Your best "kick me hard" stories

I've got more than just a few.

1) 1973 - I'm offered a 1966 Shelby GT350H (the Hertz rentals) for $2100. and turn it down. Of course then I'm a college student and 2.1k is like 210k now, but that's inflation.

2) A 1959 Caddy - the one with the big fins. Turn it down in decent condition for $800 in the mid 70's because its not a convertible.

3) It's the early 80's. I own a 1960 Porsche 356B and turn down a 1.6 Carerra engine for $200. because it was "not original to my car".

I've got some even worse than this but am too embarassed to admit until you guys cough up.

I bought a 1990 Audi V8Q for $2500, drove it 20 miles and the battery EOL'd on the side of a snowy, winding road; gigantic Audi battery $85. I drove it another 10 miles and the upper radiator hose started spraying... overcomplicated special Audi hose = $210. Then about 140 miles later, as I pulled onto the freeway ramp behind my house, all of the magic smoke left the transmission.

I sold it for $500.

A really nice Porsche 356 with a Super 90 engine for like $14k about 16 years ago. I should have taken out the loan.

The 69 GTO Judge I could have had in 1980. I didn't think it was worth the $1100 my girlfriends brother wanted.

A 250 GTO Ferrari in reasonably bad shaped lived behind me in the mid 70's. It had been lightly wrecked (on track of course) and repaired, but it didn't run. The paint was splotchy.

They weren't appreciated by people then, they were just old Ferraris.

It could have been mine for $12,000 and I (not my wife) vetoed it cause I priced parts for it. While that was a lot of $$ in the 70's I could have swung it and while I'd have never done a concours restoration I would have had it in condition to drive the heck out of it.

Now when was it that one sold for $3,000,000? That one definitely would have been a better investment than gold.

TR8owner said: 3) It's the early 80's. I own a 1960 Porsche 356B and turn down a 1.6 Carerra engine for $200. because it was "not original to my car".

HOLY berkeley! Read this, you will chuckle! What kind of engine do I have?

"A 250 GTO Ferrari in reasonably bad shaped..The paint was splotchy.... they were just old Ferraris....It could have been mine for $12,000"

OMG Now I don't feel quite so bad. :-)

Maroon92 wrote: HOLY berkeley! Read this, you will chuckle! What kind of engine do I have?

Still reading this one, and it keeps getting better - sweet!!

nderwater wrote:

Maroon92 wrote: HOLY berkeley! Read this, you will chuckle! What kind of engine do I have?

Still reading this one, and it keeps getting better - sweet!!

That was a great and entertaining link... although a little lengthy. The 917 engine start up vids were cool too... and worth the extra time reading through the pages.

Picked up a 65 Tbird that was complete but needed all the exterior trim re installed due to new paint. Sold it for $200 I did not have the time to just snap the trim back on.

I worked for a fledging retail place called Wal Mart in the '80's as a stock boy for $3.50 an hour. they offered stock options. Stock options which have split hundreds of times in the ensuing years.

I didn't buy a 1971 XY Flacon GTHO Phase III for a way overpriced A$20,000 in the early 80's, it just couldn't be worth that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Falcon_GTHO_Phase_III

The Phase III GTHO is in incredibly high demand with collectors and investors worldwide. Good examples have been sold for prices in excess of A$700,000. Due to this demand, a small production run, and 'fewer than 100 remaining'[5] there been a flow on effect into values of the lesser XW and other XY Falcons, particularly genuine GS and 'standard' GT models. Other models that have also benefited from the appreciation of the GTHO include the XA and XB GT hardtops, the earlier XW GTHO Phase 1 and 2 and the XC Cobra.

A Falcon XY GTHO Phase III was sold at by Bonhams & Goodmans at auction for A$683,650 in March 2007. The car had just 40,000 km on the clock. The buyer of the car said it will be garaged, and that it won't be driven, but that he will be "keeping it as an investment".[6] The sale price set a new auction record for Australian muscle cars.[7] Whilst in June 2007 another Phase III sold for A$750,000.[8]

The Phase III GT is one of the few cars ever made that appreciated in value from the moment it left the dealership - even in 1975, four year old Phase IIIs were fetching prices equivalent to or higher than the on-road price of brand new XB GTs from Ford dealers.

aussiesmg wrote: I didn't buy a 1971 XY Flacon GTHO Phase III for a way overpriced A$20,000 in the early 80's, it just couldn't be worth that.

At those prices I am surprised that people are not making clones of them. Falcons sell for 10-20K in good shape. Mod it to be a clone car for say 20-50k???? I bet you could make money at that.

For that reason, GTHO clones are actually fairly common .

My father had a friend named Dennis when I was in high school. I had already finished the Camaro and was almost done with the 4 door GTO (1966 Tempest 4 door post with a butt load of GTO parts on it). Dennis was notorious for his cars, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Jaguar, etc. In his pole barn he had a 1965 Corvette rolling chassis, complete minus engine and transmission. I was told that if I mowed his lawn all summer I could have it. I said no thank you... His lawn was 15 acres and had a landing strip.

It's not like I wouldn't be doing it with an industrial lawn tractor...

Stoopid Mofo.

1. 1974 - I had a chance to buy a Sunbeam Tiger for $400. It sounded rough and likely had a burned valve.

2. 1976- A fellow grad student offered me his 65 Jag XK-E for $3500. He had just had it painted. The car had been his dads.

3. 1974 - a coworker offered me his jag XK-150Ss, originally owned by his father for $1,800.

4. 1971 - local Olds dealership has a 56 Jag Xk-140 sitting up front. Stop in and take pictures(and still have them). Mother calls the dealership and they say they want $2,195... but would take $1,800 (on the phone with no haggling).

5. 1972 An old childhood friend and later college mate had an uncle with an XK-150S (yes again) that he would be willing to let go for ...$1800.

Note the common threads of $1800 and Jaguars. I get sick when I think about these cars. But I was a poor college student at the time and $1800 would buy a new VW beetle or in my case a 1972 Vega. Oh the humanity!

I haven't passed on many deals, which is why I have 12 or so cars, but I did pass on a '78 911 that had been sitting outside for a while, for $1,000. Also passed on two 911's as a package deal, a '73 and a '74 parts car, for $2,200.

1991 Ferrari 348tb. Offered the stealership i worked at $10k, they said no. Shift bushings were bad, paint was tired, tires dry rotted...

1995 Aston Martin DB7. Had the inline 6 in it, 5 or 6 speed (forgot), british racing green, push button start was broken, needed work. Offered $7k if i remember right, they laughed at me...

living in wyoming in 2002 fo wyotech. right before i graduated 69 firdbird fully restored by the school comes up for sale for 5200 and i decided against it because i already had 2 cars to tow home (one of them being a 89 ford escort lx) that i owned for the pure purpose of highway mpg

"Can you hold it for a while for me?"

1985, I have an opportunity to buy my deceased neighbor's fieldstone farmhouse with 2 acres of lake front property where I spent summers as a kid swimming and boating.... for $60k because my grandfather was the executor of his will. I turned it down because I was 19, broke and stupid.

I could not buy that same property with half a million today.

The really funny thing is I had a Mercury trace three door hatch (one of the first mazda made ones). Dark blue with blue interior optioned to the hilt and for some reason I really want that car back. Sold it to my sister

When I was first getting into E30's I passed on a few M3's because at $7K-$8K I thought they'd depreciate further. 12 years later, I never ended up getting an E30 M3 and cars like the ones I was looking at are now selling for double or more.

I had an extra ticket for an event, and sold it to a stranger for $20 more than face value...thought to myself "hey thats a tank of gas, so Im happy with that". About a half hour later, a friend who knew I had said ticket came running up to me with another potential buyer, asking if I had already sold my ticket. I said I had. Buyer is frustrated and storms off. I ask my friend why it was so important to that guy. Buddy says he doesnt know, but the guy told my buddy he was only willing to pay $150 over face, not a penny more

I had the opportunity to purchase a house with 2-car detached garage and enormous block workshop built by my grandfather to work on semis for $90k. Got appraised, it only appraised at $75k. So I said no. Idiot! The appraiser was an idiot too. I ended up buying just a house, no garage, for $70k in the same neighborhood a couple years later. Sigh. I was young and dumb. (Now I'm old and dumb.)

Edit: forgot to mention, it would have been owner financed, too. Double sigh!