Stepping up to a Mclaren?

[Smoothound]

1st ever post on here!

Just sold my Cayman S and originally I was looking to replace it with a Cayman GTS but now I have a hankering to appease my inner lust and step up to a Mclaren.

I'm looking at possibly a 12C or a 540C. I briefly drove a 12C a while back but it is a distant memory! It's purely a toy but the ability top daily it without too many hiccups would be a bonus. Probably paying cash and spending up to £85k ish. Just curious as to what the consensus of the best buy would be. I fully intend to drive both before splashing the cash just looking for opinions. I think the biggest issue against the 12C is the lack of a lift and my drive vs road camber may be an issue although the Cayman and 2 MK3 Focus RS's were fine!

There are a few that interest me currently but I'm not 100% the best course of action. To be fair it's probably the GTS but then that's not why I'm here

[Smoothound]

RSbandit said:

Any Mclaren is a diff league to a Cayman but the running costs will be higher of course. If you can stretch to a 570s as they are nicer spec than the 540c out of the box and ceramic brakes were standard. Warranty is a must as I found out myself recently but sport series still cheaper than the 12c warranty wise. Thorney motorsport better for warranties on the older cars cost wise. Just be advised that there can be niggles and parts are expensive.

Yeah I am ready for the additional cost's and well aware of the warranty issues. I would imagine that the 12C is now getting to the age where Mclaren will no longer put new warranties on them? I'll add the 570s to the reading list!

[Smoothound]

RBT0 said:

Do it properly, go for a 570S, possibly with MSO titanium or sport exhaust. Telling you that because I know Cayman sounds nice.

That's the main draw of a new Cayman...that sound

[Smoothound]

Superleg48 said:

Mclaren may have gone bust by the end of the year. Not sure how that will impact the support network, but probably not well.

I would hold off sinking £85k cash into a car that may present some significant issues for you with after sales support until the position at McLaren becomes clearer.

Just to be clear, I hope they do work it out, as I love some of their products, especially 650S, and do not subscribe a great deal to all the internet self-promoting horror story vloggers banging on about how crap they are. I hear many stories of owners having next to no issues or minor jiggly ones that blight pretty much every manufacturer.

I'm sort of leaning towards holding off for a while to see how it all pans out. I do have a small amount of inside knowlege of their workings/issues/problems so I'm not too worried about what the vloggers etc. are saying! There are issues but on the whole they are a car I would like to own!

[Smoothound]

SELON said:

£85k would stretch to a 650S coupe. But my preference would be the Mc Orange 12C with the MSO front at Alastair Bols.

I have spoken to Alastair about that car but he has told me it is lower than a normal one at 120mm but I've read that they are 100mm and also 119mm standard? My real issue is the road camber/overider at my girlfriends house which creates a fair dip in the gutter of the road. I can get the Cayman S and MK3 Focus RS's across it with tread to spare but I'm not sure about a Mclaren without a lift?

Obviously if anyone wants to pop round and try theirs on her drive please feel free to offer

Edited by Smoothound on Thursday 9th July 18:02

[Smoothound]

anissut said:

The problem with the MSO Orange car at AB is that MSO Front splitter is lower than the normal splitter and that 12C doesn't have lift. Can imagine there may be a fair bit of scraping over bumps etc.

From looking around so far it appears most 12C's don't have a lift and some dealers will tell you none of them do!

[Smoothound]

xcentric said:

Interesting post, given I'd come on here to ask a related question.

Now considering a 540c or 570 or similar at the £85k level - and whilst I don't want the thread to degenerate into a depreciation disaster rant, is the collective opinion that these have done most if not all of their (rather steep) initial drops and so one can buy with a little more confidence now? Obviously running costs are at supercar levels, but my impression is the these have undergone more of an L shaped depreciation curve than the exponential decay one usually sees.....

I'm on the same page but I'm sat on the fence thinking maybe wait another 6 months to a year to see how the current situation affects things? I'd like to do it now as I've sold my Cayman and am stuck in my ageing Fiesta for now

[Smoothound]

Mr Cod said:

I would get the best 12C spider you can, put a Thorney warranty on it as part of the purchase, and enjoy. Should fare better on depreciation at this point than anything in the sports series. Although an earlier car, having owned one and driven both, it is a far far better car than the sports series, with radically better technology. You won't miss the extra performance of the 650, you will save 15k(ish) over an equivalient 650 and (purely subjectively) IMHO the 12C is the more cohesive design that will stand the test of time.

this sort of where I came in! I had in my head that 12C had probably hit bottom and better tech than a 540C but the 540/570 are all newer. I'm not sure on what happens warranty wise once the 12C hits 10 years old? I doubt Mclaren will still warranty it but will Thorney?

[Smoothound]

MAC 720S said:

I can’t see Thorney introducing an age restriction anytime soon. There will be a raft of cars falling out of the OEM ten year limit over the coming years which he can take advantage of. Thorney has his own FB Group “McLaren Owners Technical Group” where you can ask him questions > https://www.facebook.com/groups/979893269109920/

Good point! Funnily enough I joined yesterday but thanks for the pointer

Currently I'm leaning more towards a 12C apart from the age and the fact that their prices are all over the place for very similar specs and mileages

[Smoothound]

mk1coopers said:

Yes, spend more time with the Wife

She's gone luckily

[Smoothound]

WilliamWaiver said:

Would up the budget and get a 650S spider over 12C and 540/570S. Personally I much prefer the P1 style front lights to 12C also its a far more robust and reliable car to the early 12C's and the sports series in general.
If you need anymore convincing this video spells it out

https://youtu.be/H5h8cx9BGR8

I think that is a fair call but I have purposely limited my budget to allow for issues and ongoing servicing and warranties so it puts the 650S just outside my realistic budget currently looking at prices. If I hold off for 6/12 months that may change but we will see

[Smoothound]

SELON said:

Lovely looking 2014 12C spider just posted on AT for £85k.

I saw that. Nose lift too which may turn out to be vital for me too!

[Smoothound]

mikey k said:

Not so sure
This is my old 650, its in great condition with paint correction and PPF from new, full dealer service history etc.
It's been with them for over a year now, I suspect the mileage is putting some off but most of it has been motorway mileage around Europe.
I suspect they would take a £90k cheeky offer.

https://gvelondon.com/cars/mclaren-650s-spider-201...

Car looks great but out of my budget unfortunately

Having looked around at a few sites/dealers recently it amazes me how many poorly worded and wrong spec adverts there are when selling such a high end product! Apparently this car has "Carbin Fibre Central Console" and "478 BHP". Theres another Ad somewhere on Autotrader or here and the Mclaren advertised is apparently 4WD. I know they are just typos but really just a little bit of care!

[Smoothound]

JerryDXB said:

The “478 bhp” engine and the missing tow eye cover in the photos put me off more than the mileage . I then see the wheels and brakes don’t match the description and loose interest.

(The mileage wouldn’t put me off at all, almost 50k km on my coupe when I sold it.)

I'm fully in agreement with this comment! I'd not want to engage with a dealer that wants to take more than £80k from me and the Ad is not right or the car is poorly prepped for the pictures! I can live with it if it's a private individual but the reflection on a company is pretty poor in my eyes?

[Smoothound]

bennno said:

If its been with them a year I'd have it back and stick it up privately for 80k

To be fair at £80k I'd be tempted but still over what I want to buy into a Mclaren for really. At the asking price it's too much for me!!

[Smoothound]

bennno said:

Sounds like you might be looking at wrong brand, if purchase means trying to buy oldest / cheapest. I think with these a bad one bought cheaply could ultimately be very expensive.

Yeah I get that! It's hard to decide what is good or bad certainly with 12C's when most are still warranted by Mclaren and the price spread is 3 years and around £30K. As I've said previously the 650S is outside my budget but at £80 I'd possibly stretch given the other posters provenance. It's a lottery currently! I can buy a far newer car but then they are said to be poorer build than a late 12C but further up the warranty ladder, then there's the holy grail of the 650S! Who knows!

[Smoothound]

Small update on this which has amused me no end

Just been looking at insurance quotes and my current insurer has quoted for both a 12C and a 540C, pretty much same price for both which is good. The crazy thing is that I have 2 options for where it lives, girlfriends driveway(preferred as it simplifies things) and her mums house 5 miles away in a garage. The 12C they said had to go on the driveway where I was living but the 540C had to be in the garage 5 miles away and wouldn't quote for the driveway. Hilarious if you ask me!

[Smoothound]

MAC 720S said:

Get a quote from Admiral. Costs me £700 PA, 52 years old, 4 points for speeding, 10K Miles limit, £1K excess. Parked in garage. Very few are stolen (I doubt any are) from driveways.

Yeah they are about the best quote coming up on Gocompare but I'm with Aviva currently and it's a multicar and as I pay monthly and tend to change cars frequently there is no penalty for adding and removing vehicles, changing plates etc. Just phone up and it's altered there and then. A fair bit cheaper for both cars than Admiral are quoting too!

[Smoothound]

Car bought and arrives Thursday, went with Admiral for insurance around £850 for 2 cars on a driveway which was as good as I could get it without going with silly excesses. Mclaren will be in a garage some of the time but it's a fair way from my girlfriends where I now live so I'm assuming it won't go there a lot I'm guessing?

[Smoothound]

RSbandit said:

Congrats what did you get in the end?

540C 2.5 years old which will do for a start