Mungo

A friend had a 4.5 Cerbera which he got rid of after 12 months of problems - he'd foolishly run iot as his daily driver. The list of problems was huge, but included leaking boot, wipers not working when it rained, broken throttle cable, etc.
Having said that, my Dad's just bought a Chimaera 500 and he's chuffed to bits with it. I drove it at the weekend and it did take 3 attempts to get the door to open, but other than it it seemed sound. It is his "sunny day car" so he shouldn't have too much trouble with it.
Other friends also have a Chim, and bought a cheap Golf as an everyday car - they didn't trust the TVR to start every time when they needed to get to work. Again, no major problems, but it is being cosseted.

I think the moral is, if you want everyday usability, then you need to sacrifice some performance and dig a bit deeper in your pockets for a Boxster. Or sell your mother and buy a 911.

carl

Jumped in mine yesterday to go out (despite the fact it was raining). Engine wouldn't turn over. A trip to Halfords resulted in the purchase of a battery charger. Then I discovered that the original battery obviously wasn't the same shape as the current battery, because the holes in the inner bonnet didn't line up with the terminals. A couple of allen bolts later and the inner bonnet was off and the charger connected up.

Five hours later, the battery was charged and the day was over

I think they work better as daily drivers

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Finally a car that makes the Fiat Coupe sound like a paragon of reliability !

carl

Booked into the dealers now to investigate:
1) The whole cooling system. Gauge gets round to 95 then bounces around up to the maximum. I've tried finding airlocks but no joy. I wonder if there might be a rad leak -- the cooling is marginal at the best of times (someone on PH said his fans were on whenever he was going below 60 mph )
2) The "big fuse" (100A) between the alternator and the battery. These go pop quite regularly and don't necessarily illuminate the battery warning light (WTF is the point of it, then?) Suspect this might be why the battery went flat.

unrepentant

Carl.

I have a battery conditioner fitted to my Tuscan. Whenever it goes away for more than a couple of days I plug it in and it keeps the battery nicely topped up. It also tells you if the battery is unusually low for any reason. £40 plus fitting from your friendly local TVR dealer.

Mungo. Try a Tuscan or a Cerbie or a Griff or any TVR and then try a Boxster. I don't think you'd pick the Boxster. (You're not the PH Mungo are you? If you are you should know better ).

Paul

Petem95

Uncle has had a '98 Chimaera 4.5 from new, and its had no problems at all, other than needing a new battery and tyres (obviously!). Stunning car too, cant stop grinning whenever Im in it!

You can pick up a decent Chimaera (complete with trusty old Rover V8) for under £20k, and ok Im sure a Porsche would be more reliable, but how much would a Porka that fast cost you? Got to be worthing owning a TVR at least for once if you have the means!

mn_angrybeats

Think of a TVR as just one step up from building a kit car in your garage, pretty poorly made, developed and engineered....

Good fun if you get a good one mind...

Dracoro

Go for it, eyes wide open (and wallet if need be) and don't expect great reliability & I'm sure it'll be the most memorable (for wrong and RIGHT reasons) car you'll ever own.

Love cerberas, especially the VW wing mirrors

unrepentant

mn_angrybeats

I'm an automotive design engineer by trade and the components and the majority of problems with my Cerbera were down to poor engineering and lack of development.

Howee

It's very true. Generally TVR create a concept, show it and if the interest is good enough they go into production, using the first few years as a development test bed. The people who want the latest models are, for all intents and purposes, developing the car into what it should be prior to launch. Nearly all TVRs are badly built initially, everyone who knows will always say 'avoid the earlier builds' or 'go for a 199* year or later'. The Tuscan was very guilty of this hence the residuals on the earlier models.

mn_angrybeats

I agree there, I had a 98 Cerbera, one of the first really and thing like anti roll bar brkts sheering, aluminium aircon pipes fracturing, bonnet retractors failing etc should no happen if development was done up front. Thing is they cannot really afford the testing that is required on four posters, pave's etc costs a fortune and take time.

Even the wiring was poor, a proper harness with decent connectors wouldnt cost that much, but would solve so many problems