Long-term loyalty to an automobile
10/15/2013
When I went for another short drive in my TVR 3000 S at the weekend, everything seemed familiar, as is usual with a car you've known for a long time. The purring engine, the clicking gearbox, the sound of the differential, the smell, the feel of the seats - the TVR, with its strengths and weaknesses, is an old acquaintance in the truest sense of the word, as it has been a constant in my fleet for 14 years now. And it's the car I've owned the longest, because I actually like to change cars and try out new things.
Why have I remained loyal to the TVR for so long when there were probably better cars that I could have kept?
A good question with many answers. The 3000S was never unfaithful to me, never stopped, never broke down. Its reliability is remarkable, apart from minor weaknesses and the battery that needs replacing from time to time. Thanks to its history, this TVR is also something unique. This TVR 3000 S, of which only 258 were built, was one of the very first left-hand drive cars to be exported.
Over 40 years ago, when I didn't even have a driver's license, the Swiss TVR importer I had written to with a brochure request offered me this very car as a demonstration vehicle for sale.
Of course, at the time I had neither the money nor my father's approval for such an unreasonable car and so the car ended up in the canton of Basel and later in Schwyz.
It had changed color early on and was now shining in "Subaru red" instead of silver. And then, around 1998, I bought the plastic sports car as a used car and received extensive documentation that went right back to the beginning. It was only later that I realized that my TVR had been the car with which the importer had carried out the type test and which he had depicted on the Swiss sales brochure. By then at the latest, it was clear to me that the car should be repainted in its original color and so I had it partially restored and resprayed in 2000.
I had already dreamed of it back then, but I was only able to buy it 22 years later. And that's probably why I kept it for so long.
P.S. Of course there is a report about the TVR 3000 S on Zwischengas .
