The ones that got away.

[Cavcraft]

Been meaning to do this for a while, just to prove (if nothing else) that I don't buy everything I see. Very rarely it's because I don't want it, soemtimes the seller doesn't accept my hopeless/derisory offer. So let's start off with this little gem* that's up the road from me.

'the 'door' warning light is on even when all doors are properly shut. This fault has been investigated and is not a problem, just and electrics error'

 

...actually  seems to be 'door open light is on because the nearside is in a different postcode to the rest of the car'   

 

I'd been keeping an eye on it for ages, in fact a mate of mine is a neighbour of the owner and I'd asked him to let me know if it comes up for sale. Anyhow, yesterday it appeared on Autotrader...

 

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201611240056301?sort=distance&advertising-location=at_cars&price-to=1000&radius=25&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=ch23ru&page=1

 

 

It's beyond awful, he said he didn't know about the nearside door (which look a metric fuck ton worse in real life) and, amongst other things, suggested it must have been from when the car was welded for the MOT and 'just stretched the body a little bit'

He did mention a shunt to the offside front and how he had that repaired, it must have been a decent knock which has bent the car a bit. It's up for a risible £295, so I had a chat and it seems the best he can do is £200. Fancied it as a winter hack type of thing, but let's be honest it's an £80 at very best car. He seems to be a bit 'forgetful' to be honest and did mention he's spent £1,000 on it in the last few month, which he's clearly never going to see again.

 

Still trying to find pictures of a Ford Connect (Fiesta on steroids) van I had the pleasure of viewing a few months ago. I'll add some more as time goes by if anyone's interested

[Junkman]

What a horrible piece of shite. Get it bought!

[xtriple]

Jensen Interceptor 111 for £600! Was missing its engine but otherwise all complete and GOOD! Skint at the time....

 

E type V12 for less than a grand. Was rusty as fuck with a mammoth exhaust blow but still...

 

Ferrari 330 GT for £2000, insurance was £2400...traffic act only!

 

Mustang Mach 1, 351 V8, manual (I think) in mint condition for £500. It was mint as it had a big hole where the floor should have been and open the boot and see your feet...

 

The list is nearly endless!

[Rocket88]

Mk2 Zodiac Farnham estate...............running, although crispy................£150 [1981]

[Split_Pin]

Astra Coupe Turbo. This was away back in 2009 so it wasn't an old car then and only had 40k on it. Looked stunning in black with red leather.

 

Seller described it as basically perfect and sent me loads of pictures.

 

He lied Big Time though. Exhaust was billowing white smoke, it had no boost, a massive oil leak and the radiator fan was randomly cutting in and out.

 

A lad I know bought it and the Turbo had given up almost straight away.

 

It was a Thank You and Goodnight from me.

[overrun]

A UK TT mkIV Supra that is rotting into some tossers garden a few miles from me, What makes it worse is that the houses in the street are being demolished and now all bar his are gone.

 

 

I never looked to see if it was a manual. I couldn't bear it if it is!

(Yes I chapped the door. The tosser is a wanker lol)

[sierraman]

Free Rover 820 I chickened out on. Sierra 1.6 3 door I buckled on, solid shell but rest tatty as fuck, I think he wanted £400 for it. Put a 0 on that now. Don't set me off now in thinking on it...

[Justin Case]

Had tried and almost decided on a Citroen C6 when we were given a dog. Unfortunately a saloon with cream leather upholstery wasn't going to be compatible with a muddy spaniel so I reluctantly passed that one up, even when the garage phoned up a few days later reducing the asking price by £1500. Other notable failures were a Renault Avantime which the owner had an unshakeable conviction was worth £4k more than it actually was, and a Maserati Quattroporte IV which had such eye-watering estimates for even routine servicing and replacements that there was no way that I could afford to run it on expenses of  44p x  approximately 180 miles per month

[UltraWomble]

Many many moons ago I tried to buy a Mk 3 Mini from Georges garage in Warton - the car had clearly been scrapped (there was a breakers yard at the back of the garage) due to a OSR mash that had been badly beaten out, blown over and left the rear window letting in water like Niagara Falls

Up for £300 with a still damp MOT (from George) I offered £140 (this was 1988) and was told for that money I should buy a push bike.

 

 

Car was still there on the forecourt nearly a year later

[Doctormop]

Aaah fond memories of George's garage, the building was originally the cinema for the air base at Warton; so my Dad told me, My Dad knew George to chat to and once took me (aged about 12) to look at a 1960's Pontiac that was in the showroom, "Give you 200" says Dad; "Aye bloody deposit you will" replied the patron, well I thought it was funny at the time.

Anyway, went with my brother circa 1988 to look at a MK 1 Escort Mexico in South Shore Blackpool for £500, brother bid £450 and left phone number, no call ever came, I thought he was best off walking away as it was a horrible pile of shit and so it was but a horrible pile of shit now worth more than my house, really never saw the appeal of these old Fords and never will.

[xkjagnz]

Years back my dad was offered a series 1 e type a runner with mot in lieu of aa 300 quid plumbing bill. Regretted not taking it til the day he died

[DodgeRover]

Bathurst special XC falcon coupe Aus$3000 bought an engagement ring instead, my wife is still berating me for not buying the car....still got the clipping of the advert from the trading post somewhere.

[surprisingskoda]

Was offered a celica ra28 for free once, absolute rust bucket but what does that matter. Had no way to lift it and then offer was rescinded when he showed his true, nasty, colours.

 

Other than that I think I've always got what I've been after in the end. The regata almost got away but on the third attempt I got it.

[vulgalour]

I would be interested to read more about the vehicles deemed unsuitable for Cavcraft's emporium.

[Split_Pin]

As long as it's not a KA then I think that thread would be short!

[Vince70]

For me the car that got away was a lovely 2 owner 50 something thousand mile BMW E30 touring which I was offered as a second chance on eBay for £500.

It was on an L plate so a very late one and totally original and rust free with a ticket in white and povo spec with hubcaps original stereo and dealer plates etc.

 

I did say to the guy selling it that I would have it and leave a large deposit via PayPal or even pay full but wouldn't be able to pick it up for a week as I was away for 7 days but he needed it gone the following day because the tax was going to run out and being it was in a posh part of London it couldn't be left on the street and it was too late for me to cancel my Holiday

 

I wouldn't mind but the holiday was crap and I spent a fortune and could of had that BMW for a fraction of the price.

 

So in future more cars less holidays lol.

[AndyW201]

When I was a trainee at Reg Vardy Stockton back in the early 90's, the sales lads and the mechanics got the pick of the trade-ins that were either too old (or shit) to put on the forecourt, before they were auctioned.

Saw a few shitters go through, hanging mk2/mk3 escorts, knackered Metros and the like.

One day a black Mk1 Fiesta supersport came in. It was solid as a rock body wise, with the factory graphics and red tartan interior intact. The mechanic I was working with was a Ford fan (he had a mk3 XR3i) and looked it over. He said it was perfect for me, (I was about two months from passing my test at that point) and we took it out for a razz in the lunch break. Verdict was it was a good un. It needed a set of discs and pads ideally and rear shoes and that was it. When we got back, he went to see the sales guy. They wanted £500 for it! That was VALU back then for a straight supersport, some folk were paying a grand upwards even then.

Sadly, as usually happens, parents stopped play. Looking back now, leaving a sporty Fezzer outside where we lived at the time uninsured was probably not a great idea, but I did a remakably good Kevin the teenager impression for a while after. I could have kept it in Vardy's compound for a few weeks but all sorts could have happened to it there as well....

Plenty others came and went (including a tidy Triumph Acclaim, a mint 1 owner Y reg Sunny, all at half what I'd pay in the classifieds) but typically once I'd passed my test there was absolutely nothing about, nothing in the 'trader, and in desperation I ended up with a tired old miserybox of a 1.0 Metro, the only redeeming feature of which was an MG interior. At least being at an Austin Rover garage helped me fix it. A lot.

 

Now when I see what mk1 supersports are fetching in good condition....

[barrett]

There are lots of cars I wish I had bought when I had the chance (UK registered, MoT'd Renault Seven for beer money a few months ago...) but the one that would have made financial sense was the seemingly solid 1960s Mini Moke in need of recomissioning, low miles, all original... £300. This was last year! I was too lazy as usual and let it go after the guy said he'd hold it a week for me. These things seem to be £10k minimum for an average late example and I think most of my current money woes would never have happened if I'd had it. Ce la vie

[overrun]

I only count that Supra as one that got away because I was reliably informed it has been there forever and the bloke is the type who probabaly would flog it if the offer was decent enough.

As is, I got told to fuck off before money was even mentioned.

It even has TRD calipers!

 

How about this £300 XR3 from about 7 years back?

 

[vaughant]

Series 1 Rs turbo for me.

I've owned 3 of them so it's not like I didn't scratch the itch but this was Freeads gold, mate of mine had rung up to enquire and went to look but had to sell his own series 2 rst and was struggling to get £1500 for it, the price of the series one. My mate told me it was a minter, 1 owner from new blah blah blah but it had an oil leak and a slight boost problem. It was a good 80 miles away so I juiced up and went to look, it was minty mint as far as I was concerned, still had the towing eye cover etc which was unheard of back then, black rivets on the rear panel etc. It was late so I decided to ring the next day, old guy answered to say someone was coming over to look, me thinking " yeah right" I said ok let me know if he doesn't want it. Itching for a reply I thought fuck it, jumped in the car with my mate and shot up to crickhowell and the nice estate where he lived, knocked on the door and the old boy showed me about, it was a total darling, no rust anywhere, battery tray as new, boot floor the same, all matched etched glass and some "MOSS security " stickers on it. He was reluctant to start it cos of the "oil leak" but he agreed and all that was wrong was a split rubber from the turbo oil return, car had iirc 56k on it.

I didn't mess about and offered him the full £1500 there and then " well sorry mate but I never rang you back as the other guy left a deposit on it, sorry" oh " and I sold it for a lot less than that". I pleaded with him and even stretched to 2k but to be fair a handshake was a handshake to him and fair play for honouring it. I did the usual of asking if he could sell it too me should the guy never come back etc but he never phoned. I saw it for sale then about 3 weeks later in the back of fast ford for £4500, kannnttzzz!!!

Think the plate was B123BHB or AHB I'm not sure, it was 20yrs ago 😂😂😂

 

Another one was a 16v Astra gte back in 1995 for £500 as the boy got banned, turned out to be a champion (sic) or the like edition with black leather and burgundy paint totally mint condition.

 

DOH!!!

 

There's so many others but I forget.

 

One I do regret from just last week was a Saab estate 2.3 aero hot thing manual on a 57 plate for £800 in the auctions. Took a look on eBay/gumtree the next day and they were at least double that, took them a few minutes to get a sniff at £500. Also an 08 derv one sold for the same.

[I_am_Diesel]

In the late 80's I was offered a black Mk2 Escort 1600 Sport for £500 by my mate's brother. As I desperately tried to scrape the cash together my mate told me it was mega rusty and his brother was mugging me off so I didn't bother and ended up buying an even rustier TR7 for £250.

I learned a lot about welding from that car but eventually my Dad scrapped it when my attention turned towards beer and birds and he was sick of it hogging his garage space.

[Timewaster]

A UK TT mkIV Supra that is rotting into some tossers garden a few miles from me, What makes it worse is that the houses in the street are being demolished and now all bar his are gone.

 

 

I never looked to see if it was a manual. I couldn't bear it if it is!

(Yes I chapped the door. The tosser is a wanker lol)

You sound like the sort of bloke who knocks on my door.

They also think I am a tosser.

[DVee8]

A Renault fuego turbo from Big Mikes quality used car sales in Stockton for around £79. A mate bought it and flogged it on for around £700.

[Parky]

Light blue "L" reg Renault 4. Was up for £400 and I had £350. Tried haggling but the guy wasn't having it and my only source of an extra £50 was my Dad who wasn't speaking to me at the time.

 

It was cracking, no rust, recent paint job, and drove beautifully although the gearbox was a bit noisy. Regret missing that. Otherwise anything else I walked away from was worth walking away from!

 

Now ones that didn't get away but I wished had - that's a whole extra thread with a few tales of woe in it

[Lankytim]

I was told about a cheap 2 litre MK1 Granada saloon (actually, I think it was a consul) A mate of mine had been trying for ages to buy it and the old guy kept changing his mind so he'd given up trying. He thought I should have a crack and I was given the address and turned on the charm. The Granny was just out of MOT and a bit rusty but OK overall. I quickly struck a rapport with the vendor and to my amazement he offered it to me for £100. Great! I agreed to return the next day with a trailer and the money.

 

The following day I rang to confirm an arrival time- "you'll be wasting your time mate, I've just sold it"- Just when he was going to tell me this I have no idea. I was too annoyed to demand an explanation and just put it down to one of those things.

 

10 mins later, my mate rang up.. "you never guess what, I've just bought that Granada!, still want it? you can have it for £150"

 

I told him to stick the Granada up his arse and have regretted it ever since.

[stephen01]

​a few years ago I went to look at a herald, was pretty fucked (aren't they all) struck on the deal for something like £200 quid, left a 50 quid deposit and a handshake. Got a call the next day saying he'd sold it and he was going to send me my deposit back by cheq, like fuck, I was up there and got it back in person. The car had gone and he gave me a cock and bull story that someone had already left a deposit in an envelope and he didn't know. Could have just said someone came up with a better offer and he was a spineless twat and went with the extra 50 quid..

[warren t claim]

Ferrari 400i. An interesting story that I've been meaning to do a thread/post on for years.

[Split_Pin]

Now is the time. Possibly the only Autoshite Ferrari!

[quicksilver]

Now is the time. Possibly the only Autoshite Ferrari!

RONG. Six-cylinder has a black 308 GT4 (I'm sure he's mentioned it in his thread) and I think Lord Bickle has at least one too. The 400 series is the shitest of all Ferraris though.

[DodgeRover]

About 6 uk valiant chargers, they have an unearing ability to only be for sale when I'm having family or financial problems....