Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda!

Just reading the article on the '64 XKE @$100K reminded me of a terrible choice I had to make in 1976. Though only 30, I married a lovely woman of about my age. Right after our marriage a mutual friend offered his beautiful '64 XKE Roadster, Blue with White interior, for sale to us at $4,500. He had other irons in the fire but wanted it to go to someone who would care for it.

Being just married, having a '71 240Z, a '73 Corolla, and a '67 Cougar all sitting out in the cold as we had no garage, we passed. It was the perfect ride but was about 5 years either too soon or too late. We just couldn't afford it!

Soon after that things improved and we had a 1,600 sq. ft. garage to play in. But I never found that car or another I considered that nice to buy.

I'm sure most car lovers have had at least one similar experience. I thought it'd be interesting to tell us what your coulda, shoulda experience was.

Back around 1980 I was offered a 1967 Corvette by a co-worker, if I remember correctly he was asking $5500. It was a small block, four speed coupe in very nice condition. Instead, I bought a new Mazda 626. It was a good car and I drove it for 20 years, but after 20 years it was worth zip and that Corvette was worth a lot more than the asking price.

The funny/sad thing is he ended up taking it to the dealer and trading it in on a '78 silver anniversary Corvette, thinking it would appreciate more than the '67...the next day he realized what a bad idea that was and went back to the dealer, but they'd already sold it for a healthy profit.

Once I passed on a Lancia Fulvia on Ebay which I could've afforded at the time, but decided to pass as I hadn't sold my '72 Volvo 142 yet. But worse, My Dad and I were considering buying a Maserati Ghibli in very nice driver condition back about 13 - 14 years ago, the asking price was 29K......Aaahhh.

Aston Martin DBS - $20,000. And that was just 12 yrs ago. Owned by a neighbor's son and probably could have gotten it for less.

You more likely dodged a bullet. That Jag woulda eaten you up financially and ruined your marriage with its demands for perpetual attention.

The E-Type was my fantasy car till I was almost 40 years old. Then some people I know started buying them and I thanked the lord that the stars never aligned such that I bought one. Still beautiful, but not much else good to say about them.

Mine are all Porsche and occurred back in the mid 90s. I was in HS and had very limited funds and had to fight my father for space in his garages.

trying to find a first car:

1. Porsche 914: Faded and a bit rusty but driving, owner wouldn't go below $800. I only had $500 to spend at the time...

A little later when I had a few more bucks but already purchased a 77 Corvette:

1. Late 60's 912 Targa: Fairly solid, but dirty, tattered, no brakes and would not really run on it's own. Sold for around $4000 which I thought was completely outrageous at the time.

2. Early 70s 911T: Looked very nice to me and only asking something like $5500. Alas, most of my money was tied up in the aforementioned Corvette, so might as well have been a million.

Got a huge woulda/shoulda list. Here are my most memorable.

1966 Shelby GT350 Hertz car for $2300. in 1972. I was a poor college student at the time so that kind of money back then was huge.

1965 Sunbeam Tiger for $800. 1959 Cadillac for $800. Austin Healey 3000 for $400. all about that same era.

I did score a Mini-Cooper for $250. and my first Porsche 356B for $500. however. They were beaters but still a lot of fun. In the late 70`s I picked up a fatted out 1275 MG Midget for about a grand.

i can always tell when i know ive been around awhile!

my 1st car, a 1934 Ford roadster, bought for $18.(yup eighteen dollars),1949 i was 15 yrs old. talk about short sighted, how about yr 1950, stepin up big time bought a 1938 Lincoln Zepher 3 window coupe(V12 engine),for $35.dollars. had it a yr,and sold it for big bucks,$125. many lincoln guys did not know that Lincoln actually made a 2 seater car from the factory!

last yr at a Barrett jacks auction one sold for $400,000.

because in that early post WW2 era, cars had no value,me beein a car nut, had close to 100 cars before i turned 21yrs old. some today worth encredable money, whoda thought.

In reply to ronbros: Hey Bro! You have me beat by a long shot. Thanks for making me feel better!

In reply to impster: That DBS would certainly have been low hanging fruit!

In reply to NOHOME: You're right about the cost issues. I did own a couple of Jags, years later. And they easily could have eaten me out of house and home had I not been able to do almost all of the work myself!

Being just married, it easily could have been our parting point! But from time to time we still ask. what about that blue XKE?

Xk140 for $800 in 1966, went back the next day and thankfully it had been sold. bought a 1958 100-6 for my 2nd year in college. Wish I still had it, but I do have a NA , should have bought one years ago

In reply to Hokie69: I had a 100/4 for a very short while in the '60s. One of many I wish I still had! Though I don't have room for even one more.

Too many to list, but three stand out. A '65 Sunbeam Tiger, complete daily driver for $300. Too young in 1974. A '70 Buick GS Stage 1, beautiful black car, all original, loaded with options for $900. Too poor in 1978. Last, but not least. A '64 GTO, from the original owner. $1500 in 1982. Too married and she was too pregnant. Oh well...

In reply to jdtaylor65: Yes, things do interfere with life as planned from time to time!

During my two tours in Vietnam the last thing anyone wanted to ever hear about was a "phone call!" There were no cells, no land lines, etc. to connect you with the states. The only way you over got a "phone call" was when one was forwarded by Amateur Radio operators (HAMS). The way that worked is a HAM had a radio powerful enough to access Vietnam. And the "MARS" system had a radio in Vietnam to reply. (Don't even ask me what MARS stands for!) Since this was a radio a one way conversation, everyone on each end had to say "over" every time they were through talking. So the radio operators on each end knew to switch their set from transmit to receive or receive to transmit.

So if there were an emergency someone needed to know about the person in the US could place a radio call. It usually took at least two (2) days to set up the call. So anyone who received a call was certainly not going to receive good news!

Top priority for a Ham call was death in the close family. The second priority was your girlfriend, not to be confused with your wife, was pregnant. Beyond those two issues, "calls" didn't occur.

I was unfortunate enough to be told upon return from a flight sortie that I had a "call" and needed to be at the call center at 02:00 to receive my call. My "call" was from my mother. Every time she was finished talking I could hear the HAM guy say "say over". She would then say "over" and people on both ends switched their radios.

The message was that my stepfather, who was the closest person to a father I actually remembered had died. I was offered the chance to take emergency leave and try to get home for the funeral. But I got the "call" two days after my stepfather was buried so I really didn't think it was worth the trip.

The good news was, I had no pregnant girlfriend so I didn't need to go home to make her "honest!" Which was the only other thing you ever heard about. If you were married and your wife was pregnant, regardless of how long you had been deployed even before she had become pregnant, it wasn't something worth wasting time on.

Remember MARS calls when I was in Korea in the 70's. Our helicopters HF radio could talk with MARS stations. Don't recall what the "MA" stands for but believe the "RS" was for relay station.

Most of mine were when I was younger and the cars were just used cars back then. Mostly what is considered muscle car now. 55 Chevy 2-door post for $40, needed intake/carb/radiator to run and wheels to drive. Had a more recent sbc in it. I was almost 16 and dad wouldn't let me bring it home. And all-original 57 Chevy 2-door post w/V8 and AT. Ran and drove for $150, I was almost 16 and dad waited to long so his friend bought it. 67 Chevelle, needed the same as the 55 did. I was 16 but dad wouldn't let me bring it home. More recent was an Opel Manta that someone was going to give me if I would go get it. Bad auto trans so didn't drive. Was just starting the resto on my Opel GT and didn't really have the room. Several years ago. Was other in between but didn't have the money or time. Like a 70 Mustang that had shoddy body work and a poor re-spray. VIN and other clues suggested it was a true BOSS. The shaker hood was worth more than he was asking. Before internet. And I was broke.

In the early 80s, I found an early 6 cylinder Aston Martin DBS 6 cylinder. It was in Hemmings. The guy wanted $17,000. I talked him down to $15,000. I went to get the cash, and another guy was counting out $17000 then I got back. Probably just as well.

in '83, I had an XJ6L (I'll never be old enough for a car like that again) that needed some work. I took it to a shop in Costa Mesa. I made arrangements to pick it up on a weekend when they were normally closed. When I was picking it up (stuck advance in the distributor) I was enlisted to help the owner and another guy push a beautiful Lamborghini 350 GT out of the shop. They were changing the battery (under the rear seat) and just waking it up from a nap. So beautiful, and damned near perfect in black with cream leather. The way that the six webers stick out to the sides of the engine from in between the cams looked awesome. I had never seen anything like it.

It was offered to me at 20 grand. I was single, 28 years old, and I had the cash. I passed though. Invested in a rental house in Lake Elsinore instead. That didn't make any money.

In reply to 850Combat: Wow! That truly qualifies as a Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda!

1974, I was a 14 year old car nut mowing lawns and working at a service station on Sundays (drag strip day!). Saved my money with a certain car in my sites. After saving the correct amount ($475) I bought the car...1969 Shelby Mustang, 428 4 speed fastback with a bad starter. Push started it and drove it home, fixed the starter (bad cable) cleaned it REALLY well and tuned it to perfection.

Dad gets home and throws a fit!! I'm too young, I can't legally buy a car, gas prices will be awful, and I will kill myself in this car (experience has shown he may have had a point on the last one). Made me take it back and got $425 back. The now running and polished car quickly sold for $2000 to a local banker who gave it to his kid.

Kid is now a policeman and lives 15 miles away and still owns the car. My life is littered with Panteras, XKEs, Tigers, Bugeyes and Mustangs that fit the coulda, woulda, shoulda!

Bruce

In reply to egnorant:Your Dad was trying to keep you alive. Plus, you make a nice profit on the flip. But it must hurt to have that beauty so close by, belonging to someone else!

Rupert wrote: And the "MARS" system had a radio in Vietnam to reply. (Don't even ask me what MARS stands for!)

MARS = Military Affiliate Radio System. Each branch of the military had it's own MARS. I was an Air Force MARS operator(callsign AFB1UN) for 15 years in the 70's and 80's. The only time I was involved with "phone patches" was went I would go down to Andrews AFB to help out at the MARS station there.

Mostly I did message relays from home. A service member could go the MARS station and have a message sent home. The message would be relayed thru the system until it reached an operator close to the destination. That operator would then call the recipient on the phone and read the message to them. If the recipient was in central or western Maryland I was usually the one who made the call since I was usually on the net every evening.

In reply to Hal: Hal, Thanks so much for your very important service! Obviously most of us never wanted a call, since it usually meant someone close in the family had died or your girlfriend was pregnant!

The call I received took days to set-up and must have meant a lot of effort on the part of people like you.

I got a coulda, woulda, did, & shoulda kept...Bought a brand new '86 SVO Mustang off a Ford dealer's lot for well below invoice in 1987. Got a couple of tickets in the first year of ownership and decided I wasn't willing to pay more for insurance than car payments considering I was going overseas for 2 years and would have to park it. I've had cars that are faster and/or better handling since then, but never have had something with that combination of nice, fun and unique. Oh well, C'est la Vie!

"I got a coulda, woulda, did, & shoulda kept...Bought a brand new '86 SVO Mustang off a Ford dealer's lot"

In 1986 I walked into a Ford dealership where they had a solitary SVO on the lot. Talked to the salesman and he knew nothing about the car. Couldn't even tell me about the engine or how much h.p. it had. He then tried to explain that "they" (i.e. Ford) didn't give them any specs on the car. I then asked him why he didn't read R&T or C&D. The guy was totally clueless and he was selling cars.

Got so disgusted and walked across the street to purchase a new Dodge Shelby Charger turbo. Just as well,as I couldn't really afford the SVO.