It was $800 CDN. I emailed him (no phone number) withing an hour of the ad going up last night and again this morning but no response and by noon the ad was gone. I think he gave away his elderly neighbors Landy for peanuts.
It was $800 CDN. I emailed him (no phone number) withing an hour of the ad going up last night and again this morning but no response and by noon the ad was gone. I think he gave away his elderly neighbors Landy for peanuts.
Yes, in November of 2011 when I passed on an '88 M5 for $9500. The car was a one owner California car and needed very little to be in perfect shape. Oh well.
Eight years ago I passed on buying an early model sebring silver NSX with 30k miles on it. Guy was asking $29K for the car and it was completely stock and unmolested. Instead, I wanted to focus on paying down my recent grad school tuition.
Had I bought the NSX, I could have drove it for a few years and then sold it for enough money to pay for both the car and my tuition. Doh.
Not so much anymore - Notable near misses:
Late 80s - Found a big healey for sale in the middle of michigan. Priced at $7500, someone had done some custom electrical work (popper door latches, etc) but not too bad. I wasnt really into it as it had a 4 cylinder but did have the cool tilting windshield. Before the days of the internet by the time I realized what it was (100M!) it was long gone.
early 90s - M3 Lightweight. It was all the rage in autocross but then got a class bump or something and there were a few for sale. 6-7K I think. I again didnt like it for stupid reasons (no AC) but thought about it & they were gone.
anyone remember that dealership in amsterdam selling 2002 turbos about 20 years ago? Missed those too.
I once found a miata with hardtop for $1000. Apparently 3 other people showed up at the same time and we had to draw straws (I lost).
Lotsa bummer memories. :)
Yeah. When I missed the tennis ball green 1972 240Z GRM sold to a reader.
Asking $12,500? Either way.......
"Free to a good home" set of 16"MINI wheels with slightly used snows and TPMS on Craigslist.
I'd been looking for a set for quite some time. Emailed on thw first day they were up.
The next day after the seller letting me know they were gone, I see an ad for the same exact setup for sale for $460 on Craigslist. Pretty sure the person saw free stuff and wanted to cash in. Not hating, but I still see the reminder everytime I search Craigslist for a cheap set of wheels for my MINI.
BUT,BUT, BUT I did score this Miata here on GRM for free. So I've definitely won some too.
Friend got tipped off about an "old Mercedes convertible with eyebrows over the wheels".
Turned out to be a 190.
I passed on a garaged NA Miata with Xidas, RFP1s, and 8x,xxx miles listed at $5500 in November 2018. I was just at the point of getting a few debts payed down and beginning my search for a fun car and didn't understand what a Xida was.
I've missed several killer deals, but they were from the dinosaur days.
There was an $800 2003 civic si that needed a clutch on my local craigslist yesterday that I emailed about (only contact method listed). I was sure I missed it or it was a scam, but I actually got a response from the seller last night, saying a person was looking at it today and if it fell through she'd give me a call.
Now the ad's down, so I'm guessing I missed it by one.
Just missed a well maintained E30 M3 for $5,500 back in 2001 when they were at their lowest ebb. Who knew they would be worth ten times that now?
I've gotten a few great deals on other cars though, so things work out.
On 2 different occasions I passed up a chance at a Triumph Italia. First time was the early 70s, I was out driving along the main drag through Neptune Beach, Florida when I passed by a small, root beer brown, sports coupe with wire wheels, parked near the road. It looked "Italianish" but I had no idea what it was. It would be another year, after I bought my Triumph Spitfire and started collecting books on Triumphs, that I found out what that car was that looked familiar...yet.
Then, in the mid-late 80s I saw an ad in the paper for an Italia. From the ad's description of the car, it was obvious the seller had no idea what he had. The ASKING price for this extremely rare car? $800. I drove out to see it and was pleasantly surprised that it was a genuine Triumph Italia. Unfortunately, the car's owner had gotten almost halfway through restoring the car before the Navy transferred him to Bermuda...coincidentally where I would be temporarily stationed in about a month.
It appeared like all the parts were there, but basically, the car was a rolling shell with boxes of parts. And me? I had to pass because I had no where to store it if I bought it. My house's turn of the century garage was barely big enough for the body/shell.
In about 1974, a independent car dealer in the next town had a 1963 split window Corvette - red with biscuit interior. Spare had never been on the ground. About 30K miles. $3,500 which I couldn't have raised to save my life. Likely a good thing I couldn't, since I would have killed myself...
Twice. In 2005 I passed on an E30 M3 for $5700. It was nicely modded but had a few dents, a mileage discrepancy and the motor felt a bit weak. Instead I bought my first 951S, which was a fabulous car. Still, the E30 M3 today is worth $25-30k.
The other one was in late 2009-2010 when I passed on a 996 GT3 for $45k. It had all the track mods, euro GT3 seats, rollbar, harnesses etc. Really bummed about that one, that car is worth $75k today. I passed on it because I was buying the building for my practice and wanted to get a cheap, disposable track car. Instead I got the 951 which I ended up LS swapping and having a not so cheap, not disposable track car. I should've bought the GT3 with the longest loan possible.
I started at a big box used car store in SoCal in 2006. By late 2007, the housing crisis was ramping up and some of the savvy moguls out there started dumping assets. Our store took in a smurfy blue Exige S that had less than 2,000 miles on it for $25,000. I believe the car was only a few months old at the time. I was barely two years out of college, saddled with student debt, and I was still trying to find a way to justify the purchase.
93' FD RX-7, listed for $2500 w/ title. No wheels or tires, allegedly owned by the guy's now deceased brother who had parked it (maybe engine trouble, guy wasn't sure) and taken the wheels for another car. He couldn't get the hood open so wasn't even sure there was an engine in it. It wasn't clean, had a little rust in the spots you expected. Just wanted someone to come get it off the property. I replied literally within 2 hours of the ad being posted and just so happened to be hanging out with my chief enabler and trailer owner and we were ready to cannonball to get this thing right then and there. I thought the stars had aligned... alas someone closer had already showed up and had it on a trailer leaving when he responded to me. I wonder if his phone exploding for the next several hours let him know how cheap he let it go for.
You'll need to log in to post.
