Money to spend. Help

[Nevin]

Guys, wonder if you lot can give me any advice. I have about £15k to spend on a Chimaera and I have next week off to go looking etc. I want to pick up the car before the end of next week.

However, I am not excactly an expert mechanic and need some advice on what to look for, although even then doing it myself may be too scary. I have emailed Rob Ingleby but have not got an answer yet and reckon he may be too busy to do it before the end of next week in any case.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Also, I reckon I will only be needing it for a year, as I should have enough for a T350c by this time next year.

Cheers

Nev

[shpub]

There is a buyer's guide on my website. Most dealers and independents will inspect the car for you if you want which will remove the worry.

Good luck.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[Mark.S]

If your hunting from London, David Batty (The Garage, Compton, Guildford) would be a good bet for checking over any cars your interested in.

[Nevin]

Cheers guys. I am in London so I will bear that in mind

[PhilipC]

I'll second Dave Batty. Charges by the hour, and seemed to be stupidly efficient when I got him to check my Chim in December. Popped the bonnet and drifted around underneath, seeming to take only a passing interest in what he saw. Then he gave me a blow-by-blow account of everything it had had done to it, and a (remarkably accurate) idea of when.

Friendly chap, haven't found anything he missed yet, and it cost <10% of what Mole Valley wanted to check the car over.

[Naith]

He gets another vote from me. Provided exactly the same service on my Chimaera as TVR Barnet did months earlier at 2/3rds of the cost.

Nevin, Rob's sourced a couple of cars for me, and I think you're right to expect that the end of the week would be a deadline which is unlikely for him to meet.

If you've got a whole week to look for yourself, you might be better off keeping that £500 finders fee for yourself, and having a look at a good few, and then getting someone like David Batty to approve your prime candidate. Bear in mind that you can start picking up a good 5 litre for not much more than 15k, so don't feel you have to limit yourself to just looking at 400s.

[Steve_T]

You might want to consider Adrian Blyth too. Not used him myself, but only heard good stuff about him. David preps his cars I believe.

Steve.