Buying advice - replaced engine

[K12AN]

I am thinking about buying a Tamora which has had a 4.0 2004 Tuscan S Red Rose engine put it...Is this engine reliable? It hasn't covered many miles, but what are the tell tale signs that it needs a rebuild/serious attention.

I don't think that the car has been serviced in a while, but its only covered about 2,000 in the last 2 years but hasn't been serviced (I don't think).

[softtop]

Knowing what I know, if you are serious about buying and the seller is serious about selling, take it to a TVR specialist and ask him to take off the cover and see what you can see. If he has the right equipment (camera) he will be able to give you a reasonable but not totally accurate assessment. This assessment will probably come with no recourse since you cannot see the bottom end but you will get some level of indication of top end wear and the types of part used in the last rebuild, it was five years ago so do not expect it to have a lot of the improvements if you had the job done today..

[rickyhad]

I'm guessing it's the one in the classifieds, it looks stunning in the pictures.

[K12AN]

It does look stunning!

If was serviced about 18 months ago, but has only since covered 2,000 miles.
Would you guys recommend that it gets serviced again now, or wait another 4,000 miles before servicing?

In other words, should the car be serviced according to mileage or timescales?

[softtop]

time, at least for the oil change

[darkmark07]

K12AN said:

In other words, should the car be serviced according to mileage or timescales?

Whichever comes first - seriously, skimping on servicing will only cost you later on! Some specialists offer a 3,000 mile 'short' service if you don't do that many miles annually.

I would recommend that you get the car serviced immediately if you do buy it - it's worth it for the piece of mind.

ETA: if you're thinking about quibbling about the cost of a service perhaps a TVR isn't the car that you're looking for? Any high-performance car is relatively expensive to maintain. I would say that TVRs are generally at the lower end of this scale unless something spectacular goes wrong (e.g. engine rebuild rqd), however without care whilst driving (warming up properly) and keeping it well-maintained and serviced by someone who knows what they're doing, I believe that you are asking for trouble...

Edited by darkmark07 on Friday 12th June 14:35