One for Zig...
Discussion
... and while I'm at it, I was up the loft looking for some old bike photos and I came across some box files that I got with my car, 11 years ago next month. They reminded me of recent discussions as to how much money you can throw at a TVR... so here's the sheaf of 'service records' that I've filled in, in my time with this car:
At the last count I'd racked-up £2987.23.
The previous owner had the car for about two years and got through this lot:
which I think you can make out tots-up to 2p shy of £7919. But that pales into insignificance against the spending of the guy before him who ran the 390 for about 5 years as his company car... here's his extensive record-keeping:
which comes to an eye-watering £13,000! (
Actually, on an annual basis, that's much better value!)
The car cost about £23,000 new, it's had easily that and more spent on it - and I only have paperwork back to 1993, god knows how much was thrown at it in the first 6 years.
Bottomless money-pit? Oh yes
At the last count I'd racked-up £2987.23.
The previous owner had the car for about two years and got through this lot:
which I think you can make out tots-up to 2p shy of £7919. But that pales into insignificance against the spending of the guy before him who ran the 390 for about 5 years as his company car... here's his extensive record-keeping:
which comes to an eye-watering £13,000! (
Actually, on an annual basis, that's much better value!)The car cost about £23,000 new, it's had easily that and more spent on it - and I only have paperwork back to 1993, god knows how much was thrown at it in the first 6 years.
Bottomless money-pit? Oh yes
Edited by Wedg1e on Wednesday 20th July 00:44
Excellent post, and shows you what you can pay to maintain a TVR correctly.
Actually when you study the figures & think about it, it's really not as bad as it first seems.
For the last 13 years it's cost just over £900.00 a year to run, that sounds about right to me.
If you take the full period you have records for, that figure rises to an average of just over £1300.00 a year over 18 years.
I still don't see this as a huge amount of money to correctly maintain a performance car.
I guess to put this into perspective you would need to factor in the mileage to give you a cost per mile.
Factor in depreciation and compare all this with running any other car (let alone a performance one) and I think you will find the old Wedge hasn't really been such a money pit.
In fact I think you will find running your Wedge has worked out closer to the average costs of running any car if you take your maintenance seriously.
The problems come with these cars when people try and run them on a shoe string.
Clearly that's not the case with your car.
If you are the poor chap who shelled out nearly £8,000.00 in two years, I wouldn't blame you for not agreeing with what I am saying.
The moral of the story is buy the very best car you can afford, check the file and try and buy a car that has had all the big jobs done and paid for by the previous owner.
Buy a cheaper Wedge for say £3,000.00 and you could easily end up spending another £5,000.00 on it in 3 years making it a £8,000.00 car.
Buy a decent Wedge in the first place like this one for £8,000.00:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3047995.htm
And you will save money in the long run, you will also have a car that works when you want it to so you will get more pleasure from it.
If you only have £3,000.00 in the bank then get a loan for the extra £5,000.00.
I BET IT WILL STILL WORK OUT CHEAPER OVER THREE YEARS!
Actually when you study the figures & think about it, it's really not as bad as it first seems.
For the last 13 years it's cost just over £900.00 a year to run, that sounds about right to me.
If you take the full period you have records for, that figure rises to an average of just over £1300.00 a year over 18 years.
I still don't see this as a huge amount of money to correctly maintain a performance car.
I guess to put this into perspective you would need to factor in the mileage to give you a cost per mile.
Factor in depreciation and compare all this with running any other car (let alone a performance one) and I think you will find the old Wedge hasn't really been such a money pit.
In fact I think you will find running your Wedge has worked out closer to the average costs of running any car if you take your maintenance seriously.
The problems come with these cars when people try and run them on a shoe string.
Clearly that's not the case with your car.
If you are the poor chap who shelled out nearly £8,000.00 in two years, I wouldn't blame you for not agreeing with what I am saying.
The moral of the story is buy the very best car you can afford, check the file and try and buy a car that has had all the big jobs done and paid for by the previous owner.
Buy a cheaper Wedge for say £3,000.00 and you could easily end up spending another £5,000.00 on it in 3 years making it a £8,000.00 car.
Buy a decent Wedge in the first place like this one for £8,000.00:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3047995.htm
And you will save money in the long run, you will also have a car that works when you want it to so you will get more pleasure from it.
If you only have £3,000.00 in the bank then get a loan for the extra £5,000.00.
I BET IT WILL STILL WORK OUT CHEAPER OVER THREE YEARS!
Hi Dave, nice to have met you at BBWF. I must pick you up over some of your calculations though:
£5000 over 3 years is £1700 a year.
But you could start with an £8000 wedge and still (reasonably) pay £1300/year.
So I don't see much difference there.
Truth is you can easily spend these amounts (and more) taking you car to dealers.
Equally you can do all the (admittedly enjoyable) spanner work yourself, and shop around (e.g. on Ebay) for parts, run the car on a couple of shoe strings but still maintain it well.
For example over the past couple of years I have bought a stainless exhaust for £250, a set of rear tyres for £150, a water pump for £25, all significant discounts, the list goes on...
£5000 over 3 years is £1700 a year.
But you could start with an £8000 wedge and still (reasonably) pay £1300/year.
So I don't see much difference there.
Truth is you can easily spend these amounts (and more) taking you car to dealers.
Equally you can do all the (admittedly enjoyable) spanner work yourself, and shop around (e.g. on Ebay) for parts, run the car on a couple of shoe strings but still maintain it well.
For example over the past couple of years I have bought a stainless exhaust for £250, a set of rear tyres for £150, a water pump for £25, all significant discounts, the list goes on...
Cheers for that..The rocker covers look nice powder coated..As for the cost of maintaining these cars i had a rover 420 which i paid £300 for..Put it through an MOT and had to shell out £800 for 4 x tyres..front and rear brakes..steering gaiters...4 x discs....Then the rad blew..£150..Then had to replace one of the front tyres as a nail somehow got stuck in between the tread and wall..£50..Then it needed tax £180..Then the cat went and the rear silencer..£60 for the cat and £60 for a cherry bomb..The cheaper option..Then the rear stabilizer bushes went..£400..Power steering pump and belts..£300..Then someone side swiped it in the snow while i was sleeping..£2300 for a car that no-one looked at and that was worth £800..Then the suspension needed doing so i got rid..ALL cars are money pits even the crap ones..Even though i have spent more than its worth on the TVR i love it..Everyone looks at it..Instead of the side waving fist gesture i get the thumbs up..Its all good in my book..Cheers..Ziga
I'm sure I am tempting fate here
I have a 1990 Nissan Sentra bought in '89 that apart from sched maintenance has needed less than a $1,000 in repair bills. I have of course bought a few tyres and batteries.
I try to park this close to my 280 in the hope the later may learn something about reliabilty and frugalnomics. So far, so good.
I have a 1990 Nissan Sentra bought in '89 that apart from sched maintenance has needed less than a $1,000 in repair bills. I have of course bought a few tyres and batteries.
I try to park this close to my 280 in the hope the later may learn something about reliabilty and frugalnomics. So far, so good.
Chimpafrolic said:
Excellent post, and shows you what you can pay to maintain a TVR correctly.
Actually when you study the figures & think about it, it's really not as bad as it first seems.
For the last 13 years it's cost just over £900.00 a year to run, that sounds about right to me.
If you take the full period you have records for, that figure rises to an average of just over £1300.00 a year over 18 years.
I still don't see this as a huge amount of money to correctly maintain a performance car.
I guess to put this into perspective you would need to factor in the mileage to give you a cost per mile.
Factor in depreciation and compare all this with running any other car (let alone a performance one) and I think you will find the old Wedge hasn't really been such a money pit.
In fact I think you will find running your Wedge has worked out closer to the average costs of running any car if you take your maintenance seriously.
The problems come with these cars when people try and run them on a shoe string.
Hmmm... in my ownership it averages £263 a year Actually when you study the figures & think about it, it's really not as bad as it first seems.
For the last 13 years it's cost just over £900.00 a year to run, that sounds about right to me.
If you take the full period you have records for, that figure rises to an average of just over £1300.00 a year over 18 years.
I still don't see this as a huge amount of money to correctly maintain a performance car.
I guess to put this into perspective you would need to factor in the mileage to give you a cost per mile.
Factor in depreciation and compare all this with running any other car (let alone a performance one) and I think you will find the old Wedge hasn't really been such a money pit.
In fact I think you will find running your Wedge has worked out closer to the average costs of running any car if you take your maintenance seriously.
The problems come with these cars when people try and run them on a shoe string.
I've driven it about 23750 miles, that works out at 8 miles to the pound or 12p/mile. I don't think you can go a mile on a bus for 12p
However taking the period for which I have data it works out at £23812 to do 89750 or so miles: about 26p/mile (excluding fuel, road tax and insurance of course). You STILL couldn't go a mile for 26p on a bus therefore public transport should be scrapped and we should all drive V8s
As to whether it's correctly maintained... well, like most of them I suspect not, at least if you take into account things like my recent sticking brakes. In an ideal world they'd be overhauled every few years BEFORE they started sticking. How many people renew the brake fluid every couple of years? Or check the suspension bushes for perishing annually? And at what stage 'should' you replace the hood?
I would like to think that I don't cut corners on parts cost: I save by doing all my own spannering, I dread to think how much labour all the work I've done would have cost me. To be fair, that was the largest part of the previous owner's costs as he didn't (wouldn't or couldn't) do anything on the car himself. There is a receipt from Demon Tweeks for a polished alloy oil filler cap. Next to it is a bill from his local specialist: they opened the bonnet, unscrewed the old cap, screwed on the new one, closed bonnet. Fifteen quid please
Soon mounts up if you do it that way.
adam quantrill said:
Hi Dave, nice to have met you at BBWF. I must pick you up over some of your calculations though:
£5000 over 3 years is £1700 a year.
But you could start with an £8000 wedge and still (reasonably) pay £1300/year.
So I don't see much difference there.
Truth is you can easily spend these amounts (and more) taking you car to dealers.
Equally you can do all the (admittedly enjoyable) spanner work yourself, and shop around (e.g. on Ebay) for parts, run the car on a couple of shoe strings but still maintain it well.
For example over the past couple of years I have bought a stainless exhaust for £250, a set of rear tyres for £150, a water pump for £25, all significant discounts, the list goes on...
Hi Adam, nice to meet you too, and I do take your point.£5000 over 3 years is £1700 a year.
But you could start with an £8000 wedge and still (reasonably) pay £1300/year.
So I don't see much difference there.
Truth is you can easily spend these amounts (and more) taking you car to dealers.
Equally you can do all the (admittedly enjoyable) spanner work yourself, and shop around (e.g. on Ebay) for parts, run the car on a couple of shoe strings but still maintain it well.
For example over the past couple of years I have bought a stainless exhaust for £250, a set of rear tyres for £150, a water pump for £25, all significant discounts, the list goes on...
Sure the £8,000.00 car I linked to may well still eat up over a grand a year in general maintenance, my figures excluded these everyday maintenance costs.
The £5,000.00 I quoted to look after a my hypothetical £3,000.00 Wedge was for what I would term additional costs to the regular maintenance of a healthy TVR.
Just look at what pjac67 has spent, the ad says £10,663 spent in last 12m/3k miles.
AND I DON'T DOUBT IT FOR A MINUTE!
I still profess it will work out cheaper to buy a car like the one pjac67 is selling than buy a fixer for less and try and bring it up to that standard.
Two years ago I bought the very best Chimaera I could find within my budget and then set about making it as perfect as I could in those two years.
I am an ex-mechanic so have completed a lot of the work on my car myself, however with my work commitments as they are I am not adverse to recruiting a trusted TVR specialist and letting them get their hands dirty on my behalf (in exchange for my cash).
Regular & fastidious maintenance with extensive & well considered modifications have seen my 24 month bill come in a £4,000.00 on top of the very reasonable purchase price I negotiated for my Chim.
I freely accept this £4,000.00 is unrecoverable when I sell, but that doesn't make it money badly spent.
My Chim has cost me a grand a year to maintain it, and a grand a year for the first two years in modifications/improvements.
The car is now exactly as I want it and I fully expect to keep to a £800.00 annual maintenance budget (or less) for the next few years.
So, over a five year period that brings my average annual running costs to £1300.00 including all the improvements.
Add to this the fact that I consider the car my hobby, and that it should retain it's market value over the 5 year period, and it starts to look like a very good deal.
I have a mate who shoots clay pigeons as his hobby, he told me every year he spends at least £2800.00 on cartridges, clays, club membership ect.
If I factor in my fuel, road fund tax, insurance I expect I spend about the same on owning a TVR as my mate does shooting clays (perhaps a bit less).
But all he is left with at the end of the year is some empty shell cases, his gun loses about £100.00 a year in resale too.
At the end of the 5 year period I will still have my beautiful Chimaera to sell & a lot of great memories besides.
I call that a cheap hobby.
Well that's how I sell it to the wife anyway
[quote=Chimpafrolic]
Sure the £8,000.00 car I linked to may well still eat up over a grand a year in general maintenance, my figures excluded these everyday maintenance costs.
The £5,000.00 I quoted to look after a my hypothetical £3,000.00 Wedge was for what I would term additional costs to the regular maintenance of a healthy TVR.
Just look at what pjac67 has spent, the ad says £10,663 spent in last 12m/3k miles.
AND I DON'T DOUBT IT FOR A MINUTE!
I still profess it will work out cheaper to buy a car like the one pjac67 is selling than buy a fixer for less and try and bring it up to that standard.
quote]
I couldn't agree more - thanks for the comments and I hope someone else gets to enjoy this VERY fast Wedge.
Cheers, Paul.
Sure the £8,000.00 car I linked to may well still eat up over a grand a year in general maintenance, my figures excluded these everyday maintenance costs.
The £5,000.00 I quoted to look after a my hypothetical £3,000.00 Wedge was for what I would term additional costs to the regular maintenance of a healthy TVR.
Just look at what pjac67 has spent, the ad says £10,663 spent in last 12m/3k miles.
AND I DON'T DOUBT IT FOR A MINUTE!
I still profess it will work out cheaper to buy a car like the one pjac67 is selling than buy a fixer for less and try and bring it up to that standard.
quote]
I couldn't agree more - thanks for the comments and I hope someone else gets to enjoy this VERY fast Wedge.
Cheers, Paul.
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