Rusted chassis

[jim hobbs]

All owners of TVR's take note.
It seems that my car is the exception, or is it? The chassis of my 1996 Chimaera 400HC has completely failed due to corrosion.
Earlier this year I discovered that the chassis Chimaera had rusted from the inside out. As far as I am aware all TVR's, even the new ones, are made from the same steel tube system. Yes, it is humid here in Hong Kong and yes,it was looked after but not by a so called main dealer; even so it should have lasted longer than 6 years.
Three months later and a new chassis fitted my car is up for sale. Will I replace it with another TVR? Perhaps if I had had some correspondance from Blackpool, even only comiserating with me, then I could have been tempted. The Malaysian TVR factory on the other hand have been brilliant in shipping to me, at cost, a new chassis and detailing the failures of the corrosion preventation methods employed by the Blackpool factory. I trust the newer TVR's are better protected against corrosion. I for one will not take the risk no matter how much noise and bangs per buck they promise.
If you wish to see the corrosion damage to my car then go to the Chimaera part of PH and look for 'Rusting Chassis' and under a reply on 23 Jul a member has put the photos on a web site.
Long live TVR's!!

[bcms]

Its a real shame to read all of this about your car. Not surprised you seem pretty jaded about it and I guess not too surprised to see you are selling, its a shame to see TVR lose a fan and its always sad to read bad things about them, but in this case it looks like beauty really was only skin deep!!!

[danny hoffman]

The outriggers on my then 15 year old wedge appeared to have a little surface rust so I removed the sills and hammerited/waxoiled them. There was a small hole (about 1 inch) on one and I welded a small plate over it. I was very surprised to see the inside of the tube had no coating at all, but was still shiny.



Danny

[simpo one]

Very silly of the factory to ignore you as you're an RO (thought I recognised the name!) and therefore in a good position to distribute your feelings. That is one of the biggest failings of TVR - the fact that once a car is sold, or even more so out of production, they don't give a f**k. At the moment, due to sexy new designs, they are getting new customers to replace the ones that leave - but will it continue like that?

[MikeyT]

I find it sad that no-one in the PR dept in Blackpool (if they have one) has been bothered to find out more to your story. As you say, even a letter of commiseration might have kept a customer.

TVR is obviously run by PW but if they had a decent marketing/Public/customer relations dept who knows what they could achieve ...

If people are looking to buy a TVR s/hand, obviously this site is the perfect place to start asking questions etc, but buying new, people just ask the dealers about the quirks abd they're not going to admit to any are they? And risk losing a sale? I'll prepare to be proved wrong, but by far the most people asking questions on here are people who aren't buying new.

I hope the recent problems a couple of PHers have had with Tamora Speed 6 engines aren't going to be the norm otherwise it'll be bye bye fom Blackpool.

[Edt]

very pleased to report that the 500 sailed thro' last weeks MOT - when up on the ramp had a look with mechanic & all looks well (bit of light surface corrosion on out riggers etc)

But he said 'this ones OK - we've had a few similar aged TVRs where the chassis is awful'

Get your waxoyl out guys !

Ed

[simpo one]

'I hope the recent problems a couple of PHers have had with Tamora Speed 6 engines aren't going to be the norm otherwise it'll be bye bye fom Blackpool.'

Same story in my region I'm afraid. 4 Tuscans is now down to one, either through never-ending problems or fear of them. A Tuscan out of warranty seems to be a scary prospect.