Biggest Automotive regrets

Lists are fun. Let's do more lists. 
 

What are your biggest automotive regrets? Mistakes, sales, missed purchases, bad timing,... you get the idea. 
 

Mine:

1- Selling my 73 Super Beetle(s. Three of them, one twice)

2- Selling the C4

3- Not buying the 64 falcon

4- not finishing the Funderbird (yet?)

5- buying my first accord (now I can't stop)

ready, go!

Selling the Elise

Not buying that B18c swapped hatch for $2500 (even though the car was sketchy)

Cheap sold a very mint, low mileage XLE Camry about 2 months before the pandemic kicked off. Had I waited a few more months I would've made a killing on it

Not buying my neighbor's air cooled 911 when he offered it to me for peanuts in the late 90s. 

I sold a very nice E36 M3 for $9k

I really should have picked up a 240z, 914 and samurai when they were cheap

Cancelling collision coverage on the E60

Buying that berkeleying 2010 Forester

Not buying that E30 M3 around 20 years ago when it was listed for $8K. I even test drove it. Ugh.

Replacing the brake master cyl on our Lemons E36 as preventative maintenance before the 2020 CMP Block Party because the last guy to drive it said reported problems.  It proceeded to completely shred the clutch an hour into the race as well as the one we struggled for 6 hours to replace in the sand.  

Not replacing the stupid over-complicated radiator-cap-integrated plastic coolant overflow tank sooner with a aluminum one on the E36.

I still look at BMWs on fb marketplace for some reason.

Not buying a 1935 Chevrolet for $125. 

Not buying a 1962 Thunderbird for $2500. 

Buying a 1983 Nissan Stanza

Selling my 1967 Impala. 

Selling my 1981 Corolla Wagon. 

Selling my 1987 Town Car. 

Selling my 1974 Pinto. 

Scrapping my 1978 Fairmont instead of rebuilding the engine. 

Selling my 1978 C10. 

Scrapping my 1962 C10 flatbed. 

I could go on for days. Hindsight is 2020 and never looks anything like the moment. 

Selling my '75 Bronco and '70 VW Bus

Not buying a 1965 Corvette roadster for $1,000 when I was 16 and just got my license. Dad would have loaned me the money. He was a Chevy man.

I expect most of the posts here will be about not buying a particular car.  Here are some of mine that I didn't buy.

'66 Shelby Mustang gt350 for $2000

'63 Corvette Coupe $900

'64 Corvette $2100

'88 BMW M5 $11000

'90 BMW M3 $8000

2006 Ford GT - I don't remember the price but it was when they were new.

All these cars were in good shape

Not buying Ian F's e30

Not buying my buddy's NSX-T for $20k

Not buying the '88 M5 for $9k

Selling both my factory and Mugen S2000 hardtops. 

Giving away my '87 16V GTI

I am sure there are more. 

1) Getting rid of my first car - my 1987 Supra
2) Getting rid of my beater that I restored - a 2001 Nissan Maxima that cost me 800$ (but had 72k miles only)

I sold the beater to a guy I wanted to help out but damn, who knew that finding reasonable beaters would never be possible again.

This is a tough one for me because I mostly managed to dodge that bullet;

I passed on a 356 in 1986; it was $3500 with a rebuilt engine and the floors repaired BUT I used that money to go motorcycle racing. That adventure is worth way more than the 356 would have been.

I sold my 125GP bike to fund the car racing with the Datsun.

I sold the Datsun 1200 but luckily got it back.

I could say selling me D-sports racer but I used that to get the Datsun back. The DSR was awesome to drive but I hated owning it.

The Volvo 142 was one I miss but I really needed something more modern as a daily.

I don't have many regrets in my automotive life. Even my failures have taught me a lot.

1) Taking 10 years of driving to realize that FWD cars can be fun
2) Taking 5 years of owning old junk to realize that fuel injection isn't scary
3) My Volvo swapped Miata project. I learned a lot but wasted a bunch of money
4) Saving money on pushrod tubes for my ACVW build that ended up leaking and killing the engine in 200 miles.
5) Being afraid to start projects pushing them back further than need be.

a)  I think, maybe, buying my land cruiser

b) talking my wife into just replacing the suspension on her allroad...we should have sold that thing and moved the heck on.

c) selling my first MR2

Selling my Tercel (to get my Conquest)

Selling my Conquest (to join the Navy)

Buying my Mustang. 

Selling my Forester XT (because it broke). 

Selling my Honda Fit (for my MR-S)

Selling my MR-S (for my Crosstour)

I'm keeping the Crosstour until it burst into flames. 

Selling my CSX Shelby Cobra (I still made a profit) 

Selling my 1988 MERA ( I needed space and I want it back even though it's worth very little)

Selling my 67 A code mustang that I had in HS. (I definitely lost money) 

I did real well on all the cars and I actually bought a house with the cash and made way more then the cars ever could have appreciated but still I want them back. The exotics once they left the garage I never really thought of them again fondly. It was like having a boat happy when I bought them and happy when I sold them. 

If I had space I would still have my old F250 paint truck "Clifford" that I adored more then any car I have ever owned, and just spent a bunch of money to get something similar. I also want my old Thunderranch Riot back because I could do so much better of a job now on restoring it then I did then. 

Selling my '65 21-window deluxe VW for $2500 in the late 80s.

Not buying an e30 m3 for $16k about 10 years ago.

Getting rid of a vr6 TT for a Hemi Charger.

Listening to the wife and not buying an $8000 944 turbo a few years ago.

Buying my current house since I knew the shop was too small back in 2000.

Building an LS-powered MGB instead of buying the black 1988 911 coupe that was for sale in town in 2008 or so. I thought it would be the bang for the buck choice. Instead, that 911 has probably at least tripled in value.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Cancelling collision coverage on the E60

I carry full coverage on all my cars.  Liability is the expensive part and you're required to carry that.  Once that pill is swallowed, you can buy a lot more insurance for not a lot more money.

For my own automotive regrets, I don't have too many:

• 2.4-swapping my wife's Neon.  It came out fine in the end and made a fantastic daily with the automatic.  But it was not worth the stress it caused.
   
• I sold my '95 ACR too cheap - should have gotten another $1000 for it.
   
• I sold my '03 325i too cheap - should have gotten another $1500 for it.

I don't tend to make hasty automotive buying decisions, and once I do, I keep the cars for a long time.  So my regrets on that front are minor.

Starting from waaay back:

Selling the 1973 RX-2 and looking at the T-boned total wreck of it about two weeks later.

Selling the E36 vert.

Selling the 5th gen 5-speed Prelude, aka the best handling FWD car ever made.

Edit:  Selling ( giving away, really ) the first gen Neon 5-speed coupe.  That car totally re-wrote my opinion of the Neon.

Not buying the Jag XK8 ( I might be able to forgive myself for this one )

Ragrets. 
 

1985 - girlfriend wanted a new Monte Carlo SS - changed mind and bought a crap Pontiac Grand Am SE - total POS.  

Should've tried harder on the Monte.....

Not hanging on to a 1964 Galaxie convertible 390 4-speed,

NOT preflighting the BatVan properly.  Coulda been fun.  =~ O   or terrifying.

Selling my '91 318is back in 2010. Getting something as clean and nice, with the same mods now, would likely be in the $13-16k range. 

Not buying an E30 M3 in the late 2000s when prices were still pretty reasonable. 

Not buying that '86 Corolla SR5 before people knew what they were worth.  In my defense, I didn't know either.  It was $100 and needed a timing belt and a radiator.

There are lots but that is the biggie.