Cars you should have bought...

P71 wrote:

Cotton wrote: about 7 years ago.....65 Riviera GS all original running and driving for 5900 buy it now. I was trying to decide whether or not to hit buy it now and poof....it was gone. Someone beat me to it. That is probably the worst one....I still think about it all the time. Earlier this year I paid 3k for a non running, but restorable, 65 Riviera non GS.

Be very glad you didn't. Almost every rare car on evilBay with a BIN of $5900 is a scam. It's more than likely that the seller didn't really have the car and was using pics found on the intarwebz.

I actually talked to the owner over the phone briefly. He seemed like a decent guy, but was close enough if I had hit BIN I would have headed over and picked it up in person.

about 10 years ago I looked at a 1965 Corvette hardtop. Don't recall if the numbers matched, but it ran great (327 4-speed), had a decent interior and ok paint. Trouble was it got 'customized' in the 70's and now sported fender flares, a rear spoiler that was over a foot tall, and '68 Camaro taillights. Basiclly you would have to saw off the body from the fuel filler back to 'fix' it. I could lived with the flares, but the tail was too much for my wallet. Car was $9500. Todays prices.....

I was in high school driving a beat to hell 69 MG Midget (same POS I'm driving 20 years later) and I found a cherry '67 Mini Cooper S MkII with Webasto sunroof, cert of authenticity etc for $10k. Mom has a soft spot for cars and offered to finance if I'd agree to get rid of my Midget and its parts car. Couldn't do it. Don't know if I regret it or what.

70 Superbird with 440-engine apart and missing the nose cone in 1987, the day I got out of the Navy without a job about to move in with my parents...Price....$600.00

Ferrari Daytona Coupe price 21,000 in 1981 when I reinlisted in the Navy and got my Bonus. Could have almost paid cash...

Two sad, sad misses there!

$21000 1981 dollars = $49941 2009 dollars.

Ferrari was a bargain. Navy pays well, I guess.

M030 wrote: $21000 1981 dollars = $49941 2009 dollars. Ferrari was a bargain. Navy pays well, I guess.

During the Don Johnson Miami Vise days any Daytona was selling for over $100k and were being converted to Topless. A real conv was starting at 500k and passed 1m.

It is still my fav of ALL cars ever built.

As to the Navy pay..."Doing things no one else wants to always pays well".

1963- Ferrari 250GT for 750.00. Total basket case, engine in boxes, wire wheels rusted to hell, no interior, way beyond my capabilities, but still... 1978- MB 230SL for 1250.00. Had frame rust. Should have sprung for that one. Oh well, I'm plenty excited with my Sentra now.

When I was a senior in high school, I occasionally passed by a E30 M3 for sale out at a local Chick-Fil-A. I remember thinking that 5k was a lot to ask for an older BMW, but at the time, I had NO idea what the M3 even was.

Of course, since I didn't know any better, it may have just been a REALLY nice clone...still...

admc58 wrote: 70 Superbird with 440-engine apart and missing the nose cone in 1987, the day I got out of the Navy without a job about to move in with my parents...Price....$600.00

ouch

cwh wrote: 1963- Ferrari 250GT for 750.00. Total basket case, engine in boxes, wire wheels rusted to hell, no interior, way beyond my capabilities

I knew about a 1963 Ferrari 250GT with the interior missing along with the engine. The car was a rust free roller. I could have gotten it for $400 but it was located in the Netherlands. It was in a junkyard selling everything. Would have made a cool challenge car.

The only car I ever passed on buying that I wish I hadn’t was a 1963 Renault Floride. The Floride was an earlier version of the Caravelle with more scoops.

OMG... someone actually named a car model "Floride?" And I thought the Japanese came up with funny names...

in reverse.

In 1999 I sold my roommate my AE86 for $200 because the drivers door was caved in and wouldn't open. Three weeks later I found a door in a salvage yard. It was already the right color. I had walked to work that day (only five blocks), and the car was literally waiting in line to be crushed. So I pulled the door off and had the pleasure of carrying it home to my roomate, who paid me back the $35 a couple weeks later.

It was designed in Florida during an auto show and they called it the Florida but since they were French it became the Floride. It was on the same chassis as the dauphine.

1966 Mustang notchback for $3,000, back in the 80s. I bought a freaking Nissan Micra because it was more practical.

Porsche 356 speedster 16000mi., $8,500 in 1985. Fresh out of college no money and no credit.

The list is long, but there are two that stand out to me.

The first was when I was about 15. I could have bought this for a few hundred dollars. A Stutz Bearcat.

Then, some years later when I again had absolutely no money, I had to pass on one of these. An Intermeccanica Italia. I probably could have gotten it for under two grand.

Italias make my mouth water....

Italias, ahhhh!

The forbidden and forgotten illicit offspring of a Sunbeam Tiger and Sophia Loren.............

I had a customer who had a 73 4spd vette in his garage for 20 years. car needed some help , hadn't run in a decade.. He wanted $1500 , a friend of mine bought it for $1000 , got it running and sold it for $6 grand.

I regret not buying... (4 years ago) mint 1995 Volvo 850 5-sp manual 139 000km (86 000 miles) w/2 full sets of tires (summer & winter) $3500

$1000/year for insurance was my downfall... 22 yr old student

Ferarri Dino for $25,000 in 1990. It had a leaking water pump and the owner was pissed about it and tired of paying to have it repaired. I went to the bank and had the loan squared away, then contacted my insurance agent... I was 23 years old and lost the memory of the amount when I blacked out and hit my head on the tile floor. I figgured if I have it i will drive it but couldnt swing the insurance. I should have done it as a personal line of credit and sat on the car a few years. I still would have driven it.

porksboy wrote: Ferarri Dino for $25,000 in 1990. It had a leaking water pump and the owner was pissed about it and tired of paying to have it repaired. I went to the bank and had the loan squared away, then contacted my insurance agent... I was 23 years old and lost the memory of the amount when I blacked out and hit my head on the tile floor. I figgured if I have it i will drive it but couldnt swing the insurance. I should have done it as a personal line of credit and sat on the car a few years. I still would have driven it.

My cousin did almost this same thing. Before buying a Pantera he 1) lined up his money and 2) checked with his insurance agent (he was about 21 at the time). Both worked out and he bought the car. I talked to him about it briefly and he was telling me how much fun it was to drive.

Two weeks later his insurance company said something like "Oh, you said "Pantera" " and dropped the coverage.

He sold it within a week...

Here is my greatest 'miss.'

Circa 1994:

I was looking for a cheap bike to get around on before I could afford a car in high school. One of my friends said he had an old bike that his grandpa gave him in a shed, that it was pretty rough, but I could have it for $450.

I went an looked at it and it was dirty, but not too rusty. It didn't even have headlights, signals or a windshield and it needed two new tires. The tires were rotten to almost nothing. I could tell it had been raced because it still had the number plate on the side.

We fooled around with it and got it running (poorly) and I took it around the yard.

I decided to pass because I couldn't afford tires and it would take too much work to get it street legal.

The bike:

1946 Ducati. Grandpa brought it back with him after the war. Used it for cafe racing.

Looked almost like this, except the paint that was left was more of an oxblood color.