Art & Inspiration Regrets not buying a car?

i had a chance , around 15 years ago to pick up a xke . it seems like it was a 66 .cant really remember for sure . but it was a very nice older restoration . the owner had it for many years .and said he was just getting old and didnt drive it or take care of it anymore . 10 k . really didnt have 10k for a toy at the time . still dont for that matter! anyway the more i thought about it . shoulda jumped . went back months later . whoever got the chance next wasnt as stupid . oh well . lucas wiring really is shit !! and the maroon laquer had had some crazing !!!....................

 

Ya'll don't have the time nor do I have the money to pay the couch fee to list them all off...

Yes, I have regrets some days, but when I do, I look at my fleet in the garage...And realize that if it wasn't for my choices through the years that I wouldn't be here where I am at this moment... I'm grateful for what I have, and I built myself, there are some I regret selling but they also paved way to the current times... I tend to not focus as much on the past these days and look at the present and future... The past I have learnt from... The future I will make better.

 

In high school in the late 1970's a troubled kid down the street had a 63 Impala. It was a factory 340 hp 409 car. Not an SS but still was black, bench seat 4 speed car with the factory tach. His Dad was selling because the kid was getting into too much trouble with the car. I didn't have the $600 he was asking and passed on it.

 

I have a car I regret not having the chance to buy. when I was 14 -15 my buddy and I discovered a 50 Olds in a driveway with a yellow 32 roadster in the garage. this was 1974-ish and both cars were old faded builds. we knew where every Hot Rod was for miles around.

the Olds was nosed and decked, louvered hood and faded candy apple red with the coolest red and white tuck and roll interior of all time. it had rusty chrome wheels and pinner whitewalls with a California rake. I saw it in the classifieds when I was 15 and then it was gone never to be seen again. if he had waited a year to sell it I would have bought it and probably still have it.

the list of cars I regret buying is a much longer list.

 

i can date myself here as many others...in 1963 was offered a deuce 3 window for 50 long...50.00 bucks....my answer...what do i want that old turd for...lol....in 69 when i came back from vietnam...had and drove a 67 sunbeam tiger...for 3 days....2100.00 ...old man would not co sign...now realize could have financed...to dumb i guess....in 74 i had a business for mustangs....always a ford guy..a buddy says we should buy this guys 69 corvette roadster....we looked at it sitting in a field...wanted 1800.00 ...i remember looking inside...on the shifter plate it said....ZL 1....all aluminum big block...value not even estimable today....last in 77 or 78....had a guy come into my 4x4 shop....wanted to sell an old camaro....body in 1 place....engine etc in another....him and his partner wanted 700.00....we looked and passed...knew it had value but just 2 busy...car was a 67 Z 28....factory crossram 2 -4s...4 wheel discs.....very,very rare and worth a bunch today....lol

 

After being discharged in 1970 from the USAF and saving whatever I could and all my (combat pay) I started looking for a car. My buddy was a salesmen at local Ford Dealership and said they had a 1965 AC Cobra sitting on the showroom floor. It had the 289 cu. in. motor, 4 speed. Color was British Racing Green with black interior. Asking price was $6,500. The reason I didn't purchase the car is it didn't come with a top. Seeing this was going to be my only ride it wouldn't be realistic to buy it. Boy what a BIG mistake that was for not buying it seeing what they are selling for now. The way my luck goes I most likely would have sold it for less than what I would have paid for it!!!!

 

In the early 1980s I was in high school. 14, 15. No license yet. No job, no money. But dreams and a stack of Hot Rod magazines.

Parents agreed to help purchase a car when I was 15, thinking that doing drivers ed in my own car would be better for me, and they were probably right since dad drove a ‘70 Bug, and mom drove a ‘72 411, neither of which I would be driving.

My options were limited. I could walk, or ride my bike. That didn’t get me far. But I found a small used car lot a few miles from home that had something I wanted badly, a mid 50s Buick. It was huge, white, with chrome like only a mid 50s Buick could wear.

It had problems. It didn’t run. And the transmission was bad.

I had no tools, no skills, and taking on a non running Buick with a bad transmission was, admittedly, not a wise plan. Dad isn’t a “car guy”. He’s plenty smart, mechanically inclined, has tools, did all his own repairs and maintenance on the VWs and their predecessors, but we weren’t going to have any kumbaya father and son projects filling the driveway. We don’t have that kind of relationship. And a non running car wasn’t going to get me anywhere, kinda defeating the purpose of having a car.

Even then, I knew they were right, and passed on the Buick. But I still wish there had been a way to have made that happen.

 

Over the years there has been lots of stuff I wanted that I didn't buy because I thought I couldn't afford it or some other reason. A while back I figured out that there is never the perfect time. If it's something you want bad enough most times you can find a way to do it.

 

Yep passed on a OT 71 Challenger because the guy was a total DH.Missed a 34 Ford Coupe because the car I was driving to look at it started running like crap so I turned around and went home.Waited too long to get a Anglia project it got sold. .Lessons learned PRO....press on regardless.And don't hesitate!

 

I've had a few , when I was 17 i had a chance to buy a '57 T-Bird that ran and drove, a California car with no rust for $2000.00 . My Uncle was with me and he said he'd go in on it for half . We passed and have kicked our selves for years about that one . The next one was a mint '66 Plymouth Satellite for $200 , but no title , the title holder was on a ship in the Navy , i contacted him and he sent me a letter asking how much I would give him for the title? I got cold feet and passed on it , it had a 440 from a '69 R/T Charger and a 4-speed , and it screamed ! The next one was a '69 Hemi Roadrunner for $2000.00 . It was pretty rough and needed a torque convertor. I remember thinking that body is rough and I can't even drive it ! All 3 of these happened in 1976 .

 

I've definitely bought cars I shouldn't have and ben bitten by it, but ones I would have liked to buy but couldn't...

1987 or so, I was 13, there was a 1965 Chevelle wagon for sale near where all us kids rode our bikes to "the jump"...I think it had $800 on the window...I had a paper route and cash but there was no way my parents were letting me bring a car home 3 years before I could get my license...

1992 or so...There was an AD series panel truck on a lot not too far from me...nice paint from the road....Called on it, $4500, I was making $4.25 and hour, never coulda pulled that off...

1995 or so...1965 Falcon sedan delivery, really nice car, I have a thing for sedan deliveries and panels anyway....3500 bucks....I'm in college and struggling for cash....Not even a Ford guy but it was a cool rig...

2000....A coworker has a 1965 shortbed unibody Ford pickup, clean, no rust....$500....I was newly married, mortgage, scraping to get by every month...Couldn't do it....

Then you grow up....There was a guy on here a while back selling a car I would have liked to have...I could have put the cash together, but it would have to be my daily and would live outside year round....couldn't do that to an old car...

Devin