TVR Production

[cheney]

Anyone know the current state of TVR? Are they still producing cars? Just looking for an update on the "What's happened to TVR"
post of 09/06/08.

 

[Steve]

I believe that they resumed production in Lancashire, England, in July of '08 with the Sagaris.

 

[mrtvr]

In July of 2008, they introduced the "revised" Sagaris 2 at a specially called
gathering near Blackpool. However, despite their announcement of plans to start building in limited numbers, I don't think the first car has been built.
In my humble opinion, as long as Smolenski is at the helm of the company,
it will continue to be a personal playtoy. Once he gets bored with it, or his father gets tired of Nikolai squandering his money, then, hopefully, NS will
put the company on the market so that, perhaps, someone with the ability,the financial wherewithal,and the determination to bring the TVR marque back to life, will take on the challenge and bring TVR back as an independent car maker. But, that's a lot to ask for, and considering what NS has done to the company since July 2004, there may not be anything worth salvaging, much to my regret.

 

[cheney]

Hard to keep track of what's going on with TVR on this side of the Atlantic...rumours and speculation. Wasn't there an "unveiling" of sorts a year or two ago in Florida? I suppose that even if TVR does resurrect itself and cars came over to North America, those with our M's and Wedges couldn't afford a new one anyway.

 

[mrtvr]

Yes, there was a dealer meeting in Florida a couple of years ago held by a group that was working hard to bring TVR to North America. But, unfortunately, Smolenski is one of those people who, when it comes to signing on the dotted line, continued to find excuses not to do so.
If TVR were to reintroduce a model line in the US today,the Sagaris would be priced somewhere in the $115,000.0 range but even at that price, would be real serious competition performance wise for anything else in its class.

 

[Grady]

Having watched Bricklin come and go and (at age 16) wanting nothing more than to work with John Z who I gotten to known, the thought of a new car company - particularly basically a start-up - coming in is pretty daunting. (Not to mentioned TVR's own checkered past and no general name recognition.) I'm still kind of reeling at the thought of Fiat coming back.

I remember reading a UK review a couple of years ago of a new TVR, a Boxter and a 3rd car. The TVR got all the point for raw performance but - and don't hold me to this - no HVAC, not even the options of ABS or traction control and a ridiculously short warranty - like 3-6 months.

While we would all to see TVR here, it think our expectations for service, parts and production quality have gotten higher. And all this at a pretty dear price.

Wonder what the deprecation would be like? I'm looking at a couple of Jags (2001-2003 XJ-8s with 40K miles) that stickered in the $70Ks with current asking prices of $7K-$10K. That's the price of a couple of couches or 4 refrigerators!

 

[mrtvr]

Grady,
I think you nailed it on the head when you touched on the issue of TVR's name recognition. That's the key to prices of older TVRs being as low as they are in comparison with other British sportscars. When your name recognition is minimal, it affects everything down the line. Of course, Jaguar has plenty of name recognition and that doesn't help the value of its used products. Talk about bargains!