T350 as a genuine daily driver ?

[Ian Gratton]

Hello folks,

I am in the process of building up my shortlist of new 'potential' daily drivers. I have a track day car right now but I am not getting enough free time to drive it on track (which I am extremely gutted about).

So what attempting to do is sell the track car plus one of my other road cars to fund a nice daily driver.

My question to all you TVR fans is can a T350 be realistically used as a daily driver ?

Right now my commute to work is approx 10 miles either way but I could have to visit a customer at the other end of the country - or even have to work at the customers site (i.e. maybe drive each day)

Is the build and reliability up to it or should I accept it would be best kept as a weekend toy ?

Any other useful information from owners would be great too (i.e. how many days can the rear tyres last service intervals etc, can warranty be extended etc.).

The car(s) I am currently considering are '53 plate all with < 10000 miles on the clock.

[_DeeJay_]

Ian Gratton said:

My question to all you TVR fans is can a T350 be realistically used as a daily driver ? Is the build and reliability up to it or should I accept it would be best kept as a weekend toy ? Any other useful information from owners would be great too (i.e. how many days can the rear tyres last service intervals etc, can warranty be extended etc.).

I've just started running one as a daily driver and do roughly the same miles as you (i.e. loads and all over the place).

So far - I cannot comment on build and reliability. I'm still sorting teething problems out at the moment, will I suspect a sorted car would be fine. The build quality (trim etc) isn't the best though...

Rear tyres - 12,000 if you're very lucky.
Service Intevals - 6k miles/1 yr
Warranty. Not on a 2003 car. You can extend the 1st years warranty, though only at the end of the 1st year. Cost is 1k+VAT from the factory. Otherwise, you'll need a 3rd party warranty.

I bought a 10 month old car for that very reason.

[daftlad]

_DeeJay_ said:

Rear tyres - 12,000 if you're very lucky.

13,000 so far, 2-3000 left. Really depends on the mileage type. Tyres Eagle F1.

The tyres thing can get like a bragging ritual (I've been there with Motorbikes).

The mileage is genuine, the use varied. The car has done track days.

[Mrs Fish]

We ran ours as a daily driver for 18 months and also did a 2000 mile europe trip in 5 days in it too. We had no problems.

Were you thinking of getting a new one or a used one, as the new ones come with a three year warranty if you are dubious

[admoss]

I would say yes.

I have done since January, no problems.

Just expect it to spend a little time at your local dealers whilst you get the bugs ironed out. As long as a courtesy car is forthcoming then no worries.

[Ian Gratton]

keep them coming.

I am used to wearing out rear tyres - one of my other cars is an Toyota AE86 drift car and my current westi does a fair job of chewing them up to

I am not looking to buy new (I'm not quite that flush) so I ve been looking at late 03 cars for between 30-36K.

How easy is it to arrange a third party warranty on a trev ? I am quite dubious of 3rd party warranties as I've heard horror stories from customers of warranty holdings etc.

[_DeeJay_]

Ian Gratton said:

keep them coming. I am used to wearing out rear tyres - one of my other cars is an Toyota AE86 drift car and my current westi does a fair job of chewing them up to I am not looking to buy new (I'm not quite that flush) so I ve been looking at late 03 cars for between 30-36K. How easy is it to arrange a third party warranty on a trev ? I am quite dubious of 3rd party warranties as I've heard horror stories from customers of warranty holdings etc.

Could you stretch that a bit? A new car would retail at marginally more than that, and there may be deals to be had for ex-demos/showroom cars? The 3 year warranty show pay for the difference in the long run.

I bought mine from a dealer (mid '04 with full warranty) and it was very comfortably within your budget

[blueyes]

Ian Gratton said:

My question to all you TVR fans is can a T350 be realistically used as a daily driver ?

Yes. 24k in two years. No problems running it.

Trouble is with 24k on the clock nobody wants to buy it.... even for 25k.

[rev-erend]

Therein is the rub.

TVR make a car that is great as a daily driver but the market place still wants 5K~7K / year !

Shame it's not a more exciting colour or I might be interested..

[Alex]

Hey Gratto! You've come a long way!

I did the opposite to you, ran a TVR (Griff 500) as a daily driver, but decided I was using it too much on-track so sold-up and built a bike-engined Locost.

The Griff was fine as a daily driver (I did 40k miles in 3 years), but the running costs are high if you're doing those sort of miles.

I should imagine running costs on a T350C would be higher. As long as they have truly sorted the S6 engine, you should be OK (and the T350C seems to be much better in this respect).

I wouldn't use one daily out-of-warranty though. Have you considered stretching to a new one for the benefit of the 3 year warranty?

I've come full circle now and bought a daily driver that can be used on track (Integra Type-R).

[MikeGF]

Use mine as a daily driver (04 T350c). 30 mile round trip to work and back. However, always takes a LOT longer as I mangae to find the long way there & back ;-) Recommend it heartily. I actually look forward to getting up to go to work now....

Cheers
MikeGF

[Ian Gratton]

Hey Alex !!!

long time no speak.

Right now I am putting together a short list of cars I 'could' get. The list so far is:

350z (but obviously with a supercharger) - driven a std car but needs more power - should be reliable
M3 (nearly bought before but wasn't inspired - a good car but it didn't feel special)
Used 996 C2
Holden/Monaro (big battle barge - probably no so chuckable)
T350

Any other RWD monsters I may have missed in budget ?

To be honest it sounds to me that my budget doesn't allow me to get a warranted car which could put an end to things.

[Alex]

I know this is heresy, but out of that lot, I'd go for the Porker. Then again, I've owned a TVR. If you haven't, it's an itch that needs to be scratched...