The only car that I regret selling (at 18) was the '67 Plymouth Belvedere II hardtop that my grandfather bought new. I sold it because it had a hole in the gas tank and I couldn't find a replacement. I was all into Mustangs at the time and had absolutely no idea that there were people restoring Mopars.
I spent ten years trying to find it, but eventually learned that it was cut up to restore a GTX. The guy said that he used absolutely every part of it.
I bought a first gen JDM Rx-7 in 1997 and regret selling in 2002. I made money on it but would rather still have it in the garage. It was exactly the same as the photo.
In reply to eastpark :
You selling that RX-7 is now my greatest automotive regret.
In reply to Turbo_Rev :
There was a white JDM '79 (maybe '78) entered in the $1500 Challenge.
He bought it at Salvation Army.
It ran and drove.
It looked amazing in the magazine.
Still had the goofy fender mounted mirrors.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Goofy? GOOFY?!
Selling my 1985 Mustang SVO, and selling my 94 Miata R in white. Outside of that there are not many cars I regret letting go. Those two are the top of the list.
My shop teacher offered me a 1967 Wimbledon white fastback mustang for 800$ in 1989. I declined...
I have 2 selling and 2 not buying.
Not buying a super clean blue and white 1968 Land Rover Series II 4 door.
Not buying a 1983 Jeep Scrambler in 2013 for $6500. Which set off a revolving door of various Jeeps until I found my current 1950 Willys CJ3a that I very much enjoy.
Selling a 1970 911s in early 2000 for $12,000, the market skyrocketed right after.
Selling a 1946 Willys MBT that I restored and used often, but sold long ago. It would look great behind the current Willys
clownkiller said:My shop teacher offered me a 1967 Wimbledon white fastback mustang for 800$ in 1989. I declined...
I hope for your sake that it was rusted out and/or had a six cylinder. Could you get six cylinder fastbacks?
Wimbledon White was an awesome color. I was slowly repainting my '80 RX-7 from Mazda's version of white to Wimbledon. It was.... creamier, somehow.
Long ago, for lack of a few hundred dollars, I missed out on a beautiful Intermeccanica Italia.
Longer ago than that, for lack of a few thousand dollars, I missed out on a Stutz Bearcat.
I know where a C type Jaguar languishes. I stay in touch with the owner. Perhaps someday he'll say I can have it. Hopefully I'll have the coin.
Selling my Civic Type R after going through hell to buy it for under MSRP and flying across the country to pick it up.
No matter what I did, that car hurt my right knee to drive. I didn't want to remove the seats/airbags to try another seat... if I could do it again, I would have tried swapping the seats out before I sold it, to see if that alleviated the pain.
It was about 1987 and I was looking for my first car. Beside a local gas station, looking lost and forlorn, there was a 911. Long nose. It was an S. It was a targa with a soft window.
If your a Porsche fanatic you know that made it a 1967 911S soft-window targa, which was a one-year-only model. It was $6,000.
My dad liked 911s but said no way, not a good car to take to college.
Well, yeah, sure, it wasn't a good car to take to college but fifteen years later it would have paid for a house!
Passing on a Jensen Interceptor for $3500 in 1991 that needed a rear axle and had shredded seats
Passing on a dubious E30 M3 for $4500
Passing on a 911SC with a bad transaxle, think it was also $3500, this was the late '80s.
In fairness, as a young person at the time, I probably would have managed to kill myself with the performance envelope of any of those cars.
Some regrets on selling my '91 E30 318iS, some regrets donating my slapped together '77 MGB (owned for 25 yrs, reshelled it with a used shell) but nothing too serious.
Putting a roll cage and making my 1987 turbo ii rx7 WAY too track oriented. I hated driving that car anywhere except the track.
Reshelled that car with one I bought off this forum that was pretty pristine for $400.
Then, had my fun, sold the drivetrain for $$$. Then sold the shell (which was in fantastic shape) to FuriousE who promptly put in an LS and built my dream car right down to the enkei wheels. Sold it fairly cheap too.
That's my biggest automotive regret. Should have kept the tii as a street car and done occasional track days. Or even installed just a roll hoop.
Not buying a red '63 split window Corvette with less than 35K miles for $3500
Not buying a cotswold blue '59 XK150s Jaguar drophead for $2500
Spending a lot of money making a neon fast. Then selling it as a non running project. Parting out a nearly complete, rust free, mint interior e34 m5 that I bought for about $2k to get the engine, then not putting the engine in the e30 I intended it for.
Selling a mint na mx5 that had been in the family over a decade.
Not buying a Datsun 240z (or R32 skyline GTR here in Aus) when they were cheap. (Conversely, buying a 911 when it was cheap turned out ok.)
Selling a family 4wd that had been given to me. It was thirsty, and the money I got was nice. Later received a wage increase that would have made the fuel consumption less painful, and ended up buying a newer/more expensive version later.
All in all, nothing major really. I've enjoyed the hobby a lot more than I have regrets associated with it.
Edit for a new one (today): I regret paying a professional to polish a set of BBS lips. Not only was it a fair bit of money, it wasn't done any better than I could've done with a drill and a buff. I expected better.
Jesus.
Can I abstain?
Regret buying: 1981 Charger 2.2, 1974 Ford Pinto
Regret selling: really only one. Everything else I sold "it was time" and I was pretty much done with. But, this one I never did anything with because I was too hung up on 'restorations' back then. Trashed interior and missing some no-longer-available parts that made it not capable of passing our state safety inspection. I should have just sat on it until the parts turned up. V6 stick with headers and true dual exhaust.
I do kind of regret not pursuing the FREE Fiat 124 spider I was offered. I'd been give free Fiats before and they were always terminal rust bomb parts cars. The one I passed on was a very dirty but shockingly solid 1969 small bumper car that an acquaintance wound up with and quickly restored to a real beauty. But, I already had one and didn't need another.
Not buying a red Porsche 912 in the PCS lot at Ft Polk in 93.
Not buying a Red SAAB 900 SPG from the same lot right before I left Ft Polk.
Selling my 81 GTV-6.
Having to sell my Red 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata because of a divorce.
Selling my '65 Mustang Fastback in 1981. 4 Speed transmission w/GT350 suspension and built 300hp 289.
m brakes,
ddavidv said:Regret selling: really only one.
That one hurts me.
I regret not buying a clean relatively low-mileage E30 M3 (common regret, it seems) that was on a Chevy dealer's lot in the late 90s for $8500.
I really shouldn't have sold my 1999 M Coupe in 2006 for $17k. But we were planning to have a kid, and I already owned two other 2 seaters. I can't replace it now for less than $30k, and that's just too much.
Worst mod I ever did was shortening the final drive. First gear became ridiculously useless, the car was fun at the track and nowhere else.
The learning experience was good, it was my first time setting up rear gears so it was time consuming but parts were cheap because they were from a scrapyard.
Not buying a 1988 Henna Red E30 M3 for $5700 in 2005. Had some issues but I was going to track it and didn't care
Selling my first Porsche 944 Turbo S
LS swapping my 2nd Porsche 944 Turbo S. Never doing a non native engine swap again
Selling my supercharged E46 M3
Selling my track prepped E36 M3
I don't have enough room or money to keep them all sadly
Passing on the 89 Skyline GTR for $12,000. Was among the first *legally* landed in Canada about 20 years ago (15 year rule) but I felt it was 'too expensive' and I had a preference for the R33 body style.
Passing on a DR30 Skyline for $800 because it needed headlight assemblies.
I do kinda regret painting my one car. I love the colour and the small body tweaks we did, but the 6 years of not driving it has sucked, led me to getting my camaro running for a summer, bought 2 BMW E36 coupes tho so not all terrible
Worst one: I was using a C4 Corvette that was well over 20 years old as a daily driver with a long commute. It wasn't holding up well, so I sold it and bought a low mileage 1995 Civic. Only to have the Civic break down about three times as often as the Corvette. Some of the highlights include having the crankshaft damper come off in traffic and the ECU catching on fire.
The other regret was buying a Triumph Spitfire that had the high beam switch catch on fire when I turned on the headlights. I found the wiring harness was completely berkeleyed. Then when I finally managed to finish swapping over a brand new harness, the brake and clutch cylinders leaked all their fluid. At that point I decided to cut my losses and sell it. For extra curse points, the guy who bought it from me ended up getting busted as a molester.
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