Discussion
Well, I've just collected my Griff from Dulford's after a 12,000 mile service. It wasn't bad before, but it's running even sweeter now. 
Needed a couple of things I hadn't expected though, rather bumped the price up a bit. New N&O/S/F lower wishbones and four bushes to suit plus new clutch master cylinder... came to just over £1,160
(Details here). They also advised that next year the rear wishbones are likely to need replacing.
So... for all those out there that think you can get a bargain around ten grand: including insurance, backlit rear number plate and a few other sundries it's cost me nearly £2,000 in the first ten days of ownership. I went in with my eyes open as I'd expected to pay over £12,000 in the first place and expected a service to cost c £500, so I'm about on budget, but not made the savings I thought I might. If you pay bottom dollar, expect to shell out a couple of bob to make it safe, reliable and a joy to drive!
C'est la vie.
I still think I have a bargain - c £12,000 for many years joy to come...
Needed a couple of things I hadn't expected though, rather bumped the price up a bit. New N&O/S/F lower wishbones and four bushes to suit plus new clutch master cylinder... came to just over £1,160
(Details here). They also advised that next year the rear wishbones are likely to need replacing. So... for all those out there that think you can get a bargain around ten grand: including insurance, backlit rear number plate and a few other sundries it's cost me nearly £2,000 in the first ten days of ownership. I went in with my eyes open as I'd expected to pay over £12,000 in the first place and expected a service to cost c £500, so I'm about on budget, but not made the savings I thought I might. If you pay bottom dollar, expect to shell out a couple of bob to make it safe, reliable and a joy to drive!
C'est la vie.
I still think I have a bargain - c £12,000 for many years joy to come...
Edited by LordGrover on Wednesday 24th January 21:56
That's useful and open-hearted information LG for which you are to be congratulated. Sadly as prices dip below the five figure mark a different breed of buyer approaches. At the risk of sounding like a snob, you can see it's happened with Chimaeras. The cars get all blinged up and sold on quickly when recurrent fundamental problems aren't sorted by Lexus lights and fancy wheels.
Tha fact is, and has been for a few years, that £12-£15k is a minumum for a proper, sorted Griff. Of course the odd bargain comes along, but cheap cars are normally cheap for a reason. Some people seem to think that because one car's £10k they all should be.
I look forward to meeting you and yours on Sunday.
Tha fact is, and has been for a few years, that £12-£15k is a minumum for a proper, sorted Griff. Of course the odd bargain comes along, but cheap cars are normally cheap for a reason. Some people seem to think that because one car's £10k they all should be.
I look forward to meeting you and yours on Sunday.
Ian - did you get an independant inspection or did you rely on you own knowkedge and experience when you bought the car. I'm asking because I'm going to be buyng a Griff in that price range soon.
PS Nice looking car by the way.
I have to disagree with some of Griffter's comments, prices for TVR's are depressed across the board at the moment and from what I've seen of the market £9k to £11k is the going rate for a pre-cat Griff.
PS Nice looking car by the way.
I have to disagree with some of Griffter's comments, prices for TVR's are depressed across the board at the moment and from what I've seen of the market £9k to £11k is the going rate for a pre-cat Griff.
profstoff said:
Ian - did you get an independant inspection or did you rely on you own knowkedge and experience when you bought the car. I'm asking because I'm going to be buyng a Griff in that price range soon.
Sadly, I relied upon my own knowledge. I've gained some experience over the last four or five months looking at many Chimaeras and Griffiths, read everything on offer and had a lesson from CrazyCraig (Thanks Craig
) which gave me enough confidence to make my own assessment(s). The car I bought had a folder full of old & recent receipts so I was happy to take the plunge. I've not spoken to the previous owner yet, but Richard at Dulford's said the lower wishbones had been in short supply for a loonng time, so maybe that was why they'd not been replaced sooner. As for the clutch master cylinder - the clutch is/was fine, but a leak meant that one day in the (near) future I'd have dipped the clutch and gotten nothing - better to find out from a reputable dealer than mid-journey in the middle of nowhere.
All-in-all, I'm still very happy with my acquisition and look forward to many blistering miles!
Sorry to hear about the bill LG.
Having gone through the purchasing process recently it seems to me you go one of two ways. Either pay top dollar (13-14k IMHO for an early car) and keep your fingers crossed you got a perfect 15 year old car (impossible) or take your pick of the 90% of Griffs around that are less than perfect and use the money saved to bring them up to scratch.
My preference has been to go at the market 12k budget and 2k in the bank. As long as you buy wisely then the 2k in the bank will most likely last a little while and you can at least enjoy your car with the safety net.
Hope i haven't tempted fate now
Having gone through the purchasing process recently it seems to me you go one of two ways. Either pay top dollar (13-14k IMHO for an early car) and keep your fingers crossed you got a perfect 15 year old car (impossible) or take your pick of the 90% of Griffs around that are less than perfect and use the money saved to bring them up to scratch.
My preference has been to go at the market 12k budget and 2k in the bank. As long as you buy wisely then the 2k in the bank will most likely last a little while and you can at least enjoy your car with the safety net.
Hope i haven't tempted fate now
profstoff said:
from what I've seen of the market £9k to £11k is the going rate for a pre-cat Griff.
Yeah, I don't deny that - but I bet it'll need money spending on it at that price. Horses for courses. I bought mine cheap and did a lot of work - that's what I wanted to do, because I wanted to know it had been done to my standards, and done right. I've never seen a car that didn't need something doing. Just look at all the things described on these forums! You think people sort everything out THEN put the car up for sale? You think they're even aware of half of what needs doing? Think again. But maybe I'm a disillisioned perfectionist! All I'm saying is spend what you want but keep something by no matter what you spend. Bet it'll end up costing you £12-£15k in total!
Agree whole heartedly with Griffters comments.
Bought mine cheap (knowing that it would need stuff doing but I could do the work as and when i had free funds to do so) mine has cost me nearly £7k to put right and now I have an almost minter with no niggling doubts about big bills around the corner.
I could had added that £7k to the purchase price but there is NO gauranty it would be any more sound a car, this way I know it is now and have the satisfaction of knowing I put it in that condition which i find more satisfying.
LG glad to see you are using the best indie in the westcounry look forward to seeing a fellow fast colour on sunday
Bought mine cheap (knowing that it would need stuff doing but I could do the work as and when i had free funds to do so) mine has cost me nearly £7k to put right and now I have an almost minter with no niggling doubts about big bills around the corner.
I could had added that £7k to the purchase price but there is NO gauranty it would be any more sound a car, this way I know it is now and have the satisfaction of knowing I put it in that condition which i find more satisfying.
LG glad to see you are using the best indie in the westcounry
look forward to seeing a fellow fast colour on sunday Front lower wishbones are almost a consumable on the Griff so that really is not a surprise. To be fair it also quite difficult to tell how bad they are without scraping the paint off to expose the holes. Now you have some new shiny ones, keep them, along with the rest of the chassis coated in WaxOyl. Having used Dulford,would think unlike some Tiv specialists you won’t have had unnecessary work done. Would say however that Wishbones and lots of routine jobs are really quite easy to do yourself if cost is an issue.
That bill seems a bit of a thumper! I just had a major service done on my BMW 540i and the rear upper suspension links replaced all for £650.
My 500 will gets it's 12000 service from a local RV8 specialist (used to build race spec engines) when I have cleaned up the front wishbones and other bits and bobs.
Anyhoo...happy Griffing....
my car had received a 950 pounds service 3 months before I bought it and it just had done less than 1000 miles since. I must say it was an element which i valued between the 2 cars I was hesitating between.
I think one of the reason to sell is very often that for some reasons the owners can not the use the car as often as he would like, and usually it means, even if the service history is good, it is usually "less good" in the last months before the sale, so a service with more things to change than normal is likely to happen.
I think one of the reason to sell is very often that for some reasons the owners can not the use the car as often as he would like, and usually it means, even if the service history is good, it is usually "less good" in the last months before the sale, so a service with more things to change than normal is likely to happen.
Griff Boy said:
Marto,
who are you planning to use? Are they aberdeen based, as I am struggling to find a good dealer with knowledge without going to Edinburgh or Stirling.
Thanks for the email, Baz has been in touch with info.
Cheers
Ian
who are you planning to use? Are they aberdeen based, as I am struggling to find a good dealer with knowledge without going to Edinburgh or Stirling.
Thanks for the email, Baz has been in touch with info.
Cheers
Ian
GB,
Jim King Autotune in Lethenty Mill, Inverurie. Baz has used them since his S3 days, and they use to build and race all manner of RV8 based machinery. Baz seemed to be happy to recommend them, so that's wher I am going to go first.
lordgrover said:
Sadly, I relied upon my own knowledge. I've gained some experience over the last four or five months looking at many Chimaeras and Griffiths, read everything on offer and had a lesson from CrazyCraig (Thanks Craig ) which gave me enough confidence to make my own assessment(s)
) which gave me enough confidence to make my own assessment(s)Guess I'm not much of a teacher then.
I could have sworn I'd mentioned about checking the chassis and wishbones about.......................437 times when you came around.
Seriously though, hope she's bringing you lots of joy.
Craig
Disclaimer
Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information given to lordgrover was accurate at the time, neither crazycraig and/or any other PH member accepts liability for any sleepless nights, injury to knuckles, damage to vehicle or self, direct or indirect loss, consequential or economic loss to wallet, or any other loss suffered as a result of his actions in not following the advice of -
Check your chassis.Griffter said:
That's useful and open-hearted information LG for which you are to be congratulated. Sadly as prices dip below the five figure mark a different breed of buyer approaches. At the risk of sounding like a snob, you can see it's happened with Chimaeras. The cars get all blinged up and sold on quickly when recurrent fundamental problems aren't sorted by Lexus lights and fancy wheels.
Tha fact is, and has been for a few years, that £12-£15k is a minumum for a proper, sorted Griff. Of course the odd bargain comes along, but cheap cars are normally cheap for a reason. Some people seem to think that because one car's £10k they all should be.
I look forward to meeting you and yours on Sunday.
Tha fact is, and has been for a few years, that £12-£15k is a minumum for a proper, sorted Griff. Of course the odd bargain comes along, but cheap cars are normally cheap for a reason. Some people seem to think that because one car's £10k they all should be.
I look forward to meeting you and yours on Sunday.
What he said
Bought mine VERY cheap in Sep 2005 (even with previous owner spending £3k in prev. 12m). Knew I'd be spending a few £k to get up to scratch (still spending...).
Looking forward to seeing some of you guys on Sunday
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