non TVR car for commuting?
Discussion
Here is my dilema -
I have my Chimaera which is my only car and obviously I want to drive as much as possible. Its only on its high 20k's mileage wise. It now looks as if I will be working around 25 miles from my house, so 50 a day round trip. I wont necessarily be in the office every day, probably 3 days a week on average. Its a busy drive up the A3 or A31 (for those of you in the surrey hampshire area) with lots of sitting in traffic to be expected
Now my dilema is... do I buy a cheap 2nd car to do this journey in or use the tiv?
If so, any suggestions?
Ants
I have my Chimaera which is my only car and obviously I want to drive as much as possible. Its only on its high 20k's mileage wise. It now looks as if I will be working around 25 miles from my house, so 50 a day round trip. I wont necessarily be in the office every day, probably 3 days a week on average. Its a busy drive up the A3 or A31 (for those of you in the surrey hampshire area) with lots of sitting in traffic to be expected
Now my dilema is... do I buy a cheap 2nd car to do this journey in or use the tiv?
If so, any suggestions?
Ants
I've just gone through much the same thing, used to live 4 miles from work and used the Tiv daily, now live 25 miles from work and am using a Mini.
I save about a tenner a day in petrol and can mostly be found laughing like a loon on every roundabout I happen to cross.
In summary then, if you are going to get a daily driver make sure its something fun!
Matt.
I save about a tenner a day in petrol and can mostly be found laughing like a loon on every roundabout I happen to cross.
In summary then, if you are going to get a daily driver make sure its something fun!
Matt.
Been there, done that, regretted it. Bought myself a 1.2 Clio to commute with, it is a great little car, but because I was doing 70 miles everyday the Griff only got out at the weekend.
Considering the amount of money I saved (even if the Clio was dirt cheap to run) it wasn't worth the lost fun factor. I sold the Griff (am inbetween TVR's ATM) and swear blind that when I get my next one later this year I'll be trading the Clio in against it, if I do a high mileage then it'll just be an excuse to change the TVR (money willing) a little more frequently.
Neil
Considering the amount of money I saved (even if the Clio was dirt cheap to run) it wasn't worth the lost fun factor. I sold the Griff (am inbetween TVR's ATM) and swear blind that when I get my next one later this year I'll be trading the Clio in against it, if I do a high mileage then it'll just be an excuse to change the TVR (money willing) a little more frequently.
Neil
Ran an old Cinquecento for over a year to keep the miles on the Cerb down. Excellent car, cost zero to run apart from petrol in 12,000 miles, and sold it for more than I paid for it 
Did lots of long runs in it too. Obviously not as quick as a Cerbera [or anything else on the road] but I found it hugely entertaining, and there is a certain pleasure to be derived from keeping with [or being quicker than] traffic that should be lots quicker. So, cheap to run, lots of fun, and people treat you nice.
Now got a Primera as a daily driver [it's got a tow bar]. Dull as dishwater, but handles astoundingly well, and again a certain pleasure in keeping up with serious machinery on the twisty stuff in a £900 'grandad car'
I ran the Cerb as a daily driver for 2 years and at the time guessed it was cheaper than running 2 cars, but that was based on another 'normal priced' car. Given the way high mileage hits TVR residuals, I'm now convinced the best bet is to run something really really cheap as the daily car. It's difficult to see how you can loose a bundle of cash in a car that costs less than a Cerbera clutch!
WB
Did lots of long runs in it too. Obviously not as quick as a Cerbera [or anything else on the road] but I found it hugely entertaining, and there is a certain pleasure to be derived from keeping with [or being quicker than] traffic that should be lots quicker. So, cheap to run, lots of fun, and people treat you nice. Now got a Primera as a daily driver [it's got a tow bar]. Dull as dishwater, but handles astoundingly well, and again a certain pleasure in keeping up with serious machinery on the twisty stuff in a £900 'grandad car'
I ran the Cerb as a daily driver for 2 years and at the time guessed it was cheaper than running 2 cars, but that was based on another 'normal priced' car. Given the way high mileage hits TVR residuals, I'm now convinced the best bet is to run something really really cheap as the daily car. It's difficult to see how you can loose a bundle of cash in a car that costs less than a Cerbera clutch!
WB
I used my S everyday for reliability it was great but the down side was it go a few scrapes here and there, when I got the Griff I bought a mini to run about in, I sometimes drive the Griff on a nice day but mostly it gets saved for runs out at the weekend. The mini is still fun and very cheap to run.
jeremyc said:Perhaps you should try going round them
plotloss said: I save about a tenner a day in petrol and can mostly be found laughing like a loon on every roundabout I happen to cross.- but then again perhaps you wouldn't laugh as much.
Tried that, doesnt seem to work either!
Matt.
Here is my dilema -
I have my Chimaera which is my only car and obviously I want to drive as much as possible. Its only on its high 20k's mileage wise. It now looks as if I will be working around 25 miles from my house, so 50 a day round trip. I wont necessarily be in the office every day, probably 3 days a week on average. Its a busy drive up the A3 or A31 (for those of you in the surrey hampshire area) with lots of sitting in traffic to be expected
Now my dilema is... do I buy a cheap 2nd car to do this journey in or use the tiv?
If so, any suggestions?
Ants
Honestly---does it look like a commuting car? Is it happy crawling in traffic queues--overheating etc? Not really made for that but I agree that you should have a fun car. Personally I have an old BMW E28 M5 with a rebuilt and modified engine plus all necessary changes to suspension etc. It is not quite a TVR but its great fun built like a battleship and you can relax if you want to. Then you really look forward to taking the TVR out when you get home.
I have an old carlton I use. I only bought it because the s3 required a few things in a row and it was off the road for a while.
One problem is that it's another car to tax and insure and if you're going to do some miles in it you'll now need to work on the cheap car as well as the tvr which unless you're handy with the spanners can add up. For example, since I bought the carlton in november for 800 I have had to put a new tyre on it, change a couple of hoses, change the cambelt, change the discs and pads and put two new front suspension wishbones on it. This has cost me about 300 quid but could easily top the 1k if left to a garage. Some of the cars available for this money are absolute wrecks, my carlton, despite the costs, is in relatively good shape. My advice is that unless you know what you're doing with the cars available at the cheap end of the scale I'd forget it.
The other downside is that you never drive your tvr and that will suffer too. You could get a bike but then you'd only drive the tvr in the winter.
If you got a cheap car and a bike you'd get to the position where you never drive the tvr at all and you'd consider selling it... like I now am.
Think on
Regards,
Mark
One problem is that it's another car to tax and insure and if you're going to do some miles in it you'll now need to work on the cheap car as well as the tvr which unless you're handy with the spanners can add up. For example, since I bought the carlton in november for 800 I have had to put a new tyre on it, change a couple of hoses, change the cambelt, change the discs and pads and put two new front suspension wishbones on it. This has cost me about 300 quid but could easily top the 1k if left to a garage. Some of the cars available for this money are absolute wrecks, my carlton, despite the costs, is in relatively good shape. My advice is that unless you know what you're doing with the cars available at the cheap end of the scale I'd forget it.
The other downside is that you never drive your tvr and that will suffer too. You could get a bike but then you'd only drive the tvr in the winter.
If you got a cheap car and a bike you'd get to the position where you never drive the tvr at all and you'd consider selling it... like I now am.
Think on
Regards,
Mark
I drive a Ford escort mistral 1600. I payed it £700.00 and it runs really well. Saves the mileage on the chim. And compare to 15 a gall it saves a lot on the fuel. And I don't care about looking like a tw*t drinving a blue badge. The funny thing is I think I go round corners sometimes quicker in the ford than the TIV. Only had it for 5 weeks and I am still scared of the power in the rear wheels...........
yeah, i cannot decide what to do either. I will shortly be moving out of town and that will mean a 20 mile commute each day sat in traffic. Currently use the TVR everyday but doing only a couple of miles and can get around if it goes wrong as I live in town. I have no other half to borrow a car/get lifts.
if i keep the TVR as my only car it will be fun, but leaves me in the sh*t if it goes wrong, it will cost me more to run and I wont be able to get classic insurance rates (ie 1/4 current insurance)
but if i get a second car i will resent driving it when the Tiv is at home and previously been used everyday. and i have to think of another car to tax/insure and fix when it goes wrong.
if i keep the TVR as my only car it will be fun, but leaves me in the sh*t if it goes wrong, it will cost me more to run and I wont be able to get classic insurance rates (ie 1/4 current insurance)
but if i get a second car i will resent driving it when the Tiv is at home and previously been used everyday. and i have to think of another car to tax/insure and fix when it goes wrong.
AntonyB -
The problem is that how many times will you walk down the drive for the drive to work and end up taking the TVR?
A second car will become very boring very quickly so if I were you I would not bother.
On second thoughts how about a car-share scheme.
I will come to your place, take the Tiv and you take my fiesta for a nice bit of economical motoring. We could arrange to swap every monday/friday so you have the weekend to play.
Sounds like a plan to me
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