a £6000ish Chimera

[davido140]

Hi,

Dont know a huge amount about Chims to be honest, but Im trying to talk a friend out of buying another rice burner (he's talking MR2, skyline, impreza, supra) and getting something a bit more "special"

He's looking at a £6000 budget, possibly a little more.

He's fairly handy with a set of spanners and can take care of medium-high complexity jobs without too much problem. A whole engine rebuild might be a little beyond him though.

So we spent an hour on PH classifieds together last night and he was surprised to see how cheap an early Elise is, and not too shabby ones either.

Then I was surprised to see how cheap an early Chim can be picked up for, and seemingly pretty good ones.

I didnt leap in and tell him to get one, but realistically should he even bother looking at that price? are there goodun's or will they pretty much all be shabby or broken?

Cheers

[anonymous-user]

A good description of a 6k Chim would include the words 'money' and 'pit'........I think 7k is the minimum for a useable car...

[chim666]

davido140 said:

.... I was surprised to see how cheap an early Chim can be picked up for, and seemingly pretty good ones.

I agree with the previous comment.

The 'problem' with TVRs is that because of their fibreglass bodywork, almost all of them look 'pretty good'. It's what's underneath that curvy body that needs checking.
Mileage, if high, obviously means frequent use, and possible chassis corrosion (although many would say that regular use is better than one that's been rarely used - which is true to an extent).
Regular and certified servicing is essential (see if you can contact the garage that performed the last one for hints of anything that needed doing but was declined by the owner).

HTH

[blujay10]

its been said so many times before
"There aint no such thing as a cheap TVR!"

[davido140]

thanks chaps!

As I thought really,

We'll probably end up going to look at a few but I'll steer him away unless he's willing to shell out a little more (or we find a real bargain that someone is desparate to sell)

Cheers

Dave

[Longers]

From the experience of a mate of mine cheap Chim's are (in his case) cheap for a reason - or reasons - that can only become clear after you've shelled out the cash. As an alternative you'll get a cracking S series for £6k and if your mate is handy with the spanners he'll be able to do lots of work himself. Ok I'm biased being on my 3rd S, but I've owned a Chim and if it's a toy he wants the S will be great (not necessarily better, but different to the Chim) and will also be rarer. If he wants a more refined everyday drive the Chim is the better bet but spend more to get a decent one.

[QuiteQuietCerb]

i agree get an S

[RedLeicester]

Pal of mine has recently bought a 1999 Chim 450 for £7k knowing it needed a little tlc - £900 later he now has a corker.....