Cars are usually a long-term commitment. Even if you’re leasing, you’re usually going to have the car for at least a couple of years. During that time, you will fall somewhere on the spectrum between adoring that purchase or feeling furious every time you think of the vehicle. But some ownership stints are shorter than your average high school relationship. What was the shortest time you’ve ever owned a car, and why?
I generally consider myself someone who is in it for the long haul. I’ve been with my wife for over five years and am looking forward to still being together decades from now. I still have my second-ever car, my 2012 Smart Fortwo, that I bought new. I also still have my third-ever car, a 2016 Smart Fortwo, and my fourth car, a 2005 Smart Fortwo. If I love a car it’s almost impossible to pry it away from me. I’m unlikely to ever sell these three Smarts, or my Smart diesel or my more recently acquired Smart Cabriolet.
I’ve also been finding other cars that I want to keep long-term, too, like my 2006 Volkswagen Touareg, my 2002 Nova Bus RTS-06, and my 2008 Saturn Sky Red Line. Certainly, it would be a subzero day in Death Valley before I let go of my 1976 Suzuki RE-5 or my 2005 Buell Lightning XB9SX CityX.
But I haven’t always been like this. There was a time that, aside from the Smarts, a vehicle in my possession was lucky if it stuck around for longer than a month. My shortest stint of car ownership was easily my 1991 Ford Festiva. I’ve written about this car before, so I’ll keep it short.
My Festiva, which cost me $500, was a real pile that had sat in a field for at least three years. There was a giant rust hole in one of the doors that had been covered up with a patch of metal from an old dryer that was self-tapped into place. One of the rear axle’s mounting points was almost completely rotted away. The brakes were also sold discs of rust, and it was so bad that applying the brakes did not scrub the rust off.
The worst was the fuel tank, which had giant holes at the seam, meaning that you couldn’t fill it past half. It wasn’t long before the gas tank return line broke off of the top of the tank, making that situation so much worse. My modifications made the car even worse still. I removed the doors and windows and then attacked the wheel wells with a reciprocating saw so I could fit bigger wheels on it. I then daily drove the thing for a month in a Chicago winter, probably leaking gas all over the place and ruining my winter coat. Shoot, the seatbelts were held in place with zip-ties. They would have done nothing in a crash.
The Festiva was, without a doubt, the worst car I have ever owned. I decided to put it out of its misery only a month into ownership after the car blew a brake line at an off-road park. That night, my friends gave it a sort of funeral by ramming it until it rolled over.
Yet, shockingly, there was a vehicle I owned for an even shorter amount of time. The crown for shortest stint goes to a 2005 Honda Rebel that I owned for less than a month. I thought I’d love a Rebel as a first bike, but didn’t, and got rid of it lightning quick.
How about you? What was your shortest ownership stint for a vehicle?
6 months. I had a 1998 Ford Contour, sort of a sleeper, had the 2.5 liter V6 and 5-speed. Was a fun and reliable car. After owning it 10 years the SUV craze was on so I decided to try a Ford Explorer. Found a nice Eddie Bauer Explorer with a 302 V8 and AWD, that thing was a highway cruiser and almost unstoppable in the snow. But it was so big and bulky for daily driving, no fun on curvy back roads, and fairly thirsty. After buying floormats and accessories and stuff I traded it 6 months later on a 2008 Mazdaspeed 3. Handled better, much faster, and more efficient to boot.
7.5 years and counting. The car it replaced I thought I’d sell after about 5 years, but ended up keeping it for 12 given the many, many disappointing test drives of potential replacements I thought I’d like but didn’t.
Bought my ‘22 y used in April. Trading it in in a week for a ‘25 4Runner.
Because it’s an appliance with no resale value, no warranty on anything but the battery and the motors, and the insurance premium on it vs. a 4Runner eats the fuel savings cost.
And it’s not as fun as my 3 was to drive.
First gen Saturn sc. $800 in rough shape with the manual transmission leaking. Brought it home and reattached the subframe. I guess they were trying to pull the transmission but the leak was a driveshaft seal that could be tapped in from the exterior. Filled up the gear oil and got a two week temp tag. Excited about my new ride I drove it to the lake for a day of fishing. As soon as I got on the highway the engine blew. Didn’t even want to mess with it and sold it for scrap before the temp tag even expired.
I bought a Cherokee pickup from an employee once, cause I never owned a JEEP. I sold it back to him about 10days later as it was total shite.
After seeing the picture, I totally misread that as the shortest (length) car I’ve ever owned. But with all the Smart Cars, Mercedes has me beat.
Years ago I went to a public auction that was advertised in the paper bought a tempo got it home and got rid of it within a week because the patch job they had done on the block failed. Went back and found out they were basically running a legally sourced car chop shop. With many people in the pay area yelling about their newly purchased cars failing. With how sketchy it was I just decided to cut my losses. I lost some money but some people lost a fair amount they were done in a few months from people complaining to different regulating bodies.
I bought a 1992 VR6 Corrado in 1998 and sold it 4 years later with only about 125,000 miles on it. My primary reason for selling it a difficulty with a car seat. Those car seats have a hoop that converts to a handle and there wasn’t enough headroom to raise that hoop all the way. So you end up fishing your kid into the back seat of a two door car and through this partially raised hoop. I put up with it for a couple years, but the kid kept getting bigger and this maneuver became increasingly frustrating.
Two years. Half of that time, the car in question was under a lemon law claim.
Well, less than that if you count the three months plus it was just sitting in the shop.
Never buying another Wrangler while it’s under Stellantis ownership.
Well I think my shortest time screams “I’m so entitled”. It lasted 10 months and was a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek. I just wound up hating that car. I looked for reasons not to drive it. I learned that I hate CVTs, Subaru’s nanny state safety technology, and their very buggy infotainment. The worst with the nanny state safety technology was the rear seat. Every time my (buckled in) dog shifted in her seat, the seat belt alarm would go off. Dealer swore it was a “feature”. Lucky for me, Subarus hold their value, and I was able to trade it in for a Mazda3 without being too underwater.
Six months. Too many electrical gremlins that I got tired of chasing down.
I had an ancient Volvo 24x which had been scraped down the driver’s side by a snow plow. Looked like it’d been keyed by a giant. My rubbish B3 Passat had just spun a bearing and wasn’t worth fixing, and I was waiting to hear back from somebody selling a well-kept 924 Turbo which would become my 3rd transaxle Porsche.
I paid $500 for the Volvo, and sold it to a Volvo shop for parts about two weeks later for $350. It worked out cheaper than renting and I ended up with the car I wanted so I was pretty happy.