The signs were there, but you bought it anyway.

In 2013, I wanted to get a bigger sedan for my daily as we just had our kid. I had fond memories of my 1987 Buick Grand National so when I saw that GM brought the Open Insignia to the USA as a Buick I decided I would get one and that I would get the Regal GS with the six speed manual.

It was a bargain for sure. I ended up with a new 2011 that was sitting on the lot and I got it for below invoice, but I should have known when I test drove it that it wasn't the car for me. When I got into it the driver seat wasn't comfortable for me, but I figured I would get it adjusted and it would be okay. The car was gutless out of boost and the gearing for 6th was so tall you couldn't accelerate at all. The torque steer was monumentally bad. The shifting was also kinda lacking in feedback as well. Some of that only really became annoying with time, but I should have known from the get go that it wasn't a good idea after I couldn't get comfortable in the driver seat, but I let the low price and the fact that it looked amazing influence me into buying it. I mean, it did look really good.

I traded it for a Ford Focus ST, and that car was an amazingly good driver both day to day and at the limit.

I bought a 1989 Toyota pickup with the 3.0 that ran a little rough. But it was a cool truck with big tires. Probably just a head gasket, that's an easy fix.

After I found the piston parts in the pan, I installed a rebuilt engine. Pulled off the big tires because they sucked. Then the 3.0 still didn't have enough power to pass another car  at altitude - they call it the 3.slow for a reason. Sold it and bought a 2000 Tundra. MUCH better.

I needed a daily, it was very cheap. On paper it fit my needs perfectly. I don't haul sheet goods, I haul engines and transmissions and tow light trailers. 

This is the kind of vehicle sold to consumers who are impressed by the presence of cubbies. 16 useless, little pockets accessible from the drivers seat alone. Cupholders that will not hold any beverage under 32 ounces. 12oz coffee? Sorry, you are gonna have to hold that since we built this sucker to handle four of 7-11's biggest Gulps. Visibility? No. Just No.  Rearward? of course not. Forward then? Well, it has a massive blind spot in front and even after two years of practice I still could never pull it all the way into a parking spot. 

It did teach me a lot about why traffic moves the way it does now that most cars are trucks and SUVs. The way they resist steering inputs goes a long way to explain why drivers turn so early in intersections and cross over so much of the inside lanes of traffic. 

I will never understand why people have moved from cars to trucks. I mean, I get why it happened. Billions in marketing to make them seem great worked.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/they-said-it-cant-be-fixed-journey-inside-mercedes/142999/page1/

Jag XKR. Absolutely pristine and suspiciously cheap. 

It stranded me twice in the 3 months I owned it. The first time was on the drive home.

First year C6....  Z51, 6sp, beautiful car in LeMans Blue.  8 years old (at the time), 45k miles... what could go wrong?

It was great when it worked, which wasn't often.  Started off with the camshaft pulley coming loose about a month into our ownership.  Epic buffetting with the 'targa' top off.  I put in it's third water pump at 52k miles (400 miles from home).  The center stack (radio/HVAC) would randomly switch on/off.  The memory seats had alzheimers.  Cooling fan controller module went out.  Torque tube bearings were going when I traded it off after 9 months.  Everything plastic (which was everything) in the interior was falling apart.  IIRC it had about 60k at that point.

Does my ex count?

I was looking for a Crown Vic I could turn into an eventual Challenge Car.

Ex-Wife didn't want me to have a Crown Vic cause she had been arrested for DUI and didn't want the reminder.

I got my Miata, which I still love, despite her faults.  I wouldn't let her drive the Miata as she wasnt on the insurance and I was the sole driver.  Eventually I told her I wanted a divorce.  One of the things that came about from those fights was "well if I had known this was going to happen I would have let you buy the Crown Vic!"

Probably not the signs we were discussing, though.

Cousin Eddie should start an offshoot thread entitled "The signs were there but you dated/married her anyway".  Hashtag "buy her a house"...

95 Saturn SL2.  Shortly after I graduated high school i had an 89 Acura Integra that I loved but due to deferred maintenance on my part the car needed work and left me stranded a few times which made family insist that I get a newer car.  I ended up with a gently used saturn sl2 which i loathed and sold months later to a family member who cherished it for it's reliability and what not.  I ended up picking up an MR2 turbo which was awesome.  

I exchanged hard earned money/cash for vehicles with Michigan titles. Phuck rust.

Keith Tanner said:

I bought a 1989 Toyota pickup with the 3.0 that ran a little rough. But it was a cool truck with big tires. Probably just a head gasket, that's an easy fix.

After I found the piston parts in the pan, I installed a rebuilt engine. Pulled off the big tires because they sucked. Then the 3.0 still didn't have enough power to pass another car  at altitude - they call it the 3.slow for a reason. Sold it and bought a 2000 Tundra. MUCH better.

It was a pretty small range of cars from the 80s that could pass anything at altitude.

Id like to note that I still dont have my Crown Vic.

In reply to Rodan :

So far, my 2008 has been almost perfect.  Only problem to note is the creaking from the targa top.  Yeah, top off is definitely not recommended on the highway.  I guess it's a good thing I have the 1LT without the bells and whistles!

Harvey said:

Keith Tanner said:

I bought a 1989 Toyota pickup with the 3.0 that ran a little rough. But it was a cool truck with big tires. Probably just a head gasket, that's an easy fix.

After I found the piston parts in the pan, I installed a rebuilt engine. Pulled off the big tires because they sucked. Then the 3.0 still didn't have enough power to pass another car  at altitude - they call it the 3.slow for a reason. Sold it and bought a 2000 Tundra. MUCH better.

It was a pretty small range of cars from the 80s that could pass anything at altitude.

A 3.0 Toyota pickup is slightly better than a 2.8 S10, but neither one needed 5th gear, because neither had the torque to pull it.  Empty.

My old 2009 WRX fits this description. 



I had a 2002 WRX wagon with a bunch of mods before this. I loved that thing. My reason for buying this is that it basically had the power of the modded EJ20, but under warranty. I never should have bought it. It never felt as fun or as good as the 2002, and I started having issues with it almost immediately. I was out of it with lots of buyer's remorse in about 2 years.   

Rodan said:

First year C6....  Z51, 6sp, beautiful car in LeMans Blue.  8 years old (at the time), 45k miles... what could go wrong?

 

It was great when it worked, which wasn't often.  Started off with the camshaft pulley coming loose about a month into our ownership.  Epic buffetting with the 'targa' top off.  I put in it's third water pump at 52k miles (400 miles from home).  The center stack (radio/HVAC) would randomly switch on/off.  The memory seats had alzheimers.  Cooling fan controller module went out.  Torque tube bearings were going when I traded it off after 9 months.  Everything plastic (which was everything) in the interior was falling apart.  IIRC it had about 60k at that point.

That is a really good looking car and I had a 2006 Z06 where the motor blew up so I feel your pain (technically I'd say I felt more pain). I didn't have the same issues since it was a different motor and the Z06 is a fixed roof, but there were more than a few things about the interior that I felt could have been done to a higher standard. That said, I probably had fewer of those problems because they stripped the interior of the Z06 of a lot of things comfort related in the interest of weight saving, which probably ended up removing things that could have broken.

I think my fondest memory was when I realized the trans tunnel insulation and carpet was falling down and exposing the bare metal of the tunnel. This is most likely due to the extreme heat coming off the tunnel, which of course was beaming directly into the cabin at that point. Ah good times. It's all documented in my build thread.

Tony Sestito said:

My old 2009 WRX fits this description. 



I had a 2002 WRX wagon with a bunch of mods before this. I loved that thing. My reason for buying this is that it basically had the power of the modded EJ20, but under warranty. I never should have bought it. It never felt as fun or as good as the 2002, and I started having issues with it almost immediately. I was out of it with lots of buyer's remorse in about 2 years.   

Could be worse, you could have bought the STI of that generation. My friend bought one and the motor grenaded at around 80k miles and all he did was commute in it.

A used 2015 Jaguar F-Type R. To be fair, I had no issues with it in the year we owned it, but the anxiety kept creeping upward after finding that a headlamp assembly is $4,000, and a used long block is >$20,000. Becoming as frustrated with traffic as I was with Midlana was another. Lastly, the worry about parking it just about anywhere, surrounded by all those "losers" in their pedestrian vehicles who don't care.

Yeah it's gone now and in hindsight I never should have bought it. A slightly twisted analogy is looking at it like a $20 hooker - and thinking, "that could be fun, what could possibly go wrong." Thinking things through before hand could have answered that.

Years ago I wrecked my E30 325is and was desperate for another.  I bought the cheapest one I could find from a shady kid who was 'trying to get into dealing cars' -- only to find the odometer had been rolled back 100K miles and the car needed thousands in deferred maintenance.  I replaced it soon after with another 325is that had a bit of crud on the dipstick, then a few months later I had to replace a cracked head on that car.  Young and dumb; lessons learned.

I bought a low-miler Saab 900 at an auction, having previously inspected it and noted an obvious blown HG. Struck me as kinda odd that it had been totalled just for that, but I bid on it anyway and won. Had it delivered, went to move it...gearbox was trashed. And that's how I ended up with several dozen Rubbermaid tubs of parts in my basement, plus a spare engine. No one would haul the shell without a title, so like a serial killer I cut it up with a Sawzall and took it to the recycle station, in multiple trips. I think I learned an approx $2,000 lesson. 

We have a family catch phrase to describe my brothers' car purchases.  "All it needs is..."  Between the '67 Chevelle that was dropped off on a trailer and left on a trailer a couple years later (with literally nothing ever done to it), the Corvair (that was his daily for a while) that he finally sold off for $500 after almost 20 years of sitting with the engine out, the 944 that eventually burned to the ground after "driving" across the road while being filmed by a cop car, and the 300ZXTT that "just needed a replacement engine"...he earned that in his earlier years.  

My only "all it needs is" was a 2000 e46 with a bad driveshaft carrier.  I knew it made that racket, buddies said it was absolutely diff mount, "tub is probably destroyed", etc.  Sold it for 2k (bought for 1k) to get my wife's engagement ring.  Don't regret anything about that transaction.  

Maybe the RX7 is also in that category, but at least we have raced the thing.  

2006 Land Cruiser.  

I had been on the prowl to replace my F250 with something a little smaller, test drove a few Tahoes and whatnot but didn't like the build quality.  Decided I wanted a Land Cruiser.   

Found a pretty sweet rust free one that had been brought up from down south.  Right color, right year, nice BFGs on the best stock rims.   Didn't really spend a ton of time looking it over and bought it.  Had I spent more time looking it over I would have noticed...

• The AHC globes were dead, it road like a buckboard.  That cost $1100 for me to fix.
• The sunroof drains were plugged.  First rain and the interior was swimming.
• A real questionable shop had done head gaskets on it, all the undertrays were missing, all the little covers inside the engine bay were busted up.
  • Also, why did a low mileage land cruiser need head gaskets in the first place.  Its not a common failure point at all
• Engine had a tick to it, not super noticeable unless you were in a drive-thru and it echo'd off the wall.  Not the common manifold tick
• A lot of undisclosed dings and damage including the rear spoiler had somehow been ripped off the hatch
• Carpet was wrecked and badly stained under the mats
• Heat didn't work.
  • Front heater core had been completely plugged with stop-leak.  Backflushed it and now the heater core leaked.
• Starter went out after 3 months
• Once you drove it over 2 hours you got AIR codes because the check valves were gunked up.
• TPMS didn't work

So anyway, I fixed all that garbage, sold it at a TREMENDOUS loss 6 months into ownership and bought a creampuff of a 2015 Land Cruiser that I absolutely adored.  And to top it all off I sold my super clean 2002 F250 Lariat CC/SB with a 7.3 and a manual trans for it.  That was a bad deal.  

I should have been smart enough to walk away.  

Harvey said:

Keith Tanner said:

I bought a 1989 Toyota pickup with the 3.0 that ran a little rough. But it was a cool truck with big tires. Probably just a head gasket, that's an easy fix.

After I found the piston parts in the pan, I installed a rebuilt engine. Pulled off the big tires because they sucked. Then the 3.0 still didn't have enough power to pass another car  at altitude - they call it the 3.slow for a reason. Sold it and bought a 2000 Tundra. MUCH better.

It was a pretty small range of cars from the 80s that could pass anything at altitude.

I've got a bunch of 80's cars. The truck was notably slow. And it was a pretty late 80's vehicle, introduced in 1988. That's only a year newer than my NA Miata, and they can pass cars :) It was just a poor engine - unreliable, thirsty and weak. The 3.4 is a different beast.

We're not even talking about very much altitude, the "ownership ending event" (an attempted pass that just didn't happen) was at 7500'. I've experienced the whole "pull out to pass, nothing happens" thing before but that was in an early 80's Volvo 240 station wagon with five people on board, a full cargo bay and a canoe and windsurfer on the roof. Anyhow, it's one of the few vehicles that I do not regret selling. It's telling that I have no pictures of it.

My 1986 Subaru wagon, though - I'd get on the interstate in that thing and just pin the throttle. It couldn't manage to break the speed limit. Climbing over the big passes on I70, I had to watch the rear view mirror for semis :) But it had an engine almost half the size of the truck, making less than half the power. I don't regret buying that one, it was everything it needed to be and did not require a new engine at any point during my ownership.