Practical Performance Car Performance Bargains

[Flintstone]

Why oh why oh why (etc).

Why does Practical Performance car do this? They splash a performance car across the front cover saying "200mph For Three Bob And A Luncheon Voucher!!" then use a prime example of the marque worth two or three times the claimed 'bargain price' in the feature. In addition the prices vary from front cover to article never mind what the real cost of the pristine car shown would be.

They did it a couple of years ago with the Chimaera. Front cover said "For £6000" (from memory), the article said "From £7000" yet the photos were of a spotless example borrowed from a dealer. Even now, two years on, you'd struggle to buy a Chim for £6000 unless it was an absolute nail or Cat C/D so where do these bargain prices come from?

In this month's issue it's the turn of the Cerbera. Cover says "190MPH For £9K", article inside talks about £10,000 and the car shown is a 4.5 V8 that's got to be worth upwards of £14,000 (no info on age and service history, upgrades etc.

Sloppy sensationalism to sell magazines and one of the reasons I no longer buy it.

[Chimjunkie]

Well said. You've just got to love journalism!! I love it when there is a flood and the reporter finds the deepest bit to stand in!! Poor people.

[Flintstone]

Chimjunkie said:

Poor people.

Yeah, poor people annoy me too


checks wallet


Hang on a moment.............

[Nefarious]

Flintstone said:

the car shown is a 4.5 V8 that's got to be worth upwards of £14,000 (no info on age and service history, upgrades etc.

I think Cirvy would be most upset at that valuation!!

[trackcar]

Cirvy was in my workshop last night having it's ohlins dampers fettled .. it is indeed as you say a beautiful car with a lot of very good upgrades and I'm guessing would command 18k plus on the market. It really is a lovely car

9k buys you a wreck.

[900T-R]

Almost as annoying as the "350 bhp Renault 5 GT Turbos" being bandied about on magazine covers where you read the article and find that was in 'Special Dyno Grenade Spec' on 35 psi of boost with a 75 bhp shot of nitrous, and that after that the settings were returned to give a reliable-ish 190 bhp when actually driving the thing.

[The AJP Griff]

trackcar said:

.........................
9k buys you a wreck.

Then those who go out and buy their £9k 'bargains' end up telling all their mates down the pub how truly crap and unreliable TVR's are!

[Flintstone]

Nefarious said:

Flintstone said:

the car shown is a 4.5 V8 that's got to be worth upwards of £14,000 (no info on age and service history, upgrades etc.

I think Cirvy would be most upset at that valuation!!

"upwards of". ie, more than.

[cirvy]

Flintstone said:

Why oh why oh why (etc).

Why does Practical Performance car do this? They splash a performance car across the front cover saying "200mph For Three Bob And A Luncheon Voucher!!" then use a prime example of the marque worth two or three times the claimed 'bargain price' in the feature. In addition the prices vary from front cover to article never mind what the real cost of the pristine car shown would be.

They did it a couple of years ago with the Chimaera. Front cover said "For £6000" (from memory), the article said "From £7000" yet the photos were of a spotless example borrowed from a dealer. Even now, two years on, you'd struggle to buy a Chim for £6000 unless it was an absolute nail or Cat C/D so where do these bargain prices come from?

In this month's issue it's the turn of the Cerbera. Cover says "190MPH For £9K", article inside talks about £10,000 and the car shown is a 4.5 V8 that's got to be worth upwards of £14,000 (no info on age and service history, upgrades etc.

Sloppy sensationalism to sell magazines and one of the reasons I no longer buy it.

I must admit, i was so looking forward to seeing my car on the front cover of a car mag, but that headline ruined it for me

Problem is, the article wasn't a great deal better either!

Surprised me really, i was there in the studio for a couple of hours with the photographer & the editor who penned the article, we talked about the weather, the economy, about motor racing & car maintenance.... not once did we talk about the Cerb as a car, or about the trials & tribulations of Cerbera ownership. Wouldn't you think if you were writing an article about something like that, you would make the most of being in a room with someone who's owned the car for for the last 5 years to get an insight into the real picture

[V8 GRF]

cirvy said:

Surprised me really, i was there in the studio for a couple of hours with the photographer & the editor who penned the article, we talked about the weather, the economy, about motor racing & car maintenance.... not once did we talk about the Cerb as a car, or about the trials & tribulations of Cerbera ownership. Wouldn't you think if you were writing an article about something like that, you would make the most of being in a room with someone who's owned the car for for the last 5 years to get an insight into the real picture

Well in the real world you would expect they would but as has been pointed out above it doesn't really make a good story depending on which angle they want to take. ie
So if the angle is TVRs are cheap and fast and can be run on a shoestring then they don't want to know about your last £2000 bill or if it's TVRs are cheap and fast but unreliable they don't want to know you've only spent £92.50 on some oil and a few bits.
If you ever read anything you have insight of in a Mag or newspaper at least 50% of it is wrong or misrepresented. Nature of teh beast I think.

[900T-R]

V8 GRF said:

If you ever read anything you have insight of in a Mag or newspaper at least 50% of it is wrong or misrepresented. Nature of teh beast I think.

No it's not - it's usually a sign of incompetence on the part of the writer/editor. To assume malicious intent would be too much credit for our line of work.

Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 17th January 11:35

[V8 GRF]

900T-R said:

V8 GRF said:

If you ever read anything you have insight of in a Mag or newspaper at least 50% of it is wrong or misrepresented. Nature of teh beast I think.

No it's not - it's usually a sign of incompetence on the part of the writer/editor. To assume malicious intent would be too much credit for our line of work.

I nearly put "aplogies to any journalists" who may read this.....

[Flintstone]

Meant to say in my original post, lovely Cerbera.

Oninge.

[brogenville]

900T-R said:

V8 GRF said:

If you ever read anything you have insight of in a Mag or newspaper at least 50% of it is wrong or misrepresented. Nature of teh beast I think.

No it's not - it's usually a sign of incompetence on the part of the writer/editor. To assume malicious intent would be too much credit for our line of work.

Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 17th January 11:35

Exactly. I believe the article mentions something about cerbs having a 2.8 triple valve engine. Now, for a magazine that supposedly appeals to petrol-heads with a technical interest, to print an error like that is worse than just sloppy journalism, its downright incompetent.

Cirvy- I thinks thats amazing that they weren't interested in speaking to you about cerbera ownership, and sadly i feel that its indicative of the level of professionalism thats gone into this article.

[cirvy]

brogenville said:

900T-R said:

V8 GRF said:

If you ever read anything you have insight of in a Mag or newspaper at least 50% of it is wrong or misrepresented. Nature of teh beast I think.

No it's not - it's usually a sign of incompetence on the part of the writer/editor. To assume malicious intent would be too much credit for our line of work.

Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 17th January 11:35

Cirvy- I thinks thats amazing that they weren't interested in speaking to you about cerbera ownership, and sadly i feel that its indicative of the level of professionalism thats gone into this article.

I did an article with Quentin Wilson a few years ago, & his approach was broadly similar, pretty much written the article in advance

[trackcar]

I did offer my services to PPC for the Cerbera article (after all they'd used me for their Chimaera article a few years ago) but they didn't take me up on it .. you'd have thought that Simon with 5 years ownership and me with 12 years of almost nothing but Cerbera workshop experience would have been a reasonable info source but no

[eLSerbera]

You know I am not so sure that this article was a bad thing for Cerbera prices...

Supply and demand is at work here and it seems to be making the cost buying a really low end Cerbera has gone up...

From my point of view - No matter how loved a Cerbera is, after 6+ years the chassis, because of the poor factory protection, will be in need of work and the sooner the better.

Any Car for sale that has not had a body off chassis refurb with new protection applied (along with documentation to prove it) is going to need this work doing at some point and that in my book means that the price needs to reflect that.