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.
Must have been 1999-2000 but a local Nissan dealership had a leftover 240SX.I remember it was loaded with probably every option and it was a 5 speed pearl white/tan leather.It was pretty expensive and dealer wouldn’t budge on the price even though it was probably on the lot for a year or more.I heard they wound up finally just doing a dealer swap for a Frontier pickup.That Pearl looked so nice on that car.
A one-owner Mazda R100 in the 90s. Went to look at it, asking price only $600, but it was complete, original and immaculate. But I didn’t have the cash, and someone else came while I was there and bought it as a parts car. Pity it was just before the cellphone era – it turns out that when I told a few mates about it they all said if they knew they would have loaned me the money.
The same car in the same condition would now be worth about 100 times what it sold for back then.
Datsun 240Z when first released. I didn’t have the money. Oddly, I just saw one that was nicely restored except for the wheels.
I have 2 that I should have bought, both in the late 80s. First was a rust free 1970 455 GTO for $600 with a bad starter. It was green and I didn’t like green cars. The second was a 1973 Trans Am 455 4 speed red with the chicken for $3,500. It only had 23,000 miles and was in perfect shape except for some minor sun fading on the roof from the window in the garage it was kept. I’m still kicking myself over that one.
Many years ago I was offered a Skyline R32 GTR for very little money, The catch ? It had rotten sills and needed painting and other jobs, Nothing I couldn’t handle but at the time I just didn’t have the time for it… I already had an R33 and still have that and have since done all the same work on that but I should have bought the 32 and stored it for a year or two.
1970 Hemicuda Plum Crazy 4 speed. All original. Very few issues. It was 1998 and I flew to Atlanta to see it. Deal fell apart because I wouldn’t come up $3k to the sellers $35k asking price. Duh!!??
1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R in 1991 – because I couldn’t afford it. I DID buy the very nice 1991Sentra SE which had the regular Sentra engine but the SE-R body, suspension, spoiler & leather wrapped wheel / shifter. Plus the really nice sport seats. It didn’t have limited slip diff or bigger wheels/tires. I was able to find the low profile fog lights to complete the picture but always wanted that little boost in HP…
I passed on buying a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster in 1970 for $2000.
My father talked me out of it because it had worn valve guides, which was common on them. It looked absolutely perfect though.
I think nice ones sell for about 2 million now.
In 2017 my dad was selling his pristine 05 Legacy GT manual for $5K. We were in the market for a new car and ended up with a nearly new Volvo V60. Loved that V60 but man I really regret not jumping at the chance to buy that LGT for 1/10 the cost and rolling it for a few years.
I have a much easier time listing the cars I DID buy that I wished I didn’t.
I don’t have any cars I regret buying, I have learned something from them all… I have at least 2 I regret letting go though.
15 years ago, there was a 3-door Land Cruiser Prado J90 selling for about $6,000 in our local selling website.
I was fresh out of college then, and spending all of my savings into a single car seemed a foolish idea. Not to mention the inevitable costs of maintenance and upkeep.
Now, good luck seeing a similar model selling for anything less than $17-20,000.
Hindsight is 20-20, but I still think about the what-ifs until this day.
https://toyota.drive.place/images/toyota/toyota_land_cruiser_prado_90-series_offroad_3d_2.jpg
There were two red cars along about 1987, a Porsche 356 and a ‘65 Mustang GT convertible. Either was $10,000 and in superb condition.
Both were about 20 years ago. One was a 90-ish Wagoneer that was in perfect cosmetic shape, zero rust, and ran and drove, but was $2500 because it was burning oil and had a limited time before it would need an engine rebuild.
The other was a 96 Dodge Dakota, V8, 5-speed, 4×4, extended cab, black and silver two-tone, something like 75k miles, and everything was in perfect shape. I think it was $7k or so. And I regret not buying it, not because it was the most interesting car I’ve had the opportunity to buy, but because it was basically the best combination of characteristics in a truck.
There are a few that have gotten away from me that I would’ve loved to enjoy.
Attainable Dream Car: 2000 Prelude Type SH in Ficus Green Pearl with 14k miles for $13k in ’15. As Honda’s three-quarter sized GT, it looked best in the forest green hue for that mission of barnstorming the curves. Should’ve happened, but missed out by 2 days to align purchase.
The only flaw I had with it is it was the leather (seats) interior, which was added during the original purchase. I always wondered how often those dealer-installed options boxes in the area where leather wasn’t a ubiquitous top tier option one could have for seating material and the CR-V, Prelude, and Civic all had the option for this. Always wondered who was the third party installer for these (and the added pop-out sunroofs). I personally have always loved the premium cloth that Honda had in this era, particularly the various patterns that have held up to the test of time both visually appealing and in their longevity.
Right price/Wrong Time Car: E30 M3 with 70k miles for $15k in ’06. This just didn’t fit the budget of a fresh out of college. Plus I put 20k+ miles a year on my vehicles for the next 12 years of my life and that would’ve not bowed well.
Should’ve pulled that money from the 401k Car: ’99 NSX Alex Zandari edition that was going for like $50k in ’08. Just the ultimate version of the NSX in LHD. Slick top. Weight reduction regiment. The only Honda trim edition named after a Team Driver.
When I was a little kid in the early eighties, both of my parents had old manual transmission cars that I hoped to inherit or buy one day. Dad had a banana yellow first generation early sixties Mercury Comet with a Thriftpower straight six and a four-on-the-floor that had vestigial tailfins. He sold it to a girl from his church when I was too young to drive and she promptly wrecked it. Mom had a 1965 Stingray convertible with the big block, when she got divorced she sold it, took the money and bought my Dad out of his half of the house. I eventually got to buy hand-me-down manual transmission cars from Dad (1989 4-cyl. Camry five speed) and Mom (1978 E150 with a 351 Windsor and three-on-the-tree)
The one that got away for me wasn’t my fault. My wife’s grandparents had a superbly maintained W123 300D they bought new in the 1980s and drove occasionally.
I wanted it. They knew I wanted it.
But damned if their precious granddaughter was going to ride in or drive anything without airbags, so they sold it for a song to an elderly neighbor.
They’re dead now, and I’m still pissed.
(They were good people and really good to us otherwise, though, including giving us their 06 Sienna for free, and generally being supportive and loving and all that. So I still have fond memories of them. Except for that car.)
I found out that my late Uncle’s 2014 Challenger, was hard to sell, and my aunt let it go for a song. (I heard $10k) No one told me that the low-mileage car, maintained by my meticulous, engineer uncle was a problem to get rid of, and on top of it, my present car (220k miles 2014 BRZ) is getting to where I have to think about replacement.
68 or 69 Tempest/LeMans/GTO convertible project car. I just saw it from the road with $3200 on the windshield, no idea which model or engine or if it even ran. Top was in rough shape and I could see lots of surface rust, but that has been one of my dream cars since high school. We saw it a few times on the way to my MIL house. Finally the wife and I talked and decided to stop and look the next time, with the likelihood of buying if it at least ran. Alas, it was gone. 15 years ago and I still look at that field every time we drive by, in case it came back like Christine.
Final year of the Chevy SS, 2017 I believe. In fall of 2018 they had deep discounts on these. Even though they were a screaming deal at around 40k for a 400+hp manual v8 sedan, it was about 10k more than I was looking to spend. I ended up buying a used CTS V-Sport, good car but it was no Chevy SS. Sold it last year for much less than I paid, meanwhile Chevy SS with as many miles as I put on the Cadillac are still selling for the same 40k they were new. Sometimes it does make sense to just buy what you really want.
Forgive me but isn’t a Cadillac CTS just a commodore with a better interior. Same drivetrains but actual effort made? I’m an Aussie, everyone in the US seems to lose their pants over the Chevy SS but in period they were nothing particularly special. They are more special now because cars like that are less common but you need to remember they were just another of a long line of cooking family sedans with a V8 and a veneer of sportiness; the base models still had 3.0 6s. Call it sacriledge if you like but having rented a few VF commodores – albeit to be fair SV6s rather than SS, to me the succeeding Insignadore with the fwd turbo 4 pot was a much better drive.
The CTS V-Sport and the SS were very similar on paper, but rode on different platforms. The CTS on the Alpha platform which would underpin the Gen6 Camaros, the SS was on the Zeta platform. The CTS might have drove a bit sharper even, but the SS had the 6.2 v8 rather than the twin turbo v6 my CTS had. The other big difference was that the SS could be had with 3 pedals. The v6 was an alright engine but I do love a good v8. Both were midsize rwd sedans with mag ride suspension making about 420hp produced by GM at the same time.
Fair enough. I thought CTS, VE Commodore and Camaro were all on the same platform with similiar drivetrains. I’ve not driven a V8 variant but I have had a couple of VF SV6s as rentals and dynamically – not that I was pushing them – they always felt pretty ordinary. I preferred the later 2.0l turbo FWD ‘Insignadore’ RS that I had as a rental in NZ to drive in terms of fun.
I took advantage of that 20% off sale and bought a black 2017 Chevy SS.
One of the best things was standing behind it and triggering the remote start. Hell of an exhaust note.
Unfortunately had to go with an auto so my wife could drive it. She used to get random old guys complimenting the car in parking lots.
Ultimately, had to sell it for a combination of reasons. Not the least of which was the insurance premiums going through the roof after a year. I’ll blame that on GM Australia shutting down all of their manufacturing.
One of the pick n’ pull junkyards here, now closed, had a beautiful ’84 Ford Escort wagon. It was nice enough they opted to try to sell it before parting it out. It was immaculate on the inside and they only wanted $1300. I regret not jumping on that as it would have been a fun project. Same with a Mercury Bobcat wagon on Facebook someone was selling for $500. Disappeared before I could even think twice.
In practical terms, I wish I’d bought the last of the 2009(?) Pontiac Vibes that I test drove when it was new. I think the base/stick model I drove had a sticker around $17-18k. It was just more than I wanted to spend at the time. But given the reported durability, I might possibly still be driving it to this day, and it really would have been a bargain.
A beater 72 911 for $15k. It was right before the values skyrocketed.
72 911s are the best 911s
Every wagon that has since been discontinued in the U.S. market while I’ve been waiting for my Outback to die. Let’s pour one out for the Volve V70, V90, V60, BMW long roofs, Buick Regal TourX, VW Sportwagen . . . .
Back in the late 1990s, I could have bought a basically rust-free 1968 C20 with a 396 and a 4-speed in Oregon for $1,000.00.
I should have bought it. But I was worried about driving that 3/4-ton all the way back to Wisconsin. I still should have bought it.
So many of my friends in high school drove some flavor of C10, K10, or larger Chevy truck. I didn’t get the appeal then, but they paid hundreds of dollars for them was all. In our area, most where defunct farm trucks with low miles and some rust. looking back I should have been looking in barns for big block fun rather than trying to haggle my way into rusty 80s Japanese two doors.
1965 Mustang for $800 in the mid 1980s.