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Guibo · 08-09-2004, 05:26 PM

Didn't anyone notice that when the Daily Telegraph drove the very same car, they noted its shift action was "fingertip light?" Makes me wonder what Richard Hammond drives on a daily basis, if he thinks the C6's gearshift and clutch are so tough. (The Telegraph made no mention of an excessivley heavy clutch either.)

For those of you who think you're not sacrificing anything in buying a TVR, think again. There are currently anywhere between 30 and 50 at Blackpool awaiting rebuilds. Some of these cars are there for the 2nd or 3rd time. For a small, (once) independent company with limited resources (money) that's probably to be expected. Although you don't hear anything on that scale from the Lotus, Morgan, or Noble forums. For a mass market manufacturer (like GM), these kinds of numbers are unheard of.
It's well known that TVR quality control is horrendous. (They even admitted to using a faulty batch of finger followers in their Speed Six, and redesigned the routing of their throttle cables, which were prone to snapping; something that mass manufacturers like GM take for granted nowadays.) Sure, the interior may look better aesthetically, but upon closer inspection, there are huge lapses in quality control. Yes, the interiors are swathed in leather. But you'll not find the quality in stitching as you'd find on a Ferrari or higher-end BMW. Owners often complain of rattling dashboards, trim that becomes unglued, excessive glue around trim, leaky boots and footwells, electronic gremlins, analog speedometers that read differently from the digital readouts, etc.
I'm sure every marque has their fair share of problems, but if you actually DO the research, you'll see that build quality is not high on the list of TVR strengths.
The Corvette, on the other hand, has been trading places with none other than the Porsche 911 for top spot as Premium Sports car in Initial Quality over the past 2-3 years. Last time a TVR was included in a quality survey, it placed near dead last.

Regarding the Corvette's antiquated chassis, take a look at how it fares against the Tuscan S in this article (on British roads no less):
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/roadtes...y.php?id=25805
The Tuscan was an utter mess in the corners.

So the Corvette will do well over 100K miles before a rebuild (250K is more like it), is backed by a mass-market warranty policy, will take you and the missus on a long-distance trip in utter comfort and security in any weather short of a blizzard, will get 25+ US mpg at cruising speed, has servicing costs only a fraction of that of a TVR, and (in midlevel base trim) will lap TopGear's/Lotus' track (for which it was not designed) with a time not too terribly far off from a Lotus Exige (which was developed on that track). Yeah, a Caterham R500 will beat it. But if you're going to slag off the Corvette for perceived quality issues, you might want to rethink why you'd spend money on the Caterham and not the Corvette. You'll find it has more to do with bias against the Corvette, rather than any substantial shortcomings of the car itself.

08-09-2004, 05:26 PM	#7
Guibo Regular User Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 142	Didn't anyone notice that when the Daily Telegraph drove the very same car, they noted its shift action was "fingertip light?" Makes me wonder what Richard Hammond drives on a daily basis, if he thinks the C6's gearshift and clutch are so tough. (The Telegraph made no mention of an excessivley heavy clutch either.) For those of you who think you're not sacrificing anything in buying a TVR, think again. There are currently anywhere between 30 and 50 at Blackpool awaiting rebuilds. Some of these cars are there for the 2nd or 3rd time. For a small, (once) independent company with limited resources (money) that's probably to be expected. Although you don't hear anything on that scale from the Lotus, Morgan, or Noble forums. For a mass market manufacturer (like GM), these kinds of numbers are unheard of. It's well known that TVR quality control is horrendous. (They even admitted to using a faulty batch of finger followers in their Speed Six, and redesigned the routing of their throttle cables, which were prone to snapping; something that mass manufacturers like GM take for granted nowadays.) Sure, the interior may look better aesthetically, but upon closer inspection, there are huge lapses in quality control. Yes, the interiors are swathed in leather. But you'll not find the quality in stitching as you'd find on a Ferrari or higher-end BMW. Owners often complain of rattling dashboards, trim that becomes unglued, excessive glue around trim, leaky boots and footwells, electronic gremlins, analog speedometers that read differently from the digital readouts, etc. I'm sure every marque has their fair share of problems, but if you actually DO the research, you'll see that build quality is not high on the list of TVR strengths. The Corvette, on the other hand, has been trading places with none other than the Porsche 911 for top spot as Premium Sports car in Initial Quality over the past 2-3 years. Last time a TVR was included in a quality survey, it placed near dead last. Regarding the Corvette's antiquated chassis, take a look at how it fares against the Tuscan S in this article (on British roads no less): http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/roadtes...y.php?id=25805 The Tuscan was an utter mess in the corners. So the Corvette will do well over 100K miles before a rebuild (250K is more like it), is backed by a mass-market warranty policy, will take you and the missus on a long-distance trip in utter comfort and security in any weather short of a blizzard, will get 25+ US mpg at cruising speed, has servicing costs only a fraction of that of a TVR, and (in midlevel base trim) will lap TopGear's/Lotus' track (for which it was not designed) with a time not too terribly far off from a Lotus Exige (which was developed on that track). Yeah, a Caterham R500 will beat it. But if you're going to slag off the Corvette for perceived quality issues, you might want to rethink why you'd spend money on the Caterham and not the Corvette. You'll find it has more to do with bias against the Corvette, rather than any substantial shortcomings of the car itself.