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Ownership pitfalls, par for the course? By
Sean McDonnell Being a sad 20 year old that spent a lot of time surfing the Autotrader for prospective cars, (I had a tendency of keeping cars for no more than 3 months at a time) I saw my first TVR wedge in the salvage section for around £6000, even in the thumbnail picture side view with the front partially damaged it looked stunning, which led me to believe that my misguided desire for an XR3I convertible was no longer worth considering – this was deeply underlined with the fact that I was being quoted £2400 fully comp insurance for the privilege of owning Fords favourite pram!! During that conversation
with the insurance company I thought 'what the hell' and requested a quote
for a TVR 350i – to my amazement they came back with a figure of
£700 fully comp. Given this was limited to 5000 miles I figured
– keep my old banger for work and have a real toy, and not long after
in Feb 1992 I bought my first wedge through a local independent dealer
for the princely sum of £6750. It was a 1987 55000 mile 350i in
mulberry metallic with zender spoiler and 390 bonnet, the interior was
in very good condition with magnolia half leather piped in burgundy and
burgundy carpets and even came with a private plate 647 KDV then worth
£500. I later learned I was lucky with the price given the highly
desirable Griffith was soon released and demand for the marque increased
significantly. The test drive sold
me as it seems to with most first owners and given I had taken a mechanic
with me I trusted that the car needed little work. So for the next year
I lavished countless coats of wax and kept the car for summer use only.
The first main dealer service took me by surprise (told by many a necessity
for value and piece of mind) - £500 for a basic oil change/plugs
and obligatory UJs and a £1500 list of additional bits to put right.
Being a lad of few means I decided to hold fire on fixing the interior
fan/replacing the hood which seemed not to leak but was recommended for
replacement etc. and kept her for the rest of the summer without problems.
A friend in the business reckoned the service amounted to no more than
£50 if it had been done by myself, that being the cost of the spark
plugs alone on the invoice! Even with this minor
set back (ever the optimist) by this time I had the bug and spent many
hours visiting Henley Heritage on my lunch break until they got a G reg
450SE in with the same colour as my 350, except for the interior which
was a full grey leather – not my personal choice but once I drove
the car I had sold my soul to the devil for £14500, and with provisional
trade in of £8000 subject to inspection by one of their mechanics
I felt this to be quite a good deal. The downside was that
this time (some 6 months after the first service) I was provided after
their inspection with a list of work amounting to £3000 for the
350i, which I might add included UJs supposedly done within the last 1000
miles! Naïve and not mechanically minded I was scared into selling
the 350 and reluctantly dropped the idea of the 450SE (the £5000
receipt for engine rebuild with TVR power made me think twice as well!,
given my mediocre budget in those days it may have ended up the most expensive
garden ornament in England had it gone wrong – a nice one nevertheless). With all that had
happened I woke up the following Sunday and advised the girlfriend that
I wanted a new car so as not to be lumbered with what I was led to believe
was a plastic pig - we drove to a local garage and I traded the 350 in
for £6500 against a Calibre on the spot (a car I kept for no more
than 1month surprisingly!) – I then learnt that the 350 went back
to the independent dealer I had bought it from and was sold on for £7500
with the fan fixed and a new hood, I then embarked into a world of Audi
Quattro Turbos, however I was always pining for that V8 wedge as nearly
anyone I know will tell you. For the next 9 years I looked enviably at TVRs and remembered with great fondness the outings in the 350i. I loved the quattro but they are such totally different animals - until I decided enough was enough and it was time to get back into the family, as usual and without much real thought I did what every man and his dog tells you not to – I brought the first car I saw, (you would have thought I had learnt from that 10 years ago but obviously not) – this time the car came with an independent inspection so I felt I had at least some piece of mind (Famous last words).
The car - a 1990 H 54000mile mica blue 400SE with magnolia half leather, momo wooden wheel, griffith roof struts and chrome kickplates, was being sold by the owner of a garage as his wife had just had their second child and a toy was allegedly not allowed, he had said the car was originally brought by him at auction (alarm bells for some) but on first impressions and inspection of the full history the car seemed straight and had even changed hands 2 years before for £16500! Essentially any work that needed doing looked simple enough (sump gasket/hinges/veneer and other superficial things – reliably informed no more than £1000 to make perfect) and I parted with my hard earned cash – being winter the car went into a dehumidified garage and was run and moved regularly to make sure there was no standing problems.
By March the weather
was not exactly improving but I managed to get a few outings until one
morning an almighty bang close to a 12 bore going off sent £ signs
through my eyes. Thankfully it was the starter motor but with my scepticism
of dealers from my previous experience and my lack of mechanical ability
(have I mentioned that before!) I used my existing mechanic who had proved
superb with the quattros. He removed all the shrapnel from within the
bell housing and sourced and replaced the new starter and a new battery
for an amazing £200. What grated me was the exorbitant costs quoted
by a nameless TVR dealer for the starter motor alone – around £400
+ vat !!! Which brought back memories of £50 spark plugs –
come on guys – be real, no wonder why we’re all going elsewhere
– think of all that extra revenue you’re missing and that goes
for other main dealers as well! Then again if you want to price yourselves
out of a niche market far be it from me to give you business advice. By now, having heard
such great things, I decided it was time to send the car down to Peninsula
for a main service and all the previously mentioned work to be done. As
agreed Adam arrived with a low loader and collected the car and off she
went for her spring holiday. Within a few days I spoke with Neil who advised
me of a list of things that had been missed by the inspection and that
the chassis looked a bit of a state. He recommended that it might be worth
me popping down to discuss what steps could be taken with Richard. I unwittingly
advised them to crack on ignoring the chassis as I would take it up with
the garage I’d bought the car from when I got the car back. Some
time passed and I had the opportunity to visit Peninsula to see how things
were going, the veneer had been sent off but other than that the car was
being stored off-site awaiting confirmation of action, as understandably
Richard obviously felt it would be better for me to see it rather than
work around the problem. After some difficulty getting the car to the garage (flat battery/tyre) it was up on the ramps and the true state of the chassis could be seen. The off-side outrigger had as many holes as a teabag – created by some gentle tapping prior to rub down and waxoyl – the metal could also be seen to be as thin as a piece of paper! where there were cable ties around the outriggers – these were literally holding on the rust and plastic coating, giving a depth difference of mms!!. The solution (not trusting the garage the car had come from to sort or battle through small claims) was to whip the body off, cut the offending section out, weld a new section in – check/rubdown the remainder/repaint and waxoyl – this would also make life easier for the other work required whilst the body was off (new UJs/Rear discs/pads/seals/bushes etc etc) and once a time frame and price had been agreed I left feeling surprisingly happy from such sombre news. (must have been something in the coffee). After only a couple
of weeks over the agreed time frame the car was ready, bar a few parts
on back order from the factory which had closed for 2 weeks for summer
break, I therefore decided not to wait for the remaining work to be done
but to collect the car and enjoy what little summer we might have left
– I arrived to Tiverton station and was collected and dropped at
the garage. On arrival I was given a spare car – unfortunately not
a TVR although not for lack of trying!. So I drove off to Exeter and left
the guys to finish tidying the 400 for me to take home. Arriving back to the garage after a nice afternoon strolling around the shops Richard and I discussed the true extent of the work which had been carried out on the chassis plus the additional work on the car and proceeded to go through the invoice so I could see exactly what I was paying for.
On removal of the body it was found (as can be seen from the pictures above and below) that both outriggers were in a bad state and needed replacing, plus the sections just behind the front wheels!! in addition to this the UJs had proved especially to be a pain as 7 were used and shredded in an attempt to fit the 4 correctly – a sign of a company not content with just doing the job as they say.
The wood veneer also
had to be sent back to the shop as it was received with an apparent nick
in the corner the first time and the end result really is stunning. Despite
initial thoughts of wheel bearings needing replacement a simple adjustment
was done instead - something I know some less reputable garages would
not own up to! In total there was quite a bit replaced and came to a not
insignificant sum but excellent value all the same considering the work
involved, for the chassis work alone a quote of approx. £1500 was
mentioned although as you can see taking the body off can open a whole
can of worms as to work required. Once the hinges and
door rubbers arrive the car will be back to them to complete the work
without question. The only thing I would ask is that you hold off on sending
your wedge to them so that it doesn’t delay getting mine done ;o)
Peninsula are also a realistic bunch in that they advised me to keep a
list of any niggles with the car for when it goes back for the remaining
work, quite understandable given the body has been off and its all been
rewired to get it back on. So far only minor details but nothing worth
mentioning. The 400 has since
got me back home to Oxfordshire and been used for a several trips on the
trot as my transport to work in Heathrow (some 36 miles each way) and
has given everyone in the office reason to question why I have a big grin
on my face each morning. Going along country lanes and catching the occasional
tunnel has re-ignited a feeling I had previously thought was long forgotten
– and the most notable difference has to be the noise which seems
significantly louder than my original 350 but certainly greater than the
newer models – shame about catalytic converter legislation ;o) If
only I could afford the petrol to use her everyday! Come on Tony –
it might not be environmentally friendly but the Yanks get away with cars
twice the cc and I promise to recycle. The car was bought at what I felt to be a good price (maybe for obvious reasons) and even with the chassis work still feels like great value, all I would say is that get under any prospective car and prod ‘til your hearts content around any part of it you can get access to. You are unlikely to really find how good or bad a chassis is without removing the body but at least you would have a pretty good idea and you don’t have to be a mechanic to put a screwdriver through an outrigger! If you can get a specialist to view the car then obviously do – especially if you are on a budget or non mechanically minded like some of us and don’t want any nasty surprises – RAC/AA or the like is obviously not enough as I found to my cost but at least you may have some comeback. There are a few good
inspectors specialising in TVRs around the country to assist – plus
plenty of dealers that should be able to provide an inspection for a reasonable
charge (although you "might" be given a list of things that
really don’t need doing for 20K miles or could be easily lived with
at the right price). Once you have the car – its your choice as to
whether you use a dealer, given the incredible prices charged for parts
and inflated hourly rates I would naturally recommend an independent specialist
– but everyones experiences differ. For me I plan to try
and make the car as new eventually (money and wife permitting) with a
complete respray in original colour/retrim in full magnolia leather/wiltons
and refurbished OZs. Being 6’4", although quite comfortable
- I am also looking at getting an increased legroom peddle box. The engine
is now running unleaded without any pinking problems and will stay unmodified
until finances permit and is of course a joy to own/drive and admire.
The underground office carpark hasn’t been the same since. (Sorry
to those whose alarms I keep setting off !). Happy Wedging! |
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