Fancy changing to an M12 ...

[zhastaph]

Hi Noble people

For ages now I've been considering changing my v8 Esprit for an M12, something along these lines is what I'm thinking - www.pistonheads.com/sales/103004.htm


I just want to guage your opinion on a few things;

How reliable are they? for example my Esprit's not bad, in the 2 years I've had it it's never actually let me down. Though it regularly needs parts and tightening up here and there.

How easy is it to get parts for them? And are they expensive?

How easy are they to work on? And are their worshop manuals easily available for them?

Is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

many thanks,

Col

[joolski]

zhastaph said:

Hi Noble people

For ages now I've been considering changing my v8 Esprit for an M12, something along these lines is what I'm thinking - www.pistonheads.com/sales/103004.htm


I just want to guage your opinion on a few things;

How reliable are they? for example my Esprit's not bad, in the 2 years I've had it it's never actually let me down. Though it regularly needs parts and tightening up here and there.

How easy is it to get parts for them? And are they expensive?

How easy are they to work on? And are their worshop manuals easily available for them?

Is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

many thanks,

Col

I've had the same car for over 7 years now (M12 2.5L), and it's covered over 70K miles.

In terms of reliability, it not bad for the type of car it is. People tend to get more problems than others, for various reasons.

I've had it overheat and, just plain stop over the years. But all of the problems have now been solved. I doubt you'd find too many well looked after cars with the kinds of problems which were common in the early days.

Working on them is pretty straightforward for the most part, however if you really want to start getting serious with it I'd suggest taking some time to talk to people who have had experience with the car. I used to get a third party to do all the work on my car, but I tend to do it all myself these days.

Each car is unique, and should be viewed as such. If you are interested in the car, I would suggest that you find out who serviced the car, and check that they did they work claimed. Also, it might be an idea to get someone who worked on Noble to check it out.

If you find something you are interested in, post here and you may well find one of the owners still lurking. It's amazing what you can find out about the car.

If you've not already driven one, I'd suggest you take a test drive. Althought once you've driven one, it's hard to get it out of your head !

Best of luck with your search.

--Jools

[gadgeroonie]

there is a guy on here who has just moved from an Eprit to Noble - if you want a noble mechanic to take a look at one try Gary on 07868702440

I love mine and have only had it a few months really - I did plenty of research before i bought mine - you really want a 3.0 and try and get one wiht the 6 speed box and ATB

get a test drive - you will love it

[turboman]

[quote]
Each car is unique, and should be viewed as such. If you are interested in the car, I would suggest that you find out who serviced the car, and check that they did they work claimed. Also, it might be an idea to get someone who worked on Noble to check it out.

If you find something you are interested in, post here and you may well find one of the owners still lurking. It's amazing what you can find out about the car.

If you've not already driven one, I'd suggest you take a test drive. Althought once you've driven one, it's hard to get it out of your head !

Best of luck with your search.

--Jools


[/quote]

I can probably help with that; It has just had a service by Kerridges (main dealer) on 03/08/2006 at 24295 miles, a service on 02/02/2006 at 18399 miles by Noble, which included the M400 manifold, 22/07/2005 at 12104 miles by Kerridges, 02/01/2004 at 5519 miles by Mole Valley, 23/06/2003 1769 miles by Noble and PDI on 03/05/2003 at 25 miles. 2 owners from new, it requires two rear tyres, a minor repair to the splitter, it has a small scuff on the o/s rear alloy which will be referbished, and the gear stick/linkage needs tightening, but all those will be done when the car is prepped.

Hope that helps.

[snuffy]

gadgeroonie said:

there is a guy on here who has just moved from an Eprit to Noble

Ah, that will be me then. 14 years of Esprits ( S3 -> Turbo -> GT3 -> V8 Sport 350 ) and 3 weeks with a Noble ( a 3, with the 6-speed box etc ).

I'd not go back to the Esprit now. The Noble is so much more a modern car and not, like the Esprit, 30 years old and has been changed so many times that Lotus should have started again.

Oddly, the one you are looking at I rang up about but the trade-in offered on my Esprit was enought to make you cry.