My brother bought a TR 7, new, in 1979... Later, I took it over... and drove it
for a number of years... moved to Texas... drove it there.. even in a Rally with
the Red River Triumphs club... then moved to Florida... and drove it for a
year... through numerous hurricane watches...
That TR 7 was incredibly reliable... turn key all the way... It rarely broke
down
and always seemed to run the same... (i.e. it was not like my TR 4A, that
reacts
to climate and altitude changes!)
The usual repairs came up... but generally speaking... they were the type that
come due sooner or later, with all cars... i.e. starter/alternator, etc.
The only repeating obnoxious items: a leak in the head discovered while the car
was new..... that "stop leak" chemicals cured for year long intervals... and
the relays for the headlamps... which, after replacing about 1/2 dozen times, I
replaced with Radio Shack relays... and they never failed again.
Remember, this was a 79 TR 7... the earlier ones were plagued with problems.
Now I have a TR 8... too soon to say anything about it.
--Justin
msecres@ibm.net wrote:
> Nathan Coraor wrote:
> >
> > As you can see by all of the model questions I've been asking, I am in the
> > market to purchase a Triumph (the Spit is Dad's) and just have to figure
> > out which one to get. I need to be able to drive it daily, and was
> > interested in the TR8 (or TR7), as they appear to be more reliable than the
> > others. So I was wondering about how much a driveable (but can be somewhat
> > rusty) TR7 or TR8 would cost. Also, is it difficult to get parts for
> > either?
> >
> > --Nate
> >
> > [----------------]
> >
> > Nathan Coraor
> > '80 Spitfire. plus rust.
>
> Nathan ... in terms of today's definition of "reliability," there ain't
> a Triumph alive that fits the bill. (In this sense, I'm thinking of a
> car like my dearly departed Honda Civic, which I beat around Washington
> for 12 years, and heard very few complaints from the car.) I don't have
> much experience with the wedges, but my passing impression of the TR7 is
> that it is somewhat less dependable than say, the TR6. I've also seen
> GT6's and Spitfires used effectively as daily drivers. In any case,
> whatever Triumph you end up with is going to be at least 17 years old --
> and in need of attention and preventive maintenance to be dependable,
> which you already know from having the Spitfire (!) My best advice to
> you is to get your prospective Triumph keenly inspected before pulling
> the trigger on any purchase.
>
> --
> Martin Secrest
> 73 GT6
> 74 Spitfire
|