Cars you didn't buy (the ones that got away)

[sierraman]

Vectra B 2.2 diesel SRI. Looked great in the advert, arrived and it was one of these ‘trade car sales’ bollocks places full of dickheads in tracksuits. Looked in the boot and there was about 6 inch of water sat in there, in the well.

Sister in law had me looking for a car a while ago for her, went to view the following...

Focus Mk2, arrived, looked really tidy, opened the bonnet and the it was like the Trevi fountain in there, if the Trevi spewed oil and coolant everywhere. The guy was like ‘Never noticed that!’ 

Focus Mk1 - shitty part of town. Upon arrival it was one of those cars that looked an absolute fucker but drove fine. But it was so impossibly shit looking with Giffer GRP ‘fixes’ that I told her it was a piece of shit just to get out of Dodge. 

Vectra 1.8 Misery - again an even shitter part of town for sale at back of some shops. The guy wouldn’t shut the fuck up while I was looking at it which is a sure sign of some sort of someone with something to hide. Then he had a pre planned test drive he’s giving me directions like I’m some sort of tourist, ‘accidentally’ missed a turn so it took us on the bypass where it started to overheat. It had nearly boiled its bollocks off by the time we got back t’shop. Told him ‘I’ll ring you...’ and left him to top the ‘never before happened overheating’ back up. 

Upped the budget past tuck shop money and scored a tidy ex MD p/x Focus that over the 18 months she had it never put a foot wrong. 

 

[Blake's Den]

Where to start!

Austin Mini City E from 1983 - I was offered this for free 20ish years ago but was 300 miles away so I passed.

When looking for my first car I spotted a Mark 2 Ford Escort 1.3, possibly a Ghia. Passed on that and got a boring euro box instead.

Both worth a blooming fortune now.

 

[Matty]

Got one from today. Drove all the way up to Ripon to look at a mark1 A40 Farina (always wanted to build a standard looking quick one - don't ask). When we got there he had two. Uncle was all over the one we didn't go to look at then came over to the one we came for "no good needs too much. Other one is a canny buy though. Bid him on that and take it home"

I turns to "oh that sold unseen day after it went on". Bollox.

Good thing is I know I'm definatly going to have one. Bad thing is that yet again I've set my cap at something rarer than hens teeth.

[Saabnut]

2 hours ago, Matty said:

Got one from today. Drove all the way up to Ripon to look at a mark1 A40 Farina (always wanted to build a standard looking quick one - don't ask). When we got there he had two. Uncle was all over the one we didn't go to look at then came over to the one we came for "no good needs too much. Other one is a canny buy though. Bid him on that and take it home"

I turns to "oh that sold unseen day after it went on". Bollox.

Good thing is I know I'm definatly going to have one. Bad thing is that yet again I've set my cap at something rarer than hens teeth.

I have one that was a good runner when parked (about 10 years ago!) but still turns. Will need floors/sills. Early saloon. Lot of work but cheap......

[Matty]

47 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

I have one that was a good runner when parked (about 10 years ago!) but still turns. Will need floors/sills. Early saloon. Lot of work but cheap......

A.big bodywork jobs too much for me. I can do the mechanical stuff i want to do at home but bodywork would mean spending a lot of time at uncles garage. Unfortunately 2 young kids and wife's shifts rules that out. Lovely offer though, genuine thanks for that. Give us some pics though when you can. Thanks bud 👍

[scorchio69]

Three instantly spring to mind with an almighty doh moment when looking at prices now

Series 1 jag e-type that had been stripped completely in prep for restoration so was all in boxes and laid out nicely on the eBay add, spoke with the seller first thing before starting work at 7.30am and by the time I had spoken to my boss 10 mins later for approval it was gone , the jag was only 10k 

Porsche 993 manual Vario ram coupe that just needed painting and was only on for 15k, usual for me I docked about for too long thinking about it………..

And this has to be the worse one, nice clean 99 Nissan skyline R34 GTR Vspec in silver but the kicker was the previous owner had went a bit nuts with the nismo parts catalogue so it sported over 10 million yen worth of parts let alone the low mileage nismo S2 engine, this car was 44k and at the time I had only been going offshore for 1 year and thought it’s a lot for a old Nissan …………………. Now looking at the GTR prices that car would be worth we’ll over 100k 😩😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[maxxo]

still think about these two

back in January when i was looking for a C5.......

i found a black 04 plate hatch, 2.0 HDi auto like the one i ended up with for sale locally with high miles but apparently in good condition

what greeted me:

every panel dented, suspension wouldn't level properly, very obviously the front passenger side strut had smashed through the bonnet

gearbox was horrific, didn't run right and stunk of sweat and feet inside

seller was extremely dodgy too

I then found another one locally, a minty green 2.2 HDi estate on an 02 plate

now this was more expensive and apparently a minter!

so i went to view it, and from a distance yes, it was an absolute minter

it had rot on the bottom of all doors which was a shame

test drove it, drove quite well actually right up until the moment i had to move the steering wheel anything beyond a single turn which greeted me with a horrible crunching sensation

also felt like the rear end was very loose and i felt a lot of sideways movement over bumps......

didn't buy either of them

 

ended up buying the one i have now, from a man off the internet at a motorway services

he's become a good friend of mine and sure it's needed work but the car is great, fantastic in fact, fate happens for a reason

[Snake Charmer]

Jensen Interceptor lll in silver with black interior and a Tom Jones tape in the 8 Track for sale at a used car dealer. Two big rust stains on the floor under the sills where it had stood so long. Mid 80's and l had been paid out for a bike accident and looking for my first car, bought a write off Cavalier instead.

Jensen Interceptor SP without the 6 pack. One of the cars l looked at 15 years later instead of a Dodge Challenger. Bought an Interceptor Mklll instead.

The Jensen CV8 Kevin Beatie drove to Turin and Vignale re-bodied into the first Interceptor when it was available for £20k.

There's  couple of Manta and Ascona B's I turned down too.

[Jerzy Woking]

I bought an Aprilia RS250 from a dealer in Kings Lynn, selling it on behalf of one of his long term customers. Great bike, but I digress.

He said the bloke also had a 1996 Nissan R33 Skyline for sale. It was in his yard, so I had a good look at it. Totally original, apart from a set of Japanese aftermarket wheels. Even put it on the ramp for me to have a good look at the underside. Solid as a rock. Only fault was a previous sill repair that needed tidying up and a bit of paint. Test drive showed it drove perfectly, interior excellent and standard too.

Offered it for £4000.

Decided not to buy it, and kicked myself for not doing so, as I had the cash sat around doing nothing.

[DSdriver]

In 1986 I went to look at a Chapron DS decap which was offered at £2,000. It of course needed a lot of work, and I needed a usable car so bought our current DS saloon instead for the same money which lasted 10 years before needing its first rebuild. Had I bought the Chapron I would be the owner of a car worth between 125 and 250 thousand now. Hey Ho.

[Rustybullethole]

27 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

In 1986 I went to look at a Chapron DS decap which was offered at £2,000. It of course needed a lot of work, and I needed a usable car so bought our current DS saloon instead for the same money which lasted 10 years before needing its first rebuild. Had I bought the Chapron I would be the owner of a car worth between 125 and 250 thousand now. Hey Ho.

Them theres the breaks. Helped my mate tow his last mk 1 escort to its new home. Wanted it myself though had only enough for a 16th let alone the 600 quid asking at the time. 

[Marina door handles]

There has been plenty of cars that I have looked at with a view to buying and found good and bad reasons not to buy. But only one that I fully intended to buy and it all went pear shaped.

I was looking at replacing my rusty yellow MGBGT this was back in the summer of 1999 (not to be confused with Space 1999). I found a 2.8 Capri for a grand in the cheap car section of Autotrader.  Phoned the owner, went to view it on a Friday night, failed to get any deposit money together (cause idiot) so agreed with the seller I would return the next day and do the deal.

The next day my appendix decided it wasn't getting enough attention and went a bit Chernobyl on me, predictably I wound up in hospital. By the time I recovered the Capri had been sold to someone else, so I went and bought an Alfa 164 V6 instead.......  Still haven't owned a Capri.

[Lord Sterling]

THREAD RESSURECTION! 

Many years ago after crashing the Rover 827Si I was half on the look out for a replacement car. I still hadn't received a payout from the insurance for my 827 and I was always extremely poor. I happened upon a W140 Mercedes S320 for £400 in Scotland similar to this:

Despite it being in Scotland which to me at the time was like asking me to walk from the to South Africa, I sent a message. Unfortunately the car soon disappeared off eBay before any money hit my bank.

Similarly, after I crashed my Mercedes E280, @red5 showed me an advert for a nice black W202 C-class. I hadn't considered it and again, missed out on eBay potentially could have been a nice car.

(Similar to this)

[Timewaster]

Sometime in the early 90s I looked at a tidy unmodified  mini pick up in bottle green.

It was at a mini specialist and he wanted £800 and wouldn't budge on the price.

I ummed and ahhd but eventually thought that was a bit much so left it.

Even if I had crashed it into a ditch and left it there for 30 years I would still have been in profit:

1979 AUSTIN MORRIS MINI 850 PICK-UP | Sat 31 January & Sun 1 February | Anglia Car Auctions https://share.google/A4sOcBa1tIt1VBn2k

 

*probably not the same one

 

[Brigsy]

Missed loads of good buys over the years but a few i regret

Mk1 astra gte back in the year 2000. Restored to a good standard, looked fresh and was only around £750. Messed about and it sold

Mk1 escort mexico in 2003, genuine mex shell. Needed a restore but not a basket case, spare base spec mk1 escort and panels to go with it. Also had burton power engine etc, few period mods. The lot sold for around £500 iirc, had nowhere to keep it.

3 door sierra cosworth in 2007. Great condition with some tasteful mods, aston martin front brakes, compomotive mo6 wheels and only £8k. Didnt have the money at the time. Unobtainable price wise now, id need to sell everything and be scared to use it.

I also flirted with buying a skyline r32 gtr around ten years ago when they were still affordable. I needed to sell my r5gtt to fund it but couldnt be arsed. Again expensive as fuck for a good one now so off the menu.

 

[Imhotep]

3 come to mind…

A Sprinter Trueno when they were actually affordable. Sadly I was 17 at the time and insurance was not affordable.

Porsche 924 - see above. However I did get offered one when I was 19, I turned it down assuming it would be mega bucks to run. I regret that. 
 

BMW 525TDS E34 - insurance said no to this too.

[Heidel_Kakao]

I should have purchased an SD1 Vitesse when they were cheap but I didn't. I do have hope that if the trend of fifties and sixties chod getting cheaper as the owners and people that want them die off continues that in 20 years time I might get another chance to get one for a reasonable price.

[vaughant]

On 28/12/2021 at 23:45, Mrcento said:

Renault Clio Williams.

Had one there, short MOT'd for £800.

Yes, it was going to need some bodywork, and yes, that'd probably have been 1-2k for a rear arch and paint.

But OYF, did i get that one wrong. Even if i'd had to spend £3.5k on getting it right + £800 purchase, i'd have been laughing.

They're worth 8-10k now. They were going for 5-6k within a year of me not taking that one on.

Similar story with a Delta integrale, albeit this one was at £5k.

Yeah they're worth more like 40k now....

I could go on and on.

Fiat Coupe Turbo, Bravo HGT, E36 M3 saloon... All painful misses.

Had the same with a delta integrale. Was a car I always desperately wanted, I loved them as a teen as they were really legends.

Nothing wrong with this car really, I mean there might have been but after the test drive I really didn't give a fuck,I wanted it, lhd or otherwise it was great.

I had a MK1 GTi 16v to p/x and it was a really decent looking thing but pretty much the day of the deal it decided not to start and I really needed it to make the deal. Had to phone the dealer and he wasn't happy, I'd guess it wasn't a hugely popular car back then but the golf would have been really easy to move on. 

Gutted. 

But the worst one by far was a series 1 rs turbo.

My mate went to look at it, found it in the freeads as spares repairs but fuck knows why it was fucking mint,1 owner from new, rear seats never sat in, totally original, tons of history etc etc. The old boy told me he'd started it one day and saw smoke out the back so he thought the turbo might be gone and just wanted out as he was getting a brand new car. Lived in a nice street in Crickhowell.

My mate tried to p/x his R.A.F series 2 for it but the guy wasn't that type really and wanted it gone.

By the time he told me the ad had been up for a week but fuck it I phoned anyway. His mother answered the phone and must have been about 90 as he'd been retired years. My mate did warn me she's a fucking nightmare but luckily for him the old boy heard her and took over the conversation. I didn't have that luxury so fuck it, jumped in the car, late at night and went up to look at it. It was as my mate had described, perfect. Sadly in-between some bellend had come up and knocked him 700 off the price to £1500.

I offered full they're and then but this was pre internet data when a handshake meant something and the old boy stuck to his guns but agreed if it didn't go it was mine. 

Tried phoning but no answer, then just got the old bag screaming at me where had I got this number etc. 

Thought fuck it again, got the money, took a chance, made up some cardboard plates and got a lift off a mate up only to see the car had gone 😭😭😭. Gutted, I'd probably still have it now as it was honestly that nice. 

Missed out on a lovely saph Cossie on an e plate in mercury grey with cloth interior, smashing chap selling it , but I couldn't get the money together in time, got fucked about with other cars not selling etc. 

I got offered a converted 16v MK1 GTi campaign model in black but the Mrs sat the time talked me out of it as she was a Ford slag.

My mother talked me out of a fully restored 70's mini because "the subframes rot, your father told me"..... It was totally mint and £990 😭😭😭..... They must have spent about £5k on it but the daughter needed a car for the motorway and they felt it was too small. I can still see her looking to the sky 🙄🙄🙄🙄 when the guy told her the price. Saw it about for the next 5 years still mint 🙄🙄🙄. Bear in mind it was my own money buying it 😬😬

Got offered an escos on a Q plate for £7k but I knew the guy was proper dodgy and it was most likely someone else's car that had been nicked. 

Made the fatal mistake when I was 18 of telling a mate about a fiat Uno Turbo I was going to buy for £350, he told another guy and the cunt jumped in and bought it under my nose as his engine blew up. I only really wanted the alloys and interior etc but he was such a prick he threw them out just to stop me having them. Utter cunt,I must have upset him in school 🙄🙄.

Missed out on a 16v astra gte in that nice burgundy colour for £800 they did back in about 1995 as I went to the wrong street 🫣🫣🫣. Saw the guy in town the next night and he asked where I was, told him and he explained but said he'd sold it for £600 to another guy on the estate 😭😭😭.

I can't complain though, I've had some really cool stuff people would pay silly money for over the years for £not much compared to what they cost now, 

Passed my test in 1993 so the era of all the old hot hatches from the 80's, cossies,cavvys, bigger engined Audi's etc then through to the jap stuff from the 90's as early grey imports like the imprezas and so on, all for usually way under £2k, apart from the cossies as they were always like a £4-5k car...... Mind you the one I have now owed me under £3k to buy 😱😱😱😱. Even with the mint cossie shell I got as mine was rotten, it still owes me less than £5k, I'd guess it's worth even as it stands 4 times that.

Crazy but great.

[barefoot]

That Buick Park Avenue that did the rounds on here for a bit. Raffled and vanished. I could have afforded the £700. But thought I'd get it next time round...

[Barry Cade]

Worst one i had  was a 1978 Bandit Trans-am. WS6 package, screamin' chicken on the bonnet, T-Tops.. all it was missing was Sally Field. £1800. I'd just bought my '72 Challenger and a Range Rover Vogue classic.  No cash left

[LightBulbFun]

this Ford Crown Victoria Limousine. M324 MYT

it was stupidly cheap had a long MOT,  a prime opportunity that I never thought i'd otherwise get to own a Crown Vic/American Land Yatch, but alas, despite trying as hard as I could (going as far to buy non-refundable plane tickets down to Scotland)  in the end no insurance company wanted to even give me a quote *sad face* me and my brother still talk about it to this day, if only we could of made insurance work, it would of been epic  (and unlike the VDP1300, i'd actually be able to collect 8ft fluorescent tubes and light fixtures with it!)

I wonder where it is now, amazingly still has current MOT, I have always feared it was not long from being robbed of its power train and the rest sent around the oval as sadly happens so often with glorious land barges like this

[Weird Car]

6 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

wonder where it is now, amazingly still has current MOT, I have always feared it was not long from being robbed of its power train and the rest sent around the oval as sadly happens so often with glorious land barges like this

Got painted to look like either a taxi or police car I misremember which, it cropped up on the eBay tat thread a while ago 

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, Weird Car said:

Got painted to look like either a taxi or police car I misremember which, it cropped up on the eBay tat thread a while ago 

hmmm I dont like the sound of that! a "Novelty" paint job on a land yatch is never a good omen, has anyone tagged @Schaefft about it? needs saving like he saved the Caprice  

[Schaefft]

48 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

hmmm I dont like the sound of that! a "Novelty" paint job on a land yatch is never a good omen, has anyone tagged @Schaefft about it? needs saving like he saved the Caprice  

HMC owned it, then briefly went up North. It eventually showed up on FB  with a taxi wrap for silly money but was eventually reduced to a somewhat reasonable price (still over 3 times of what HMC sold it for). I'm not sure who eventually bought it but it's the only one around so it shouldn't be too hard to find out.

If there is a Crown Vic of this generation that I somewhat regret letting go it was a 1992 model year-only low mileage Touring Sedan that someone of course had to turn into a police car replica. Extremely rare even in the US.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, Barry Cade said:

Range Rover Vogue classic

My condolences.

1 hour ago, Barry Cade said:

No cash left

Bien sûr, mister  

[Markeh]

The other Megane II I looked at before I bought mine. I walked away due to not wanting to get involved with fixing the air con. It was still a 1.6 Dynamique like I ended up with, but it was an 05-plate, in the greeny-grey colour, 3 door, with the lovely 17" Nervasport alloys, and it had the pan roof as well as about 15k less mileage. The chap was only selling as they were downsizing to one car and had decided to keep their C70 instead. I could've had it for only £100 more than I paid for mine in the end. BT05 CGO was exported in 2019, around the time that mine got scrapped (although the fact it made it through an MOT after I traded it in still amazes and slightly annoys me!)

[Llessur]

Have walked away from a few over the years, although I do tend to buy most of what I physically go to see. 

A small string of rejections happened when I was 18 and looking for something to replace the mk2 Astra I'd had since passing my test. I'd just got my first 'real' job doing paper-based filing in an HR office so finally had some money burning a hole in my pocket - it was time for an upgrade.

The first miss was a 3 door mk2 Golf Driver that I went to see with my dad - it was pre useful internet days, so no photographs other than the little pixelated B&W thumbnail in the Autotrader ad. The lady on the phone described it as immaculate and well looked after. When I arrived it had a 50p sized rust hole beneath one of the rear quarterlights and the entire oil filler cap was full of mayonaise so I didn't even bother driving it. I did eventually own two Mk2 Golfs, one a GTi, so did get to scratch that itch a few years later.

Next I ended up at a random industrial yard in Brighton to view a white 405 SRi which had been advertised for a suspiciously low price. Again, didn't even test drive it as it was obvious the car had been in a smash and repaired very cheaply. Huge swathes of the offside had been painted with a rattle can and there was a comical amount of overspray everywhere, including on the side of the driver's seat. The seller clearly knew it was shit - he didn't even bother to hang around to find out if I wanted it or not so in the end I just left.

I also stopped off at a local Rover main dealers mainly just out of curiosity/boredom and had a look around the used car forecourt (I had a thing for Rovers at the time, my inner Alan Partridge shining through). I had paused to look at a 416, maybe a couple of years old and from memory was in a deep metallic orange (not sure of the exact colour, I don't think it was Nightfire Red though) when one of the salesmen came out and asked if I wanted to take it for a test drive. I didn't have much else to do (oh, those were the days) so said yes. Turned out to be a bit of a mistake. After a 5 minute jaunt around the local area I found my 18 year old self trapped in the sales office whilst two of them put me through a really intense sales pitch for well over an hour. They gave it all the "most people who test drive a car understand they have an obligation to buy it unless it's got a major fault" routine and told me repeatedly how I'd been wasting their time. I pointed out the deep scratches all over the roof but they literally just told me "don't worry about those" and that they "weren't an issue" - no hint of getting them rectified. I tried to tell them I needed to look into insurance but one of them, unsolicited, phoned an insurance broker and made me get a quote from him over the phone. The same then happened with a finance broker when I mentioned it was out of my price range. I was much less assertive back in the day so I think they just thought that if they kept going for long enough I'd sign a finance contract. Luckily I evenutally made my escape and never went near a Rover dealership again. A farcical experience which still haunts me now - although I've become very bitter in my middle age so would no longer have any problem in telling them to fuck right off.

Shortly after that I'd pretty much made the decision to go all-in on a 3 year old metallic blue mk1 Mondeo LX hatch that I had seen at a local car supermarket Jefferies Farm back when they (car supermarkets, not Mondeos) were a relatively new thing. It was an ex fleet car, about 60,000 on the clock and very clean, if not rather boring (fetching blue velour upholstery and centre concole pen holder aside). I was very close to pulling the trigger but at the last minute the concept of a massive (for me at least) bank loan at a time when I was considering going to uni scared me into backing out at the last minute.

In the end I bought a much cheaper Sierra Sapphire, which turned out to be a great car.

A few years after uni in the mid 2000s I travelled an hour to view a mk2 VW Scirocco which, like the Golf, was described as immaculate. Obviously the seller's definition of immaculate allowed for a rear wing absolutely full of filler and DIY resprayed in an entirely different shade of grey to the rest of the car and a damp interior that smelled of old socks. I wish I'd kept up the hunt for one of those, there's no way I could afford one now.

I've had far more luck with viewings in recent years, with the only cars I've turned down being a Mazda 626 I looked at around 2012 as a commuting car for the wife - that had clearly had a cheaply repaired front end smash with misaligned panels, cracked plastics and dodgy paint, and a 1998 Ford Ranger which was a little too crunchy on its supposedly rebuilt gearbox for my liking. Other than that everything's ended up on my driveway.