chimaera purchase taking over my life!!

[adamwakeman]

Hi -
Have been looking at trading my old P reg BMW 318 is coupe for my dream of a TVR! Tuscans seem a little out of my price range at the moment and fell in love with the Chimaera after a foolish friend let me drive his...

am a little reserved about buying privately as I know bugger all about cars - any suggestions about people to check cars over that are for sale privately? the AA are about 280quid to check over cars but do they know TVRs inside and out?!

Also, anything to look out for particularly? I get the impression that if there has been a lot of work done, that it it's not that big a problem.(?)

Ideally I'd like to spend no more than £15,000 and have seen a couple on the site but any help from you owner friends greatly appreciated! I'm in the Buckingham area and would be interested in any meets in this neck of the woods too. Feel I don't deserve to be on the message board yet but will hopefully have good reason soon!!!!

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[pies]

YHM

[chimpy_bob]

Don't go to the AA, the can say what they want about your car and you got no comeback.
Had an AA check on mine, have it on the road for 2 weeks then all kinds of problems.
To cut a long story short, £3100 later and its back on the road. AA say that I did not have a warranty so i got no clam even though they were all things they should have spotted.
Anyway, I'm just a bit bitter.
Go to someone who deals with TVRs who know what they are talking about.

>> Edited by chimpy_bob on Wednesday 14th January 22:35

[adamwakeman]

thanks for the advice. that's the AA off the list then....

[shadowninja]

chimpy_bob said:

Don't go to the AA, the can say what they want about your car and you got no comeback.

!!! that's just stupid (the AA not you!). what is the point of their service then!? :/

[the jiffle king]

Should be pretty simple:

1) Purchase the Bible - Do a search and you'll understand
2) Go to your local TVRCC meet and ask the right questions
3) Check a few basic things:
chasis
Doors hang right
fans come on at 90
idles well
no water leaks
some stone chips to show use, but not hide anything

And a few more

A thread search will do the job.

Then call David Batty to check car over or Rob Ingleby to find you one (£500 but well worth it I am told)

Then read PH for more info

T-J-K

[hut49]

I had a TVR main dealer give a candidate Chimaera a once over for me for £120 plus VAT. Written report and 20 mins on the phone saved me making a big mistake. It looked and drove so well but it had a bunch of problems that needed to be fixed underneath and I was already stretched to my limit. Saved my ass, big time.

[V8 Archie]

Someone will mention Rob Ingleby before long, so it might as well be me .

Other than that I can only echo:
Get along to a TVRCC meet.
Join the club (to get the magazine - which has 17 Chims for sale this month).

ETA:> "They all do that sir!"

>> Edited by V8 Archie on Thursday 15th January 01:51

[harleywilma]

Find an old boy who bought one from new,chances are he spent the national deficit keeping it that way and his old dear is fed up calling the paramedics every time he needs to get out of the damm thing!

[snorky]

I think Rob's website is still AWOL so try him on 07799 142860 - He found my car and I can recommend him - £500 sounds a lot but we looked at lots of Chims - would have cost me that in petrol alone....

[pstruck]

I found a car I was interested in from a private seller and then asked Rob Ingleby to inspect and report.

Spot on result. Just what was needed to give me the confidence to buy it.

His website seems to be working ok now (for me anyway)!

[ribol]

If you know are reasonable amount about cars then you probably know more than the AA car checkers, anyone can get a car HPI'd.
If you don't, take it to a TVR main dealer and get a proper check. It is not anywhere as expensive as buying a bad one and the going rate seems to be £100/£150. You cannot check these cars over properly without putting them on a ramp.

Ivan

[M@H]

adamwakeman said:

Hi - am a little reserved about buying privately as I know bugger all about cars -

IMO.. Seriously if you have no car knowledge, then I'm going to fly in the face of my ususal lines of buying provate and suggest you have a hunt around the local dealerships/independants for a car.

The reason being that I assume you will be using a dealership/indie for all the work that the car will need (and there will be some, even if initially its just servicing) so if you buy from one and build a decent relationship with them at the time, then they may well be more helpful to you if things go wrong than if you just turn up off the street.

Also bear in mind that you will get a warranty with a car from a garage, and again, if you know nothing about cars then this may prove invaluable.

I would not reccommend anyone with no car knowledge to go shopping for a car privately, and even if you get it inspected, you are still taking a risk as the inspections are "on the day" accordingly if 2 months later it falls apart, you have no comeback.

Also I'd rather trust my own eyes than someone elses, if you know what I mean, then its my fault if it turns out badly. I'm not suggesting that all inspections are worthless (far from it in fact) as indeed I have met Mr Ingleby for example and he is a wealth of information and I would very much trust his judgement.. just pointing out that it is not the same as an actual Guarantee/Warranty on a specific car.

The other thing with inspections is (unless you use a finder service which is a different kettle of fish) they will only inspect a car that you have found. And if you know nothing about cars, you may well find 5 in a row which are Sh!te, and have to pay £200 a go for 5 inspections to tell you they are Sh!te.

For example, the chap who recently bought my Chimaera, looked at six others before looking at mine.. that would have been £1400 in inspection fees if he had not had "the knowledge" available, and that sort of money is getting into the realms of the "garage premium" on the early Chimaera prices anyway (yes I know there is a bit more £ in it, but think of the warranty peace of mind etc)

TVRs arent like mass produced euroboxes.. there is a lot to learn and it can be a painful experience to learn it by buying a lemon and spending ££££'s on it..

Cheers
Matt.



>> Edited by M@H on Thursday 15th January 11:53

[snorky]

actually I agree with M@ a bit there, coz there WERE things that Rob didn't/couldn't have spotted but he negotiated the price down quite a bit so I ended up with some spare cash to put them all right. Rob has the advantage that he can say "well I've seen 25 Chims this week and yours is a little overpriced...etc"

[cosmoschick]

M@H said:

IMO.. Seriously if you have no car knowledge, then I'm going to fly in the face of my ususal lines of buying provate and suggest you have a hunt around the local dealerships/independants for a car. ...and build a decent relationship with them at the time, then they may well be more helpful to you if things go wrong than if you just turn up off the street. Also bear in mind that you will get a warranty with a car from a garage

I agree with Matt. And his comment about building up a decent relationship is good advice. I did just that with my dealer which proved invaluable when the warranty company was presented with a faulty ecu/airflow meter claim. They tried to wriggle out of paying for one of the parts by stating "consequential damage" but my dealer and I stood our ground and, in the end, they paid out. He was a great support.

If you do decide to buy privately then I would recommend you look into taking out an insurance policy which helps offset the cost of replacement parts.

[evo]

I wanted to spend £15000 on a chim,ended up spending £18000 instead

Happy hunting

[adamwakeman]

Thanks a lot everyone - I'll keep you posted. I'll get back onto the dealer sites and see what's around!
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[seasider]

evo said:

I wanted to spend £15000 on a chim,ended up spending £18000 instead Happy hunting

Snap..... but ended up spending a bit more on a
Griff 500

[TheHobbit]

evo said:

I wanted to spend £15000 on a chim,ended up spending £18000 instead Happy hunting

mmmm. far too easy to do!

[ellejay]

i would also recommend considering the dealer option. Yes you do pay more but we felt it was a safer option. I hope you are as lucky as we have been - bought the car a year ago (from a dealer) and have had no big problems with it ... so far. Although i fear the worst now that the warranty has expired.

Good luck in looking - hope you find a suitable one soon.