White TVR Chimera - with blue head lights & black alloys

[Ropps]

Hi Guys,

I saw a discussion earlier on on pistonheads which talked about a car advertised on autotrader (chimera white blue headlights and black alloys? please see link below


can someone kindly please let me know if i should keep away from this car?

http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

please help, thanks

[ewan221]

Dont know the car personally but it does seem to change hands very often so I would be wary

[Ropps]

MR Moriarty, was looking at this car last week? he said one of the PM warned him off it? wonder what was said?

Dont like the clue lights or the alloys, thedse can be changed quite easily, its just the Gremlins that sit underneath it is what worries me about it.

The garage tell me its HPI clear. I guess thats a start.

Anyone else with information on this car? the mileage seems reasonable, but are TVR's hard to clock, im only going to be doing 20 miles a week but i dont want to be spent on the side of the road kicking the tyres..

[SILICONEKID340HP]

Ropps said:

Hi Guys,

I saw a discussion earlier on on pistonheads which talked about a car advertised on autotrader (chimera white blue headlights and black alloys? please see link below


can someone kindly please let me know if i should keep away from this car?

http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

please help, thanks

Well its cheap enough,you are lured towards te price and you can`t help your self.Its up to you to decide what its worth ! Trouble is most people want there cake and eat it "a car for 5k which is worth 9k"

If you don`t want to make your own mind up or take a chance best thing to do is a go to a main dealer offering a warranty but you will be doubling that figure.

Edited by SILICONEKID340HP on Monday 30th January 12:43

[Ropps]

fair point..

I might need to e mail Mr Moriarty directly to see why he was put off. if anyone else has any info on the car, that would be great.

thanks

[grayze]

Its advertised with ABS. Get them to test it for you.

[raceboy]

Happy to go and kick it's tyres for you, the garage is about 1/2 a mile from my house.
I'm no 'engineer' but having had mine for about 10 years I can spot 'the usual' issues, I'd be wanting it up in the air to have a good look at the chassis if there isn't an invoice for it being done recently.
The dealer it's at is a strange outfit, it's linked to quite a few other local used car dealers but the metal in there showroom was quite impressive the one time I've been in, although it isn't really the usual 'showroom', it's like a huge hanger full of flash stuff. Looking at the current stock list it's not quite the see of R8's it was a year or so ago but the TVR is still one of the cheapest cars in stock.

[Ropps]

that would be great if you could give it the once over.. i will ask if they can get it up so you can have a look.. when would be a good time for you to see what its like?

thanks

[Andy chimaera]

grayze said:

Its advertised with ABS. Get them to test it for you.

TVR's never had ABS did they? but then they dont come with electric rear windows either, what idiot wrote that ad lol, id steer clear of the dealer not the car!!!!

[Jammy Dodger]

as i said in the previous thread, the car looks like a complete lash up, but maybe the fundamentals are straight, who knows...

[raceboy]

Andy chimaera said:

what idiot wrote that ad lol, id steer clear of the dealer not the car!!!!

With a few extra clicks on the autotrader ad you can see the other stock the dealer has and the TVR is nearly the cheapest car he has, the most expensive being an Audi R8 that appears to be sold, but he other stock is newish M3's, Range Rovers, that sort of thing, they will be using a standard Internet template and will know considerably less about TVR's than 90% of the people that view this website.
I wouldn't say that on it's own is a reason to avoid this car, if it was a good car and a TVR specialist bought it, added their 20% and wrote a factually correct advert would it make it a better car?
I'll try and go and take a look at it either tomorrow, although time may be a bit tight, or Thursday.
From the pics I like it, White looks good, I like the black wheels, and the standard wheels come with it anyway, and it appears to have Tuscan seats.
If it runs and the chassis is good it looks a good buy at under £5k as I bet the dealers wants shut of it as it really doesn't fit with his other stock.

[Andy chimaera]

raceboy said:

Andy chimaera said:

what idiot wrote that ad lol, id steer clear of the dealer not the car!!!!

With a few extra clicks on the autotrader ad you can see the other stock the dealer has and the TVR is nearly the cheapest car he has, the most expensive being an Audi R8 that appears to be sold, but he other stock is newish M3's, Range Rovers, that sort of thing, they will be using a standard Internet template and will know considerably less about TVR's than 90% of the people that view this website.
I wouldn't say that on it's own is a reason to avoid this car, if it was a good car and a TVR specialist bought it, added their 20% and wrote a factually correct advert would it make it a better car?
I'll try and go and take a look at it either tomorrow, although time may be a bit tight, or Thursday.
From the pics I like it, White looks good, I like the black wheels, and the standard wheels come with it anyway, and it appears to have Tuscan seats.
If it runs and the chassis is good it looks a good buy at under £5k as I bet the dealers wants shut of it as it really doesn't fit with his other stock.

i know i was sort of joking, but isnt that miss-selling/faulse adverasing? i thought you could get done for that sort of thing?? i mean wouldnt you be peed off if a guy was adveratising an M3, you drive miles to look at it and it turns out to be a 318i lol

[Ropps]

Thank you Raceboy. If you do get a chance that would be great. thanks for your input and look forward to your outlook of the car in the next few days. the garage tell me that they are putting the standard alloys back on.. hurrahhh..

[M@H]

..look like an interesting buy to me - got to be worth a look

[raceboy]

Went to have a look at it this evening......
There's good news and bad news.
The Good News......
It's a Chimaera.

The Bad News.......
Where do I start......
It hasn't always been white, all the paper work says it's blue, the respray isn't bad, but they didn't exactly take much off to paint it.
The seats are actually Honda S2000 seats they are quite nice, just a shame they don't quite fit or this is a route I might have tried on my own car.
the interior is tatty, the dash isn't fitted right and all the switches are dissappearing behind it, it's got harnesses fitted but I'd question what they are mounted too, various bits of trim, speaker grills, etc are all there but hanging off or resting on the parcel shelf.
The boot is equally tatty, the space saver is there but nothing else, no tool bag with the jack and wheel brace and all the trim in the boot looks like it's been out at some point and not gone back in quite right.
The front lights are a strange one, it looks like somesort of headlight cover has been siliconed over the headlights after the respray, but the cowels weren't taken off when it was painted.
It's now sitting on 5 litre wheels, which I guess should be over in the good points.
The back window is very milky and the front screen is delaminated in all the usual spots, the roof isn't bad but needs a bit of tidying on the passenger side where it meets the car.
The chassis looks ok, couldn't really get under much but it felt pretty solid in the usual bad spots.
The history is a bit vague, one salesman thought there was a packet of receipts somewhere but 'couldn't find them' the service book was there, and looked like it had spent most it's life in a muddy puddle, all the pages were stuck together and some of the history pages just didn't look quite right.
It had a few old MOT's 96-2006 then the current one which runs to Nov 2012, looks like it was acquired by the dealer about November time. The gap between 06-10 would be my biggest worry as this the time it was resprayed and the V5 still says it's blue.

Didn't start it, but the engine looks tidy, looked like a recent alternator and it all looked clean enough.

At £5k it's a good 'project car' if you fancy a track slag or want to drop another £3k on it doing all the 'little jobs' but if you want something to polish and take out on sunny sundays to your local TVRCC meet there are a lot better cars out there for the 'finished' money.

I took a few pictures and have the reg/chassis number details if you want them.

Edited by raceboy on Wednesday 1st February 19:27

[Ropps]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive report. WOW! a lot what you said tells me to steer away from that one & that is exactly waht i will do. V5 still says blue!! how strange. Im so glad you went, thank you again. if your ever in wokingham please drop me a line, as i owe you a pint or 2.

thanks again.

[Ropps]

oh yes if you do havve photos, that would be great..

[SILICONEKID340HP]

Ropps said:

Thank you so much for your comprehensive report. WOW! a lot what you said tells me to steer away from that one & that is exactly waht i will do. V5 still says blue!! how strange. Im so glad you went, thank you again. if your ever in wokingham please drop me a line, as i owe you a pint or 2.

thanks again.

You were hoping it to be a 9k car! you get what you pay for

Even at that price it is MG Midget money .

Edited by SILICONEKID340HP on Wednesday 1st February 21:19

[raceboy]

Here's a few.....

[SILICONEKID340HP]

Looks like mine !1