the sound of it, I want 1, I want 1, I want 1.....................

 

[Flyer]

Now I have seen 1 in the flesh and heard the sound of it, I want 1, I want 1, I want 1.....................

Do it, do it do it

 

[GRAV888]

Do it, do it do it

I think I'll pass on the pink carpets though

 

[Alfie]

Utterley hideous. Like sitting inside a bag of kids sweets

Whoever chose that colour combination must have been related to Barbara Cartland

Reliability etc issues apart, its worth rejecting on the colour scheme alone. One thing TVR are very good at is offering a wide choice of colours. There are far nicer colour combinations that will help future resale.

Dont do it, dont do it, dont do it (just to put the other side of the argument!)

 

[Flyer]

I think I'll pass on the pink carpets though

Hmm, think there's been a colour shift in the photo conversion; they're not pink, they're red carpets. It's a good combination that suits the exterior.

Alfie, that's not the car Grav's looking at.

 

[Thmsshaun]

Grav DO DO DO :bannana: :bannana:


Oh and OT did you get a good price for the Scania????

 

[Dieselman]

I nearly choked when I read 'MG'..... But before engaging mouth I went a surfin'

I hate to admit it, but it sounds a very nice vehicle.

http://www.mgxpowersv.com/prices/index.asp

I am going to see how the second-hand prices are holding. Have you actually driven one? I see that you have sat in it. What was your impression?

I'm impressed, but it looks like a new one would be getting on for £85,000 when kitted out with some decent equipment, there is some awfully good competition out there at those sort of prices.


Regards,
John

Edit:
Just found one on Autotrader

2004/04 £69,990
http://www.emg-london.co.uk/_epsommotorgroup.htm

When first released with a price tag of £65K I was told by an MG employee that I could probably get one for £49k if I pushed a dealer hard.

I wasn't really in the market but now I wish I had.

I've seen two cars, one a pre-production car and one a production model. Both cars were well built with all the right bits in the right places.

This is why it's a shame for Rover to have gone bust, they had some really exiting ideas in the pipeline, and the skills to make it happen.
These cars are powered by Ford Mustang engine but Rover group had then got their own engine labs and ultimately they would have produced their own lump for these cars.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Utterley hideous. Like sitting inside a bag of kids sweets

Whoever chose that colour combination must have been related to Barbara Cartland

Reliability etc issues apart, its worth rejecting on the colour scheme alone. One thing TVR are very good at is offering a wide choice of colours. There are far nicer colour combinations that will help future resale.

Dont do it, dont do it, dont do it (just to put the other side of the argument!)

Couldnt aggree more

 

[glojo]

When first released with a price tag of £65K I was told by an MG employee that I could probably get one for £49k if I pushed a dealer hard.

In all fairness to your good self, when I logged onto the Rover site these flying machines had a basic price of the figure you mentioned. The price simply rockets as soon as you start fitting the vehicle out to your individual taste.

Unfortunately, in my opinion this type of vehicle would never have saved such a large car manufacturer. I have never seen or actually heard of one until your very informative post.

Kind Regards,
John

 

[GRAV888]

Grav DO DO DO :bannana: :bannana:


Oh and OT did you get a good price for the Scania????

Not too bad. Just waiting for the bloke to come down, pay for it and take it away.

 

[Satch]

I like TVR's. But oh my the ownership experience can be a real rollercoaster.

Know two TVR owners, enthusiasts both, who praise their vehicles hugely but all too often are annoyed by faults & niggles and sometimes plunged into expensive gloom. Maybe that is part of the price you pay.

Some say the only practical, real world sports car is the Porsche 911. Maybe they are right but if I find that a bit depressing.

 

[Mozzer]

Some say the only practical, real world sports car is the Porsche 911. Maybe they are right but if I find that a bit depressing.

They are wrong, the Skyline is a hell of a beast and if you can get one that hasn't been chipped up too much, they will be as reliable as any other motor, I admit though, its not the sexiest looking car and could be considered a Japanese version of a muscle car rather than a pretty sports car.

When I was looking at a Tuscan I could actually get my fingers in a gap between the rear screen and the rubbers. The salesman said that was because the boot hadn't beeen shut properly and proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes trying (unsuccessfully) to remedy the problem.

I sat in another tuscan that had done 8 miles and immediately spotted that, at the crown of the dashboard (directly in the driver's line of sight) the hide had been cut too short and didn't reach the plastic trim, so they had rubbed glue from the glue gun in as filler.

I sat in the Griffith 500 and when I put the electric windows up they were very slow and got slower at the top (as if they were running out of power). The salesman explained that because the A frames on the doors were bent by hand, it was impossible to get the exact curvature of the glass and thus the windows were all like that. He seemed to think it added charm, I think it adds to the case for the "get it build by a robot" arguement.

The Cerbera 6 speed wouldn't start and had rippled paintwork on the bonnet. I should add here that almost all of them were covered with the transparent coating - originally I had assumed to protect from stone chips, but now I am more of the opinion that it is to hide the shocking paintwork.

Now I am willing to accept that there are Friday cars, but I am not willing to accept that the TVR garage in Henley specialises in them

I was also put off when they explained that servicing needed to be be no more than every 6000 and would cost at least £1000.

The engine tone of a TVR is fabulous, the look of the cars are simply stunning, the performance of them is truly awesome (to my mind average man in street cannot handle that much power without the refinement of ESP/ABS/4WS/AWD/cupholder /etc) but if I had bought anyone of them, I know I would not have been happy with it within a month (assuming it stayed on the road that long).

There are those who can justify overlooking all of the faults above because of power / performance / looks / pulling power, I'm just not one of them.

S

 

[OGiii]

I like TVR's

Me too!

Some say the only practical, real world sports car is the Porsche 911.

Me too!

Maybe they are right but if I find that a bit depressing.

Me too!

But having just gone down the 911 (996) route I haven't smiled and laughed so much for years.

I looked at TVRs, partly because of that glorious sound, but couldn't live with the potential repair/servicing costs. I also have a friend who fits car phones, secuirty etc, he hates working on TVRs because they never go back the same.

I've just had a full service and new pads/disks at a porsche indy specialist, £320+VAT for the 24,000 mile service and £590 +VAT for the brakes - bargain!

Only problem with the 911 is the jibes about my 'mid life crisis' at 37 it pi55es me off a bit - I couldn't afford one before, simple as that

At the end of the day though, if the deal is right on the TVR then DO IT!

 

[peterchurch]

A few years ago I was going to buy my first Porsche (a brand new fully loaded boxter S) All the way throughout the sales process all the salesman did was try and trash the reputation of the new TVR speed 6 after listening to his crap for about half an hour I said "So the TVRs got you worried then?"
he said I couldn't answer that but build quality aside its causing us one hell of a lot of lost sales

In the end I had to duck out as they could not get me one without a 4 month wait to build, and I needed my car sorted there and then So I went with an MR2 for a third of the cost that I could get in a week...

TVRs have some issues but today for the cost of a 2/3 year old SL you could get a tuscan and an older S class (with change $$) and you would have the most fun you can have with your clothes on and a quiet refined drive for the days you don't want to strap a bomb to your head

Have the TVR !!! lifes too short

 

[nickg]

Only problem with the 911 is the jibes about my 'mid life crisis' at 37 it pi55es me off a bit - I couldn't afford one before, simple as that

.........its called envy.

 

[DRICCI]

Wasn't there someone here who swapped from a TVR to a SLK and said "the first think I noticed was they pieces didn't fall off. - Its a tvr thing" on this forum, oh 2 weeks ago?

Ah that was me.

Quite right that bits didn't fall off the SLK... just the clutch went pop after 500 miles.... so don't start yapping about TVR reliability.

I've read this thread and all the same old clichés popped up:

Unreliable, kit cars, dangerous in an accident, constant problems, etc etc

All from people who'd never owned one; just "they'd heard it from a mate"

I don't expect to convert anybody on this forum to TVR, it's hard enough trying to explain the merits of manual gearboxes, I'd just like to put the record straight.

Firstly, they don't break down: 100,000 miles in four different models, driven hard, and no breakdowns.
They are not as well built as a Merc but then Merc don't make a car for 40k that will eat most supercars for breakfast. You don’t buy a TVR for it’s build quality.
Bad in an accident? The latest ones come with a full roll cage. Safe enough?

Constant problems- for the first 6 months you minor trim problems but at least the clutch doesn't go bang after 500 miles!

As for the comment that an S55AMG (I presume.. looking at the profile) will easily pass a T350 on the track....

t350: 350 bhp 1000kg
s55amg: 500bhp 1910kg

.... yeah..... if my mother was driving the TVR.

 

[Satch]

I do not think anybody said they were bad cars in performance terms, just prone to things dropping off more than you would expect and the general frustration of knowing that it should and could be better.

Very much like the ownershp experience of some of the more recent MB's in fact.