Cerbie Buying Advice Needed

[k50 del]

Hi All,

Am off with a friend to look at a Cerbie on Sunday and could do with some advice as to what I should be looking for, are there any known weaknesses on a Cerbera?
The car in question is a 1998 R Cerbera 4.5 in blue with grey interior, it's done 29,000 miles and had 4 owners

Any help gratefully appreciated

[garethgtt]

Sounds very much like my current car...

anyway--dug way back when i was buying mine (6 months ago) and asked the same questions.

www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=203003

[cerealsurfer]

where are you located... maybe able to get a current owner along to help?

[garethgtt]

The only other nugget of advice i will give out is that-- these are not cheap cars to run. When people say you need to have 3k per annum available-- they are spot on. so if you are buying with a view to commiting a significant portion of your income to just owning and insuring it..then run away now.

I have so far in 8 months spent a total of 2k just in servicing and repairs on a car i thought was a good one.

This is just my opinion, but:

1)I would never have a Cerb as my only car
2)It will drink a hell of a lot more petrol than you are used to unless you are comming from an 8 ltr Viper
3)be prepared for it to be off the road potentially for long periods of time.

Its a Supercar which isnt priced as a Supercar would be-- but servicing/repairs and running costs are.


All that aside--its an absolute legend of a car to own and i wouldnt trade it for the world.

[k50 del]

Thanks for the replies, the chap in question is coming from an E36 M3 and it's to be used as a weekend car, but he still wants to get a good-un.
From the details that I have it seems to be a genuine car, but apart from knowing my way around a Chim, I don't know a great deal about Tiv's

[MikeyT]

Same as any TVR really - check the chassis, service history, general condition etc - don't be too mesmerised by the noise - they all sound like that.

Best of luck.

[UpTheIron]

garethgtt said:

I have so far in 8 months spent a total of 2k just in servicing and repairs on a car i thought was a good one.

IMHO that is a good one!

[garethgtt]

UpTheIron said:

garethgtt said: I have so far in 8 months spent a total of 2k just in servicing and repairs on a car i thought was a good one. IMHO that is a good one!

Yep i agree, considering some of the big bills you can get from clutches etc etc.
i class that as normal wear and tear

[Tripps]

Either get an independent inspection (Rob Ingleby or the like) or get it to a local or dealer for them to get it up on the ramps and have a look at it.

Cost will be something like £250 - but money well spent. Best case they find nothing and assure you that you've found a gem, middle case they find some minor issues you can use to bargain on price, worse case you walk away and the £250 saved you from a lot of future heart-ache.

I used Rob Ingleby when buying the Cerb, he correctly identified that the one discs were warped and knocked a chunk off the sellers price, which paid for the work to be done, so I went into it with eyes open, and the car had been looked at by someone without the emotional attachment I would have had.