Heard a Rumour.....

[mustard]

Peter Smith has lost the TVR Franchise any one else heard this?

[PetrolTed]

Peter Smith, Kerridges and Christopher Neil have all been given notice (12 month notice period).

It is TVR policy that they will not accept dealers with Noble franchises. They view it as if a Land Rover dealer was taking on Jeep (to paraphrase).

TVR does not have a problem with Lotus however as they believe buyers of £30K Elises might be tempted into second hand TVRs for the same money.

[TT Tim]

That is quite pathetic, I can understand the sentiment, but surely someone who is in the market for such a specialised car would explore all the options anyway?

But having said that I guess it would be a bit like having BMW and Mercedes in one showroom.

But, isn't the small market of specialist sports cars a little different?

Tim

[raceboy]

The story I heard from a reliable source was that the powers that be at TVR have a real problem with the people at Noble, they really don't get along and hate anything to do with Noble with a passion

[Trefor]

Nothing against Noble, but surely a dealer could sell more TVRs and make more money than they could Nobles? I guess their choice was down to the conditions of the contracts from TVR/Noble ...

I think Nobles are great - if they could only stop the cars looking like the result of a Halfords ram-raid I would probably buy one in favour of a TVR. 50k for what really does look like a kit car, esp. alongside a TVR. Nope.

[granville]

TT Tim said:

That is quite pathetic, I can understand the sentiment, but surely someone who is in the market for such a specialised car would explore all the options anyway?

My nearest OPC has (obviously!) Stuttgart's finest slap bang next to Enzotic kit. (Come to think of it, they've got Astons too.)

At Christopher Neil's they have all manner of Lotus, Noble & TVR fodder offered up and I think they cater for significantly different clientele, offering wildly varying takes en route to passionate driving.

I agree with the right honourable gent.

[pzero64]

Went to Kerridges to pick up a part on Wednesday. Loads of TVR's for sale and for servicing, etc. Not many Noble's. Did these dealers get a choice about which make they would like to drop? If they did, then I would have thought the smaller niche market of Noble would have got the boot.

[burriana500]

OH FOR F**KS SAKE!

It's bad enough having to do an 160 mile round trip to C.Neils to get my car serviced at a main dealer as it is. Where the hell am I going to go now??? Harrogate isn't feasible as I could only get there on a Saturday morning and there isn't much call for a TVR dealership in Goole!

[rev-erend]

Noble have only made about 300 M12's - so I guess it's sour grapes from Peter Wheeler !

[N17 TVR]

You could say its no-balls when it comes to Nobles.....

Or not.

[mrmaggit]

burriana500 said:

OH FOR F**KS SAKE! It's bad enough having to do an 160 mile round trip to C.Neils to get my car serviced at a main dealer as it is. Where the hell am I going to go now??? Harrogate isn't feasible as I could only get there on a Saturday morning and there isn't much call for a TVR dealership in Goole!

There's a little chap in Chesterfield who's not too bad with TVR's. Posts on here at ungodly hours of the morning. Answers to the name of Joolz.

[girlracer]

If this is true, I think TVR are insane. They need to be finding more dealers, not reducing the number.

[conner]

I have also been told by Morgan that they sacked Peter Smith last week.
Not a good week for such a fine gentleman to lose two franchises!

[crankedup]

Wonder who will get the TVR franchise to cover Suffolk area? Kerridges must be a very early franchise I can remember them from about 12 years back?

[Trefor]

N17 TVR said:

You could say its no-balls when it comes to Nobles..... Or not.

Your coat sir ...

[Plotloss]

conner said:

I have also been told by Morgan that they sacked Peter Smith last week. Not a good week for such a fine gentleman to lose two franchises!

Does sir like his dish cold?

[_DJ_]

burriana500 said:

OH FOR F**KS SAKE! It's bad enough having to do an 160 mile round trip to C.Neils to get my car serviced at a main dealer as it is. Where the hell am I going to go now??? Harrogate isn't feasible as I could only get there on a Saturday morning and there isn't much call for a TVR dealership in Goole!

hmmm, they're open Saturday mornings but it'd been a week without the car every time - try Joolz, if he's awake he's usually at the workshop (and if he's asleep there's a 50/50 chance!)

[girlracer]

In theory I can see where they are coming from, but I've seen Nobles and Elises next to TVR's (Racing Green had some - trade-in's I presume), and they just made the TVR's look all the more special. They need to get some confidence!

[andyvdg]

Sounds fair enough to me. Noble is in the same-ish market segment as TVR so I can see why they want to give them as hard a time as possible. Lotus and TVR combination is interesting - but I can see it falling apart when the new Esprit comes out. Then things will also look really bad for Noble.

Good luck to them!

Cheers,

Andy.

[GCerbera]

raceboy said:

The story I heard from a reliable source was that the powers that be at TVR have a real problem with the people at Noble, they really don't get along and hate anything to do with Noble with a passion

I have not heard that, but noted the Corrigenda in the front of Sprint this month....