Vehicle regrets

I regret purchasing: 1996 F250 TD powestroke I owned it for 3-4 months, first day I had it, brokedown and was nothing but trouble. 90 civic si nothing but issues with the subframe. Suzuki esteem, front subframe failed after having it for a month.

I regret not purchasing my kia soul after the end of the lease.

In 1986 the girlfriend, now wife was ordering a brand new Monte Carlo SS and decided Chicago winters and a FWD car would be better. I regret her not getting this car.

I regret owning the Pontiac Grand Am SE - pile of poop instead.

I regret a Miata(!) I bought that had more electrical problems than any 10 MGBs you can think of.

FFR 818. I got caught up in the hype, bought an '02 WRX, cooked the motor, replaced the motor, never got it back to 100%, sold it at a loss. The kit turned out to be uglier than sin, the contest would have made P.T. Barnum proud. Lost plenty of money on that one, but the lessons, mechanically and personally, were good ones.

Ouch!

peter wrote: FFR 818. I got caught up in the hype, bought an '02 WRX, cooked the motor, replaced the motor, never got it back to 100%, sold it at a loss. The kit turned out to be uglier than sin, the contest would have made P.T. Barnum proud. Lost plenty of money on that one, but the lessons, mechanically and personally, were good ones.

A few regrets.

I regret buying my MSM. What a PITA that car was. I bought that instead of doing a turbo on my 94 I had.

I regret not getting the 64 1/2 K Code mustang project with 3 cars worth of spares for $4500 back in the 90s

12v Cummins.

Bought a '95 Ram cause it was cheap and had a legendary motor. Ended up finding out the hard way that the motor is a gem, it's every.single.damn.thing around the motor that is a pile of crap.

Still ended up turning a profit selling it with a blown heater core, badly leaking trans, two dead batteries, inop fuel gauge, dash in pieces, etc, etc

Great. This is JUST the thread I needed as I seriously contemplate selling a car I have known for 48 years and owned for 33 years...

Datsun310Guy wrote: In 1986 the girlfriend, now wife was ordering a brand new Monte Carlo SS and decided Chicago winters and a FWD car would be better. I regret her not getting this car. I regret owning the Pontiac Grand Am SE - pile of poop instead.

If it makes you feel better my first car was an 86 Monte SS and even with the E36 M3ty tires a high school budget could by I had no real problems with the snow.

i regret my dad selling the '56 Bel Air 2-door post (265 power pack, 3 on tree) when i was 14.

i regret having detention the day some dickhole ran into the '66 caprice (396, 4spd, buckets, console, gauges) because if i didn't have detention the car wouldn't have been there to get hit.

i regret selling the $2004 challenge V8 Corvair.

i regret selling the $2008 challenge V8 944.

Regret Selling:

93 Dakota (my first new car)

E21 BMW (it was junked without me really trying to make it work)

87 Golf (could have stored it in retrospect)

Audi A3 (first turbo car)

07 Honda Civic (wife was going to work at home - no need for 3 cars. Less than a month later, she's back at the office with a longer commute than before. Car sold in 3 days.)

Regret Buying:

The E21 listed above

The Golf listed above

Eclipse (ok, wife bought it before we were married, so technically not mine, but she was shopping Integras and 2.5 RS's too. If I had only known then.....)

Maxima (lemon)

Regret buying:

-1986 RX-7 Sport with a JDM S5 Turbo swap. It needs a total cooling system rebuild and probably an engine swap. I have all the parts I need to do it, but whether for lack of time or motivation I just haven't done it. The car is languishing in a storage unit, collecting dust and losing me money, so once spring rolls around it goes on the chopping block, esp. now that I want to get a house. I will be keeping one of my two spare Turbo drivetrains for a possible future return to the FC3S world.

-1994 Eclipse GSX. Two words: BASKET. CASE. I had to spend a good deal of money just to get the exhaust under MA's stringent new sound limits. The engine leaked like a sieve, parts of the interior fell off while the headliner was missing entirely, the sunroof latch was broken so the wind noise would get unbearable, and it was a total rust bucket. I was almost relieved when the clutch finally bit the dust. So happy to see that one go.

The one I regret letting get away:

-1984? Peugeot 505 Turbo. It was in pretty good shape- a little scruffy, but not terrible. What scared me off were the (seemingly) non-existent parts availability, anti-rust oil swimming around in the rear fenders, and the fact it was stuck in third gear. I only found out after it sold that some parts were still available through the 505Turbo forums and that the Pug actually shared its transmission with Jeeps(!) of the era. While the gearing is different, I probably could have snagged a Jeep gearbox for cheap and had a transmission shop use it for parts for the Pug.

For me, it was tradinging in a paid for 93 Full size GMC for a new Sonoma. Put me behind the 8-ball when I lost my source of income and it was a crappy little truck.

Regret Buying:

-2002 VW Jetta: Anything that could go wrong with a VW went wrong with this one. Ready for the crusher by 30k miles.

-2009 Subaru WRX: More disappointed in Subaru the company than the car. They wouldn't stand behind their product when issues arose, even though I paid extra for them to. Still bitter about it.

Regret Selling:

-1964 Buick Skylark: My first car. Had some rust but could have been saved. It was a 2-door hard top A-body, which are all the $$$ now.

-1987 Mercury Cougar XR7: My main ride in HS. Parents made me sell it because they thought it was unreliable because I was constantly tinkering with it. I was just trying to make it go faster! I haven't seen another one since.

-1983 Z28: It would have made a PERFECT Challenge car: 305, 5-speed, no A/C, T-Tops, and the factory lightweight hood. Body was solid too. Only paid $300 for it, and sold it for $350.

-2002 Subaru WRX wagon: My first "tuner" car. It was a PITA and finicky, but I loved it anyway. And wagons rule. Wish I never got rid of that one.

Regret buying the Freestyle I tried to use as a family vehicle. Happily the transmission was replaced under a warranty. Unhappily, I sold it after a year to a $5K loss. Savings account still hasn't recovered.

NOT buying regrets:

'69 Charger General Lee replica with a 383/727 for $2200 in 1990. I probably would have died young in that car, but it would have been a fun death.

'97 M3 - my ex's absolutely cherry 3 season car she sold in 2004 after buying her '03 MCS and '73 1800ES. That car was her baby and she took immaculate care of it, so it was perfect cosmetically. She would have taken $14K for it in '04, which was a damn good price at the time (eventually sold it for $17K). I had jsut bought my TDI and there was no way I could swing two car payments (and insurance) at the time. She was also convinced I would have killed myself in it. She's probably right.

Thinkkker's '99 Miata. I still wish things could have worked out with that car.

Selling regrets. Plenty.

'71 Dodge Demon - my parents' car (bought in '72) that was eventually towed away in '88. We were just too poor, lived in an apt, and my parents were in the process of splitting up at the time. The car had issues and was just a /6 automatic, but I'd give damn near anything to have that car back. Partly for sentimental reasons. Partly because those A-bodies are just kick-ass cars.

'78 F150 4x4. Sold after I got laid off from my job in '92 and decided I couldn't afford to keep (and mainly insure at 22 yo) two vehicles (other was a '86 Toyota 4x4). Of course, I also regret the 6" lift kit I installed on the truck (although to this day, I still have the original suspension). Every time I see a nicely restored example at car shows, I get wistful.

'90 E150 conversion van. Sold after I bought my Cummins in early '07. After sitting for 15 months straight without being touched, the new owner installed a new battery, I cranked it over and the engine (a 5.0) fired up like it had just run yesterday and simply purred. It was like the van was laughing at me. I knew right then I'd made a big mistake. The longer I owned the Cummins, the bigger that mistake became.

Honorable mention: my '91 Integra - traded in 2002. I don't regret selling it so much as I regret not keeping it and turning it into a track rat/auto-cross beater. The drivetrain was fine, but the rest of the car was falling apart.

calteg wrote: 12v Cummins. Bought a '95 Ram cause it was cheap and had a legendary motor. Ended up finding out the hard way that the motor is a gem, it's every.single.damn.thing around the motor that is a pile of crap. Still ended up turning a profit selling it with a blown heater core, badly leaking trans, two dead batteries, inop fuel gauge, dash in pieces, etc, etc

lol, good thing you didn't keep it much longer, the lift pump, injector o-rings, or head gasket would have taken a E36 M3.

My biggest regret was selling the '60 Tbird survivor I bought for $500 at an estate auction just up the road when I was 15. It had a few chips in the enamel, one hole in the headliner, and that was it. Put in new fluids and it ran/drove great. It wasn't fast and was still a boat, but mine had the 430 instead of the 352. Looking back I sold it for too cheap when a guy offered $9k cash for it.

I took that money and bought what turned out to be the biggest POS in history('00 s-10 4cyl/5sp) strangely, that s10 is the most regretted for buying.

I regret passing on a '66 Chevelle(327/4sp) for $400 because I thought it needed floors and would have a lot of rust due to sitting in a hay field. My friend bought it a week later and drove it out of the hay field. Nothing but a little surface rust and what turned out to be a lobe ground off the camshaft.

I miss selling the S2000, but hard to call it a regret since it added the cash needed to buy the STi

When I bought the STi, I had been previously shopping E46 M3s, and eventually got a modded STi partly because ease/cost of modifications and reduced maintenance costs. Year later, orders to CA, didn't retune for 91 properly... spent a lot more on a new engine than I'd have spent on the M3, most likely. But again, now I have paid-off STi with race engine

Biggest regret is letting the 240SX stagnate. Couldn't have brought it to CA so it sat in NC for 2 yrs, but I never got it to Jacksonville when I returned to the East Coast. That car was great and deserves to be on the road again. When I get back from deployment, that is on the To-Do list right behind finally installing the Aquamist (on the backburner/shelf for 3 yrs) onto the STi.

Wish I had not taken this corner so wide. That car was the deal of the century, when I got it for $750.

You upside-downed a 2-dr GC? Grrrr...

At least the door numbers indicate it was being used for the proper purpose. And how the crap did you get a GC coupe for $750?!

Good call picking numbers that work upside down.

It belonged to a friend, it got rear ended twice, so the insurance company totaled it. He sold it to me for the buy back. I' was able to sledge hammer it back into race shape. I added a cage, which was only three days old when the above happened. Whoops. Found another shell( bugeye) and transferred over everything that wasn't busted.

A while ago, I tried using a '86 Corvette with 200,000 miles on the clock for a commute that was 40 miles each way. It was a fun car to drive, probably the best handling car I've ever owned, but wasn't holding up very well to the commute. So I decided to replace it with a low mileage Civic.

Which turned out to break down twice as often as the Corvette.

Bought one just like this in 2009. Auto. I basically regretted it on the ride home. I was an idiot right out of school and went far upside down on it after trading my F-150 2wd for it. Thing rode like a 70's Jeep CJ. Horrible brakes. If you were on a hill, you couldn't keep the truck from slightly moving while having the brake pedal to the floor. Horrendous body roll (I understand it's a jeep, but my Tundra has a serious offroad suspension and it corners great). Small gas tank and seriously 11 mpg around town. I was at the gas station every 2 days with a 15 minute commute. Horrible rust issues for a two year old vehicle. Doors and fenders had some major rust bubbles that needed attention. I payed way down on it over the course of 6 months to get even enough to trade in for my Mazda3. So glad it was gone.

I regret selling an A1 VW Jetta I received as a gift. It was a 1980 two door diesel. Not a single dent or scratch. It hadn't run for over 10 years. I got it started in ten minutes. I sold it for money to go to the SOLO nationals. It was totalled a day later. Poor car.