12C ownership experience / buying advice

[chappj]

I’m in the early stages of researching purchasing an MP4-12C. To me it’s a beautifully designed car and I think iconic as it was the companies first production car.

Can I ask folks for their purchasing / ownership experiences? How much does it cost to maintain, does anybody run one outside of a warranty?

I haven’t driven one yet (I don’t want to waste a sales person time before I’m fully ready to make a purchase).

Budget will be up to £80k

[johnnyreggae]

There's ten years of purchasing/ownership experience in existing threads plus a PH buying guide all of which might be a good starting point

[TBCTBC]

There are some videos/posts on here & on YouTube already.

Thorney do some very good buyers guides too on YouTube.

Good luck in your search

[kevinpsw]

Only had mine for a year. High mileage but only two previous owners. £3.5k maintenance spent so far. Half of that was accumulators. Also had a tiny leak on aircon condenser. Insurance £500. Tracker ~£200. 25 mpg over 4k miles. No warranty so I’m taking a risk. My best guess is £3k a year average on maintenance.

Look for paint bubbling, especially on bonnet and front wings. McLaren won’t help on a 12C. Too old. Repairs probably as long lasting as panel replacement.

No regrets on my part. £80k will get you one of the best.

There are a growing number of independents so McLaren dealer prices (£205 per hr plus VAT!). I use V-Engineering as they are more geographically convenient than Thorney. Both are highly rated by the owners’ club.

Edited by kevinpsw on Tuesday 14th February 10:38

[David W.]

When accumulators are used in many industrial and agricultural applications which are much harsher environments and give years of trouble free service why are they so unreliable on a sports car, anyone know?

[davek_964]

David W. said:

When accumulators are used in many industrial and agricultural applications which are much harsher environments and give years of trouble free service why are they so unreliable on a sports car, anyone know?

I would think that there are other factors at play - size and weight are likely to be considerations on a supercar more than they are in industrial or agricultural environments.

V Engineering can fit rechargeable ones to most (all?) models now anyway.

[akadk]

Buy a good one and £3-5k of annual repairs will see you right

I’ve had x3 now - bushes seem to be made of cheese and expensive to replace as can’t be done on their own so have to replace arms

[Purso]

I believe V engineering are working on a solution for this at present.

[chappj]

johnnyreggae said:

There's ten years of purchasing/ownership experience in existing threads plus a PH buying guide all of which might be a good starting point

Sorry I should have said in my original post that I’ve read pretty much all 12C content on PH (both buyers guides and owners posts in the forum). I’ve also watched most of the YT content on buying / owning (there seems more horror stories than good reviews, however I’m assuming that’s because folks only post when they have a prob?). I’m seeking up to date, balanced (good and bad) ownership experiences.

It sounds like budgeting £3-4K pa for maintenance is a good estimate. That doesn’t sound horrific for what would be my first super car.

There seems to be such a spread in pricing which I haven’t yet figured out. Mileage/age/spec all seem quite variable vs costs.

[chappj]

kevinpsw said:

Only had mine for a year. High mileage but only two previous owners. £3.5k maintenance spent so far. Half of that was accumulators. Also had a tiny leak on aircon condenser. Insurance £500. Tracker ~£200. 25 mpg over 4k miles. No warranty so I’m taking a risk. My best guess is £3k a year average on maintenance.

Look for paint bubbling, especially on bonnet and front wings. McLaren won’t help on a 12C. Too old. Repairs probably as long lasting as panel replacement.

No regrets on my part. £80k will get you one of the best.

There are a growing number of independents so McLaren dealer prices (£205 per hr plus VAT!). I use V-Engineering as they are more geographically convenient than Thorney. Both are highly rated by the owners’ club.

Edited by kevinpsw on Tuesday 14th February 10:38

I’m based in Kent so there isn’t much difference in distance between either for me. It’s reassuring to hear more independents are becoming established.

Does anybody DIY maintenance on theirs?

[andymc]

https://www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk/cars/

[kevinpsw]

I now have the rechargeable accumulators. V-Engineering will soon have an option whereby the diaphragm inside can also be replaced. I was told they had fitted 60 odd rechargeable sets so far but had not yet had to recharge any.

Replacement springs also now available from both V-E and Thorney so no need to change the whole suspension unit (at £1850 a corner) for a broken spring.

Seen a bit of a debate over high vs low mileage and reliability. Not sure if there is data to prove it but I do believe well used cars will prove less problematic than ultra low mileage cars. Another advantage is that you can use the high milers without worrying so much about future residuals.

[chappj]

andymc said:

https://www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk/cars/

Thanks. I’ll give them a call…

[CraigJ]

chappj said:

I’m based in Kent so there isn’t much difference in distance between either for me. It’s reassuring to hear more independents are becoming established.

Does anybody DIY maintenance on theirs?

Yep, i have a thread on here in reader's rides.

Owned mine for 2 years now. 50k on the clock. No issues apart from wear and tear.
Easy to self maintain but a good diagnostics tool is useful but not cheap.

[JA51ON W]

chappj said:

I’m based in Kent so there isn’t much difference in distance between either for me. It’s reassuring to hear more independents are becoming established.

Does anybody DIY maintenance on theirs?

I’ve owned mine for six years with no warranty. In that time I’ve had one leaking hose clip. I’ve just serviced it myself and changed the accumulators as they were 9 years old, out of the four one was defective.

[davek_964]

CraigJ said:

Easy to self maintain but a good diagnostics tool is useful but not cheap.

What do you use?

[CraigJ]

I use diagcode.

Some autel units now do mclaren and for a cheap one launch x431 now reads and clears all mclaren codes including airbag.