New TVR still under wraps!
Discussion
I'm quite realistic in my expectations at the moment.
I saw & heard the car at Le Mans this year, without ever really being a TVR person or that interested in the new car. To be honest, I'd glossed over the little info available and not really paid much attention to it.
But after seeing the car, and hearing it, as well as finding our the vehicle specs...I was very interested.
They're building a brand new factory, and need to get that up and running first....which is no small feat I'd imagine. I'd rather they take their time and get things right than rush out an unfinished product only for the reliability and problems associated with TVR's old image to show themselves. This car needs to work well in order to help shake of it's old image.
I'll be putting my deposit down as soon as I've sold my GT4, and the current timeframe for production actually suits me, so I'm happy to wait if it means getting the product I expect.
Though, judgment will be reserved until I see how it drives. But on the face of it, the new car is ticking all the right boxes for me.
I saw & heard the car at Le Mans this year, without ever really being a TVR person or that interested in the new car. To be honest, I'd glossed over the little info available and not really paid much attention to it.
But after seeing the car, and hearing it, as well as finding our the vehicle specs...I was very interested.
They're building a brand new factory, and need to get that up and running first....which is no small feat I'd imagine. I'd rather they take their time and get things right than rush out an unfinished product only for the reliability and problems associated with TVR's old image to show themselves. This car needs to work well in order to help shake of it's old image.
I'll be putting my deposit down as soon as I've sold my GT4, and the current timeframe for production actually suits me, so I'm happy to wait if it means getting the product I expect.
Though, judgment will be reserved until I see how it drives. But on the face of it, the new car is ticking all the right boxes for me.
DonkeyApple said:
AUTODESIGN said:
I went to the Festival of Speed today and was looking at the Lotus 430GT. I explained that i was a frustrated TVR deposit holder. The sales guy just laughed and said ' do you know how many cars we sold last year and how many do TVR need to sell the break even?' He then went on to say Lotus (now backed by the owners of Volvo) sold 1600 cars and TVR's break even number is 1500. He laughed and just said 'you work it out?!' .
I think we are all now kidding ourselves here and the silence from the company is more than telling! Optimistically, a few might make it to production but the company will never survive. Interesting no appearance from TVR at FOS ! A very local event , yet they can take the car all the way to Le Mans!
i really wanted this to work but , i have now heard too much and asking for a refund ! maybe a 12c for £90k !
A few basic observations:I think we are all now kidding ourselves here and the silence from the company is more than telling! Optimistically, a few might make it to production but the company will never survive. Interesting no appearance from TVR at FOS ! A very local event , yet they can take the car all the way to Le Mans!
i really wanted this to work but , i have now heard too much and asking for a refund ! maybe a 12c for £90k !
Lotus sell 1600 cars a year but the vast majority of those are their bottom end models which they make no profit on. Only a couple of hundred are their halo model. 100% of TVR sales will be of halo models. There is no bottom end fluff.
Lotus has an enormous factory and huge labour costs of an entity set up to build ten times the cars that it currently does. That’s an enormous amount of comical over spend to amortise across 1600 units a year. TVR will have a small factory that utilises just the space and labour that they need for the cars that they sell.
Those two factors alone mean that TVR profit margins per unit will absolutely dwarf those of Lotus once the business gets established.
Then there is the fact that one of these companies builds an all new and exciting sports car with a gritty V8 fettled by Cosworth packed into a chassis designed by Gordon Murray while the other builds a dumpy little wagon powered by an engine taken from Gary’s executive minicab, wedged on top of an old chassis and sold to pension actuaries who’ll spend every waking second telling you how great Colin Chapman was and why it’s better than a Porsche or Maclaren. No Clive. It isn’t. So why don’t you take your four eyes, silly beard, warm beer and adenoidal clattering and f
k off back to the tool box with all the other spanners. The Lotus salesman may have been laughing but that’s probably because he’s too dim to have worked out that if TVR succeed in coming to market his future lies in selling Chinese SUVs with a Lotus badge lopsidedly glued to the front.
Edited by DonkeyApple on Friday 13th July 11:27
Other than the badge, this car has no history or legacy with the old TVR. It’s just another new entrant to the market like many others that have come and gone. I hope they survive but look how hard Lotus have struggled to turn a profit despite good talent and a reputation for good handling cars that have regularly scored highly in the all the past tests.
Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
Leggy said:
Other than the badge, this car has no history or legacy with the old TVR. It’s just another new entrant to the market like many others that have come and gone. I hope they survive but look how hard Lotus have struggled to turn a profit despite good talent and a reputation for good handling cars that have regularly scored highly in the all the past tests.
Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
Ya can take off ur disguise anytime ya like M4tti...Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
Leggy said:
Other than the badge, this car has no history or legacy with the old TVR. It’s just another new entrant to the market like many others that have come and gone. I hope they survive but look how hard Lotus have struggled to turn a profit despite good talent and a reputation for good handling cars that have regularly scored highly in the all the past tests.
Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
Many a car company has changed ownership and changed location and launched all new products so I think they’re OK on that front. The important thing this time is to employ people who respect the work that they are doing and respect the customers who are buying their product, as well as the new owners respecting their customers as well as investing in the business rather than stripping it. Apart from being loud, TVR’s reputation was for poor reliability (much worse than Lotus) and propensity to try and kill you. I applaud those faithful enough to put down a deposit. Even if you don’t like Lotus, surely there are plenty of better places to spend your hard earned dosh?
The Lotus v TVR is always an interesting one and the truth is that the TVR brand has far, far more love for it from the general public which will hopefully help them and at the same time Lotus suffers from being a non aspirational product operating at a price point that really needs a product in this modern consumer age to be aspirational. TVR has a similar issue but not as bad and maybe with the new car they can also improve this. While we all may loathe the idea of either of these brands becoming wallet and willy waving tools of the consumer/image gibbons, I’m sure we all recognise that both desperately need buyers from this demographic in order to survive. The days of the pure enthusiast being able to support such businesses on their own is long gone
I agree with much of the recent posts, but Lotus v TVR has always been an interesting comparison. Looking at my ownership profile of 11 Lotuses from 1978 to 2001 and 12 TVR’s from 1976 to the present day, you can see I fell out of love with Lotus when the Esprit ceased production. During the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s in particular, Lotus had a great deal of love from the general pubic. IMHO they lost it with the ‘new’ Elan and then the Elise. Both very capable cars of their time, but they were no longer ‘special’ in many eyes.
My concern about the new TVR is just that – will it make young boys stop, stare and think ‘one day I’ll have one of those’? Looking forward to seeing the new car in the flesh for the first time at Beaulieu.
My concern about the new TVR is just that – will it make young boys stop, stare and think ‘one day I’ll have one of those’? Looking forward to seeing the new car in the flesh for the first time at Beaulieu.
I think in today’s world they need to ensure that a young, effeminate chap with an exquisite beard, weird speech and a large gold watch films himself outside a trendy cocktail & skank emporium with one to do that. Such a chap could be holding sloppy dog muck in his bare hands and it would become the coolest, must have item on the planet. 
Haven't laughed so much at a comment on here for quite a while 
But, just to get the point across, only this week I took a 16 year old boy (yes, with his fathers permission) for a ride in the Sag. Guess what, he wants one as his first car. There are still a lot of similar boys out there!
But, just to get the point across, only this week I took a 16 year old boy (yes, with his fathers permission
) for a ride in the Sag. Guess what, he wants one as his first car. There are still a lot of similar boys out there!DonkeyApple said:
I think in today’s world they need to ensure that a young, effeminate chap with an exquisite beard, weird speech and a large gold watch films himself outside a trendy cocktail & skank emporium with one to do that. Such a chap could be holding sloppy dog muck in his bare hands and it would become the coolest, must have item on the planet.
Goodwood was riddled with them today. Tattooed, bearded with skinny shorts and white polo shirts. Being a bit of a hardcore gym rat, my arms wouldn’t have even fit in the legs of these skinny shorts. What’s happened to world. I’m a goodwood member and if I go to the festival again will be simply sitting in the enclosure. Sad times.
m4tti said:
DonkeyApple said:
I think in today’s world they need to ensure that a young, effeminate chap with an exquisite beard, weird speech and a large gold watch films himself outside a trendy cocktail & skank emporium with one to do that. Such a chap could be holding sloppy dog muck in his bare hands and it would become the coolest, must have item on the planet.
Goodwood was riddled with them today. Tattooed, bearded with skinny shorts and white polo shirts. Being a bit of a hardcore gym rat, my arms wouldn’t have even fit in the legs of these skinny shorts. What’s happened to world. I’m a goodwood member and if I go to the festival again will be simply sitting in the enclosure. Sad times.
LOTUS v TVR
I would love to have a Lotus sat in my garage.
An Elan + 2 130 S would be an addition I would love to have next to our TVR Tuscan 1 4.0, Griffith 4.3 and Tasmin FHC 280i, but only after a Taimar was added to the TVR set first.
We have owned TVR's since 1982.
No I am not a deposit holder, but can only wish Les and the team all the very best for the production of the new Griff!
Daggsy said:
LOTUS v TVR
I would love to have a Lotus sat in my garage.
An Elan + 2 130 S would be an addition I would love to have next to our TVR Tuscan 1 4.0, Griffith 4.3 and Tasmin FHC 280i, but only after a Taimar was added to the TVR set first.
We have owned TVR's since 1982.
No I am not a deposit holder, but can only wish Les and the team all the very best for the production of the new Griff!
I’d love an Elan twin cam and an Espeit Turbo, the latter being, in my view, one of the iconic cars of my childhood. Sadly, while I have the space for both, neither of them have the space for me. ;(I would love to have a Lotus sat in my garage.
An Elan + 2 130 S would be an addition I would love to have next to our TVR Tuscan 1 4.0, Griffith 4.3 and Tasmin FHC 280i, but only after a Taimar was added to the TVR set first.
We have owned TVR's since 1982.
No I am not a deposit holder, but can only wish Les and the team all the very best for the production of the new Griff!
The first car I ever drove, at 12 year old, was my father’s JPS coloured 7 and one of the first motoring icons I met was Chapman as he tied to leg my father over on an F1 sponsorship deal.
But it was a Griff that I bought off Gerry Marshall while hammered at my sister’s wedding, which he sold to get one back on Wheeler who had just had his factory drivers knock Gerry off to stop him winning the Challenge that season. Because whatever you say about PW at least he never discriminated against people of normal height, unlike Chapman.
Edited by DonkeyApple on Friday 13th July 23:10
blueg33 said:
spagbogdog said:
RichB said:
blueg33 said:
Pretty sure the actual cost of a 540c is more than the Evora 430GT.
Evora 430GTs appear to be around £120k - McLarens for sale on PH for around the same.New 540c is still more.
Daggsy said:
LOTUS v TVR
I would love to have a Lotus sat in my garage.
An Elan + 2 130 S would be an addition I would love to have next to our TVR Tuscan 1 4.0, Griffith 4.3 and Tasmin FHC 280i, but only after a Taimar was added to the TVR set first.
We have owned TVR's since 1982.
No I am not a deposit holder, but can only wish Les and the team all the very best for the production of the new Griff!
I used to have an Elan + 2 130S many years ago and still miss it. I have been trying to trace it and believe it is still around, probably sat in someone’s garage awaiting restoration.I would love to have a Lotus sat in my garage.
An Elan + 2 130 S would be an addition I would love to have next to our TVR Tuscan 1 4.0, Griffith 4.3 and Tasmin FHC 280i, but only after a Taimar was added to the TVR set first.
We have owned TVR's since 1982.
No I am not a deposit holder, but can only wish Les and the team all the very best for the production of the new Griff!
madaboutastons said:
essexstu said:
I gave TVR a chase on progress and they came back (within 24 hrs!) to say an new update will be "issued shortly" and the questionnaire to deposit holders is being revised to be more engaging and quicker to complete.
Dumb question: I am a deposit holder but have had no questionnaire. Did I miss something?PS I agree with the other sentiment here and will likely get my deposit back soon. Don't love the styling and the wait / lack of comms is just taking my enthusiasm down bit-by-bit every day.
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