Regrets

[courtenay]

Reading Kilrwail and Oneowners' posts about still having their original Spiders got me thinking about the cars I regret having sold. Number one on my list is my '72 Spider:


(that's my wife (circa 1973) sitting on the boot...

and my 1954 Chevy:



The rest of them...the Vauxhall Viva, the Pontiac Astra, LeMans and Bonneville and so on... not so much.

What about the rest of you...

[maytag]

hmm. I can SO relate to this.

I don;t miss the Chevy Monza. Not a bit. that was my first car: hated it.

But my next car was a '64 Corvair. I wish I'd have never sold that car.
then my '72 Fiat Spider.
Then a whole string of cars I don't miss, so I won;t list 'em.
An '86 Grand Wagoneer that I sold when we were married. I really loved that tool-hauler.
a '76 Buick Skylark that'd do 10.4 in the 1/4 mile (at 4000'!) but never really was a great street-car. still miss it.
don't miss the '69 Mustang I built for my wife. not a bit. what a P.O.S. car.
another whole string of cars / trucks I'm glad are gone....
then a little lover affair with a '77 International Scout II Rallye edition. I loved it. Wish I still had it.
a '67 Mini Cooper 's'.
a couple Maserati Biturbos. terrible cars, to be sure. But still fun when those turbos would spool.

lots, and lots more. (one day My daughter counted, and I've owned more than 57 cars in my lifetime. And as many motorcycles. now THOSE I miss. Much, much more passionate about the bikes.)

and last: I miss my Jaguar that was totalled in a wreck just 3 weeks ago.

[Jimb]

Well too many to list but the ones that come to mind:
1957 Chevy 2 door hardtop, fresh 327, candy blue with black rolled and tuck interior (high school )
11 different model A', some street rods, some restored
but the one I miss the most was my most recent sale; 1990 BMW E30 M3 Cabrio that I went to Switzerland to buy and imported it in 2001. Unbelievable car to drive. Had 1,500 miles on her when I bought her in 1999 and just under 7,00o when I sold her last year. Gawd I do miss that car
But the Volumex is just about as much fun to drive...it's just not as concours condition yet as I'd like
Cheers,
Jim

[Lex]

My first / previous car, 5 years of ownership (16 - 21), 94 Formula Firebird (hard top) with forged 383 ported heads, cam full bolt-ons, and 4.10 6-speed, putting out 415 rwhp's - 408 ftq's... yeah you know just another lt1 with a hot cam Decided to pass the wrong set of cars at the wrong time (sounds worse then it was) (but was worse then it was)

[kilrwail]

The car that I traded in when I bought my Spider in 1978 was a '73 Ford Capri with the Cologne 2600 V-6 engine and a 4 -speed. It had no rust and only 63,00 miles on it. You don't see many of these on the road now and I wish I still had it - it was a mover.

But the car that I traded when I bought the Capri new in 1973 was a '67 Dodge Dart 2-door hardtop with the 273 V-8 and an automatic, that my father had bought new. It also had no rust and only 68,000 miles and it was a sweet ride. I got $800 for it. Imagine what that would be worth today?!

No regrets though - I love my Spider

[Redline]

Although I've had a lot of fun cars, the cars I've sold were all sold for good reasons (terminal rust, overseas moves), and I am now in the position where I could buy a pristine version of any, should I choose. My only regret is having to take an insurance write-off on my Opel Speedster (Lotus Elise chassis) when a stray rock punctured the aluminum chassis/tub from below. I owned it from new, took exceptional care of it, and they are getting very thin on the ground now. The ones I've seen are nowhere near as clean or sweet as mine was.

[mdrburchette]

Cars I regret losing:
63 Cadillac Coupe Deville to the gas crisis of the 70s
69 Fiat Spider to a drunk driver
77 TR7 my first husband sold out from under me....see next line
68 Fiat Spider to divorce
77 280Z for a downpayment on a house
80 Honda Civic with 250k miles and no paint left on it. Sold it for a bigger car.
87 Pontiac Bonneville I lost to a telephone pole....it jumped right out in front of my mother who was driving at the time.
Now I know better and why I have so many dang cars.

[azygoustoyou]

The one car I regret selling was a 69 Alfa round tail. I was in the service and really had no place to store it. I bought it for $650 and think I sold it for about $300. It need restored just like my Fiat. After seeing how my Fiat is coming out. It would have been a sweet ride also. I would have left it stock. The only reason I customized my Fiat was because it was so mismatched when I got it. It was definitely cheaper to do the mod's. Still I can't believe how much money I have into it.

[CajunMike]

All your stories and many more like them are why I have held onto my 79 spider. My first car. I could have sold it a dozen times but was fortunate that I was never in a position to "need" the money. Now it patiently waits for a restore.

[maytag]

The car that I traded in when I bought my Spider in 1978 was a '73 Ford Capri with the Cologne 2600 V-6 engine and a 4 -speed.

I had one of those in '86. not as nice as yours sounds, and perhaps that explains why I never became attached to that car. it was just transportation. although that WAS a sweet motor in its day.

[htchevyii]

I still have my first car, well almost. I got my first car at 15, a total basket case 1962 ChevyII with flared fenders and a straight axle. It took 2 years to finish and was painted in the garage with a borrowed air compressor. I couldn't really handle the power and cracked it up, so everything was transferred over to a 1964 ChevyII that I still have. The only cars that I really regret selling are my 1969 Chevy Nova when we bought our first house and my built up 88 jeep Comanche, but my Dad bought them both, so I still get to visit them.

[courtenay]

Cajun - I envy you!! Trey - my old Chevy went to upgrade the electrical system in our first house - from 60 - 125 amps so we could install an automatic washer and dryer to do the diapers!!

[mikeg]

Ah, the great cars I got rid of and the great cars I was just a yes from buying.

In the summer of 1966 I bought a 1960 MGA 1600, it was a great car until about December when the weather turned really cold. The plexiglass side windows were less than steller in keeping the cold out and the heater was anemic, but that I would have lived through, the real kicker was that on cold days, it just wouldn't start, no matter what I did. I even parked it in the garage with a battery charger on it over night and a heat lamp in the engine bay. That worked for the morning start, but then I couldn't get it to start to come back home. It was gone by late January. I really wish I had held on to that car somehow.

I looked at several cars including a 1959 Alfa Giulietta Spider, which everyone told me was more of a nightmare than the MGA, and a Jaguar XK150 Coupe, which I just couldn't adjust to a hard top. So I ended up with a 1966 Mustang V8 convertable. Actually this was just an ok car, but it makes my "regrets" list because of it's value today.

In the summer of 1973, my first year out of college, I traded the Mustang for a navy blue and tan Fiat 124 spider with the 1592 cc engine and small bump hood. I decided this was a keeper and although I had other less memorable cars in the interm, I held on to the spider until 2000. In 1996, I picked up a 1979 Spider 2000 as the '73 spider had quit running and needed major engine work. I drove the '79 spider for a couple of years as it was, which wasn't all that great, and then had to make a decision on which car to restore. If only Al Gore had perfected the internet by then I would have kept the '73, but back then it needed much more work and the parts seemed to be much more available for the '79 so that's the one I have now. I do miss that small bumper car, even though the bumpers were worthless.

My only other regret was a 1957 Jagual XK 140 Roadster that I bought to restore. At the time I didn't have a place to work on it and frankly was short on talent. But what a beautiful car that was.

The great thing about a Spider is you can actually drive it and not be too up tight about it.

[Gunsmith]

78 Fiat Spider restored from the ground up
68 Corvette Convertible 327-350horse 4 Speed, factory air, two tops
66 Galaxie 500 Convertible restored
95 Impala SS bought new off the show room floor
Too many bikes to list and too many tears of watching them go away

The divorce was still worth it.

[wiggo]

I regret the rust got the better of my rear-engined Renault 10 with a tuned 1300 cc engine. Boy it was fun overtaking the unsuspecting Golf GTI's of the early 80's
Next move was into the Fiat camp. And I'm still here.