Peter Wheeler : "Cerbera was my Greatest Mistake"
Discussion
Peter Wheeler said:
I make my worst decision about 5 times a day – I’ve made hundreds of them. But there was one decision made eight years ago that stayed with us. We launched a car called the Cerbera, showing it at two consecutive motorshows, and we got quite a lot of orders for it. It was a complicated car to make: the first with our own engine, and the trimming was very labour intensive to fit. I decided to man the company up to deal with a rate of 10 orders a week, just to make sure that customers wouldn’t have to wait longer than eighteen months. Because every job is hands on, it takes quite a lot of time to train workers, so it was 100 people – a big expansion of the workforce at that point. But the orders never came in at that rate. After eighteen months, more than half of those workers were surplus, and we didn’t get rid of them effectively because of the economics of the company.
Paul.B said:
Obviously a business mistake. Not the car itself.
You could say that making that kind of mistake is/was TVR all over! And good luck to them and may they make many more.
I'm very glad he made this mistake. I think Cerbs will go up in value as they become mainly enthusiast owned and the posers bail out. It is still truly unique in it's capabilities. Today I left it in 3rd gear for a B road stretch, occasionally 4th when I ran out of revs, clipped the apexes and hammered the straights. It twitched a few times but gently because I kept the power down. Pure bliss. What can keep up with this whilst being as much fun?
[quote=SXS ]Well the cerbera didnt touch the sales of griffs and chims... soooo I'd say he's not far off.... if thats what he meant by 'mistake'....
I guess TVR's sell in the 2 seater bracket better than in the 4 seater tourers sector...
( We'll see how well the new 4 seater ferrari's sell
)[/quote]
Doesn't help the F612 is pug ugly, but they made a killing on the 456, and the Mondiale....
I guess TVR's sell in the 2 seater bracket better than in the 4 seater tourers sector...
( We'll see how well the new 4 seater ferrari's sell
)[/quote] Doesn't help the F612 is pug ugly, but they made a killing on the 456, and the Mondiale....
Paul.B said:
Obviously a business mistake. Not the car itself.
You could say that making that kind of mistake is/was TVR all over! And good luck to them and may they make many more.
No. Re-read what PW said. It was a combination of a business mistake and the fact that the car was too expensive to make. There is another thread on this somewhere.
19560 said:
Obviously a business mistake. Not the car itself.
You could say that making that kind of mistake is/was TVR all over! And good luck to them and may they make many more.
No. Re-read what PW said. It was a combination of a business mistake and the fact that the car was too expensive to make. There is another thread on this somewhere.
[being pedantic] Try re-reading it yourself! It was "complicated" to make and PW decided to increase staff in anticipation of continued orders. It was a business mistake. TVR have always been very proud of the cerb and rightly so.
GarryM said:
[being pedantic] Try re-reading it yourself! It was "complicated" to make and PW decided to increase staff in anticipation of continued orders. It was a business mistake. TVR have always been very proud of the cerb and rightly so.
Staff and orders, business mistake; car: too long to build interior, engine, and body. Combination of the two but as SXS said he did create a legend.
SXS said:
Sadly, the Cerbera will not increase in value, depreciation is still hitting it bad, mainly due to the fact engine support remains with the factory who dont make them anymore...
No it doesn't.
I know of one independent who does all their own work on the engines, i'd also be very suprised if all the racing tuscans out there had to go back to the factory every time they were rebuilt.
Parts and TVR are always an issue, but this isn't a Cerbera thing, it's the case for every single model of TVR.
trooperiziz said:
i'd also be very suprised if all the racing tuscans out there had to go back to the factory every time they were rebuilt.
99% of them do (did) because the engines were leased from TVR. If yours broke, you swapped it for another and TVR took the original back to be fixed.
trooperiziz said:
Sadly, the Cerbera will not increase in value, depreciation is still hitting it bad, mainly due to the fact engine support remains with the factory who dont make them anymore...
No it doesn't.
I know of one independent who does all their own work on the engines, i'd also be very suprised if all the racing tuscans out there had to go back to the factory every time they were rebuilt.
Parts and TVR are always an issue, but this isn't a Cerbera thing, it's the case for every single model of TVR.
Hang on, I thought the engines came sealed from the factory for the Tuscan Challenge due to restrictions, or was I wrong?
Well, if you think TVR Cerbera prices are gonna hold then thats up to you, bud dont hold your breath! Cerbera prices are plummeting and will get worse, there will be a threshhold, where that is, god knows.... Too many used-supers on the market which are a better buy, they are the ones that sell well, used Cerbera market will end up in the youths market, just read the posts in the Cerbera forum, many in their early twenties wanting to pick up cerbies because they've got a good insurance deal, I wander how long that insurance deal will last after these cars end up in Max Power, Charisma really wrecked the Cerbera's image, and every youngster with a little dosh will be able to get their hands on one.... by the time the story is finished, I reckon most cerbies will either end up written-off, or engineless waiting for yank-lump transplants (and at this point they become kit cars, and thats definitely a different market with a difference price war).... my opinion anyway, probably dont make sense, just typed whatever came to mind....
PetrolTed said:
It's for the same reasons (Max Power boys messing with them and crashing them) that prices of good original cars will firm up.
Do you think? Or another reason why the knowledge of how these cars work gets into the youthful masses and cars start dissapearing? Insurance premiums start rising because it now becomes a 'high risk' car, regardless of age and NCB - less people want to buy them because TVR are coming out with soooo many new models that depreciate like a balloon with a hole and buyers are up for grabbing the newer models at a bargain price... surely this will mean used cerb prices drop further to encourage sales?
But I probably am wrong, 'HOPE' I am....
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