Ever regretted selling a car?

Rose tinted spectacle wearers here please

Lets hear your stories of cars you sold and later regretted having done so.

Maybe lack of storage/money was the issue.

Perhaps it needed some work which you did not have time/resources to deal with at the time.

Maybe you were getting grief from your family/partner to sell it.

Maybe you fancied changing cars and then wished you hadn’t when the replacement turned out to be a disappointment.

I'm sure there are some great stories out there; lets hear them please.

Hammer1 wrote: Not really, most of the cars ive sold ive either got bored with them or there was something mechanically wrong with it as in spokey post.

Don't buy a used car from this man....

For me it's the other way round

e30 red touring great car sad to see it go wish I had never bought it as it was not clean enough but I wonted a BM sooo much had good engine all the same.

And my e23 {still got it and love it to bits} but I should never have bought it tow much work and expense for a old car, I even looked at it and saw the rotten doors and arches and non starting, damp foot wells, and no MOT and still bought it. just had to have it and care for it. Just one of the cars and felt sorry for it will never sell ether,....I am penyless

I very Neely did the same again for a e30 323 4 door SE with all the kit, good old style m-teck kit clean in side, and lots spent on it, but engine not in car rotten doors. and had been standing, but was a nice car, well I could see it.

Derek M5 wrote: Hammer1 wrote: Not really, most of the cars ive sold ive either got bored with them or there was something mechanically wrong with it as in spokey post. Don't buy a used car from this man....

LOL i guess its down to the car dealing which is in my genes  BTW before anyone says, i aint defending either OK!!

And of course there was my '71 Beetle, Sloping Headlights, Guards Red, De-Chromed, EMPI 8 spokes, Golf GTI interior, One piece windows, short shifter & go faster steering wheel...

Ahh Ruby, where art thou now?

My beloved Vauxhall 3.0i 24v Senator CD H650HSD

Bought privately at 10 years old for £2900 with a genuine 52,000 miles, FSH with every receipt and MOT from the 4th September 1990.

204bhp 270Nm torque, max speed 146 mph, 0-60 in 7.9 seconds,  huge boot, CD player, cassette player, elec sunroof, elec windows, elec mirrors, heated leather seats, speed sensitive power steering, 3 mode electronic automatic transmission, tow bar, air con, cruise control.  I could eat Golf GTIs and most BMWs from the lights.  Flick her into sports mode and kick down.  She would drop from 6th to 3rd engine would make the most amazing noises as it climbed the rev range, 4000 rpm would come up very quickly and the dual ram valve opens and you got even more power (accompanied by another push back into the leather seats, it was like a turbo kicking in) and 6500 rpm and an illegal speed would be reached and the poor Sunday driver would be left far behind wondering what car it was that flew past them.

Part exchanged for £300 last August against my E39.  Patted it on the bonnet when I locked it for the last time at the garage.  Couldn't bear to look at as I drove past it in the E39. 

The Sennie was 14 years old with a smudge under 99,000 miles on the clock, it had a hesitation problem that I couldn't fix after £300 and 3 months trying.

Cried my eyes out the first night without my Sennie, if you don't believe me ask the Mrs.

Tried consoling myself that it would have needed a grand spent on it for a new head gasket and a new set of timing chains for no increase in the cars value.

But if I hadn't got rid of it I would never have had my E39.

Andrew

I am about to regret putting my 1973 NSU Ro80 restoration project up for sale. It's got a Mazda 13B rotary (from the RX-7) fitted.

I just love the car, but have no money to continue the resto. Most of my funds have been poured into my 1983 635CSi......

I sold both my E23s in 2001 because they seemed too old hat to bother with, and I couldn’t find any sellers of used parts and also couldn’t find a mechanic to work on them.

My 1982 728i Opal Green was a very straight car that I had owned for 9 years. It had only around 100k miles on it. It had been badly nibbled by the tinworms and I had already replaced the f/wings and rear arches, and had it repainted at huge cost. Then the rear screen frame rusted and I got really fed up with it. The brake booster unit needed replacing and the BMW garage advised that the underneath was very rusty. I wish I had checked this for myself before selling it for peanuts in the Classic Car Weekly. BMW advised that it drove exceptionally well. Super smooth 2.8 engine with ZF 3 speed box.

My 1984 735 Executive in Bronze-Beige was a bit dog eared to look at, but was very solid underneath and had good mechanics/electrics. The only driving fault was that it was nigh on impossible to start with a warm or hot engine. Cold starting was perfect. BMW adjusted the engine settings a few times but it always went back to its non-starting ways. I often wonder if a new AFM would have fixed the problem. The buffalo leather trim was in super condition. That buffalo hide is so durable.

1995 Civic Coupe - bought it in '99 with 94K and a 12 month warranty, traded it in '02 with 134K for a '95 Accord Coupe.  The Civic was quick, cheap to run, comfortable, quick, quick.........It also never gave me any trouble worth mentioning and cost me nothing on replacement parts.

The Accord - a few reliability problems at the start, but when the warranty finished I handed it to my own garage and never had another problem.  However, the early problems with the garage left a bad taste in my mouth, and then a hit at the back turned it into an Accord-ian!  Kept that for another while, all the time wishing I was back in the Civic.  Then bought the BMW.

The guy who had the Civic after me blew the engine 2 days after he got it!  Test drove a '99 one last week; my g/f reckoned it was the first time she ever felt scared in a car with me!!!  Nothing like my old one, though

Nova 1.3 SR in red with grey lower bit.  C 394 MRC.

Converted to C20XE 16v from a Calibra running the Motronic 2.8 injection, Janspeed exhaust, adjustable Koni's all round, vented discs/calipers from Cavalier, Cavalier SRi wheels on unidirectional NCT's, polybushed engine & suspension.

The car did 14 second 1/4 mile runs and would hit the speedo stop in top (have a look at a 1.3 SR speedo).  From memory, change up from 2nd was 70, then 105, then 120 into top.  Slaughtered a mates brand new Clio 16v (in '93) and most other stuff I managed to taunt.  A really good sleeper when I did it, but I think there are lots around now and a lot of turbo'd Nova's/Corsa's too.

It was my graduation treat to myself, did it all myself in the garage too(except welding the manifold joint to the exhaust) and it went, cornered and stopped brilliant all the time I had it.  No mechanical maladies at all. 

Spent a couple of years blasting round everywhere at anytime and realised driving such a small car so fast all the time was going to lead to prison, death or both.  Ex wife managed to crash it once (minor) and blamed me for making the car go so fast!

In a fit of 'sensible' I sold it and got a 1.4 Astra.  Biggest mistake ever even though financially I lost very little on the car.

I still regret selling the 528 even though it was going to cost as much to get it through the MOT as buying my 530i which I still love to bits

Paul

Firstly, what a cracking question.

I've had a long hard think and 3 cars come to mind but at the time there were very valid reasons for actually selling.

1.  Austin Montego 1.6 HL!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly!  F plate, bought with 80,000 on the clock as a runaround for £1200.  The car went to London and back once when my 'then' wife's car broke down and mine was in for a service....and it never missed a beat except for the windscreen wipers flying off the screen in torrential rain on the way back up.  From Nottingham up to Whitby I recall having to stop every 2-3 miles to put the drivers wiper back on the screen!!!

However, the car was bullet proof.  Weighed tonnes, under-powered, felt like you were driving a stone block, but was surprisingly quiet for what it was and nothing mechanical ever went wrong with it.  I sold it for £800 about a year later when we divorced and I took the MX-5 with me instead of the house.....but I miss the Montego and still wonder how long it lasted for.  It was just one of those cars that you could go out in in any weather and it just went without a worry and I didn't worry about pranging it either.

2.  Ford Granada 2.0 GLi

This was a money pit when I bought it.  True to form - it devoured money in the first 3 months when I discovered god knows everything wrong with it and spent £1800 (!!!!!) getting it put right.  It was one of the first rounded models.  However, once fixed, it drove like a dream.  Then a few months after getting it all done I changed jobs and ended up having to drive 150 miles a day.  Petrol wasn't it's strong point (it liked it too much) so it made way for a Citroen Diesel of all things!  8 months later I left the job!!!!!!  Someone bought a peach of a car with that Granada and I have no doubt it served them without any costs for years to come - because I'd spent enough for years to come!

3.  Mazda MX-5 (1994).

I didn't sell this.  I rolled it.  Twice at 70mph.  I survived as you can gather.

However, it remains the best drivers car I have ever driven- with no exceptions at all.  It brought a smile to my face every time I got in it and I'd had it from new.   MX-5's at the time were much rarer things on the road and the camaraderie was superb.  Lots of waves and roadside stops when others saw you.  I can honestly say a year in the MX-5 (heatwave year) was the best motoring year of my life.  Furthermore it cost next to nothing to run.  £150 for a main service and nothing ever went wrong.  For a convertible sports car its build quality was outstanding, it never rattled, it never complained.  It was bright red with plain black cloth interior and very little else on it other than 16" 5-spoke alloys.   Needless to say it was a write-off and was unrecognisable after I rolled it when hitting gravel on a corner - which coupled with an adverse camber sent me into a ditch where the car proceeded to roll once in mid-air, then journey 150 yards along in another roll, stopping some 200 yards from the roadside.  I was upside down in it (pinned to the floor in the middle of the North Yorks Moors in the pitch darkness!!!) for 3 hours until I was cut free by the Fire Brigade and then spent a few weeks in hospital getting patched by together.

It remains the only car that, whenever someone asks about buying one, I would simply say "Just buy one".  Nothing else to say on it.  Just buy one before you die and enjoy the experience no matter how short it may be.

I agre on the old montgo there great cars and the one we had served us very well for years, much under rated cars.

My 1st BMW is the only car i regret selling!

I saved up to buy the little e30 316 auto back in 1998 it was diamond black mettalic with cloth recaro's and 4 elec windows elec sunroof and a history file as long as your arm i had the car for 4 years and it was a perfect beginning to my BMW "fetish!".

It was owned by one family from new who used it as a run around having only done 99'000 miles in its 10 years with them and enjoyed it so much i sold it in 2002 with 180'000 on the clock and it still drove like a dream!!

The chap who bought it lived 5 mins from my mum in billericay so used to see it almost every day but after a while it started to look tired and unloved and i was sad to see it in this state after looking after the car fastidiously for 4 years.

It was never fast or flashy but was just a great car in every respect an used to get lots of admiring glances wherever you parked it up being so clean and rust free for its years.

I have never had the same feeling with either of the 5's i have owned,you know like the second glance over your shoulder when you park it up,even though the 528i is a great car it hasn't got the "soul" of the three,if you get what i mean!

I was silly to sell it as i yearned the sound and power of the six pot and wished i had kept the 316 as a classic but you live and learn.

It is one of them cars i would buy if i saw it up for sale so if anyone owns it or knows of its whereabouts let me know E415 LLO.

This is the information DVLA hold on the car....(so you know for sure it's still around and it's current owner has had it for over a year now).