TVR to pull out of the UK

[silentmonkey]

Another sad day for the UK motor industry. More info Here

[mose]

Never mind!!

Glad I never bought the Sagaris now!

[stigcv8]

same here, I really fancied one until last year - was even looking at t350 etc but then, despite the roll cages etc, I realised there is more to a car that is ballistic and built from plastic

[sjc]

What an utter utter shambles, had 4 TVRs (with varying degrees of success!)and drove a Saggy recently but didn't like it, think I'm getting old!They appealed to me on their uniqueness, Britshness and up 'til 6/7years ago their untouched bang for buck. Great shame but the way things have been going not entirely unexpected.
The Monaro however is the obvious choice for a TVR man with nippers!

[Rob K]

I was going to write the same post earlier in the day... Shame, though unfortunately not un-expected

[Soft Top]

I don't know but can imagine that a large percentage of TVR's are sold in the UK. There certainly are a lot of them about for such a small company.

If they are no longer a UK company the sales will slow up considerably. It just depends on how may cars they can sell to the US using the heritage angle.

[sjc]

At their height around 1993-1997 they were selling up to 2000 cars a year (Griff,Chimeara,Cerbera) recently it's been down in the very low hundreds.

[Twin Turbo]

Soft Top said:

I don't know but can imagine that a large percentage of TVR's are sold in the UK. There certainly are a lot of them about for such a small company.

If they are no longer a UK company the sales will slow up considerably. It just depends on how may cars they can sell to the US using the heritage angle.

Indeed, back in the good old days when Peter Wheeler was the owner, he realised how precarious it was to have the UK as your sole market. If that dries up, you're up a certain creek without a paddle. However, instead of improving the Rover V8 engined models (Griff & Chim) and starting to build them in LHD he took the bold (mad?) decision to start building his own engines. And not only a v8, but a straight 6 too. Whilst the newer generation of TVRs were fantastic beasts, I think this is where the slide started. It's frightening how many of the straight 6 engines proved troublesome and it must have cost TVR BIG TIME.

Also, the market for open topped sports cars is now massive, with the likes or BMW, Porsche and Merc (and many others) offering sportscars that don't break down and start every day. Geez, even the latest Sagaris was a £50k, so TVR didn't even have good value on their side.

Peter Wheeler must have realised his mistake and that's why he bailed out. He should have listend to his own advice many years ago.

I wonder what state the company would be in now if the Cerbera had benefited from the Rover V8 or, even better, the Chevy V8. Realiable, cheap power.

I hope it's not the end for TVR, but I feel it is

[biglump]

Being the proud owner of a 5.0 Chimaera as well as the Monaro, I have to say I'm gutted!!! One of the main reasons I bought the TVR was the fact it was one of the few british, hand built, bespoke cars giving it a character all of it's own!!! For it to become an Italian built, british engined (6 cyl - YUK) will surely make it less desireable - Surely a deal could be done in Blackpool???? A real shame and an end of an era. Apparently the Black Cab Taxi makers are the largest british car builder now - What the hell's all that about??? Grrrrrr!!!!

[Twin Turbo]

....and LTI (London Taxi's Int) has just done a deal to make the taxis in China....although whether that means the end of production in the UK remains to be seen. It's a slippery slope though

[marcevo1]

time to buy shares in marcos?

better engine than a tvr ;-)