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Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:27 pm
by stuturners
I was thinking about this the other day and two e30s really stickout in my mind...............
1st. An E30 m3 6 years ago for £5000, the only reason I didnt buy it was that it had some rust around the front windscreen, apart from that it was in good condition.
2nd. A 2.7 Hartge for £600 about 5 years ago. I went to look thinking it would be a fake. Turns out it was the real deal, original engine, wheels, manifold, body kit, the lot. I took it for a quick spin and it made my 325i at the time feel slow. The only reason I didnt buy it was (this makes me sad to think about even now) that she wouldnt take £500 for it so I walked away. I went back a week later with the £600 and surprisingly it was no longer there :(

Anyone else kicking themself over a car they missed out on?
(Oh yeah and the lancia delta intergrale evo i missed out on for £500, but got his 1350 gt mini instead for £500!)

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:44 pm
by nickso
i have done the opposite many many times.

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:46 pm
by Cloggy Saint
nickso wrote:i have done the opposite many many times.
I'm with you!

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:48 pm
by kieran325
Many :(

One thing that hurts is that I let the cherished number KLF 1 slip by :( :(

Back in 1998 it was for sale for 11k and I managed to get it down to 8k, I thought about it but I just bought my 1st house and I needed the money for the house, regrettably I passed on the plate and cracked on with the house.

To this day I still search for it hoping it might come up for sale :(

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:55 pm
by Andyboy
And today, KLF1 would be worth 11 grand, maybe. But probably not - DVLA have been using desperation techniques to sell the many plates that didn't meet the low reserves at auction. Loads and load of nice numbers like 4WBF for £1900.

If you'd put 8k into a nice Sport Evo, you'd have cashed it in 2 years ago for 30 bags....

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:28 pm
by capri_rob
Nope - I only ever go and see cars I will buy if they are as described.

The only one I've ever bought and regretted afterwards was the hateful shitbox mk2 Golf Gti I gave £1200 for which started falling apart a few days after I bought it. And this was the replacement for the best E30 I've ever had :x

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:27 am
by a8dyc
kieran325 wrote:Many :(

One thing that hurts is that I let the cherished number KLF 1 slip by :( :(

Back in 1998 it was for sale for 11k and I managed to get it down to 8k, I thought about it but I just bought my 1st house and I needed the money for the house, regrettably I passed on the plate and cracked on with the house.

To this day I still search for it hoping it might come up for sale :(
I sold a cherished reg that i had for years for £1800.Always regretted it.On the off chance 3 years later it was up for sale for £1500.I bought it for £1000.I will never sell it again.

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:08 am
by Jesus325iTouring
I missed out on a US spec 6.9V8 Merc 450SEL as I didn't have the readies to hand to buy it,I phoned on the off chance the guy still had it 6 months later,only to find he'd sold just 2 weeks previously :cry:

Image

The car was VERY good conditon,the price,200 quid :( I was homeless and very poor at the time!

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:25 am
by German-Whips
Done the opposite with my iS.

Hopefully i don't make a mistake buying this 316i i've got my eye on for about £400...... :cry: :cry:

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:05 am
by paolobianchi
most weeks on ebat!

my latest cock up was an 88 325 cabby, manual, white, straight, 156 ont clock...870 quid....

by the time i got my arriss in gear, it had gone

i am an ebay addict!!

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:23 am
by sajad09
funny you say this, i saw a 318is on pistonheads for £700 yesterday, looked good in pics, anyway rang the guy up asked him all about it, he said its mint apart from small rust buble apearing on one of the rear arch.

so struck a deal with him for £450 over the phone and arranged to veiw it a few hours later..

The car was a fair few miles from me so took about 2 hours to get to his house, eventually got there at 10pm.

Anyway got to his house with £450 in my back pocket and a torch to inspect it, and couldnt belive that the guy acctually thought it was mint, at first i felt like smacking him for wasting my time!, but then realised that he seriously thought it was in good nick... the guy was gutted to sell it (pregnant grilfreind and all the rest of the usual excuses for selling)

The car was a differnt shade of colour on nearly all the panels, major oil leak, blowing exaust ( he said the IS always sounds like that) rust in all the ususal spots, scrape down passenger side which had been touched up with paint brush. boot spoiler came off as opened the boot. lol

Front bumper smashed in one corner ( apparently that happend 15 mins before i turned up as he picked his sister up from asda) but he was willing to knock money off for it!! ( didnt know that rust could be visable 15mins after damaged)

Then when i questioned him about the pics on pistonheads, he informed me that they were old pics he took last year when he bought the car as he didnt have a camera...

I couldnt beleive how stupid i had been thinkin i was getting a bargain, any way as i laughed at his car and told him politly that he was a so and so.

He then offered it to me for £250, i thought about it for a minute and thought i could frag it for more, but then i came to my senses and just walked away, glad i didnt waste my time as it would be sitting on the drive now and id be hating myself for it.

what a waste of an evening.

maybe next time ill think twice when i see a cheap car... :(

as they say if sounds to good to be true, it probably is..

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:43 am
by Andyboy
Jesus325iTouring wrote:I missed out on a US spec 6.9V8 Merc 450SEL as I didn't have the readies to hand to buy it,I phoned on the off chance the guy still had it 6 months later,only to find he'd sold just 2 weeks previously :cry:

Image

The car was VERY good conditon,the price,200 quid :( I was homeless and very poor at the time!

Oh FFS Mr JHC. That's a slap in the face - that's one of those cars you'd give 200 sheets for without even looking at.

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:00 am
by RustyRuss
a8dyc wrote:
kieran325 wrote:Many :(

One thing that hurts is that I let the cherished number KLF 1 slip by :( :(

Back in 1998 it was for sale for 11k and I managed to get it down to 8k, I thought about it but I just bought my 1st house and I needed the money for the house, regrettably I passed on the plate and cracked on with the house.

To this day I still search for it hoping it might come up for sale :(
I sold a cherished reg that i had for years for £1800.Always regretted it.On the off chance 3 years later it was up for sale for £1500.I bought it for £1000.I will never sell it again.
EXCACTLY the same scenario as me!!

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:04 am
by RustyRuss
Remember when i was 19 9 years ago i passed on the chance of a J reg calypso red 2 door 325iSEA, 1 owner, 40,000 miles on the clock, for £1500, hummed and hawed about it too long, it sold, i bought a 525i E34 instead....always regretted not buying that car and often wonder to this day what happened to it because if i had of bought it id still of had it!!!

Re: Ever viewed a car and later regretted not buying it?

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:51 am
by Jesus325iTouring
Andyboy wrote:
Jesus325iTouring wrote:I missed out on a US spec 6.9V8 Merc 450SEL as I didn't have the readies to hand to buy it,I phoned on the off chance the guy still had it 6 months later,only to find he'd sold just 2 weeks previously :cry:

Image

The car was VERY good conditon,the price,200 quid :( I was homeless and very poor at the time!

Oh FFS Mr JHC. That's a slap in the face - that's one of those cars you'd give 200 sheets for without even looking at.
Tell me about it :( problem is Andy,as I said,I was homeless with no money,200 quid might just as well have been 20 grand,to this day,I so regret not being able to buy it,or indeed stealing some money from granny to buy it!

It had apparantly been sold to someone who was an enthusiast who wanted to put it back on the road,but interestingly I saw the car for sale a couple of weeks later in the back of Practical Classics for lot's of thousands of pounds. :x