Station Hill Garage Farnham
Discussion
I popped in there when I was hunting around for a TVR. There was only one TVR on the forecourt that Sunday but when the owner/salesman found out that I was very interested he took me into the workshops where there were about 8 TVRs being repaired or serviced...so presumably there are some people out there who are happy with what they do....it is possible that they were doing work for some of the independents, but that's just a guess.
And now I digress....
He then showed me a Black Chimaera 500 with sports exhaust and high lift cams, which had just come into the workshop to be cleaned and serviced before going out on sale. When he started it up the sound just vibrated through me and gave me that goosey feeling when the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Only an hour earlier I had been test driving a normal 400 at Hawthorns, but this was a different beast entirely. And the beat of that burble is so different to the 400. He then offered me a seat and it was clear that he wanted to sell the car on its real merits. When we got on to the dual carriageway he accelerated hard and I just shouted out to myself f$%*!(not that I could hear my voice!). It was awesome...I suppose a first time experience like this is going to be the most memorable...and when I drove it back I just kept thinking that why the hell did I save money for years when I should have been out there enjoying this...but at least now the insurance premium is affordable!
I didn't buy it as it was in need of a good clean up and they never called me back - within a cople of weeks I found my current machine being sold privately.
Incidentally, having seen about 7 private sales, 6 of them were selling because they conceded that the baby seat was not going to fit in the Chimaera...no doubt these boys enjoyed their TVRs and were still on a high when they got out of their cars and decided that they would end the day giving the missus a high too!...there's a lesson here somewhere...
And now I digress....
He then showed me a Black Chimaera 500 with sports exhaust and high lift cams, which had just come into the workshop to be cleaned and serviced before going out on sale. When he started it up the sound just vibrated through me and gave me that goosey feeling when the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Only an hour earlier I had been test driving a normal 400 at Hawthorns, but this was a different beast entirely. And the beat of that burble is so different to the 400. He then offered me a seat and it was clear that he wanted to sell the car on its real merits. When we got on to the dual carriageway he accelerated hard and I just shouted out to myself f$%*!(not that I could hear my voice!). It was awesome...I suppose a first time experience like this is going to be the most memorable...and when I drove it back I just kept thinking that why the hell did I save money for years when I should have been out there enjoying this...but at least now the insurance premium is affordable!
I didn't buy it as it was in need of a good clean up and they never called me back - within a cople of weeks I found my current machine being sold privately.
Incidentally, having seen about 7 private sales, 6 of them were selling because they conceded that the baby seat was not going to fit in the Chimaera...no doubt these boys enjoyed their TVRs and were still on a high when they got out of their cars and decided that they would end the day giving the missus a high too!...there's a lesson here somewhere...
SHG are very good, used them for servicing on my Cerby and they were far better than most main dealers on price!!
SHG and Hawthornes fall out is understandable. SHG were the TVR dealer in farnham, Hawthornes opened a big garage in the town selling another marque. SHG saw the TVR retail marketplace changing from a couple of demo's griff / S, to a fleet of TVR's and so they struck a deal to let Hawthornes sell the cars and they would continue to do all of the servicing work.
When Hawthornes decided they wanted to use their Volvo tecnicians to do the servicing and cut SHG from the loop, quite understandably a rift was caused.
SHG still have TVR logo's everywhere and more parts on the shelf than most main dealers.
{above is to the best of my knowledge)
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