Sensible servicing ?
Discussion
Hi everyone.
I am looking to buy my first TVR soon - tried a few wedges, but have decided a Chimaera is the way to go. Due to my budget (£12-13k) it will have to be an older model but I want to use it as often as I can which would be about 6-7k miles a year. The one thing putting me off are the stories on this site (wonderful site by the way) of servicing costs. I can do some work/repairs myself (I am lucky enough to have a backup car in case of longer repairs or bad weather) and I would be using independants to maintain the service history. Is it possible to service a Chim for a sensible cost instead of the £400-600 I often see quoted - especially anywhere near me in South Yorkshire.
Hoping to own one soon
Chris.
I am looking to buy my first TVR soon - tried a few wedges, but have decided a Chimaera is the way to go. Due to my budget (£12-13k) it will have to be an older model but I want to use it as often as I can which would be about 6-7k miles a year. The one thing putting me off are the stories on this site (wonderful site by the way) of servicing costs. I can do some work/repairs myself (I am lucky enough to have a backup car in case of longer repairs or bad weather) and I would be using independants to maintain the service history. Is it possible to service a Chim for a sensible cost instead of the £400-600 I often see quoted - especially anywhere near me in South Yorkshire.
Hoping to own one soon
Chris.
Hi everyone.
I am looking to buy my first TVR soon - tried a few wedges, but have decided a Chimaera is the way to go. Due to my budget (£12-13k) it will have to be an older model but I want to use it as often as I can which would be about 6-7k miles a year. The one thing putting me off are the stories on this site (wonderful site by the way) of servicing costs. I can do some work/repairs myself (I am lucky enough to have a backup car in case of longer repairs or bad weather) and I would be using independants to maintain the service history. Is it possible to service a Chim for a sensible cost instead of the £400-600 I often see quoted - especially anywhere near me in South Yorkshire.
Hoping to own one soon
Chris.
Hi Chris and welcome.
Yes it is possible to get good servicing for less than the nightmare costs that you have seen on this site.
It all depends on your point of view with regards to the TVRFSH bit. I live in Staffordshire and use a local garage who has plenty of experience with high performance cars including Chimaeras and Cerberas.
He did my last service for some £200.00 which included a new front near side brake renewal. Some people on this site will tell you that you need a full TVR history to get the best price for your beast when you come to sell and to prove that the car has been cared for. For the newer cars I would agree, not so for the older models. Always check that any TVR that you look at has got the TVRFSH for at least the first six years and that it has then got a good service record done by professional garages. Lets face it the V8 is hardly at the cutting edge of automotive technology!
It's a shame that you are such a distance from my area as you could come down and I could take you in to meet the guys at my garage.
Buy the car, soon, and enjoy.
Cheers
SPS
>> Edited by sps on Saturday 8th February 23:55
Depends what is wrong with the car when it gets serviced....
£4-500 will cover a basic service and minor things but if there is something a bit more serious dig deep. Most of the big bills you here about are described as a service but include other work that was discovered as a result. Some of these bills can be big. Anyway get things into proportion. Insurance, tyre wear and fuel consumption will eat more money than the service.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk
£4-500 will cover a basic service and minor things but if there is something a bit more serious dig deep. Most of the big bills you here about are described as a service but include other work that was discovered as a result. Some of these bills can be big. Anyway get things into proportion. Insurance, tyre wear and fuel consumption will eat more money than the service.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk
Hi Chrisw,
I have been hunting around for the best service prices from the advertisising garages that are on here and sprint. I bought my Chim last October and was told it had the 24K service. Looking in the service manual though I noticed that the last service was from a garage I haven't heard of, so I will soon be getting the Chim seviced again, to err on the side of caution.
There are 2 places where the service costs are very reasonable, one is Offord Motor Company (too far), and the other is Webbs autos/TVR Bodyshop in Bristol. I rang for a quote for the full service and it is £385, including VAT! The guy at Webbs told me I may as well go for the full service every time as there is only about £60 difference between the two!
It really does pay to shop around, and if you have to travel a bit to get £100/150 off the cost, I think it is worth it.
My car has been more reliable than I first thought, having had no problems whatsoever (touch wood!!!)
Our brand new MGZR160 however has had to have it's breaks bled, due to excessive travel and in some cases, not working at all, plus trim deficiancies, which are still not sorted!!!!
Chris
I have been hunting around for the best service prices from the advertisising garages that are on here and sprint. I bought my Chim last October and was told it had the 24K service. Looking in the service manual though I noticed that the last service was from a garage I haven't heard of, so I will soon be getting the Chim seviced again, to err on the side of caution.
There are 2 places where the service costs are very reasonable, one is Offord Motor Company (too far), and the other is Webbs autos/TVR Bodyshop in Bristol. I rang for a quote for the full service and it is £385, including VAT! The guy at Webbs told me I may as well go for the full service every time as there is only about £60 difference between the two!
It really does pay to shop around, and if you have to travel a bit to get £100/150 off the cost, I think it is worth it.
My car has been more reliable than I first thought, having had no problems whatsoever (touch wood!!!)
Our brand new MGZR160 however has had to have it's breaks bled, due to excessive travel and in some cases, not working at all, plus trim deficiancies, which are still not sorted!!!!
Chris
chris watton said: The guy at Webbs told me I may as well go for the full service every time as there is only about £60 difference between the two!
Chris
that is indeed very good value for money .. I, pay more for the diff, gearbox, brake fluid alone than this and that's trade prices. and that's before you factor in the labour costs of changing them. add in the air filter and fuel filter and webbs must be paying peanuts for their parts .. wish i could find a supplier like their's
I too was suprised by what Mr Webb quoted joo, but I have written down on a little yellow piece of paper here, £327+VAT for a 12K sevice, £385 including VAT. He even stated thats with the 6 hours labour charge! Offords are even cheaper!.
However, I will try Webbs initially, and if I am happy with what they do, I will use them again, if not, then I will try elsewhere. There does seem to be a massive variation in service costs, depending in what location you are within the UK, London area being the most expensive, at nearly double the service cost than that of the Gloucesterhire area!
Chris
However, I will try Webbs initially, and if I am happy with what they do, I will use them again, if not, then I will try elsewhere. There does seem to be a massive variation in service costs, depending in what location you are within the UK, London area being the most expensive, at nearly double the service cost than that of the Gloucesterhire area!
Chris
Hi everyone.
I am looking to buy my first TVR soon - tried a few wedges, but have decided a Chimaera is the way to go. Due to my budget (£12-13k) it will have to be an older model but I want to use it as often as I can which would be about 6-7k miles a year. The one thing putting me off are the stories on this site (wonderful site by the way) of servicing costs. I can do some work/repairs myself (I am lucky enough to have a backup car in case of longer repairs or bad weather) and I would be using independants to maintain the service history. Is it possible to service a Chim for a sensible cost instead of the £400-600 I often see quoted - especially anywhere near me in South Yorkshire.
Hoping to own one soon
Chris.
Hi Chris
Good luck with your purchase. Her is a link which might help you http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Beech/misc.htm. It is a factory servicing checklist. You can get any reasonably competent mechanic to carry it out and probably get a better job done than you would with a dealer at a fraction of the cost. I own an older car and my experience has been mainly electrical problems with an older alarm system and the awful Lucas system (very unreliable). These problems I take to a good autoelectrician I know--again for a fraction of the prices a dealer would charge. When I bought the car it was eight years old and had FTVRSH with Mole Valley one of the leading dealers. The annual FS was never less than £800 plus and on one (which included a new set of tyres) it was £2000 plus. Going through the items in detail I concluded that it was by and large a grand rip-off with in some cases outrageous overcharging for standard items. I still use MV but only for spares.
Hi Chris
Good luck with your purchase. Her is a link which might help you http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Beech/misc.htm. It is a factory servicing checklist. You can get any reasonably competent mechanic to carry it out and probably get a better job done than you would with a dealer at a fraction of the cost. I own an older car and my experience has been mainly electrical problems with an older alarm system and the awful Lucas system (very unreliable). These problems I take to a good autoelectrician I know--again for a fraction of the prices a dealer would charge. When I bought the car it was eight years old and had FTVRSH with Mole Valley one of the leading dealers. The annual FS was never less than £800 plus and on one (which included a new set of tyres) it was £2000 plus. Going through the items in detail I concluded that it was by and large a grand rip-off with in some cases outrageous overcharging for standard items. I still use MV but only for spares.
I totally agree Clint, the differences in servicing charges are quite staggering to say the least. I do want the very best for my Chim, but not at very inflated prices. Also I believe that expensive doesn't always mean better quality. A case in point is when I took my Escort!! to a well known garage for a full service and MOT, I only wanted the anti roll bar seals changed. What happened was that they told me all the suspension needed changing, which I agreed to, fair enough. When i came to collect my car, I still heard the creaks in the suspension as before. It transpired that they not only charged me for fitting new suspension, which they never fitted!,but also the anti roll bar seals were not changed too!!!
The garage charged me nearly £600 (4 years ago), but after having the car checked over by an independent, I got most of my money back.
that experience has left me with a healthy mis trust of stupidly overpriced servicing costs. having said that, I know that my Chim is no Ford Escort,and expect to pay more for the servicing, but not 8 times more!!! After all, the engine isn't exactly a mass of computers under the bonnet like the more modern German cars is it!!!
Good luck with your purchase. Her is a link which might help you http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Beech/misc.htm. It is a factory servicing checklist. You can get any reasonably competent mechanic to carry it out and probably get a better job done than you would with a dealer at a fraction of the cost. I own an older car and my experience has been mainly electrical problems with an older alarm system and the awful Lucas system (very unreliable). These problems I take to a good autoelectrician I know--again for a fraction of the prices a dealer would charge. When I bought the car it was eight years old and had FTVRSH with Mole Valley one of the leading dealers. The annual FS was never less than £800 plus and on one (which included a new set of tyres) it was £2000 plus. Going through the items in detail I concluded that it was by and large a grand rip-off with in some cases outrageous overcharging for standard items. I still use MV but only for spares.
I totally agree Clint, the differences in servicing charges are quite staggering to say the least. I do want the very best for my Chim, but not at very inflated prices. Also I believe that expensive doesn't always mean better quality. A case in point is when I took my Escort!! to a well known garage for a full service and MOT, I only wanted the anti roll bar seals changed. What happened was that they told me all the suspension needed changing, which I agreed to, fair enough. When i came to collect my car, I still heard the creaks in the suspension as before. It transpired that they not only charged me for fitting new suspension, which they never fitted!,but also the anti roll bar seals were not changed too!!!
The garage charged me nearly £600 (4 years ago), but after having the car checked over by an independent, I got most of my money back.
that experience has left me with a healthy mis trust of stupidly overpriced servicing costs. having said that, I know that my Chim is no Ford Escort,and expect to pay more for the servicing, but not 8 times more!!! After all, the engine isn't exactly a mass of computers under the bonnet like the more modern German cars is it!!!
FWIW there's about 130-140 + vat pounds worth of parts in a chim 12k service and it's just about do-able in 6 hours if you really fly and don't hit any snags. so these prices are about right with a low labour rate. If you want to make sure the car's as right as it can be though i reckon on spending 10 hours on the 12k service, I've never managed to complete one in 6 hours to my satisfaction .. I must be getting old 
It looks as though reasonable servicing by independants is available if you can find it - and trust it. I just need to find one that isn't over 100 miles away.
Does anyone have a contact for Cerberus Motorsport (bet he's too far away) and the correct link for the servicing schedule given by Clint887. I've tried many variations but couldn't get it to work.
Thanks for the replies,
Chris.
Does anyone have a contact for Cerberus Motorsport (bet he's too far away) and the correct link for the servicing schedule given by Clint887. I've tried many variations but couldn't get it to work.
Thanks for the replies,
Chris.
Go to here
www.henley-tvr.com
Click on the Service link, then the Service Schedule link. That'll show you what is serviced, how often etc. for both 6k (small) and 12k (big) services.
HTH
www.henley-tvr.com
Click on the Service link, then the Service Schedule link. That'll show you what is serviced, how often etc. for both 6k (small) and 12k (big) services.
HTH
joospeed said: FWIW there's about 130-140 + vat pounds worth of parts in a chim 12k service and it's just about do-able in 6 hours if you really fly and don't hit any snags. so these prices are about right with a low labour rate. If you want to make sure the car's as right as it can be though i reckon on spending 10 hours on the 12k service, I've never managed to complete one in 6 hours to my satisfaction .. I must be getting old
Totally agree and it is this time (and experience needed to understand what you are looking at) is what scares me when I see very low cost servicing as it is impossible to to do the work and for the guy to make money which means either the work is not being done correctly or he will go out of business PDQ.
chrisw - Joolz is in Chesterfield, so if you're in S.Yorks then it is likely to be less than 100 miles.
I don't have any experience of the other independants mentioned here, but I'm more than happy with my experiences of his work so far. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss.
There are plenty of happy Joospeed customers frequenting this site
I don't have any experience of the other independants mentioned here, but I'm more than happy with my experiences of his work so far. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss.
There are plenty of happy Joospeed customers frequenting this site
joospeed said: FWIW there's about 130-140 + vat pounds worth of parts in a chim 12k service and it's just about do-able in 6 hours if you really fly and don't hit any snags. so these prices are about right with a low labour rate. If you want to make sure the car's as right as it can be though i reckon on spending 10 hours on the 12k service, I've never managed to complete one in 6 hours to my satisfaction .. I must be getting old
I personally would be happier paying a bit more for somebody who was going to spend 10 hrs servicing my TVR, There's huge value in this, I'm not suggesting that some specialists don't do a proper job, but surely on the whole you get what you pay for.
As Steve says servicing is a small part of the annual financial outlay .
Tim
MAC5 said: Hi,
Are you in south yorks?
I am just outside Rotherham MAC5 and thanks for the tip re the TVRCC - I should really speak to them before getting much further with my plans for a 5.0 Chim - if I can find the right car at the right price.
Strat - thanks for the TJ motors tip as well - Boroughbridge is only a quick trip up the A1. I have heard of Joospeed in Chesterfield - I am just gathering options to make sure I can swim before jumping in at the deep end.
Chris.
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