Can you only buy Tuscans from TVR dealers?

[porterpainter]

Hey everyone,

First post, so please be gentle!

I’ve been saving my pennies for about 5 years now and have finally got myself into a position to buy my dream car.

For years I’d been split between a Cerbera or an Esprit, but over the past 6 months the Tuscan has come onto my radar more and more...(I think having turned 40 recently the thought of some blasts into the countryside with the roof off on a sunny day has become more appealing).

Set my heart on MK1 S or a possibly a MK2 if the right price.

However, getting to the point, I very rarely see any private sales of Tuscans on PistonHeads or other sale sights and I just wondered if there’s a reason for that?

Whenever I’ve bought a used car, I always like to meet the owner and learn about the history of the car...and given everything I read is about buying on condition, that’s a bit lost when you go via a dealer.

Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places or simply people prefer to trade their cars in rather than deal with tyre kickers. But seemingly the Tuscan more than the others I’ve noticed are all sold via dealers, and to be honest I don’t know enough about any of the dealers to know whether to trust them or not.

Any good tips for me would be gratefully received.

Thanks
Andy

[lancepar]

Try Googling.........News Now Tuscan for sale.

[TVR_Steve]

Hi Andy,

Personally I have found selling cars to be a bit of a hassle, same as selling anything yourself these days. Giving the car to a dealer to sell or on sale/return is attractive to me because of that reason.

Cheers,
Steve

Moderator edit: no advertising please

[SFTWend]

Hi Andy

I've previously asked the same question and, like you, prefer to talk to the owner when considering a car. I think there are several factors;

- Few people appear to sell their car privately, not just TVRs, and SOR makes it easy if the car is not your daily driver.
- I suspect some cars and sold within the "TVR community" and never get advertised.
- As Steve says, it can be a lot of hassle dealing with tyre kickers, joy riders and time wasters.

I've been on the lookout for a private sale TVR for a while (Tuscan, Griff or Cerb will do!) but not many good ones coming to market. Those that do are often priced at dealer money, which is daft especially as a TVR specialist warranty can be quite valuable.

Did you consider the "swordfish" Tuscan that has just sold on PH?

Pete

[Cascade360]

Join the TVR Tuscan Owners Group on Facebook, quite a few cars come up for sale. Though it seems that sellers often have overly high expectations on price, expecting them to sell at the same price as dealer cars - hence quite a few hang around for quite some time.

Many sell through dealers as people like to buy from dealers, given the reputation these cars have for reliability etc.

[Speed 3]

I had mine up for sale privately for a few months pre-COVID and all I ever got was silly swap offers eg non-road legal motorsport Seat Cupra or a totally Barry'd Boxster S. In the end this year I went SOR with a decent rep TVR specialist. They charged a fixed fee and stored it through the latest lockdown. The price they got, netted back with the fee worked out at the same price I was unable to shift it privately for. I think the market has moved that way over the last few years. The few private sale ones can be a bit tatty.

[porterpainter]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your comments.

Yeah, I guess if you’re a seller and therefore have the hassle of selling, then trading-in or getting a dealer to sell on consignment is the way to do it as the buyer foots the bill in the end.

The only dealer that is near to me (Liverpool) seems to be TVR Mads, but they don’t seem to be a proper dealership, and other dealers are that far away that if anything went wrong it would just be complicated to get the car back to them for any kind of warranty support - unless something went majorly wrong of course.

Pete - I did see the ‘swordfish’ Tuscan, but if it’s the one I’m thinking of, it wasn’t an S and my heart is set on the S if it’s a MK1.

Cascade - I’m one of those people that never joined Facebook back in the day, and I flat out refuse to now

I was thinking about joining the TVR club, but then found a thread on this site that PH was a much more active place for TVR owners than the TVR club.

Cheers
Andy

[2gins]

porterpainter said:

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your comments.

Yeah, I guess if you’re a seller and therefore have the hassle of selling, then trading-in or getting a dealer to sell on consignment is the way to do it as the buyer foots the bill in the end.

The only dealer that is near to me (Liverpool) seems to be TVR Mads, but they don’t seem to be a proper dealership, and other dealers are that far away that if anything went wrong it would just be complicated to get the car back to them for any kind of warranty support - unless something went majorly wrong of course.

Pete - I did see the ‘swordfish’ Tuscan, but if it’s the one I’m thinking of, it wasn’t an S and my heart is set on the S if it’s a MK1.

Cascade - I’m one of those people that never joined Facebook back in the day, and I flat out refuse to now

I was thinking about joining the TVR club, but then found a thread on this site that PH was a much more active place for TVR owners than the TVR club.

Cheers
Andy

Out of interest what was it about the Cerb/Tuscan comparison that made you change your mind, was it just the wind in the hair factor or some other reason? I have a Chimaera at present and could be blown either way despite always having wanted a Cerb (a big factor in my case is garaging, and the length of the doors on the Cerb)?

Re TVRCC, the forums are one thing but you'll make the membership fee back in the insurance savings if nothing else. Most of the people are decent. Some politics. Same as any paid membership car club .

[porterpainter]

2Gins - I was a teenager in the mid/late 90s and got the VHS of Clarkson Unleashed on Cars, where a Cerbera destroyed all the other super cars of the time in a drag race....so for 20 + years I lusted after one.

However, apart from the targa top...the more I look at the Tuscan the more I like the look of it, and I think the speed six engine is a bit easier to maintain.

Don’t get me wrong, the Cerbera is still a beautiful car, and I wouldn’t be sad to own one. But I’d always want the fastest/best model I could get, and I understand the 4.5 engine is a bit more fragile and costs a bit more for maintaining.

There’s not much in it to be honest, but with 30-35k to spend I think I can get more for my money with a Tuscan, and one in a nice colour looks like a super car that could still be in production today.

[gruffalo]

The 4.5 engine is quite the opposite of fragile, it does go off tune rather quickly but that is the induction system that causes that not the mechanicals of the engine.

The V8 was certainly not designed with ease of maintenance in mind so is often time consuming to do minor jobs on.

[JohnGK]

Hi All,
I just recently sold the Swordfish Tuscan in question and as a seller my experience was thus.
I wanted to go private to try and maximise the price I would achieve. I was fairly stubborn at the price point, as the sale was to fund another car, but it wouldn't of been a problem to keep it.
I'm not a great lover of FB, but I use to keep in touch with Real Friends around the world, and most of my feed is about cars. There is a large number of groups you can join all attended by enthusiasts.
So this was my first port of call to try and sell in these groups, I had silly offers from people who didn't even view the car, then I had offers from dealers, which were better. I would've considered these had the car been hanging around to long.
Then I had a few people view, all seemed very interested, but for their own reasons prefered to not proceed.
After that I tried pistonheads, Paid for advert, all the same, silly offers, dealer offers, and some interested parties. One of which we agreed a mutually acceptable transaction and the car is no longer mine. ):
I went into this expecting timewasters and tyre kickers, but didn't really suffer from that, as I believe it was down to the platforms I used and targeting the right audience.
Autotrader would've been a last resort for me.

Happy Hunting,
By The way when I purchased it took me 18 months to find the right car, and did buy from a deler in the end.

[swisstoni]

Interesting to hear that dealers are buying. Shows that there’s good demand.

[Cascade360]

I'd suggest making a Facebook account, even if it's with a false name and no pictures, as its where the community is, and once you buy one, its a great source of information! The TVRCC forums are dead. Here is not bad to be fair.

[roseytvr]

porterpainter said:

Hi Guys,



The only dealer that is near to me (Liverpool) seems to be TVR Mads, but they don’t seem to be a proper dealership, and other dealers are that far away that if anything went wrong it would just be complicated to get the car back to them for any kind of warranty support - unless something went majorly wrong of course.


Andy

I bought my sag from Tvr mads and can recommend them. Straightforward transaction, easy to deal with and an honest assessmentOf the car in the advert. Warranties are given and they use X works near Blackpool for any warranty work who are not not that far from you. Worth looking into if you see a car you fancy. Both have good reputations

[Madwud]

I'm in the same situation currently as the OP. There are certainly cars overpriced at dealer money, which I agree is a bit unrealistic. Its also true that some private sale can be a bit tatty. But equally there's a dealer car on here that a 5-minute search through the MOT history reveals advisories going back to 2014 that have still not been sorted--corroded hub assemblies in that case. It doesn't fill a (this) potential buyer with confidence that the vehicle has been well looked after. There is then the hassle in selling a car. But trading-in has never made good budget-sense to me. I did get a dealer to sell my last TVR--Track V Road in 2011--but only because I was moving overseas. However, I also wonder if buying only/mostly from dealers is partly down to the dying art of negotiation?

[2gins]

Thanks for the reply OP. Your youth sounds like the mirror image of mine!

[RedRose123]

I'm planning to auction mine in the next few weeks rather than sell it privately.

[Mutley00]

Ive found that these two Websites https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/ and https://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/ always seem to have posts from decent people and if you're selling, idiots/traders dont seem to respond to adverts on there either. Maybe they both have a reputation for only the discerning/respectable Classic Car enthusiast?

I sold both my Chimaera and S3 on carandclassic within the last 6 months and bought my Tuscan from there a couple of years ago.

Edited by Mutley00 on Friday 21st May 14:06

[TR4man]

Funnily enough, I sold my Tuscan from an advert on Car And Classic about six weeks ago.

It was also on PH and on the TVRCC for sale section, but the buyer said he only saw it on Car And Classic.

[IDJ74]

Hi. If I may share my experience with you good people .....as I toyed with the idea of handing the keys to a dealer to handle a sale for me.

Instead, i’ve had my Tuscan 2 S up on Pistonheads for about 3 weeks now (the blue one with FFF head).....sorry I’ve not worked out how to add a link yet!

Time will tell if I made the right decision.....