Biggest Automotive regrets

1. Listening to the wrong people when I was building my BMW 2002 race car (and not reading the rule book myself)
2. Getting rid of the CRX Si race car and buying the Z3 race car
3. Not buying that '72 2002 Tii when I was starting grad school
4. Not fixing my trusty Jeep ZJ tow beast and thinking I needed to "upgrade" to a new pickup (brought on by #2 above, and the subsequent "upgrade" to an enclosed trailer)
5. Giving up on the MGB GT project without really digging into it (although it probably really was way more than I could handle)...

ddavidv said:

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.

Looks like the same color as my Capri - it's one of my regrets that it's taking so long to get it back on the road...

Not adding trans fluid to the auto unit in my first car, and it grenading after weeks of protesting loudly, but was still capable of being brought back from the brink...alas I was a boneheaded teen and didn't know any better yet.

Maybe everyone needs to grenade a slush box before they transition to full gearhead?

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

I exploded my first auto at about 20. Knew it leaked, so I topped it off. We drove it 300 miles that weekend, and in that period it lost enough juice to let go on my way to work that Monday morning. It wasn't even mine, borrowed that van from my uncle. He was cool, and sold it to me cheap, I then replaced the trans and blew up the engine a few months later. What a thing. Memorable. 

Getting married!

When I was 20 (1982) Panteras were relatively inexpensive.   Of course, 20 years ago 911s were too.

But I don't care because now I have a Miata!   So there.  

Regrets. I have but 1. Selling this beauty to settle the divorce. 

Selling my high school car. Should have kept it. 

We've totally done this before, but I'm gonna do it again!!!

Top 5:
5. Selling my 1964 Buick Skylark, my first car. I had so many things I wanted to do to that car, but zero of the skills to fix it at the time. 

4. Selling my last 1987 Mercury Cougar XR7 to a "friend", who needed a car, who then destroyed it trying to race people and pulled the Lemon Law card with me (found out about the racing after I had taken it back). Should have just kept the thing and done the projects I wanted to do to it instead of selling it in the first place.  

3. Selling my 1987 Shelby CSX to buy a camera that I never use. My friend who bought it passed away a few months later, and the car disappeared. When I think about the car, I think about my friend, and that makes me sad.  

2. Passing on buying a near-perfect 1979 Olds Cutlass coupe with just 87K grandma miles for $400 because it had a bench seat. Thing was in unreal condition. 

1. Passing on buying a 1968 Buick Sportwagon with a freshly rebuilt drivetrain because it was green. Had the Vista Roof and everything. Even had the Buick Road Wheels. At the time I didn't like old green cars, but I love them now. Did I mention it was only $800? I'll never let myself live that down. 

In reply to bmw88rider :

That's not an automotive regret; it's a dating regret.

The Miata was collateral damage from said relationship.