Devil & Deep Blue Sea
Discussion
Got the readies, now im looking seriously! Is it worth buying from a dealer and paying the premium for relative peace of mind, or privately, take out a warranty and have an RAC & HPI check? And what specific areas of the chassis suffer first from corosion - have had a Vixen, Taimar & S2 and they all suffered in different areas. Any help would be great, going for 500 with PAS. Thanx
chassis...
anything that can be seen from the front wheel arch.
fronts shot blast the chassis with water debris etc.
kerb side is the worst.
sill out riggers and rails, more of same.
check for crap in the outrigger corners. should be clean!! not full of crap. if they look like there is a huge weld...its muck.
go for spec, general condition, HISTORY!
higher milers have been used and sorted, lowers SHOULD be in better general condition, but will have spent most of their lives in the garage. front respray is around £800 so don't let chips put you off. a pristine example will be chipped to feck in a year anyway.
try and get one thats been used regularly, garaged and with a good history. these cars are rare and are usually easy to trace nowadays with dealers selling the cars several times.
i bought mine privately. good spec/condition, ok miles.
saved £3K (in actual fact a paid what i had, but buying privately meant i got PAS-FULL LEATHER-A/C).
TAKE AN OWNER WITH YOU!
good luck!
anything that can be seen from the front wheel arch.
fronts shot blast the chassis with water debris etc.
kerb side is the worst.
sill out riggers and rails, more of same.
check for crap in the outrigger corners. should be clean!! not full of crap. if they look like there is a huge weld...its muck.
go for spec, general condition, HISTORY!
higher milers have been used and sorted, lowers SHOULD be in better general condition, but will have spent most of their lives in the garage. front respray is around £800 so don't let chips put you off. a pristine example will be chipped to feck in a year anyway.
try and get one thats been used regularly, garaged and with a good history. these cars are rare and are usually easy to trace nowadays with dealers selling the cars several times.
i bought mine privately. good spec/condition, ok miles.
saved £3K (in actual fact a paid what i had, but buying privately meant i got PAS-FULL LEATHER-A/C).
TAKE AN OWNER WITH YOU!
good luck!
zapcat said:
Got the readies, now im looking seriously! Is it worth buying from a dealer and paying the premium for relative peace of mind, or privately, take out a warranty and have an RAC & HPI check? And what specific areas of the chassis suffer first from corosion - have had a Vixen, Taimar & S2 and they all suffered in different areas. Any help would be great, going for 500 with PAS. Thanx
Also chassis tubes under the manifolds and lower, outer seatbelt mounts. Check none of the wishbone mounts are deformed from accident damage.
I wouldn't bother buying from a dealer as there's no guarantee you'll get a better car, just the warranty of some cash towards fixing things that aren't due to wear and tear. I've always thought the opportunity to size up the previous owner, see how well he keeps his house/other cars, state of his garage etc speaks volumes over a dealer forecourt and a bucket of water.
Based on my experience I would say buy privately and put the money you have saved aside to fix any problems. I bought my second TVR from a dealer naively thinking I would get a properly prepared car and they would look after any problems. In reality it wasn’t prepared and they didn’t give a stuff once they had my cash. After a little over a year of tinkering I just about have the car I thought I had bought. The previous car was bought privately from a pedantic TVR anorak who made you take off you shoes before entering his house and was massively better than the dealer supplied car.
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