Runing costs ?
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Discussion

jackal

Original Poster:

11,251 posts

311 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
hi chaps... i know its a how long piece of string question

but how much should one budget for running a 3r for ~6k miles a year, no trackdays

also, is there any info online about servicing and consummables costs and also common problems, costs of rebuilds, new turbos, diffs etc... so I can fully reasearch the outer margins of what ownership might cost ?


cheers, R

S26VE P

2,174 posts

271 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
Had my GTO-3 for a year already BUT only done 2k frown in that time its been petrol/insurance etc, will be a service soon tho. erm thats about it. biggrinbiggrin

Some info here if you not seen it www.gto3.com

noblesparky

2,152 posts

212 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
Wow, what a can of worms to open.
Where shall we start

jackal

Original Poster:

11,251 posts

311 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
noblesparky said:
Wow, what a can of worms to open.
Where shall we start
that bad eh ?

i've read about the uprated fuel pump wiring and throttle cables and exploding inlet manifolds

anything else ? servicing costs ?

andygtt

8,345 posts

293 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
done 13k miles in mine since I got it last June...
Services have been around £750 (6k intervals) as I had the biggest one and a few things like ball joints... also I had a set of rear tyres (fronts are still original at 25k!!!).

Its doing around 25-30mpg and using very little consumables between services.

I have had the windscreen wiper snap off and had to replace the ecu due to a starting fault (not that expensive)... but its never actually let me down and has seen some horrible weather.... guess i have been lucky tho as some have had a lot of trouble.

Overall so far its the same money to run as my E36 M3.

TuxMan

9,011 posts

267 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
Depends alot on wether you are prepared to do anything yourself !!! i just serviced mine for about £100 useing genuine stuff !!! if you are going to use main dealers £75 an hour seems to be the going rate !!

noblesparky

2,152 posts

212 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
Had my GTO-3 for a couple of months.

The floors seem to leek, I have pulled the carpets out of mine, wiped all the tacky sticky off the floor, had the seats out (easy enough to do 4 bolts), put some LSX sealer around all the joins, also painted the underneath of the car with joint sealer. Not expensive but well worth doing as otherwise the carpets soon start to stink badly.
Electrical joints seem to be a problem in the engine bay, had to have my relay bases redone with new units (£300-00).
Services seem to be about the £700-00 - £1000-00 mark but remember that they have 6000 miles intervals.
I am about to put a BOV on mine which seems to help the life of the turbos and turbo lag.
Its never going to be a cheap car to own / run but then how many rocket ships are.

jackal

Original Poster:

11,251 posts

311 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
guys thanks,

happy to do work on the car... in fact i would want to get my hands greasy
used to custom caterhams, older generation lotuses and the like so not unused to a bit of unreliability and niggles. The one thing that would concern me is if the engine has a propensity to fail e.g. oil starvation issues etc. (i know about the baffled sump and ful pump wiring)

From a durability point of view would the M400 be a better proposition having better upgraded components on it ?

david.mt

1,173 posts

212 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
jackal said:
From a durability point of view would the M400 be a better proposition having better upgraded components on it ?
Hope so as just paid a deposit on one today!...will not be used regularly but the (s)miles will be hard ones. As it will be serviced before sale I am hoping that the costs of ownership will not be too significant (other than the usual petrol, tyres, brakes etc). It was a close decision between a Noble and an Ultima so hope I have made the right choice!!

Gadgeroonie

5,362 posts

265 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
so far mine has been almost trouble free

needed a new wheel bearing when i got it - fitted it myself

a new set of tyres

a few services

thats it


jackal

Original Poster:

11,251 posts

311 months

Tuesday 17th March 2009
quotequote all
david, where did you buy from ?


jamie g

516 posts

245 months

Wednesday 18th March 2009
quotequote all
I've done 11k miles in mine and only had to pay for tyres and servicing.
Other expenses were a bit indulgent. A noble motorsport exhaust with remap and a proalloy intercooler cooler.

NobleGuy

7,133 posts

244 months

Wednesday 18th March 2009
quotequote all
Had it 2 years with only tyres and servicing. Then the diff went, I got it upgraded a bit with JNM and now my turbos are being replaced. So around £7.5K in the last 13 months.

jackal

Original Poster:

11,251 posts

311 months

Wednesday 18th March 2009
quotequote all
7.5 k !

i though turbos were under 1k to refurb

how much is the diff costing you then ?

northnoble

362 posts

215 months

Wednesday 18th March 2009
quotequote all
Did both my Turbo's last year - between £400 and £600 per turbo for the refurb depending on the "damage" (excluding fitting)!!

ajg31

1,455 posts

236 months

Thursday 19th March 2009
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I was unlucky with at least 8k spend on parts and servicing in around 10k miles. The older these turbo's get the more likely they are to find cracking in the bodys making refurb impossible. Had one turbo refurbed on mine for around 500 quid which i thought was taking the mick