Determined to have a Chimaera as my next car but im only 18.
Discussion
I know I have posted about this before, but I am going mad. Spending every night flicking through advert after advert and doing quote after quote trying to find a reasonable one!
Quick history if you did not see my first post... I got my first car in July 2013, did not want to have a stereotypical first car (1.2 corsa and so forth) and whilst going past a garage with my dad I spotted an old Saab sat at the back covered in leaves and tree sap, my dad being a Saab lover immediately turned around and went to have a look, a few days later I got it for £600 and insured for £1300 with a Black Box fitted.... it is extremely clean, had 93,000 miles when I got it.
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/BIbpqzlm.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/ArTdzTDJ" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ArTdzTDJ.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/1s52tS70" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/1s52tS70.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/JXllT10I" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/JXllT10I.jpg)
Its a 1999 9-3 2.2 TID, not bad for a first car at 18!
Have had to do a few things so far, stating with new ABS Rings, New exhaust, New battery, New front tyres and a re-alignment, but all to be expected with a car this age. One problem I have with it is I find it incredibly boring to drive, and I do not feel it is a car I can 'modify' or tinker with in many ways, it's not really my sort of car... if that makes sense. I do not feel inclined to work on it in the way I would if I had a classic lets say.
Why a Chim? I love how unique they are and just the looks alone got me hooked, they seem a brilliant project car and can be modified in so many ways. They also make a pretty nice sound.......
On my original post I said I was quoted £2600, now realising I made a pretty daft mistake of accidentally selecting my Dad as the main driver and me as named, now with that sorted I am getting quotes for about £5000-£6000 on money supermarket if I was to have a years no claims.
My current insurer (MyPolicy) stated that with the box it takes 60% off the premium I would pay if I was not to have the box. This got me thinking what they might quote me on a chim..
I know I might be mad to have a black box fitted to a TVR but I have found having the box on my Saab has not been any problem at all, I do not in anyway drive slowly (Can accelerate as hard as I want ) its mainly just sticking to speed limits and how smooth I drive that they keep an eye on.
I do not think having the box on a TVR would be all that bad, if you think about it driving for a year with a black box will mean I can get used to how the car drives, learn its limits, which is better than an 18 year old getting in one, with no limits or experience and crashing it on day one.
That's one idea of mine on how I can make this a reality... does anyone have any other ideas?? (I have not done any classic quotes as I feel I will just be turned down) If it came down to it and there was no affordable way to insure one, I would still love to own one as a project car until I can afford to run it. Only problem being there is not room on our driveway for a car to sit, my Dad has recently rented 2 aircraft hangers but it will be hard convincing him to let a car take up space that he may need.
Matt
Quick history if you did not see my first post... I got my first car in July 2013, did not want to have a stereotypical first car (1.2 corsa and so forth) and whilst going past a garage with my dad I spotted an old Saab sat at the back covered in leaves and tree sap, my dad being a Saab lover immediately turned around and went to have a look, a few days later I got it for £600 and insured for £1300 with a Black Box fitted.... it is extremely clean, had 93,000 miles when I got it.
Its a 1999 9-3 2.2 TID, not bad for a first car at 18!
Have had to do a few things so far, stating with new ABS Rings, New exhaust, New battery, New front tyres and a re-alignment, but all to be expected with a car this age. One problem I have with it is I find it incredibly boring to drive, and I do not feel it is a car I can 'modify' or tinker with in many ways, it's not really my sort of car... if that makes sense. I do not feel inclined to work on it in the way I would if I had a classic lets say.
Why a Chim? I love how unique they are and just the looks alone got me hooked, they seem a brilliant project car and can be modified in so many ways. They also make a pretty nice sound.......
On my original post I said I was quoted £2600, now realising I made a pretty daft mistake of accidentally selecting my Dad as the main driver and me as named, now with that sorted I am getting quotes for about £5000-£6000 on money supermarket if I was to have a years no claims.
My current insurer (MyPolicy) stated that with the box it takes 60% off the premium I would pay if I was not to have the box. This got me thinking what they might quote me on a chim..
I know I might be mad to have a black box fitted to a TVR but I have found having the box on my Saab has not been any problem at all, I do not in anyway drive slowly (Can accelerate as hard as I want ) its mainly just sticking to speed limits and how smooth I drive that they keep an eye on. I do not think having the box on a TVR would be all that bad, if you think about it driving for a year with a black box will mean I can get used to how the car drives, learn its limits, which is better than an 18 year old getting in one, with no limits or experience and crashing it on day one.
That's one idea of mine on how I can make this a reality... does anyone have any other ideas?? (I have not done any classic quotes as I feel I will just be turned down) If it came down to it and there was no affordable way to insure one, I would still love to own one as a project car until I can afford to run it. Only problem being there is not room on our driveway for a car to sit, my Dad has recently rented 2 aircraft hangers but it will be hard convincing him to let a car take up space that he may need.
Matt
I feel your pain Matt. I was lucky 21 years ago when I was 17 to drive a Westfield to school! But insurance has changed a lot since then and that Saab doesn't look bad at all. Maybe it would be best to stick with that for a couple of years, get some no claims bonus under your belt. If you find room you could buy a project car and get it ready for the road during that time....? Alternatively use a TVR as a track day car and get it towed (possibly on the back of that saab?) Sorry...
I know our ages differ (I'm 50) which will make the quotes different but the Chimaera must be in a lower group with some companies than others.
I went to Direct Line last year because they quoted me £285. This was only £23 more than for an old 2.0 litre Vauxhall Omega that I had been knocking about in!
I went to Direct Line last year because they quoted me £285. This was only £23 more than for an old 2.0 litre Vauxhall Omega that I had been knocking about in!
My first car was a JAP powered Morgan Three wheeler (1962). My second car (17) was a Lotus Super Seven Big Valve Twin Cam sold to me by Mr Chapman himself in 1963. Unless you can afford an insurance policy of many thousands I think this is going to be very tricky. Possibly a fleet policy might solve it? But life is made of dreams and aspirations. Go for it.
Gosh! It always reminds me of when Clarkson got his Escort Cosworth and had to pay 20k back in the 90's
I sold my Maestro back in '95 when I was 19 as the insurance was £900 3rd party only...
Now my Chim is ~£240 whereas my VRS is ~£300 both fully comp @ £15k sub 10k miles with ncp
Crazy... If I were 18 now I would probably end up with an enclosed quad bike or 2 wheel scooter thingy.
I sold my Maestro back in '95 when I was 19 as the insurance was £900 3rd party only...
Now my Chim is ~£240 whereas my VRS is ~£300 both fully comp @ £15k sub 10k miles with ncp
Crazy... If I were 18 now I would probably end up with an enclosed quad bike or 2 wheel scooter thingy.
Boring is good, you will appreciate the chim more when u get one. I waited 17 years ( i am 35 now) to get a tvr. Not suggesting waiting that long but don't premiums drop at 21, then 25...
saying that as above insurance on my grp 16 2007 golf gti is £380, insurance on the group 20 450 chimaera is £280. So although u are going to pay a premium for your age classic insurance should still be cheaper.
suppose limited mileage ( mine is 5k) may be a problem if using as daily driver??
and you will not get any ncb.
drive the dull ( but tidy looking) saab for a few years, money saved on diesel will pay for mods on the chim!
saying that as above insurance on my grp 16 2007 golf gti is £380, insurance on the group 20 450 chimaera is £280. So although u are going to pay a premium for your age classic insurance should still be cheaper.
suppose limited mileage ( mine is 5k) may be a problem if using as daily driver??
and you will not get any ncb.
drive the dull ( but tidy looking) saab for a few years, money saved on diesel will pay for mods on the chim!
As noted above insurance is likely to be the killer
Classic Policies may
Require the driver to be over 21/23/25
Require the car to be garaged
Require the owner to have access to another vehicle - by running an old banger as well you might save enough to cover this cost and still be quids in
Depending on how much you use your car limited mileage might be something to look into
Having a Black Box fitted may or may not be a good idea. Even fairly tame acceleration and cornering in a Chim could give the impression of being very harsh to a dumb black box.
Do the leg work around specialist insurers and brokers.
Classic Policies may
Require the driver to be over 21/23/25
Require the car to be garaged
Require the owner to have access to another vehicle - by running an old banger as well you might save enough to cover this cost and still be quids in
Depending on how much you use your car limited mileage might be something to look into
Having a Black Box fitted may or may not be a good idea. Even fairly tame acceleration and cornering in a Chim could give the impression of being very harsh to a dumb black box.
Do the leg work around specialist insurers and brokers.
I've been thinking about this.
Seriously 5-6k is an amazing amount of money for an 18 year old to save. If I could talk to me when I was 18 I wouldn't have left uni at 23 with 45k of debt. Which took a decade and a half to pay off.
When I first started looking at a TVR - my other half said "15k would pay for a lot of track days in whatever car you wanted..." and she was bang on correct... but my ISA is full and my NSI is full, the weather is s
t for flying and I have waited 20 years for a TVR.
It hurts and I recall being 18 (most 40 year olds still feel 18 I reckon!) but spunking the man the money unless you are filthy filthy rich is daft... you could travel around southern India in relative luxury for a year on 6k easy. Two years you could do All of Indonesia on 12k. Three years you could hire a decent hooker and spend a single night with her in a half decent London hotel for 18k.
You won't be able to do that when you are 40 with a company/SO/Mortgage/Bairn. (again filthy filthy rich argument aside)
What you could do is buy one for an investment, like in the other thread. Find a friendly place to keep it dirt cheap for 3 /5 /10 years - whatever. Even though we will have new TVR's this year - they won't be like these. Nothing will be like these ever again.
Seriously 5-6k is an amazing amount of money for an 18 year old to save. If I could talk to me when I was 18 I wouldn't have left uni at 23 with 45k of debt. Which took a decade and a half to pay off.
When I first started looking at a TVR - my other half said "15k would pay for a lot of track days in whatever car you wanted..." and she was bang on correct... but my ISA is full and my NSI is full, the weather is s
t for flying and I have waited 20 years for a TVR.It hurts and I recall being 18 (most 40 year olds still feel 18 I reckon!) but spunking the man the money unless you are filthy filthy rich is daft... you could travel around southern India in relative luxury for a year on 6k easy. Two years you could do All of Indonesia on 12k. Three years you could hire a decent hooker and spend a single night with her in a half decent London hotel for 18k.
You won't be able to do that when you are 40 with a company/SO/Mortgage/Bairn. (again filthy filthy rich argument aside)
What you could do is buy one for an investment, like in the other thread. Find a friendly place to keep it dirt cheap for 3 /5 /10 years - whatever. Even though we will have new TVR's this year - they won't be like these. Nothing will be like these ever again.
Stick with the Saab - it will keep you safe when you prove the insurers right.
Get a track day car, any shed will do, and get dad to buy a car trailer for a grand. Its cheaper than insuring your track shed. A young male person I know bought a Volvo T5R for £800, stripped it out, and used it for track days. But TBH you would probably have as much fun in an old Golf GTI. 0r a Saab 9-5 HOT. Dad might even track day his tow car to keep you company - he must be younger than me, and I did ten track days in my Chimaera last year.....
The best place for speed is on the track. It removes the need for speeding on the roads and saves your life and your licence.
Get a track day car, any shed will do, and get dad to buy a car trailer for a grand. Its cheaper than insuring your track shed. A young male person I know bought a Volvo T5R for £800, stripped it out, and used it for track days. But TBH you would probably have as much fun in an old Golf GTI. 0r a Saab 9-5 HOT. Dad might even track day his tow car to keep you company - he must be younger than me, and I did ten track days in my Chimaera last year.....
The best place for speed is on the track. It removes the need for speeding on the roads and saves your life and your licence.
These guys talk sense. A TVR at 18 - what do you have to look forward to!?
It doesn't matter how careful you are in the Saab, or how careful you think you'll be in the Chimaera, there will be a day, a moment, when the temptation is too much to bear and you let the beast loose. It even happens to us old farts.
Get yourself some experience, get used to RWD and look forward to the day when owning one won't bankrupt you. Perhaps buy an old Capri, that'll get you used the the RWD sensation
As QBee says, track days would be a great thing to do - learn the ropes get used to flinging a car round, and then when you do get the Chimaera you won't end up a statistic.
Hope that doesn't seem patronising - it's not meant to be.
It doesn't matter how careful you are in the Saab, or how careful you think you'll be in the Chimaera, there will be a day, a moment, when the temptation is too much to bear and you let the beast loose. It even happens to us old farts.
Get yourself some experience, get used to RWD and look forward to the day when owning one won't bankrupt you. Perhaps buy an old Capri, that'll get you used the the RWD sensation
As QBee says, track days would be a great thing to do - learn the ropes get used to flinging a car round, and then when you do get the Chimaera you won't end up a statistic.
Hope that doesn't seem patronising - it's not meant to be.
MC00K said:
Thanks for all the fast replies! I just looked up MSM and whilst filling out a quote I noticed the minimum age is 25 :/
One of the cheapest Rover V8 cars I have been quoted on was a 3500 Rover SD1 for about £1300 with no box but with one years NCB......
Give them a call, they quote me and I'm 24 One of the cheapest Rover V8 cars I have been quoted on was a 3500 Rover SD1 for about £1300 with no box but with one years NCB......
zacherynuk said:
What you could do is buy one for an investment, like in the other thread. Find a friendly place to keep it dirt cheap for 3 /5 /10 years - whatever. Even though we will have new TVR's this year - they won't be like these. Nothing will be like these ever again.
This! Maybe not so much as an investment, but quite simply because these cars are going to be harder and harder to find as time goes by. They're not being made new and every year some are going to get written off. If you got the money to buy and garage one now, do it. Do it while they are still there and you have parts available to get it in tip top condition. Look forward to enjoying driving it later.
I can totally understand your desire to own and drive a Chimaera, but at 18 years old i would say no!
The drive of any TVR is a wonderful expierience but it is always a risk, as the power can be a massive handful.
I do not wish to question your driving ability, but a TVR with at best, 12 months driving expierience is a MASSIVE NO.
I have owned plenty of fast and powerful cars and have 35 years driving expierience, but even now im always wary of the power of my Chim, and dont really push on, in anything less than ideal driving conditions.
Nice dry, sunny days are ideal.
You have a lifetime to drive fast powerful cars, but just not yet.
Why dont you purchase one and spend a few years restoring it, then maybe when your 21 or older,and have more driving expierience, think about driving it then.
With the exception of some of the later cars, most Tivs have no inbuilt safety features whatsoever.When you see the damage that these cars sustain when they are involved in an accident, it is quite scary.
As a father of 2 sons, at 22 and 24 years old, i would not want them, even now, to drive a TVR.
Im 52, and i am more than willing to except any increased risk when driving my Chimaera.
I would not want my sons exposed to that risk, not yet anyway, only when they both have a lot more driving expierience.
You come across as a very grounded, intelligent young man, who should maybe have a little patience, and wait a few years, for the actual driving expierience at least.
Good things come to those that WAIT!
From a fathers perspective, i hope you dont drive one just yet, but i hope you purchase one now, as the price is only going up, and you and your dad, can spend many happy hours restoring/tinkering with it.
Good luck in your search.
Would be very interesting to get your fathers point of view, especially after looking at what can happen with these cars, when it does go wrong.
The drive of any TVR is a wonderful expierience but it is always a risk, as the power can be a massive handful.
I do not wish to question your driving ability, but a TVR with at best, 12 months driving expierience is a MASSIVE NO.
I have owned plenty of fast and powerful cars and have 35 years driving expierience, but even now im always wary of the power of my Chim, and dont really push on, in anything less than ideal driving conditions.
Nice dry, sunny days are ideal.
You have a lifetime to drive fast powerful cars, but just not yet.
Why dont you purchase one and spend a few years restoring it, then maybe when your 21 or older,and have more driving expierience, think about driving it then.
With the exception of some of the later cars, most Tivs have no inbuilt safety features whatsoever.When you see the damage that these cars sustain when they are involved in an accident, it is quite scary.
As a father of 2 sons, at 22 and 24 years old, i would not want them, even now, to drive a TVR.
Im 52, and i am more than willing to except any increased risk when driving my Chimaera.
I would not want my sons exposed to that risk, not yet anyway, only when they both have a lot more driving expierience.
You come across as a very grounded, intelligent young man, who should maybe have a little patience, and wait a few years, for the actual driving expierience at least.
Good things come to those that WAIT!
From a fathers perspective, i hope you dont drive one just yet, but i hope you purchase one now, as the price is only going up, and you and your dad, can spend many happy hours restoring/tinkering with it.
Good luck in your search.
Would be very interesting to get your fathers point of view, especially after looking at what can happen with these cars, when it does go wrong.
The specials have a song that is perfect for this post...
I admire your enthusiasm but I remember what I was like when I was 18, and taking a guess from your post I assume you're the same as most 18 year old blokes in a car! Get some experience of driving, of other road users as importantly, in the mean time save for your first Chimaera and then buy a beauty in a few years time.
I admire your enthusiasm but I remember what I was like when I was 18, and taking a guess from your post I assume you're the same as most 18 year old blokes in a car! Get some experience of driving, of other road users as importantly, in the mean time save for your first Chimaera and then buy a beauty in a few years time.
Quinny said:
At 18 my Hillman Imp was flat out absolutely everywhere
Not mentioning "age", but at 18-my Ford Pop (Sit-up & beg 1172 side-valve) held the 30 mile record from Bristol to RAF Locking (W-S-M), in 29 mins - over 70 past what is now Bristol AIrport....
With hindsight, it has been more by luck than judgement that I've survived 48-years on UK roads (& Europe/USA/iceland/Azores/Panama....).
Not wishing to be condesending - go get involved in Motor sport - Karting; Auto solos;Sprinting; hillclimbing etc?
You really need to have a "safer" environment to explore your capabilities - the roads today are NOT friendly test tracks anymore.
Live long and be patient.....
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