CAT D 5.0 Chimera.. Is it worth it?
Discussion
Hi all
I am looking at getting a Chimera. A couple of my friends have TVR’s. I have been offered a 1999 5.0 chimera for 10 grand, but it is listed as Cat D. The owner has had it for nearly 5 years and bought it from a salvage company. The car has done 14750 miles, which he says is genuine, It looks absolute mint. The owner said that there were no service records when he got the car.
Would I be completely foolhardy to part with 10k on this car? I have the TVR bible and I am pretty confident, with a friends help that we can spot obvious nasties. I am only worried that if I come to sell it, it will be a pain in the arse.
Is there any way to check/recover the history?
What do you think?
I am looking at getting a Chimera. A couple of my friends have TVR’s. I have been offered a 1999 5.0 chimera for 10 grand, but it is listed as Cat D. The owner has had it for nearly 5 years and bought it from a salvage company. The car has done 14750 miles, which he says is genuine, It looks absolute mint. The owner said that there were no service records when he got the car.
Would I be completely foolhardy to part with 10k on this car? I have the TVR bible and I am pretty confident, with a friends help that we can spot obvious nasties. I am only worried that if I come to sell it, it will be a pain in the arse.
Is there any way to check/recover the history?
What do you think?
If you have any doubts i agree getting a specialist to give it the once over!
Personally, on the depreciation thing, i think it depends on how long you want to keep it. If you keep it 3 years and get 8k back then that wouldn't be bad.
On the other hand if you get it inspected i guess they will give you an inspection report which, if its good will be a good asset when trying to sell it on.
3rdly you find its a great car and you keep it donkeys years and then depreciation doesn't matter.
Personally i didn't think too much about resale when i bought mine. I found the car i wanted and could afford and thought i'd worry about those kind of issues later.
Thats my 5p worth
Personally, on the depreciation thing, i think it depends on how long you want to keep it. If you keep it 3 years and get 8k back then that wouldn't be bad.
On the other hand if you get it inspected i guess they will give you an inspection report which, if its good will be a good asset when trying to sell it on.
3rdly you find its a great car and you keep it donkeys years and then depreciation doesn't matter.
Personally i didn't think too much about resale when i bought mine. I found the car i wanted and could afford and thought i'd worry about those kind of issues later.
Thats my 5p worth
10K is certainly cheap for a 99 Chimaera 500, especially if 'it looks absolute mint'.
Cat D could just mean that the insurers favorite paint shop was a bit busy when the car got biffed. On the other hand, if it had a really major accident the chassis might not be straight. What does it handle like?
Any photos of the accident damage? You could contact the previous owner (details on V5) and ask for their story.
Cat D could just mean that the insurers favorite paint shop was a bit busy when the car got biffed. On the other hand, if it had a really major accident the chassis might not be straight. What does it handle like?
Any photos of the accident damage? You could contact the previous owner (details on V5) and ask for their story.
If it was serviced by a TVR dealer, TVR themselves might be able to fill you in on the service history - for the sum of £35 (or if you're polite, lucky and you phone the right person explaining you haven't yet bought the car, who knows - they might do you a favour). Presumably you've got access to the last 5 years' service records?
Did the current owner repair it himself? Or is it a professional repair?
A car repaired 5 years ago is a better bet than one repaired 5 minutes ago. IF GRP isn't repaired properly, the filler can sink, cracks can appear and the paint can lift.
As suggested, speak to the previous owner.
If you go in with your eyes open, sounds like it might not be a bad buy - but beware the resale issue.
Did the current owner repair it himself? Or is it a professional repair?
A car repaired 5 years ago is a better bet than one repaired 5 minutes ago. IF GRP isn't repaired properly, the filler can sink, cracks can appear and the paint can lift.
As suggested, speak to the previous owner.
If you go in with your eyes open, sounds like it might not be a bad buy - but beware the resale issue.
CAT D is the lowest category and if it has had any reasonable damage it would be atleat CAT C,
I come across CAT C/D cars all the time in my business and most cars are CAT D for things like no wheels,no seats,light panel damage,vandalism even dashboard damage and a broken door glass where someone had stolen a sony cd player in a 2003 mondeo!.
It could just be stolen recovered.
(I think they write off scooters if they fall over)
I would obviously not suggest you buy it without a proper check by somebody who really knows what they are looking at.
It sounds cheap for a 500.
dont be discouraged by the CAT D there are many ways to delve,try contacting the previous owner on log book and try to work backwards,I am in the motor trade and rarely draw a blank when delving.
If you know any motor traders get them to do a quick hpi check,they will be able to then find when ,where, how much etc.
NO s/h and low miles sounds a bit dubious though.
good luck.
I come across CAT C/D cars all the time in my business and most cars are CAT D for things like no wheels,no seats,light panel damage,vandalism even dashboard damage and a broken door glass where someone had stolen a sony cd player in a 2003 mondeo!.
It could just be stolen recovered.
(I think they write off scooters if they fall over)
I would obviously not suggest you buy it without a proper check by somebody who really knows what they are looking at.
It sounds cheap for a 500.
dont be discouraged by the CAT D there are many ways to delve,try contacting the previous owner on log book and try to work backwards,I am in the motor trade and rarely draw a blank when delving.
If you know any motor traders get them to do a quick hpi check,they will be able to then find when ,where, how much etc.
NO s/h and low miles sounds a bit dubious though.
good luck.
forget the miles with no history it might as well have 100k on it, cat D cars are fine but your gonna strugle like hell to sell the thing in the future with "no history" ........"CAT D" not gonna look good on any advert, the thing is your knocking on the door of propper 98-99 5.0ltr cars for a couple of k more (with a hagle) just check out auto trader web site or the classifeids on hear, if u ring any tvr or other stealer up they will offer 9k max for the average 99 5ltr chimaera as a cash buy (ouch!) and thats a good 1, 10k is a shed load of money for that.
mak said:
, if u ring any tvr or other stealer up they will offer 9k max for the average 99 5ltr chimaera as a cash buy (ouch!) and thats a good 1
Well of course, but that's a far cry from what you'd pay as a punter for the same car. Every dealer has lots of overhead to deal with, most of them have their used car inventory financed for 100% by the bank, and virtually none of them have a shortage of used cars on their lot to put it euphemisticially, so you can't blame them for making a lowball offer if you're not going to buy a car back from them. Simply put, every day your car sits on their lot costs them £20 or so (and probably more hassle with the bank if their financial position is marginal, which goes for a lot of them) so they're only keen on taking your car if they reckon they can make a killing on it. The more 'difficult' or specialist the car is, the greater the price difference will be between the trade buy-in price and what you could get on a private sale.
For this reason you have to be pretty desperate to sell your car to a dealer or trader - every other way of selling will net you thousands more in your pocket.
So a dealer will give £9K tops for a '99 Chimaera 500, but will they let it go to a punter for £10K? Don't think so - it'll probably end up on their forecourt for nearer £18K.
Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 15th June 05:24
Darn... I asked the guy a load of quallifying questions, to make sure it was OK, and i did a quick check on the plate, but he has now sold it. I wanted to make sure it all checked out because it was a 4 and half hour trip to go and see it.
Oh well... I could have ended up with bargin, or a pain in the arse. So I am still looking for a post 96 chim with less then 45 on the clock for no more than 11k. Maybe I am dreaming.
Thanks for the help
Oh well... I could have ended up with bargin, or a pain in the arse. So I am still looking for a post 96 chim with less then 45 on the clock for no more than 11k. Maybe I am dreaming.
Thanks for the help
healandtoe said:
Oh well... I could have ended up with bargin, or a pain in the arse. So I am still looking for a post 96 chim with less then 45 on the clock for no more than 11k. Maybe I am dreaming.
Thanks for the help
Thwy are out there you're not dreaming... they just take a bit of finding. You are restricting yourself on the mileage though ! what if one had 50k on it but was immaculate and the right price..?
Stating the bleeding obvious but a 96 car with under 45k on it has been averaging less than 4.5k a year. You could do 20% of that in a weekend to le-mans.
Podie said:
M@H said:
Stating the bleeding obvious but a 96 car with under 45k on it has been averaging less than 4.5k a year.
Question is, what's so wrong with people's cars that they don't want to drive them..?!?!
I think some people think the car will disolve if it sees a drop of rainwater and would rather keep it locked up in a garage for 6 months of the year for all the mechanicals to stop working and all the rubber bits go hard!
That and many of us (me included) are spoilt with lots of forms of transport to chose from so can save their POJ till those sunny days.
Mine has averaged about 2.5k miles per year. Touch wood I have had very few problems with it. Apart from servicing, tyres and the odd bulb, nothing has needed doing.
If I drove it every day I would do 20k+ miles per year, have to park it is a scummy work car park where cars regulary get broken into. Plus I can't afford the petrol.
I get much more pleasure out of driving it at the weekends and evenings on nice summer days. Just because a car has done low milage does not mean it has been a problem car!
If I drove it every day I would do 20k+ miles per year, have to park it is a scummy work car park where cars regulary get broken into. Plus I can't afford the petrol.
I get much more pleasure out of driving it at the weekends and evenings on nice summer days. Just because a car has done low milage does not mean it has been a problem car!
ads said:
Mine has averaged about 2.5k miles per year. Touch wood I have had very few problems with it. Apart from servicing, tyres and the odd bulb, nothing has needed doing.
If I drove it every day I would do 20k+ miles per year, have to park it is a scummy work car park where cars regulary get broken into. Plus I can't afford the petrol.
I get much more pleasure out of driving it at the weekends and evenings on nice summer days. Just because a car has done low milage does not mean it has been a problem car!
If I drove it every day I would do 20k+ miles per year, have to park it is a scummy work car park where cars regulary get broken into. Plus I can't afford the petrol.
I get much more pleasure out of driving it at the weekends and evenings on nice summer days. Just because a car has done low milage does not mean it has been a problem car!
True, but put this back in the context of my original post though.. why restrict yourself to buying a car that has been used "lightly" as it is going to dramatically restrict the amount of cars to view ! Whats wrong with cars that have done 50-60k (or more) in 10 years on the road..?
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