buying a cerb?

[funbobby]

anyone gone down this route of changing to a cerb after a chim. thinking or replacing my 400 chim and just wondered what peoples experiances were?

[poorpeet]

I'd post this on the Cerb forum if I were you.

[funbobby]

i have but looking for opinions for chim owners who may have come back from cerb ownership

[Dave 500]

I have both and still can't make my mind up which one I like the best

[funbobby]

dave, is there a huge difference between the two? what r the pros and cons on the cerb then?

[Dave 500]

funbobby said:

dave, is there a huge difference between the two? what r the pros and cons on the cerb then?

Hmm the pros and cons of the Cerb

Pros
Straght line speed is faster
Breaks seem better
My Cerb seems better made
Hard Roof
More Driver focused.

Cons
Turning lock is rubbish 10 point turns are normal
The doors are really long and major pain in the ass if you have to put it in the garage.
Forget using the back seats just don't do it
Dead easy to scrach the wheels
The Boot is smaller

Those are the ones that pop into my head straght away.

Driving wise the cerb is as close as you can get to a road legal race car with loads of power but most of it above 4000 rpm so you have to drive it hard to get the most out of it. The Chimaera well you know how nice they are to drive.

Cost wise they both seem to do the same MPG Insurance is about the same and running costs have so far been a lot less on the cerb. Have a look at my profile for the numbers.

I now use the Cerb everyday (1900 miles last week which included two trips to scotland and back) and have the Chimaera as the weekend Toy.

Hope that helps

[funbobby]

yes dave v helpfull thanks,those cons i can live with.

[Trellis]

In my experience:

Cerb:
Handles better - inspires more confidence when pushing hard
Turns more heads! (EVERYwhere I went - continual comments!)
Less reliable - LOTs of niggles!
Again - USELESS rear seats
Harsher engine noise - I think I prefer that lazy RV8 rumble!

Chim:
Roof down motoring!
A bit more 'traditional' handling - lets face it they're not quite a supercar!

When I buy again (which I will!) - it will be a Chim.

[Karussell]

My experience time line is something like this:-

Bought a 4.0 Chimaera whilst Mrs K was expecting our daughter. If it didn't happen then it would never happen

decided to buy a 4.2 Cerb aswell. Figured I would sell the Chim no problem

Chim didn't sell, couldn't keep both, so sold the Cerb within a week of putting up for sale

Still got the original Chimaera. 6 years of ownership, 20,000 miles (12 months or so in dry storage whilst had Cerb), and apart from a set of tyres, exhaust manifold gasket, and braided brake hoses, that has been the only exceptional costs

Cerb Pros
faster (by a long chalk) in every way
Looks and sounds awesome
Better driver/passenger comfort

Cerb Cons
Too fast for me to drive hard
Rear seats are hopeless
Constant niggles and/or big bills to keep in fine fettle
Costs far more than a Chim to keep in A1 condition

Whatever the Pro's and Con's, every one should do it once!

K

[funbobby]

opinions seem to be whilst cerb is a better car in terms of performance it seems most prefer the simpler set up of a chim.its the extra costs and reliability that put me off a cerb but that extra performance keeps calling!

[Ubernoober]

Funnily enough, I've put a similar question on the Tuscan forum today - my thinking being to go more modern but keep the roof-off option.

After just asking son and wife and giving them four options: do up/improve current Chim 400; get a Cerb; get a 500 Chim; get a Tuscan with the cost of each being in the same ball park probably ie an extra £6k or so to be spent - the response from both was option 1 with a maybe of option 3

Their reasoning being we know the car we've got, the roof doesn't come off the Cerb, the Tuscan is too... well just 'too' if you follow and the 500 Chim is 'only' a bigger engine

Surprised me to be honest, but best start drawing up a shopping list - ho hum

[funbobby]

funny richard but your thinking mirrors mine, i guess its fairly common thing to want to upgrade if u love your tvr's. agree with the 6k to go to cerb or tuscan but would have thought and extra 3k over a decent 400 should be enough for a 500. problem for me i wasnt in love with the characteristics of the lumpy 500 but would like that extra performance but get told time and time again not to pour 1000's into upgrading a 400,so what do you do?!