Nooooooooooooooooooooo Poor TVR :(

[Poverty]

TVR 'laying off half its staff'

TVR production is said to be down to just two cars a week TVR, the UK's biggest independent sports carmaker, is laying off half of its workforce, a union has warned.

The Transport and General Workers' Union said half of the firm's 300 staff had received a letter telling them to stay home from Monday.

Production at the company's Blackpool plant is said to have fallen from 12 cars a week to two.

The firm was bought in 2004 by young Russian multi-millionaire Nikolay Smolensky, who was just 23 at the time.

No-one at TVR was immediately available for comment on Friday morning.

Mr Smolenksy's personal wealth is estimated at $100m (£56m).

Lets hope that during the summer TVR sales shoot back up again. If only it was summer all year round I think VR would have no problems shifting cars, its just that in groggy damp british weather they are a handful for the average british driver.

Maybe they should look at the possibility of making one or two of theyre cars softer for the people who dont want all out performance but want a fast daily driver.

 

[Sting]

Whoa that sucks. I thought i heard that TVR cars were becoming more popular in places like the US.

 

[Dave A]

That news is rather wrong, the problem is, TVR's production has been increasing quite nicely due to increased demand for them, recently though TVR has over produced, the reason this has happened is most likely due to the fact thaqt more customers are waiting on the two new TVR models due to be unveiled for 2007 including the Cerbera replacement. This means that for a certain period of time TVR has chosen to cut production down to 2 car's a week so they can deal with the car's they've produced and not got rid of. Once they're gone production will be back to normal and without over producing. The staff being told not to come into work represents 20% of TVR's workforce, not 50%, and if TVR can get production back to normal sooner rather than later they're all coming back, obviously though TVR doesn't expect them to sit at home and do nothing, some will likely find new job's in the mean time, but they will regardless, be offered their places back pretty soon and maybe have to hire a few people to fill in for anyone with a new job by then that doesn't want to leave it.

As for TVR becoming more popular in the US, TVR doesn't selll any car's in the US.

 

[Poverty]

Well thats good news.

 

[Wolfe]

As for TVR becoming more popular in the US, TVR doesn't selll any car's in the US.

I still think they could and should.

 

[BMWteamPTG]

As for TVR becoming more popular in the US, TVR doesn't selll any car's in the US.

i think they could do really well in the U.S...same with Marcos

 

[Dave A]

They couldn't go to the US because the venture would financially ruin the company at this point in time, setting up in the US is very, very, very expensive. The only reason Noble does it is because they have a way of taking the car over as a kit car, they managed oto find a loophole and now they're exploiting it. For TVR to go over would at this point in time would most likely require them to use the same loophole Noble does, but they'd also need a new engine for thier US car's since the AJP6 is illegal in the US at this point in time anyway and at this point let me tell you that the AJP6 is one of the best bit's of a modern TVR and the car's and engine are pretty much built for each other. Smolenski is planing on taking TVR back to the US in the future but were talking a few years away at the earliest.

 

[YSSMAN]

I was just going to mention that if they are having financial troubles, they should figure out a way to sell them in the US... But that was covered.

I think John Travolta has the SpeedSix from Swordfish, and that may be the only modern TVR that is driven on the roads in the US, probably not legally of course.

If TVR was to set up shop in LA, Chicago, Miami, and New York they would get plenty of business. Of course, they just have to get the cars here first.

 

[Smallhorses]

I think one problem, as you'll note from the SpeedSix in Swordfish is that the car is right-hand drive. As far as I'm aware, TVR doesn't currently produce LHD vehicles, and for them to spend the money producing the parts to make LHD conversions would be large comparitive to their low volume output.

I also don't believe that TVR produces a car with an automatic transmission (though I'm sure l4s will correct me if I'm wrong) which many Americans tend to favour, even in a "sports" car, which is a hideous notion as far as I'm concerned! The number of Porsches and Corvettes I see around with automatics makes me wonder why on Earth someone would want such a thing!

 

[Dave A]

Actually the current chassis TVR base thier modles on can be converted to LHD rather easilly, they don't do any automatic transmission's though.

 

[Poverty]

I think if you dont have any intentions of taking your car to track days automatics are more than adequate. Manuals cant get annoying and tiring. Us youngsters like it though, so we can coax the extra 0.05 secs to 60mph we'd get over the autobox

Anyway TVR's are too raw to be offering autoboxes. It just wouldnt fit. It would be like a middle class white man talking like a rapper.

 

[Appie]

I think one problem, as you'll note from the SpeedSix in Swordfish is that the car is right-hand drive. As far as I'm aware, TVR doesn't currently produce LHD vehicles, and for them to spend the money producing the parts to make LHD conversions would be large comparitive to their low volume output.

I also don't believe that TVR produces a car with an automatic transmission (though I'm sure l4s will correct me if I'm wrong) which many Americans tend to favour, even in a "sports" car, which is a hideous notion as far as I'm concerned! The number of Porsches and Corvettes I see around with automatics makes me wonder why on Earth someone would want such a thing!

Are you sure your american

 

[Smallhorses]

Are you sure your american

Definitely not! See my custom user title!

 

[SouL]

I think one problem, as you'll note from the SpeedSix in Swordfish is that the car is right-hand drive. As far as I'm aware, TVR doesn't currently produce LHD vehicles, and for them to spend the money producing the parts to make LHD conversions would be large comparitive to their low volume output.

I also don't believe that TVR produces a car with an automatic transmission (though I'm sure l4s will correct me if I'm wrong) which many Americans tend to favour, even in a "sports" car, which is a hideous notion as far as I'm concerned! The number of Porsches and Corvettes I see around with automatics makes me wonder why on Earth someone would want such a thing!

Symbol of status?

TVR would have to go through a long and difficult process to get their cars in the US. Even though Nobles can be brought here... the market isn't that great. I'm sure the number of Nobles in the US is very low. Not everyone can afford $90K on a car.
They can take the Lotus route, but they have to first apply and get approved for a waver from the US government and find an engine that meets the emissions regulations of the US. The Elise BARELY passes. There's actually a sticker on the car that states the engine's emission level. TVR would also have to add ABS to their cars as ABS is a safety requirement on all cars sold in the US.
Would going through all that trouble be worth it? It's hard to tell. The intial 2200 Elises produced for the US during the 05 model year run never completely sold. Many are still sitting in lots with the 06 model years rolling in along with 300 Exiges for the remainder of 06.
TVR could face the same problem as Lotus. Their cars are catered to such a niche market that it might not be worth the effort to go through all the trouble of making a small profit. What's worse is if all that effort equated to them just braking even.

 

[Dave A]

That sum's a lot of it up quite nicely regarding the TVR and the US situation, right now the benefit's just arn't big enough, but plans are afoot to send some TVR's over there in the future, but like I said were talking years not months. I'm guessing the next engine TVR builds will be built so that it can at least be modified to meet US law's, ABS, TVR can fit ABS to their car's without much trouble but it's just the princial, goes against the grain for a TVR though, it'd be like the next 911 being front engined.

 

[YSSMAN]

TVR most certainly could sell thier cars in the US in RHD config. only... Back when they sold the great MGA and MGB here, a good number of the cars were RHD. A friend of mine has an old MGB-GT in RHD, in addition to several other RHD MGs, as his father owns a MG/Mini service shop here just outside of town.

 

[JCE]

i think they could do really well in the U.S...same with Marcos

Dude, that new Marcos is fantastic! Granted, Hamster and Jezza said the build quality was rubbish--but still a fun car to drive. I'd reserve my final judgement if I ever got to drive one. Quite a good looking car too.

On the TVR US thing, they will never sell them here officially because it would suffer from the SAME stigma that the Vetta suffers from in Europe--the price of importing it and in TVR's case bringing it up to US safety standards would make the car out of the price ranges of Vette owners and into price ranges of 911's and Vipers [offtopic]which having a choice I'd take the 911.[/offtopic]

 

[Dave A]

Even though the average TVR is a hell of a lot faster than the average 911, and nicer looking (though that's a matter of opinion).

 

[Roo]

TVRs are generally 2nd cars as well, and I just don't think that the hard ride and manual-only 'box would sit well with most Americans. A Prosche you can use everyday, whereas TVRs are usually considered to be too impractical and unrealiable for everyday use by most of the British press, and Americans (generally, as far as I'm aware - correct me if I'm wrong) tend to favour soft, comfortable metal boxes to move them from A to B as smoothly as possible.

 

[Dave A]

You could use the Cerbera everyday, if you had a light left foot anyway, you could even take the kid's to school in it (that's right, kid's, plural) and it's carry the shopping. I could understand a TVR perhaps being too raw for most American's, but it is for most Brit's as well, they're very nich, and I should think there's enough American's in the entire USA that would buy say 500 TVR's a year. They are far more often used as a second car, and rightfully so, but so are Ferrari's. Finding enough people to buy TVR's isn't normally a problem, since they're so nich market they have littel true competiton, for example, I know the performance of the C6 Vette isn't far behind some TVR's, but that's pretty much all they have in common in terms of feel, and driver experience. Both are very good, but in different way's for different people and I should think that in such a big country there would be a thousand or so people interested in a TVR which would build thier reputation for following years and perhaps get more people interested in them, say people with more money who have a Porshce and a Ferrari and want something different. As it stands though, the cost of going to the states would be oo high, TVR need a different engine that they can alter enough to meet US reg's and then they have a lot of other costs involved in taking their brand to the states. They arn't a big enoug comapny to do it, and they don't have the desire or the parts to do it like Noble did.

 

[YSSMAN]

I wouldn't just assume that Americans are too "soft" to handle TVRs, as most of the people who are going to be buying them will most likely be enthusiests or fans of the TVR franchise. Those who are looking for "value" or "practicality" would probably go off and buy a Corvette, Cayman, 911, M-Coupe, etc... I also doubt that the fact that the cars are manual-only would effect sales at all either. The Viper, S2000, Z06, SVT Cobra, etc. all come (or came) with manuals, and each sell (or sold) incredibly well. The popularity of the manual transmission is comming back, the only problem is, not everyone knows how to drive with one.

I would agree that TVR would have to sell their cars as niche products, in incredibly small numbers for each model, each year. Say maybe 100-200 total would be plenty, as I am sure that the cars would sell themselves to those who know about them.

With the engines and such, I'm not sure. To be completely road legal, they would have to jump through a lot of hoops for crash and emissions testing, and I doub't there is enough money for them to do so at the moment. The best loophole they can use would be to sell their engines and cars seperately, so that you have to assemble them here, and thus they could be classified as kit cars, and could escape emissions and crash testing all together.

 

[Wolfe]

I agree with YSSMAN. The "soft" americans who wouldn't like a TVR wouldn't be likely to purchase one, anyway. A high-performance-sports-car fan would easily tolerate and even expect any of a TVR's "negative" qualities.

If Vipers, Lamborghinis, Cobra replicas, Z06's, etc. can sell in america, then a TVR can too.

 

[JCE]

If Vipers, Lamborghinis, Cobra replicas, Z06's, etc. can sell in america, then a TVR can too.

Actually no, Cobra replicas are kit cars with the treatment YSS mentioned. You have to ship the drivetrain seperate from the chassis. And Lambos, Vipers, and ZO6's do have some safety equipment--the TVR has zero--minus seatbelts. And it would have to have it's power choked because of the idiotic emission standards that the US has. So it would be very impractical for TVR to officially ship them to the US--but the kit car option would be very favorable. ..especially if it was a service that TVR offered. If I had the money and was shopping in the $60k~70k area for a sports car I'd probably buy a TVR just for exclusitivity and that noise they make is intoxicating.

 

[Wolfe]

Actually no, Cobra replicas are kit cars with the treatment YSS mentioned. You have to ship the drivetrain seperate from the chassis. And Lambos, Vipers, and ZO6's do have some safety equipment--the TVR has zero--minus seatbelts. And it would have to have it's power choked because of the idiotic emission standards that the US has. So it would be very impractical for TVR to officially ship them to the US--but the kit car option would be very favorable. ..especially if it was a service that TVR offered. If I had the money and was shopping in the $60k~70k area for a sports car I'd probably buy a TVR just for exclusitivity and that noise they make is intoxicating.

I'm talking about customer demand, not legality.

 

[TheCracker]

Whilst your average American driver seems happy enough to drive auto i think US sports car fans generally hate auto boxes - look which nation has demanded BMW produce a manual box for the M5/M6!

 

[ExigeEvan]

It's a shame to see TVR having a slight rough spell even if it is only temporary. Is there any news on the rumoured motobike ventures?

Anyway TVR's are too raw to be offering autoboxes. It just wouldnt fit. It would be like a middle class white man talking like a rapper.

Like Tim Westwood perhaps?

 

[Dave A]

TVR owner bought an Italian motorbike manufacturer and is also running that, he bought it himself though and not as part of or anything to do with TVR. The TVR concept bike he showed to the press was before he bought that company so I'd presume that he's just using them for bikes and keeping TVR for car's as it stands. Personally though, I wouldn't mind seeing TVR bikes around, it'd remind me of Triumph.

 

[_aj]

This was just on the national news.

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

i think they could do really well in the U.S...same with Marcos

are you gonna pay $80,000 for one? i would honestly rather have a viper

 

[Dave A]

Would everyone rather a Viper, $80,000 would probably get you a Sagaris which would take a Viper for a walk round the park, then kick the hell out of it on the way home. Some people might prefer a Sagaris's performance and exclusivity to the Viper's performance and comparable lack of exclusivity.