Buying a Chimaera.

[chris43]

Any help on the following will be gratfully recieved as I am about to buy my first chimaera.
Power steering or not?
Who in Kent will check out a car for me and report on any faults?
What problems should I look out for.
Any other help would be great!

[drum4it2]

chris43 said:

Any help on the following will be gratfully recieved as I am about to buy my first chimaera. Power steering or not? Who in Kent will check out a car for me and report on any faults? What problems should I look out for. Any other help would be great!

Morning Chris, I joined this site just after I bought my 95, 4.0 - wish I'd known of it sooner as I have a few problems with the car....

I also had to think over the PAS and eventually went without - but it is a bit heavy parking! - on a good run it's better without IMHO.

So, if I were you - I'd join the car club TVRCC and use their website & sprint magazine as another source of cars for sale - there is a guy who checks them out for a fee, like I say, never knew of him when I got my car - but I've heard people praise him a lot, no doubt someone will give you the details...

I've also heard that the 4.0 is best for not overheating? That the 4.5 is the best all round model and that currently the 'in' car is the Griff? but only what I've heard (on here I might add!)

You may get more replies tomorrow as I know a lot of owners are out on events today... I'm off on my first convoy too...

If you get one, let me know - maybe we can meet up - I'm over in Essex! ( - Essex)

Good luck!

[shpub]

Buyer's guide on my website. PAS is more attractive from a resell point of view but it is a personal pref. I've had both and would not go back to manual.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[victormeldrew]

steve said:

PAS is more attractive from a resell point of view

Thats one of them there self fulfilling prophesies innit?

Its only more attractive because ... people keep saying it is. As the OP here suggests, the average punter really has no opinion.

Drive both, make your own mind up. Personally I'd worry more about the overall condition, service history, and how well it drives. Not having PAS wouldn't put me off if the car was otherwise what I wanted - it isn't that big a deal. Unless you ARE a girle of course.

>> Edited by victormeldrew on Sunday 13th July 21:40

[jamer]

chris43 said:

Any help on the following will be gratfully recieved as I am about to buy my first chimaera. Power steering or not? Who in Kent will check out a car for me and report on any faults? What problems should I look out for. Any other help would be great!

Power Steering was a £980 option for the TVR Griffith and Chimaera new. It up until 1998 didn't really seem to make any differenc to resale at all when they were built then as supply was very low and 12 month old TVR's were fetching new list prices.


When a larger volume started to creep in the spec became the issue as well, Blue's became the invogue colour as a opposed to the Cooper Greens and power steering on a Chimaera now added around £1600 to its resale of a simuliar car.

Griffith due to their hairy chested features still remain an undecided market as there are too few good ones around to be picky with.

My advioce is get one you like, where possible think about resale and is your good value in the first place and secondly try to get a pas model where poss and buy steve heaths book to help the niggles.

hope that helps

[chimburt]

what you gain on re-sale you'll have to pay for on purchase, as far as pas is concerned, so kind of a double-edged sword i'd say.
i'm without - ached for a week when i got it, but now don't even think twice about it, and you get better at parking
just another thing to go wrong IMO, and you probably go a bit easier on the tyres without, 'cause you are much less inclined to spin the steering wheel on the spot.
look at the car itself.

[the dodger]

PAS or not is entirely dependant on driving circumstances (where, how often, parking, backroads, track days etc..) and personal choice. I belive you should try both if you're not sure. But don't let it rule your choice. Much more important is the car itself - find one you LIKE. For servicing it will be worth the trip to take it to David Batty in Guildford. There's a lot on here about him and recommendations.

Any other advice? Get one! You'll never look back!

[purplelou]

Hi Chris

Just cruised in on your topic.I was in exactly the same situation in September 2001 and new I needed expert help on finding the right car I joined the TVR car club and then spotted Rob Ingleby's advert "Find a sports car" I approached the club and asked them about Rob and he came highly recommended,so I approached him and the rest is history I'm about to hit 2 years of ownership of a super Ruby Mica Red 4.0lt HC Chimaera which had only one onwer 25k on the clock full service historybwith Mole Valley TVR,mint condition garaged etc all for just over £15k.If you want to read my article I wrote for Sprint email me and I'll send a copy to you.I have stayed in touch with Rob and he has helped me out on a number of ocassions with this and that since buying the car,he is a honest extremely knowledgeable guy who will find you a very nice car.When I was dealing with him he was taking a flat rate of £500 to find you a car and this included HPI check etc.Hope this is of help.

Cheers Purplelou

[matt 74]

In relation to power steering option, i've got a 4.0l HC without it, i dont have any difficulties parking, ...even the missus makes a reasonable job to parallel park it, i'm sure if she can with no problems there isn't a great issue!!.