Biggest Car Regret?

i have so many.

alfa gta...had it when i was 17yrs old. it came in from venezuela and had bobcor help me restore it. i loved it but sold it as i was so sick for a 73 911 s.

porsche 904 gts (almost a basket case) also brought in from vezezuela. it was sporting a 2.4L 6 and the 4 cam was long gone. i paid $15k for it in 1984. i sold it on as i did not have the cash to restore it. what a shame.

77 bora...maybe my favorite road car. sold it to fund my boxer. i should have kept it and still got the boxer!

3 pretty good examples of regrets!

pcb

 

I had a third cousin who had one of those "down in the woods" kind of junk yards. I was looking for a 69 Charger and went to see what he had.

he had atleast 15 68, 69 and 70 chargers. some seriously wrecked, some in great shape. even super bees. some complete. also he had several road runners and a ton of mid-late 60's and early 70'sbig block mopars. He had been gathering them up for about 20 years because he simply liked the look of those era cars. I said I wanted to buy some of the chargers and he said he would sell me any of the cars for $300 each. I was in college and figured sense he had had them for many years they were not going anywhere. About a year passed and I went back to make sure he was still good with selling them to me and he had junked every one of them. Said he got tired of people stealing stuff off of them, so he crushed them. I almost cried. I have decided that he sold them to some collector that found them and told me he crushed them just to get me off his back. I hope that was the case. If I had known what was in store I would have went to the bank and borrowed the money. This was in the early 90's. Those cars are worth a fortune today. He was killed about a year later when a car he was under fell on him. Therefore, I will never know if he really crushed them or what.

I look for them on ebay every now and again waiting to see if there is proof they did not get crushed.

 

my biggest regret is not getting the car of my dreams when i first had the money for it. about 2 years ago, i got a settlement, enough to go out and get a 308 or a rolls silver spirit. i went to the dealership that had the perfect one for me, but i couldn't pull the trigger. i loved driving that rolls, and was ready to do it, but my parents talked me out of it, in hindsight i'm pretty glad, because i have since invested most of that money, and i can now afford a much nicer one. that is my biggest regret, not being able to pull the trigger. i'm still in the market, waiting for the perfect one. but on the flip side, how many 20 yo's can legitimately say they can afford a ferrari and still have money left over to put gas in the tank?

 

not many. good on you for your restraint. you will pull the trigger when you feel ready. lots of years to enjoy your dreams. you have good taste...that is very difficult to buy and maturity is even more pricey. you seem well on top of things...good luck!

 

i'm just counting down the time til i actually get it. it would have been cool driving around town in that thing, but on the other hand, it's nice to know i've got a jump start on repaying student loans, buying a house, etc. it'll happen, eventually, but now i'm leaning more towards the f-car than the roller, although both would be nice.

 

Biggest regret: My mother bought a Chrysler K car and my grandmother bought a Plymouth Reliant while I was away at college - I regret not being home to talk them out of those purchases. Here's hoping Chrysler rots....

 

one of the things that turned me off about the rolls was that i would buy it, then i would have to pay for insurance, (which for an 18 yo was insanely high) then maintenance costs, etc. part of me finally realized that at the time i wouldn't be able to afford it. however, i've since made a substantial amount more, and have grown up enough to know that i need to take care of those things like student loans and housing first, then comes the toys. it will be soon: my goal is within 5 years of graduating, (within 6.5 years, hopefully) i will have my first real toy, although hopefully a lot sooner.

 

Soooo... in a nutshell, your biggest car regret was that you weren't able to scam an old naieve widow out of 25 grand like your friend was?

 

I wish I'd had a garage to keep all the vehicles I've ever owned.

 

Biggest regret. In the early 80's I found a dealership in Houston that had a Daytona coupe and a 300SL Gullwing for $50,000 each. I was a college student at the time but I had enough funds to buy one or the other and bought neither (while starving to death probably). Shortly thereafter Enzo died and Daytona prices skyrocketed. The same coupe I looked at later sold over $500K. I'm still saving my pennies to afford a Daytona now.

 

Back in the late 70's early 80's I wanted a (don't flame me! ) big block late 60's vette. Had the money, but got into skiing. Vette's aren't very good ski vehicles.....

 

No regrets yet. I've had all sorts of cars/trucks so far and can't really say I've regretted any of them. Occassionally I hated owning my alfa's due to the sometimes lousy ownership issues I ran into, now I just wish I still had them. Well I do still have my spider. I have a 77 which I restored I paid a fair price to an elderly gent and his son from montana

 

In 1986 I went buy a Lusso that needed paint and instead bought a '72 Pantera that had shiny paint and was $3500. less. Within 4 months I stripped the paint off the Pantera anyway and had it repainted guards red picked up the Hall Pantera catalog and went nuts modifying the car. By the end of the year I had spent nearly double what I would have spent if I had purchased the Lusso. By 1989 the Lusso's were doing $500k and I sold my Pantera for $20k.

 

When I was 22 I purchased a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Replica. Fuchs alloys, roll bar, duck tail spoiler, and Rosa red to boot. I drove it to work from Oakland to San Fransico in the late 90s. I think I was 26 when I sold it in 1999. I got 13000 for it and Now those cars are worth at least 25 to 30 Hell I had a 5000 dollar paint job on it. JJ

 

That was my way of thinking when I was 348 shopping. I thought to myself, if I dont get one now, then I will leave it till I am older and then regret not owning one when I was younger. So I am glad I bought my 348 when I did. If I did not buy my 348 at the time (2 years ago), I was going to buy an appartment instead for AU$229K. Looked at that appartment building a few weeks ago and that same appartment is reselling for AU$479K. I would have made AU$250K in 2 years, so really, it was a bad move buying the car. But I have not regretted it EVER and am very happy with the car. Plenty of time to get more realestate. I am 26yrs old and can afford/own my Ferrari and I always put gas in the tank.

 

You're a lucky one pap! At 26 years of age.
I'm 20 and I'm saving for a twin turbo soarer. Hope to spend, $13 - 16k on it. All going well, I should have the car by September just in time for my 21st.
Tell me what you think? Different car? Keep driving my camry (Which is dull as, and lacks power for traffic light battles)
I dunno what to spend my money on..

 

I was in the market for my first car. It was shortly after the gas lines caused by the Iranian Hostage mess. I wanted a Ford Mustang in the worst way.

I found a 68 California Special with a 390 and 4 speed. It was clean and about $2000. I passed on it because the big block was just not practical with gas supplies uncertain. About two weeks later I bought a 66 Mustang coupe from the original owner for $1600. I still own the 66 and it might be worth 4k. The GT/CS would be worth far more.
To this day I have not seen another big block 4 speed California Special, not in person or in the Mustang magazines.

Oh well

 

I bought an automatic Corvette.

 

I was just over 25yrs old when I bought the 348. Very lucky boy and hard work really does pay off.
Soarer........ Need to many $$$$ to get them moving apparently.
Are you going to buy the car for $13-16K?? Or buy it, then spend $13-16K on it? Talked to my local turbo car guru and he said it costs a fortune to get the same engine grunt/performance of an TTRB26. Same goes for 300ZX engines apparently. But if you want to be different from all the 'common' Skylines ect.......then go for it. Personally, I would not get one. But thats your call mate. Would be a cool 21st present a "new" car in September. Beats driving the Camry I guess. If you really want a Jap car, I would just do the norm and get an R33 Skyline. Plenty of go fast bits so you can win some traffic light wars and also getting cheaper and cheaper. Soarer/300ZX/Supra go fast bits still pricey my mate reckons. There is one 1 300ZX, 1 non-turbo Supra and no Soarers here in Mount Isa. Although there are around 12-15 Skylines. Get a R33 to putt around in till you get your 1st Ferrari.

 

I'm not exactly sure what other kinds of cars give you bang for buck though, besides jap cars. And lets face it, i'm a poor uni student, so i've not got heaps of cash to play with.
I'm not exactly trying to get the same power as a RB26. So its either the 33 skyline, S14, or the Soarer.
I'll admit, i do like the silky smooth 1jzgte, engine, however the ceramic turbine blades sorta put me off.
At this stage i've not really much idea what i'll get. But you can bet it'll be one of the cars i've mentioned.

 

Thats fair enough mate. Would be cool, as mentioned to have a 'new' car to get you by for a few years till you get an Fcar. So please yourself.
If you are not too keen on the big HP, then get your Soarer mate.
Good luck.