Prospective Cerbera Owner

[claytonp]

Morning all,

I've finally managed to convince the Mrs that I should sell our Porsche 928 and buy a Cerbera so that we can all enjoy a sports car as a family. She is now switched on to the idea, and I've been using this forum to search for baby seat details. Major check box ticked.

I've also started to test drive some Cerbera's but there seems to be huge gulfs in terms of quality even on cars with FSH. And the price even for trade and private is really inconsistant.

I know they can be tempramental if they're not used regularly just like my 928, and I've got some buying advice from a TVR specialist. But, what electrical problems are acceptable and which are things to walk away from?

For example, one I've driven has a passenger door solenoid that doesn't pop the door out properly. But on another this is fine, but instead the headlight switch is faulty and the passenger door windows gets stuck in the lower position.

Also, are they all prone to water ingress and is this something to be worried about? Both examples I've driven show evidence of water ingress into the boot, and around the rear window.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[QuiteQuietCerb]

Hi dont wotrry too much about electrical problems on the cerb. Its not quite as complicated as the porsche especially any issues like the ones you describe (door solenoid etc) can be rectified by an amateur or a garage quite cheaply. The major things that can affect the car is Chassis rust, walk away from a rusty car. Make sure you check the outriggers, especially behind the tubes. Also engine confdition (service history/maintainance, oil pressure etc).

I would suggest you hire one of the specialists to check cars for you (Rob Ingleby)
good luck

[claytonp]

Thanks for the response. Both Cerbs I've driven have rusty outriggers, especially the ones immediately behind the front wheels. Although they both appeared to be surface and badly pitted.

When they were new, were the chassis' powder coated or just painted? And whenever I find one that I feel happy with and is the right colour for the Mrs (sorry, I am putting germaline on my thumb print, but as the money will be coming from our savings I have to concede on somethings!), is hammerite the next best alternative for preventative maintenance?

[QuiteQuietCerb]

i would suggest to take a screw driver and prob them quite hard on ther inside where they join and also on the top of the chassis rail runnign alomng the car, as well as on top of the plate that bolts ot the body (where its difficult to see). Rust treatment views vary, i would suggest to clean the chassis as much as possible, then apply a few coats of kurust which reacts with rust , then spray with zinc primer and then with hammerite. Hammerite on its own wont do much.

when new they were powder coated but quality of this varied,

Edited by QuiteQuietCerb on Monday 18th August 11:58

[BLUETHUNDER]

It seems that later white powder coated cars suffered more than the earlier silver coated ones.

[claytonp]

Any advice on the water ingress? Is it a massively common problem. I've been reading another Cerb topic about water in the drive foot well, but I've not seen anything about the boot or rear windsreen.

[QuiteQuietCerb]

boot water ingress, i have been a sufferer too, but nothing to worry about there. Put the car on the ramps and seal all the bolts that hold the fuel tank to the body, and also fuel filter etc, that should cure it (if water is coming in whilst driving). If not then change the boot seal (very chaep). The rear screen has two ventilation holes at the bottom which may allow water, but you can close them. I wouldnt worry about that too much either.

Edited by QuiteQuietCerb on Monday 18th August 12:24

[RUSSELLM]

I bought my cars off owners who kept them garaged, one never used it in the wet. Unfortunately I don't have a garage, plus I use the cars as daily runners, so I got to find out about leaks the previous owners had never suffered from.

Mine suffered from a leaking seal on the rear screen, which caused water ingress in the boot & more importantly/expensively behind the helmet holder and the various electronic boxes in there.

A simple remove & refit of the rear screen at the local autoglass solved that problem.

The door not popping out, is normally a small adjustment to the solenoid, nothing expensive.

I use mine daily, but there's some things that still fail. Currently my wiper park switch has failed (again ) & some times I have to turn the steering wheel to activate the wash/wipe...... But I'll hang on to the next service to get them fixed.

I'm sure I could think of well over 20 electrical faults I've had over the years, but they've all been cheap to fix.

As mentioned, your grand plus jobs are going to be chassis & engine.

[claytonp]

A potentially stupid question, but how do you use the main beam on a cerb? I know there is the headlight button on the steering wheel, but how do you switch it on temporarily (like when you flash people) and switch on main beam permanently when night driving?

[Mr M]

You could always find one that has had the leaks dealt with. I think mine had most of the usual things taken care of. Even down to the cabin pressurisation problem - which explained why some time ago I told everyone it was odd as I wasn't getting a problem with it. Then I checked the paperwork. So check all the paperwork and you may get one that's had it all taken care of.

Main beam is just a button on the steering wheel centre.

Edited by Mr M on Monday 18th August 17:37

[Storer]

claytonp

The steering wheel button is a push and hold for flash when lights off (try in a darkened area against a wall).

For dip/main beam with lights on it is push once for main and again for dip.

[AlVal]

I think a faultless cerbera must be worth £20k at least.

Think you'll be lucky to find a faultless cerbera. Depends how picky you are.

[QuiteQuietCerb]

AlVal said:

I think a faultless cerbera must be worth £20k at least.

Think you'll be lucky to find a faultless cerbera. Depends how picky you are.

....and then something will go wrong

[claytonp]

thank you all for your assistance today. Been very helpful. Just need to sell the 928 S4 for 'reasonable money' and then the serious Cerbera search can begin.

[C2HYM]

AlVal said:

I think a faultless cerbera must be worth £20k at least.

Think you'll be lucky to find a faultless cerbera. Depends how picky you are.

I had mine on here for 6 months trying to sell it,.. The only fault and I mean 'only' fault is the high speed window popping thing, which is only way above the NSL anyway. Even the drivers seat bolster isn't badly worn.

After reading some recent posts re: new owners niggles, I'm glad I've decided to keep it as it sounds buying a loved Cerb for decent money is pretty hard.

Edited by C2HYM on Tuesday 19th August 07:35

[Far Eastender]

My advice would be to buy a Cerb, but keep the 928. You won't get anything like it's worth if you sell it and you could use the 928 as a daily driver.

[claytonp]

Problem is I already have a daily commuter car, the Mrs has our family car, and the 928 takes up my garage space. So something has got to give, and the 928 is the 'luxury' item that I want to change for a Cerbera.

Besides, I cannot get a single child seat to fit in the 928 at all, and I've been to every child seat fitting service available in my area. Plus, the Cerbera is one of those cars that would be in my dream garage. So to finally be in a position to have one is worth taking a fairly large loss on the 928 for. Unfortunately, a depressed market is not the ideal time to sell, but I desparately want a sports car that can be enjoyed with the family - as the Mrs is a petrol head as well!

[kevpope]

Use Rob Ingleby, I have used him twice now, the first time I used his full finding service to source my 4.5 Chimaera, and recently he looked over a Cerb for me which I subsequently bought. Both times he has been spot on, and even picked up and stored the Chimaera at his house for me as I was out of the country when I bought it.

The Chimaera was my daily driver for a year, and never missed a beat in all winds and weathers, so far the Cerb is solid, although both times I specified I wanted a good mechanical car as opposed to a looker, looks can be sorted at my leisure.

www.findasportscar.co.uk

Kev