Hopefully you’ve all had far more “got just what I wanted” car-buying experiences than you do “wish I chose the other one” regrets. I also wish for everyone reading this that when the next car you’ve always wanted appears on Facebook Marketplace (or wherever else you have frustrating conversations with car sellers), your funds, the car’s proximity, and your garage space will all align.
But oftentimes, they do not. Or purchasing mistakes were made. I put the question to the gang:
What Car Do You Regret Not Buying When You Had The Chance?
Mark Tucker
1993 Geo Storm GSi. Test-drove it, loved it, started talking business, and the salesman pissed me off about something, trying to push me into dealer financing if I remember right. I walked away and bought a Ford Escort instead. It served me well, but it just wasn’t the same.
Thomas Hundal
I still regret not having the space for an $8,000 R32 Skyline GT-R. Sure, it was haggard, but man. That deal’s never coming around again.
Brian Silvestro
For me, it’s definitely the E30-generation BMW M3. A decade ago, these cars were $30,000, but because they were half that in the mid-2000s, everyone thought they were too expensive.
Nowadays, of course, finding an E30 M3 for $30,000 is legitimately impossible, unless you want a rusty, salvage-title example with no engine or transmission. Anything worth owning will cost you at least 60 large. In 10 years, I’ll probably be kicking myself for not buying one now…
Your turn! Tell us about the ones that got away.
There are a few cars I wistfully regret not having picked up at the bottom, mostly the usual suspects. They were there, on my local CL and FBM just waiting to be picked up for a song.
But then then I remember the ownership costs of such toys, insurance maintainence, etc. My Stepdad had a 308GTSQV and a 550 Maranello and I got to see the bills. They were eye watering even though he didn’t drive them all that much. I also drove those cars. They drove like cars and I wasn’t willing to push their limits.
Then comes the relief at not having the hassle of juggling parking, the constant washing; the worry of theft and damage. For me in my living situation those cost and hassles outweigh the joy of ownership and my actual regret is that boat sailed even though I didn’t really want to be on it.
I then remind myself most of those cars still exist somewhere, in some rich person’s climate controlled private collection so the cars are better off. Then I look at my local CL and FBM to see what today’s bargains are and the cycle starts anew.
I’ve wanted a Kaiser Jeepster ever since I encountered one in college. Many years ago during my commute, I noticed one parked alongside a house. It changed locations every now and then, so it was capable of some kind of movement, but there always seemed to be a coolant-shaped bottle nearby. Definitely a project car! One day, it was parked near the road. I didn’t see a sign on it, and the house looked less than safe, so I never stopped. After a few weeks it was gone.
I also wouldn’t have minded having a Ford Flex; I got one as a rental on vacation in 2016, and had an absolute blast with it.
In 1980 went with the 76 Cosworth Vega instead of the 66 Mustang GT with the pony interior and factory AC. Ugh.
A 1980 Ford LTD Country Squire in pretty nice condition, for a nice price. Test drove it, loved it, but realistically where do I drive and keep a 5,4 meter long boat? But man, was it cool…
Come to think of it, the guy even offered to keep it in his garage through the winter, but he was too far away. Still, once in a lifetime opportunity.
I had a 1974 Pinto. Dude had a 1950 Ford F100 with an Oldsmobile 455 & TH400 swap. Wanted to trade straight up. I was 17, figured I kill myself so I passed. Smh.
Mk2 Honda CRX VTEC, 1991
While the CRX was seen as a shopping car, here in the UK its was seen as a pocket-rocket. Especially with the VTEC engine
in the early 2000s I had the chance to buy one for £1,500 but I didn’t go through with it
Saw the same model recently for £15,000…
I grew up poor in a poor country, so there are many, but these come to mind:
Porsche 356 at $12K, in the early 1980s, super good condition. It had already been sold and was heading back to the Vaterland… not that I could afford it back then…
Audi ur-quattro… I could have, but I was moving to the states soon. Please don’t call ICE…
BMW M3… I could have, but the bullet holes made me pass…
I have a few!
1) 97 Diablo Roadster for 150k in 2020. It was early pandemic, I could have probably swung it but I was worried about the maintenance, now they’re comfortably double that.
2) 3000GT VR-4 for 6k in 2008. I am still kicking myself for this, I was young and my parents talked me out of it and said I could have my dad’s old Acura TL for free.
3) Testarossa for 63k! in 2014. Another situation where I was just scared off by the maintenance. Probably rightfully so but man it’d have been cool as hell to have a ferrari in my 20s.
The one time I got it “right” was a 993 C4S in 2012 for 30k, I was in medical school and I just kinda said “fuck it” and went for it. But I still messed up because I sold it for 30k a year or so later! If I had kept it it’d be a 6 figure car AND I’d have had a cool 911 for all that time. (not as cool as my 996 though!)
I’m just glad I *did* buy my air-cooled 911 when I had the chance and they were still pretty cheap, because I couldn’t afford it now.
A really clean, rust-free, all-original Toyota FJ40 for $5,000. Didn’t have space for it at the time, sigh.
Volvo P1800.
But I got the Porsche 356 instead, so I’m not complaining.
Last summer I had a nice day with both, and found out that I did choose… wisely 😀
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKy0s_xsZG-/
Benz 500E (or E500) when they were still going for under $15k on Craigslist. Saw a clean one two weekends ago at a car event, complete with plastic-covered seats (didn’t get a chance to speak to the owner).
2017 Type R for MSRP. I was working at Honda at the time and I absolutely fell in love with this car, they told me even though I was an employee there’s no discounts, but also no markups either. I was young and stupid and knew a car payment in my teens would be a horrible idea, so I passed and continued on with my best up CRV. Now almost 10 years later I have nothing but regrets, I would’ve had it paid off by now, and when I go to look at new Type R’s my head hurts with how expensive they are. I can’t afford a Type R now and probably even less than I could back then. Even used Type R’s go for way more than MSRP back then.
#1: 1987 Buick GN only a couple years used: Couldn’t swing the $7K in college and my folks were unwilling to loan me the difference. I guess Mom’s ’83 G-body got me through school with little more than regular maintenance, but what could have been?
#2: 1976 GMC 3500 squarebody with every option: Grandpa’s fancy RV rig turned farm truck. Could have had it for free when we sold the farm, but my uncle had dibs he ended up not cashing in. Family history lost.
#3: 1969 GMC 5500 grain truck: This was my favorite piece of equipment. The cost to drag it home made this free truck quite expensive. I didn’t have a place to park it in the ‘burbs anyway, but more history lost.
#4: Every GTO, Firebird 400, Grand Prix, Grand Am, etc. “gas hog” I shopped in ’80s high school for less than $5K in entirely drivable condition….
When I was shopping for a truck a decade+ ago, I looked at a black 2004 Tacoma with a Toyota supercharged V6, manual transmission, and 4WD. I ended up with a white 2011 automatic Silverado with an NA V8 and 4WD, which has served me well. But I do wish I had gone with the Tacoma some days.
In hindsight, I feel like I made the wrong choice, but at the time the Toyota was like $6k more for higher mileage, and it was like 500 miles away from me (a family member found it). I’m ok either way, but I know the Taco would be worth more now in resale value lol
Sonic Yellow WRX.. I thought I wanted World Race Blue, I didn’t realize nearly every WRX is WRB and Sonic Yellow was actually rare.
About 15 years ago a friend of mine offered to sell me his project 1970 Alfa GTV for $1000. at the time I had 2 fiat spiders, 2 Triumph spitfires, a BMW 2002, and a Fiat X1/9, and I just didn’t have room for another project. I’ve kicked myself for not making room ever since.
I miss my X1/9s sooooooo much. A 4sp 78 and a 5sp 86. Still have the X1/9?
I had an 82 X1/9 and had a commute over windy mountain roads to get to and from work. That car was so fun to drive! It was like a a street legal go-cart. A 1/3 scale Ferrari 308. I wish I could have kept that one. It had more rust than I was willing to deal with though. I thought I’d find one with less rust, but values have put non-rusty versions out of my reach.
The only car in that list I still have is a 73 Fiat 124 spider. I’ve gone through it, and rebuilt the motor. It’s a fun little car, but I’d still like to have an X1/9. I saw one at a local car show with a Honda motor swap that looked like too much fun.
My 78 was a C.L. Find with a bad clutch and carb but in perfect shape physically. I was just out of college at the time and had to street park the vehicle. Ended up with someone superglueing the locks. The 86 was a clients car that he wasn’t using anymore and I bought for $50. It was QUITE rusty (black rattle can “fixed” the rocker rust weekly) but ran great. Both were sold to pay for my wedding….yeah, wish they were still in my price range but maybe someday…..(just before I picked up these two, I was running a 78(?) 131s mirafiroi in yellow-and rust- of course).
All great cars to drive. My 82 had been sitting for almost a decade in Colorado, and I picked it up for $500. I’m in California but have family in Colorado so I bought a one way ticket, flew to Denver, picked up the car, took it my son’s place and worked on it there. (actually he bought for me, and offered to give it to me if I came out to visit him and my brothers and sisters). Anyway after about 1 week of working on it, and week of visiting family I had it roadworthy and drove it over 1200 miles back home. It ran flawlessly. a few months later, the center hub of clutch plate spun out of friction plate. That was the biggest problem I had with it. The rest was just window motors, and headlight motors, and minor stuff like that. My daily driver at the time was a 81 124 spider I bought for $600 that just needed front driver’s side shock tower welded back in place. Now I’m retired and just take out my 73 124 on sunny days and weekends.
A few years back, a fairly clean 98 Grand Cherokee (ZJ) 5.9 LTD popped up for sale locally for 5K. It had 125K or something fairly low like that on it. I thought it looked like a good deal, I wanted it though I didn’t need it and proceeded to overthink it. A few days later the ad was gone and so was the Jeep. I instantly regretted not snapping it up.
The other thing is not getting K5 Blazer when I was younger. I’m not citing any specific example of one that got away, but there was a time where you could get decent daily driver K5’s for not a lot of money. Now you’re looking at close to 10K for one that needs EVERYTHING. Even the ex-military versions, those were dirt cheap but now almost command a premium.
In the early 2000s, I had the chance to buy a low-mileage, mint 1995 Bronco XL at the BMW dealer I was working at in college. It was brown, had a front bench seat, and a manual transmission. This is back before big Broncos exploded in value, and I could’ve gotten it for dealer cost, around $8k. But I was too money conscious at the time, even in the face of an obvious (even at the time) good deal. Been kicking myself ever since.
Yes! I just posted about K5 Blazers being affordable. Same with the Broncos, I remember seeing those in nice shape for 5-ish K.
Late 70’s (I think). An Alfa Romeo Alfetta Mario Andretti Edition. As I recall it was mostly pinstripes and special wheels along with badges and special seats. Brand new at an Alfa dealer, but he had a huge premium on it and we had recently bought our house so it just wasn’t in the budget 🙁
This list is TOO lengthy to recount from memory. But there are SO many… literally 100s of actual used cars for sale that I didn’t buy, along with many dozens of particular new models/years that I should’ve bought with the benefit of hindsight. I’ll just list two (well, three) relatively recent examples of cars that got away.
Used:
An early gen sun-baked used Honda Prelude for $250 for sale in Burbank. It hadn’t been driven in years, but started right up and drove (around the block) just fine when I jumped it. I actually tried to buy it for my sister, but when the seller and I went to AAA to do the sale paperwork, it turned out she had a lien on it or something for unpaid tickets. When that got resolved months later (my sister had bought another car by then) and the seller called me, like an idiot I declined to buy it. I also didn’t buy a neighbor’s Saab 9-5 hatch a few years back. What a maroon I am.
New:
With hindsight, I should’ve bought the Toyota Yaris iA hatchback (formerly the Scion iA, which is actually a rebadged Mazda 2 from the generation after Mazda stopped selling the 2 in the U.S.).
Most of these were in the early-mid 90’s. My boss had a ’68 Corvette with the original 427 4 speed and totally wasted, peeling blue paint but otherwise in great shape. He twice attempted to “rebuild” the engine and both times it bent the push rods. He wanted $1800. I knew it was a deal but was too wary of his skills so I passed. Another co-worker bought it and discovered that the boss had installed the wrong pushrods. I think it had solid lifter heads but he kept using ones for hydraulic. He fixed it, had it Earl Schieb’d and sold it for $10,000 immediately afterwards.
Even more regretful, I once passed on a ’71 Pantera for $10,000 I found in the newspaper classifieds in San Diego and being in Chula Vista, I went to look at it. Like the Corvette, the paint (red) was totally, embarrassingly wasted with a perfectly straight body, along with needing wheels and tires. It ran and drove great even though hot and noisy inside the immaculate interior. I stupidly passed because I considered myself a “GM guy” at that point in my life.
On the way home from looking at the Pantera, I spotted a ’70, ’71? big shiny Mercedes 280SE? 2 door at a BHPH lot on the National City “Mile of Cars”. Is that still a thing? Anyways, it was in absolutely beautiful shape in and out, a cool green-blue color. A folder with all records from new. Drove great but seemed so sluggish; not a diesel, but not sure if it was either a six or a poorly running V8 or absolutely normal, and again, like an idiot, I passed. It was $4500…
This one I regret through no fault of my own. A friend told me about his friend who had a ’67 Firebird convertible 326? 4 speed that he would sell for $600. For whatever reason, he had dismantled the front end, doors and trunk lid before having an expensive repaint in the original green. He was getting divorced and losing his house and garage. Absolutely beautiful car in and out that just needed some reassembly which at the time, wouldn’t have been a problem. We made arrangements to rent a trailer, pick it up and take to my friends shop. On the way to pick it up, here comes the car loaded up on another trailer heading the opposite way. We get there and he was like, sorry, dude, I decided to sell it to my brother… Whatever… at least he returned my $600 then and there. Spent the cash on the trailer for nothing…
Another through no fault of my own. This was in the mid 80’s when half my friends were into selling and doing coke. A friend had bought an older HD Sportster from another friend when he was making big bucks from dealing. Fast forward a couple years later and the guy is a coke-head, broke, selling everything for more coke. We watched him and his wife snort up literally 100’s of thousands of dollars of profit in the course of a couple of years. We’re sitting around one day and the guy says he’s thinking about selling the Harley among other things. I asked how much and he said he’d take $400! I said I get paid tomorrow and I’ll buy it for sure even though it’s my entire paycheck. The guy who he originally bought it from for ~$2000 happened to be there and said he’s got the $400 on him so that was that. I wasn’t too mad as he bought it to surprise his little brother on his birthday who had always loved the bike; he still has it over 40 years later. I did manage to buy an almost new Smith & Wesson 686 .357 revolver for $50 which I still have today so there’s that.
This was in Detroit in the mid 80’s. I was driving down the street on my Honda CB750 when I saw an old man struggling to push a motorcycle out of his garage. It’s a mint early black 70’s Honda CB500 Four, a little gem. I stop just to help and he said he’s now too old to ride, putting it up for sale for $500, had his little sign ready to go. I promised me that’ll I be back in a couple of hours with the cash. He agreed but when I returned, it was gone. He said he left the sign up just in case I didn’t show up and a guy offered him $750 so he took it. I was totally disappointed…
In 2007 or 2008 there was a Spyker for sale for $60k in SFL with low miles. I went back and forth to lower the price because it looked like a kit car over an R8 to me. Walked on it. It came with an extra boat steering wheel and some luggage in the trunk. I am not a smart man.
A V8 Dodge Charger with the 5 speed auto instead of the V6 I got with the 4 speed fail o matic.