Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda - The Ones That Got Away

In about 1978, I was attending Humboldt State,  in Arcata, California.  A small used car dealer, King Richard, in Eureka (the next town south) had a 1963 split window Corvette, red with biscuit interior.  Car was beautiful and only had about 30K miles on it.  The spare tire had never been on the ground.  They wanted $3,500, which I couldn't have come up with to save my life.

A couple of years later, saw a De Tomaso Pantera on the street near the college.  Think it was a 1972.  Needed a front bumper and was rough, but it ran and drove.  The guy wanted $2,000, which I still didn't have.

My suspicion is that lack of funds may have kept my college self alive...

In 2005 I looked at an 88 Henna Red E30 M3.  Full supersprint exhaust, H&R springs with bilsteins, autopower rollbar.  Had a few small bruises but was in overall good condition.  Could've bought it for $5700.  Sigh.

In 1980 I bought my first (and only) brand new car, a Mazda 626.  At the same time, a coworker was selling his 1967 Corvette for about the same price...in retrospect I should have gone for the Corvette.  As it happened, that guy ended up trading it to a dealer for a 1978 25th anniversary Corvette as he thought it would be a better investment.  THAT was a big mistake.

Just before I got married in 93 there was a freshly restored Red 912 in the self serve used car lot on Ft Polk.  It was red with black interior and looked pristine to my back then.  The person was being stationed in Korea and wanted $4500 for the car.  I didn't because I was getting married, but looking back now ...

Given the other few topics on the board lately I didn't expect this to be about cars :)

For me it would likely be an E30 M3 roller that was CLEAN that I could have picked up for $2500 back in the '08-09 time period. At the time the cost of the proper engine/trans to put back in the car was the deal breaker for me. 

Had I known, an unwrecked, clean E30 M3 would be worth so much. I could have slowly saved up and put a completely monster built S14, etc, and been able to enjoy it for a number of years and then still turn around and make a hefty, hefty profit.

Man I have a bunch.  Aston Martin DB4GT for around $5k or so I think in the early '80's.  Daytona Charger with the nose and wing $1,500,  Alfa Romeo TZ1 for $1,500, mostly in boxes, in the early '90's, and while not huge sums today, I could have bought a left over new '87 X1/9 for $4k in '93.  

The 1st one isn’t a car most people would care for, but around age 14 I was offered a 69(iirc) 4-door T-Bird for free from a local farmer, but my dad wouldn’t let/help me get it. It ended up shot/smashed to pieces after the old guy died a couple years later. 

Second was my 94 Escort GT in Sunrise Red. I really liked it & put a ton of miles on it, but people kept telling me about Escort engines dropping valves around 130k. Of course at that time pre-internet I had no idea my car had a Mazda engine...

Third was a TRD-built AE86 racecar. It had no title, and I had no trailer(or really the money for either the car OR a trailer). I think it was $4k around Y2K.

Fourth was a late-60’s Porsche 912 for under $10k. It needed a helicoil for a plug and one patch panel underneath. My dentist ended up buying it.

Last was an E30 M3 for $7k around 03. That would have been a good investment...

I know I've posted before in other, similar threads, so I'll keep this short and general.  Several old air cooled Porsches in the mid-late 90s when they were just slow old cars nobody really wanted.  I would have settled for any one of them but I was just a teen with virtaully no money. 

around 1982 i remember seeing Hemmings Motor News listings for AC Cobra 427 cars for about $7k and 1966 Shelby GT350's for about $3500.   I had well over that amount in my college fund...

I sold a 1970 911 S coupe with matching engine in 2007.  Which means I actually had it and let it get away.  Now I can't complain because I did make more than I had into it, and it was a total project car, but just a short time later air cooled 911 prices skyrocketed.  Ugh!  Still makes me sick

All those fricking $2500 Datsun 510’s I passed up back in the late 1980’s......

Two years ago I found a 2005 WRX Wagon in San Remo Red. Unmodified, no rust, perfectly maintained, reasonable miles (about 120k), for $7800. Had the cash, wanted the car but didn't want to part with the money. Stupid.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

i missed several 240zs for sub 1k less than 20 years ago. i feel your pain

The ones that I let go were a 1969 Chevelle, 1970 GS, 1976 FJ40 with a SBC. Thought I was making a killing on all of them at the time. Sold the Chevelle as a roller for $500 in about '82, the GS for $1000 shortly after and the big money maker was the FJ for $2500 in '87.

I paid $75 for the Chevelle in '79, wrecked in the front. Fixed it and drove it for a couple years with a small block mutt of an engine. Ran pretty good, mid to low 8's in the 1/8 mile. Sold it to finance a Pro Street '76 Monza I was building, but never completed. Ended up parting everything out.

First wife bought the GS for $750. Great runner, good looking car. She got T-Boned by a kamikaze motorcyclist who took out the passenger door and rocker. He got by with only a broken leg. Put a junkyard door on it with a spray bomb paint job and sold it to pay for a new TV.

I traded a set of tires for the FJ. It had been sitting in a guy's barn for several years with the axles removed. I finished the axle flip in his barn, and flat towed it home in the dead of night. Put a clutch in it, some newer 36" tires and painted it Corvette red.

Sold it to finance my drag bike.

The one that got away was a 1970 LT-1 Corvette in 1980. I had saved it from a fire in the neighbors garage a couple years earlier. It had been modified with flares and typical 1970's paint and had some heat damage to the paint from the fire. When he was ready to sell, he offered it to me for $3000. The killer was, I had the money for the car, but couldn't afford the insurance. 

I have two. One was one I actually owned and sold. a 1972 Porsche 911E in that wonderful Porsche orange. I broke the rocker shaft on the one side of the engine and lacked both the funds and skills to fix it. Sold it what I paid for it.. should have parked it in the garage till later.

The second was a Lancia Fulvia Zagato HF1600. Funky little hatchback that I hemmed and hawwed over for too long and was sold out from under me.

NickD said:

Two years ago I found a 2005 WRX Wagon in San Remo Red. Unmodified, no rust, perfectly maintained, reasonable miles (about 120k), for $7800. Had the cash, wanted the car but didn't want to part with the money. Stupid.

Is that a good deal? That seems expensive for an 11 year WRX. 

All of a month or two ago, I failed to buy a Wolseley Hornet. It was foolish, and I now am certain of that fact.

I haven't really been able to afford non-beater cars for long enough to feel like I've missed out on much due to appreciation, but my dad passed over some cars he probably should have bought. He's always had a thing for 911s and looked at a handful of air cooled cars over the years without ever buying one. An E30 M3 for $7500ish in around 03-04. Ultimately did buy an S2k new in 04, then sold it in 08, not coincidentally at about the exact time my first tuition payment came due. That car was absolutely cherry, with not a nick, ding, or scratch to be found, and probably wouldn't be worth much less today, if at all, than what he sold it for 10 years ago. Saw one just like it at Lowes last night, so it's been on my mind all day 

Summer 1996, the lot I bought my 9C1 Caprice from had a silver 1991 B4C Camaro in silver with tint. It was an L98/700R4 car. I wanted it sooooooo bad. Needed a shift detent cable, but only had 98k miles. $3800. I was a broke college kid at the time but that is one of those I wish I'd founda way to make the deal. Probably why I still have a soft sport for Turd gen camaros. 

While I was in college in the 70s, there were a TR-3 and a Sunbeam Tiger for sale on campus, each for the handsome price of $400.  The Tiger had a burned valve, but ahd a hardtop.  A hippy chick drove it. 

Around the same time I passed on two XK-150S's, each for $2100.  Both one owner cars.  A few years later, a fellow grad student offered me his 65 XK-E for $3500.  It had just been painted.   

octavious said:

I sold a 1970 911 S coupe with matching engine in 2007.  Which means I actually had it and let it get away.  Now I can't complain because I did make more than I had into it, and it was a total project car, but just a short time later air cooled 911 prices skyrocketed.  Ugh!  Still makes me sick

 

 

That would hurt. I wish I had bought one while they were still affordable.  My let get away cars are a '70 Boss 302 that I paid almost nothing for and sold dirt cheap a couple of years later to buy a TR4, and I still kick myself over a '74 Alfa GTV, same scenario.  And then of course is my 240Z, Fiat 600, and on and on.  

z31maniac said:

NickD said:

Two years ago I found a 2005 WRX Wagon in San Remo Red. Unmodified, no rust, perfectly maintained, reasonable miles (about 120k), for $7800. Had the cash, wanted the car but didn't want to part with the money. Stupid.

Is that a good deal? That seems expensive for an 11 year WRX. 

Around here in CNY, sure. Most of them have no rocker panels and quarter panels left anymore, or are running around on salvage title because everyone thinks turbo AWD Subaru in the snow instantly makes them Colin McRae and then wad it into the nearest tree/ditch/parked car. Those that avoid  that fate are questionably modified and hyper-shifted into oblivion.

Antihero said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

i missed several 240zs for sub 1k less than 20 years ago. i feel your pain

 

How about the lime green 240Z Classic Motorsports sold?  Were they asking low teens?  A bargain today.  

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I actually had a '71 510 2-door that I swapped from auto to 5-speed, rebuilt the motor, completely redid the upholstery, and repainted.  Proceeded to drive it to Alaska.

A couple of years later, I was living in Juneau.  The guy next door had a high school kid who apparently pissed off a couple of the 'bad kids' at school.  Had my 510 parked behind the house.  They thought it was the neighbor's car, so they decided to break every window in it and roll it over on it's roof.

I got $750 in a judgment against the kid's parents, sold the engine for another couple of hundred, and trashed the rest. 

The mom of one the kids responsible had the balls to call me up and ask what I had done to upset their kid.  Likely explains some things...

Still makes me mad.

1968 Porsche 912 minus the engine, engine lid and seats and a little floor rust for $500 in 2005 or 2006

Pair of Challengers. One granny spec 6 cylinder auto with clean body and a dirt track 318 with 4 speed for $1800 in 2009.