Upgrade Advice Please

[V8 Animal]

I was speaking to a TVR indie the other day about moving onto a newer model and was advised against it!
Current car 4.0 1996 £8k
Upgrade car 4.5 2000 £12k
Approx Values.
His reasons were age of my car he says there should be no probs getting parts for this car for the next 10 years.
Newer models TVR produced alot of there own parts and now they are no longer here sourcing the parts are a problem.
He went onto say consider a respray and keep the car.
Ive now had some quotes of about £3.5k for a paint job a similiar price of a upgrade.
Opinions on his advice please would help me.
Thanks,
V8 Animal

[Zippee]

I presume the upgrade car is a 4.5 Chim? If so I can't understand why he said that as nearly all the parts will be the same as for your current one. S6 cars and Cerbs I could understand but IMHO thats ballcocks for the V8 cars

[V8 Animal]

Yes i am refering to a chim.
He was talking about electrics etc.Pre 96 mostly vauxhall after then TVR stuff.
He was making sense to me but he could be totally wrong.
That's what the forum is for for peoples views and opinions.
Cheers

[GreenV8S]

The advice from your mechanic seems pretty wierd to me.

[Zippee]

V8 Animal said:

Yes i am refering to a chim.
He was talking about electrics etc.Pre 96 mostly vauxhall after then TVR stuff.
He was making sense to me but he could be totally wrong.
That's what the forum is for for peoples views and opinions.
Cheers

Rubbish as far as I know - else I'm buggered with my 97.

[Cider Andy]

If the two cars are in similar condition then age won't make the newer car better. But if you were to spend £3,500 on painting the older car it won't make it worth £3,500 more. If, in a few years time you come to sell the car, the newer one is always going to be worth more (again, assuming similar condition).

It's true about the electrical modifications: I've just posted on another thread about the introduction of three TVR ECUs (and associated switchgear) on facelift models to control lighting, the heater fan and the door mirrors. Maybe it would be difficult to replace one of these if it failed. I haven't looked inside one, but I can't imagine there'd be any component within that couldn't be bought from an electronics shop for pence. And there were other changes, for the better, like moving the wiper motor inside the car.

If I had a choice between two similar cars, I'd always choose the newer one.