enough is enough
Discussion
Sorry to hear you bad experiences of Griff ownership. I don't think it is typical however, I have had mine for about three years and so far all its needed are: new rear wishbone (warranty) and new front top ball joints. It has almost not depreciated either so it is working out to be the cheapest car I have ever had. My other half has lost far more money on a stream of lesser cars: e.g 318IS, MX-5, MR2. (Hope I haven't jinxed it now!!)
I started a thread here didn't I
well I still maintain that the cars are not well built, they are not reliable, and they are bloody expensive to keep on the road , I love some of the comments
" treat them carefully , dont drive them hard" good god what are they good for apart from wheeling them out on a sunny day for everyone to goggle at , which they do in large numbers. I want a sports car to be tough enough to take some stick without landing me with a bill for thousands.
The car has the aerodynamics of an aeroplane wing it wants to take off at speeds in excess of 110 mph , they are meant to stay on the road but TVR haven't discovered that fact yet. Every other car maker that put engines of this power in a car do some research into handling capabilities.
I have a few friends with various TVR models from Tuscans to wedges, Oh by the way have you been in a Tuscan S at speeds over 150 mph I have !!! everything goes very blurred and your life flashes before your eyes and thats in a stright line on smoothe tarmac.
I could go on but I would only annoy more people what I will say in their favour : the Griff is the most beautiful sports car made stunning , the Tuscan is also georgeous , the noise wonderful ( when they run)it ends there I'm afraid can't think of anything else nice to say about them. I am well aware that the price is going up on the Griffs that is the only reason that it is taking space up in one of my garages.
keep the replies coming , thats one other good point I have found all TVR owners to be most helpful and polite and their posts here to be very entertaining.
regards
Simon
well I still maintain that the cars are not well built, they are not reliable, and they are bloody expensive to keep on the road , I love some of the comments
" treat them carefully , dont drive them hard" good god what are they good for apart from wheeling them out on a sunny day for everyone to goggle at , which they do in large numbers. I want a sports car to be tough enough to take some stick without landing me with a bill for thousands.
The car has the aerodynamics of an aeroplane wing it wants to take off at speeds in excess of 110 mph , they are meant to stay on the road but TVR haven't discovered that fact yet. Every other car maker that put engines of this power in a car do some research into handling capabilities.
I have a few friends with various TVR models from Tuscans to wedges, Oh by the way have you been in a Tuscan S at speeds over 150 mph I have !!! everything goes very blurred and your life flashes before your eyes and thats in a stright line on smoothe tarmac.
I could go on but I would only annoy more people what I will say in their favour : the Griff is the most beautiful sports car made stunning , the Tuscan is also georgeous , the noise wonderful ( when they run)it ends there I'm afraid can't think of anything else nice to say about them. I am well aware that the price is going up on the Griffs that is the only reason that it is taking space up in one of my garages.
keep the replies coming , thats one other good point I have found all TVR owners to be most helpful and polite and their posts here to be very entertaining.
regards
Simon
andysgriff said:
Also have to say that the T5 handles like a pig on a shopping trolley compared to the Griff despite what they all say.
Not necessarily. Fit a strut brace and a stiffer anti-roll bar to your T5 and then give it a go. Makes all the difference.
The Griff is still quicker, though.
900T-R said:
SGirl said:
Fit (...) a stiffer anti-roll bar to your T5
Not at the front I hope? Surely you don't want even less front end grip??
No! At the rear. Sorry - forgot to mention that.
You used to be able to get better bushes for the rear too, but AFAIK Volvo don't make those any more.
Edited to add: For the ultimate driving excitement, take the rear anti-roll bar off altogether. Whee!!
>> Edited by SGirl on Tuesday 8th July 14:59
Siwes, I understand you comments but I would say that my (and supposedly inferior handling) 92 4.3 has no such problems even upto 157mph (at Bruntingthorpe) and was perfectly stable and happy. That was with the factory suspension so it's undoubtably even better now I have Nitrons on it.
When you talk about aerodynamics though it would be a good idea to look at the relative budgets of the companies you are talking about. The Boxster (and any other Porsche or Ferrari or BMW or Volvo) spend millions of pounds on developing each new car. Including hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours in windtunnels (for example if Lotus had not wind tunneled the Elise it would have taken off at about 100mph). I would be surprised if any TVR cost even 1 million in development. This is purely down to the size of the companies. TVR are a very small, low volume car company that has gone bust numerous times. They do not have the sort of money that the big boys can bandy around.
Yes there are issues but they are usually fairly cheap to fix individually. You have been unlucky (I still don't think anyone has beaten my £7K costs in 4 months yet though - mind you most of that was the chasis refurbishment rather than a mechanical failure). I think you will find that if ever a Porsche or Ferrari go wrong it's not quite so cheap to fix.
When you talk about aerodynamics though it would be a good idea to look at the relative budgets of the companies you are talking about. The Boxster (and any other Porsche or Ferrari or BMW or Volvo) spend millions of pounds on developing each new car. Including hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours in windtunnels (for example if Lotus had not wind tunneled the Elise it would have taken off at about 100mph). I would be surprised if any TVR cost even 1 million in development. This is purely down to the size of the companies. TVR are a very small, low volume car company that has gone bust numerous times. They do not have the sort of money that the big boys can bandy around.
Yes there are issues but they are usually fairly cheap to fix individually. You have been unlucky (I still don't think anyone has beaten my £7K costs in 4 months yet though - mind you most of that was the chasis refurbishment rather than a mechanical failure). I think you will find that if ever a Porsche or Ferrari go wrong it's not quite so cheap to fix.
You dont need to shout TVR-Critic. I think we can gather from your numerous posts that you dont like the marque. You have made your point so why not give it a rest for a bit..? there are others, many others, who LOVE their TVR's.
Want me to start on my Suzuki GV2000 problems and running costs....?
Claire
Want me to start on my Suzuki GV2000 problems and running costs....?
Claire
Gaffer said:
You dont need to shout TVR-Critic. I think we can gather from your numerous posts that you dont like the marque. You have made your point so why not give it a rest for a bit..? there are others, many others, who LOVE their TVR's.
Want me to start on my Suzuki GV2000 problems and running costs....?
Claire
Piont one entirely agree,time to give it a rest mate its becoming boring
point two .......err no thanks
Im picking up a V8S hopefully this week,during the course of my ownership i expect it to breakdown,i expect to have to do some work on the chassis,i expect to have to do "bits" to it all the time.But for me thats part of owning a car.
If i wanted a car that i could guarantee would start every time,not breakdown,need no work done id be limiting my choice to a very few jap cars,and IMHO there are few cars at comparable prices that look,sound,and perform as good as TVR
siwes, i am really sorry to hear that you have had really bad luck. i have had my fair share of troubles over the past year, the only actual breakdown, being 5th gear going, but was sorted (70%) under warranty. i drive my griff hard, a lot of the time, took it down to le mans and back (no probs - great french roads) and it can handle the abuse. the built quality isn't amazing, but does look great inside and apart from a rubbish quality veneer on the dash, stands up to normal car use and abuse. stability at high speed is fine, once you get used to direct steering etc. my friend sold his griff after 2 years and bought an audi s3, he can't stop going on about the build quality etc. if that is your thing then so be it. good luck in trying to sell it.
Anybody who buys a TVR thinking they won't have bills is deluding themselves or hasn't read up on them. Some people are extremely lucky and don't get many problems but I reckon most owners eventually experience something involving open-wallet surgery.
I've owned TVRs since the mid 80s and they have all cost me money to keep on the road, due to various mechanical or electrical failures. I didn't buy sheds, they were good cars but TVRs do go wrong. As a previous poster said, they are low volume hand built cars, the manufacturer doesn't have a massive budget to spend on design and development and they use parts/engines/drivetrains from other manufacturers which were designed for use in something other than TVRs.
Having said that I did use a 350i on a daily basis a few years back and it let me down twice in 2 years, it jammed in 3rd gear once (not much of a problem) and a rear suspension bolt sheared, which made things interesting to say the least. Other than that, it was reliable and great fun. My current Griff 500 is a weekend car, I expect (and have had) some problems, but I'm prepared to put up with that in order to drive the best looking and sounding car on British roads. Sometimes I might have to save the pennies in order to get a problem fixed, but what the hell, it's worth it. Just don't tell my wife where the holiday money went.
I've owned TVRs since the mid 80s and they have all cost me money to keep on the road, due to various mechanical or electrical failures. I didn't buy sheds, they were good cars but TVRs do go wrong. As a previous poster said, they are low volume hand built cars, the manufacturer doesn't have a massive budget to spend on design and development and they use parts/engines/drivetrains from other manufacturers which were designed for use in something other than TVRs.
Having said that I did use a 350i on a daily basis a few years back and it let me down twice in 2 years, it jammed in 3rd gear once (not much of a problem) and a rear suspension bolt sheared, which made things interesting to say the least. Other than that, it was reliable and great fun. My current Griff 500 is a weekend car, I expect (and have had) some problems, but I'm prepared to put up with that in order to drive the best looking and sounding car on British roads. Sometimes I might have to save the pennies in order to get a problem fixed, but what the hell, it's worth it. Just don't tell my wife where the holiday money went.
Maye I could lob my tuppence-worth in here, having moved from being a TVR owner for four years, now driving a Porsche 993 -- which is currently in the garage for a new alternator.
Much of the expense of owning a TVR, assuming you want to actually drive it rather than pose or pootle around occasionally at weekends, is upgrading it to the point where it handles and stops as well as it undoubtedly goes.
Speaking only from the experience of having owned a Chimaera (ie not the TVR-engined models), from a reliability pov the car was pretty good, the three times it let me down consisting of a throttle cable snapped (poor design allowed the cable to rub against the pedal mounting); clutch master cylinder failure (could happen to any car after a certain period -- did TVR use cheap, poor quality parts?); and a damper broke in half while I was driving it so the suspension collapsed. This last incident was potentially by far the most dangerous -- luckily I was only travelling at 20mph -- but the finger doesn't point in TVR's direction since I'd replaced all the dampers with aftermarket products since I needed a car that went round corners.
So, unreliable? Not really, given that the car ran pretty well for four years as my daily driver -- say 7 out of 10. Expensive? Certainly but mainly because I wanted to drive it -- 4 out of 10 because I shouldn't have had to spend that much to make it properly roadworthy.
Siwes, your Griff is substantially the same as a Chimaera, and I have to say, judging by my experince and by talking to those here and elsewhere, that you've drawn a bad 'un.
Would I go back? Probably not, though I still miss the noise and the raw thrill of that kick in the back. Why not? I love the feel of car that's properly race-bred with huge amounts of attention having been devoted to the design and engineering of every part. It's not quite as quick but it sure fels much more planted on the road when making (ahem) serious progress, all with no mods at all. Cost so far: nil (the alternator gets replaced under warranty -- waddaya want from an eight-year-old car?).
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread...
Much of the expense of owning a TVR, assuming you want to actually drive it rather than pose or pootle around occasionally at weekends, is upgrading it to the point where it handles and stops as well as it undoubtedly goes.
Speaking only from the experience of having owned a Chimaera (ie not the TVR-engined models), from a reliability pov the car was pretty good, the three times it let me down consisting of a throttle cable snapped (poor design allowed the cable to rub against the pedal mounting); clutch master cylinder failure (could happen to any car after a certain period -- did TVR use cheap, poor quality parts?); and a damper broke in half while I was driving it so the suspension collapsed. This last incident was potentially by far the most dangerous -- luckily I was only travelling at 20mph -- but the finger doesn't point in TVR's direction since I'd replaced all the dampers with aftermarket products since I needed a car that went round corners.
So, unreliable? Not really, given that the car ran pretty well for four years as my daily driver -- say 7 out of 10. Expensive? Certainly but mainly because I wanted to drive it -- 4 out of 10 because I shouldn't have had to spend that much to make it properly roadworthy.
Siwes, your Griff is substantially the same as a Chimaera, and I have to say, judging by my experince and by talking to those here and elsewhere, that you've drawn a bad 'un.
Would I go back? Probably not, though I still miss the noise and the raw thrill of that kick in the back. Why not? I love the feel of car that's properly race-bred with huge amounts of attention having been devoted to the design and engineering of every part. It's not quite as quick but it sure fels much more planted on the road when making (ahem) serious progress, all with no mods at all. Cost so far: nil (the alternator gets replaced under warranty -- waddaya want from an eight-year-old car?).
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread...
TVR-critic said:Editied 4 times and still couldn't find the "caps lock" key
WELL SAID ORIGINAL POSTER, etc. etc.
>> Edited by TVR-critic on Tuesday 8th July 14:29
>> Edited by TVR-critic on Tuesday 8th July 14:35
>> Edited by TVR-critic on Tuesday 8th July 14:41
>> Edited by TVR-critic on Tuesday 8th July 14:46
R...
but it's output is nowhere near as exciting! 
Rich...
Hmm? I wonder what that button does? 
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