And regrets, I have a few. Car's I've loved and bid a·dieu. First was the Dart, the Monte too...
I dug the Vette it went vroom vroom
and the wagon could haul a crew
in the end their time had come, I sent them on, one by one. There will be more, 'cause I'm not done!
#1.. Alfa Milano. Even though it was a 2.5 Gold, I miss it so much.
2. The rest were just business.
Grandma's 1987 Integra. She gifted it to me at 200k miles. I drove it for 2 summers when I was home from college. I was young and sold it for cash and have no idea what I spent it on.
1990 Civic hatch. I love that shape and how it drove.
NB Miata with a full compliment of upgrades that I bought from a gentleman that was selling it to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend. Southern car without a speck of rust on it, and I had an absolute blast in it.
Sold it to buy a car I never got. I ran into the previous owner a few years after I bought it, and he still hadn't proposed. This car was the victim of unfulfilled dreams more than once.
'72 Vega GT. I know. But I thought it a right handsome automobile and had I not become frustrated by oil consumption it would have been a good candidate for a 2.8 V6 and 5-speed swap just a few years after selling it.
'80 Fiesta. Traded it on a pickup truck I thought I needed. I did not need it as much as I enjoyed driving the Fiesta.
I stand by all of my decisions to sell as it's what I had to do at the time.
I miss several that I sold (Mazda6 hatch and NB high on that list) but the only one I would say I regret selling was my Focus ST. It wasn't a particularly special example I just had a great time owning and modifying.
I have only sold a small percentage of the cars I have owned. Very few have survived my ownership. The ones I have regretted parting with are very few though. First on the list the Morris Minor Traveller I gave away in 1973 because of structural rust at a front suspension mount. Three years later I had the skills to fix it in a weekend
which is when the regret began, but I would not buy another today. Next up the Turner 950S that was the best little racecar ever, but I wanted to go a lot faster, so it went away in favor of a Lola324. Big mistake, and the regret was within a few years again. The last being the Taraschi F.Junior I inherited. I bought the Turner with the proceeds from selling the Taraschi, and it took 35 years for the regret to set in. If I had the large capital to buy it back I would in a heartbeat, even though it has suffered enormous damage and inept repairs in the ensuing 40 years.
Regret selling? The 81 Scirocco S with an ABA block and CIS head. 105 hp at the wheels and 115 lb-ft. 2h gearbox and limited slip. Would pull in every gear. Nice roll/ harness bar. Tarantula 13s.
Miss but not really a regret? 88 Alfa Spider Veloce. Greatest no care wind in the hair car.
I do regret selling a lot of special VW parts that command top dollar now. Especially BBS rims.
Hands down. Big mistake.
My chaste white 94 R Miata
My 85 metallic grey SVO
Those are the only two I really regret. Anything else I've ever owned irritated me or could be replaced pretty easily.
I share a lot of the same sentiment with you all in every single one. Two that stick out because of memories are a 2012 WRX Hatch - brought kid #1 home in that and another is a 2015 STI that I brought kid #2 home in. Sentimental but overall not cars I really cared for all that much.
Two cars I absolutely loved and hated selling:
2000 Trans Am - it was actually featured in GRM at one point! My dad and I completely transformed this car from a wrecked mess to something pretty awesome. Sold it when the first kid was on the way and the wife at the time wanted something safer with 4-doors (hence the WRX mentioned above).
2010 Civic Si - I fell in love with this car the second I drove it off the lot. I should have never ever gotten rid of it. Had the chance to buy it back but wasn't in the spot to. Finding a clean version of a 2009+ 8th Gen Si is nearly impossible these days.
Ugh. Right car, wrong time. I couldn't get parts for it back in the pre-internet days. Too old for junkyards (they were all rotten and gone by then). Yes, it was a V6.
I kinda regret this one, mostly because I can't replace it for 2x more now. Unfortunately, it needed some costly rust repair (roof) and a hood that I just couldn't find. Wonderful truck otherwise. The Lightning I bought makes more sense but isn't nearly as cool, even if it is faster.
All the rest of my cars I don't regret parting with. Usually, it was just time. Some were getting rusty. Some I just became bored with. Some I sold before they really hit depreciation. There are cars I miss, but no others I regret selling when I did.
Some regret over selling my first year RX8 that was my intro to AutoX in a trade in deal for a new first gen Honda Fit. On the plus side I beat on the RX8 for a solid 3 years and sold it for 2500 less than I paid.
The most regret is reserved for the 01 330ci Dinan stage 1 with red leather interior that was traded in for a Saabaru 92x in anticipation of the arrival of my first son.
I live in the Philadelphia area and bought the Saabaru from FitzMall in Frederick, MD. The long drive home from the dealership immediately confirmed that I'm a BMW/Audi/VW/Porsche guy not a WRX guy.
Ugh. My '92 Integra GS-R, bought it with 92k miles on it in 2009 or so. It was bone stock, and in immaculate condition, aside from the faded milano red. Nearly impossible to find one in that kind of shape now.
Elise. A can't-miss land opportunity popped up and I sold the Lotus to have enough funding. The business side of things turned out really well, but if I had to buy the car back today, it's a $50,000+ propoisition now. That car was really something special.
In reply to hybridmomentspass :
I miss my completely stock black 1991 MR2 turbo. Sold for 4runner to carry my dog.
You can't keep them all, but if I had space and the ability to get some of the cars I have owned and sold, I would repatriate these - Jaguar Mk 9, Jensen CV8 (with sixpack motor in my case), Lamborghini Islero S, early right hand drive Triumph TR-2.
87 Cutlass Salon with the 442 appearance package. It was a marketing option that was pretty rare. You got the gold pinstripes, rally gauges and floor shifter, and the 442 wheels, but it still came with the wheezer 140hp 307 instead of the (not a big deal) 170hp version. This one had 36k miles I think. Typical little old lady story - drove it to church and the grocery store and kept it in a garage. Glove box full of receipts from dealer servicing. It was a time capsule.
87 325iC. Bought this in CA when I moved there. H&K suspension, M1000 wheels, and every single panel on the car had the VIN stamped on it and not an ounce of bondo anywhere. No accidents, not even any parking lot dings. It was flawless. New top, new black leather, and I drove it cross country twice. Sold it back to the guy I bought it from three years later for exactly what I paid for it. He said "I never should have sold it." I ended up standing on the sidewalk in Glendale with a stack of CDs and a wad of cash waiting for my wife to come pick me up.
There is only one car that I regret selling.
No photos, but it was the 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II, V8 automatic, two door hardtop that my grandparents bought new, and that I spent a significant part of my first 18 years riding around in.
I sold it because I couldn't find a replacement for the leaking gas tank (pre internet) and didn't know that anyone was restoring old Mopars yet.
The car went to a guy who was restoring a GTX. I remembered his name and tracked him down 20 years later. He said that he cut the car apart and used almost everything from it.
That would be my Powerball / Graveyard Carz Phantom Build.
1986 CRX Si
1997 BMW M3/4/5 in Dakar yellow
1997 Pontiac Firebird Formula. Hardtop LT-1 with cloth seats and the automatic. That car was a highway bruiser and would knock down 24-26 mpg on long trips.
Most would be my '73 Capri. It's a long story but it was in long term storage at my parent's house and my father sent it to a scrap yard at a time when I wasn't really able to do anything about it. I have started looking around online for another mk1 Capri but they seem to have vanished.
octavious said:
This one. Numbers matching 1970 911S with Weber carbs and 67k miles on the odometer. Sold in 2006. A few years before the air cooled Porsche market exploded. Now a days.....
Sorry. My boss had 2 of them. An S and a non S. Both in barn-find condition. He offered them to me. Both for $10k. Since there was rust involved, I balked. I feel your pain.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:There is only one car that I regret selling.
No photos, but it was the 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II, V8 automatic, two door hardtop that my grandparents bought new, and that I spent a significant part of my first 18 years riding around in.
I sold it because I couldn't find a replacement for the leaking gas tank (pre internet) and didn't know that anyone was restoring old Mopars yet.
The car went to a guy who was restoring a GTX. I remembered his name and tracked him down 20 years later. He said that he cut the car apart and used almost everything from it.
That would be my Powerball / Graveyard Carz Phantom Build.
'68 to '70 ('71 for E body) exploded first. There for awhile everything else was still pretty much unloved. When I was in college ('88 to '92), '72 - '74 Mopars were still just used cars. Even with an original Hemi, a '66 or '67 anything wouldn't break $20k. To this very day I still remember the ad in my local paper from the summer of 1990. "'72 Roadrunner. 440. Runs good. $1800" And I went and looked at it since it was just a few blocks over. Not a bad looking car. But it might as well have been $180,000. I didn't have it.
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