3 that got away

[dapper]

Are there three cars you let slip through your fingertips, ones you really wanted but circumstances or indecision meant they passed you by?

Here's mine...

Audi 100 Coupe
tinyurl.com/79zomkx

Opel Monza GSE
tinyurl.com/7vy6mwy

Peugeot 504 coupe
tinyurl.com/7xry39l

And yes, I have a coupe fetish.

[composimmonite]

Neighbour offered me an early S1 E Type for £500. MOT'd and on the road but scruffy. This was mid 70's though when £500 was a lot of money and all I could afford was a £50 Sunbeam Rapier MKIV. I'd already passed on a Frogeye Sprite (£148) & GT6 (£80) for sale at local garage. Then there was the genuine RS3100 Capri for £500 but needed too much work despite having MOT - I bought a mint 10,000 mile 1.6 LS instead

Paul H

[Del]

Only one.
A silver ex-Swedish Embassy Saab 9000 saloon, fully loaded, FSH (as you'd expect), immaculate throughout but the turbo was kippered. It would have been mine for free but I couldn't afford to replace the turbo and nowhere to keep it until I could.
Still regret it now...

[mudbitz123]

looking back id say mk 9 jag, 100 e , a30 and a35 not to mention my much loved vitara
at the time it makes 100 % sense to sell only for the realisation that the car you sold probably had mods done to it unique to yourself
think most of us regret selling thats why now at a more mature age i look back with fond memories of whats gone but make sure i hold on now to what ive got
remember years ago cars were cheap if you had the money
seen lotus cortinas etc on forecourts at low price but as you said wages reflected you bought to suit the pocket like a cheap mini when your heart screamed lotus cortina

[composimmonite]

Mate had a nice roadworth 1968 MKII Lotus Cortina that was unsellable (insurance) even for £500 in early 70's. He's rebuilt the engine and someone was interested in just that so offered it to me for £300 with a 1600GT fitted in it's place. Unfortunatley my insurers still wanted Lotus premium so I couldn't afford. I think in the end he got £350 with the original engine still in situ.
Sound cheap but putting things into context in 1976 I bought a brand new semi bungalow with big garden, 70' long drive backing onto fields in a rural tourist area near steam railway and canal / river for £7500.

Paul H

[dodgerover]

XC Falcon Corba coupe bathurst special (build no.3 I think) Aus $3000 - bought an engagement ring instead - my OH has since seen the car and knows what its now worth and agrees i should have bought it instead, it was pretty rat curse word at the time though:

VH770 Charger 2 years ago £5k it was lovely and in my eyes now a bargain, just didn't have the space at the timeas the HQ wagon was in it.

£300 sierra cosworth with MOT

[BT]

I try to forget most of them otherwise i would go crazy!

The one that seem to still be there is a MK1 tintop GTi Golf back in 2007, MOT, no tax but in a relativity fair state for £275

[SparksECM]

A gunmetal grey Mazda Rx7 FC3S N/A on white advan 3 spokes, mild lowering and a nice exhaust. Cost about £600 but lost my job the week before going to view so sadly had to pass it up. regretted it ever since

[orion1600e]

I missed a 1600 auto 2 door mk2 escort by about half an hour once !!! One owner from new, said owner had died and his wife gave the car with docs back to the local ford dealer a mate of mine who worked there at the time rang me saying £200 would take it and the banger boys beat me to it by all of half an hour. They bought it for £75 and took it to skegness banger track that weekend and smashed it to bits.

[PandaSelecta]

Life is full of regrets, sadly I have quite a few. Biggest ones are....

In 2001 I was offered a late 70s Fiat 126 aircooled De Ville in absolutely mint condition, in yellow with a black vinyl roof (might have been a sunroof?), mine for £400 but no space at the time

In 2007 (about) I was offered an Allegro Vanden Plas in brown for £100, it needed an mot but looked like it wouldnt need much, if anything.

[DavidB]

A tidy series 60 Toyota Starlet (the RWD one) for 500 quid about three years ago.

[sheffieldcortinacentre]

mid 90's with no room to store it a maize yellow 2dr 1600GT mk3 cortina built aug 70.£150 prob oldest one left

[spiny]

loads for me, but the one I really regret not buying was a mid seventies vw bay window van cherry picker, for £1000

this was only about eight years ago too, I just didn't have the room :/

like this, but orange (I think)



www.exactcom.com.au/proofs/KombiPics/FunPics/cherryPickerKombi.jpg

[rustempire]

About 8 years ago I passed up a £600 Frogeye Sprite because I thought it was seriously devalued by it's fiberglass front end, it wasn't a tidy car but it was a hardly basket case.

A week later I'd realised what a tool I was but the car was long gone.

Other than that it's usually the other way round, I get all excited and buy the car, then wonder why.

Doh!

[MonzaPhil]

A pair of frogeyes, one witha rebuilt shell but both in pieces..


£200!


A Wolseley Wedge with about 6000 miles on it, still had interior protectors, 5 digit reg number, never managed to get a price, it just sat and rotted.

I'm sure there are lots more.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

There was only one that realy buggs me... A Simca Bertone coupe that was for sale in Italy. BUt in the end, I think, maybe it was better I couldn't (well I thought I couldn't) buy it. As it was rotten to the core. On the other hand, it was affordable. Very affordable. And as the saying goes; "when the going gets tough, the though get's going".

Yeah. I realy, realy should have bought it... And thought about it afterwards... ;D

[brc76]

When I first moved to england in 1994 I was offered a mk1 lotus cortina pre airflow for £1800. it was shabby and was hand painted, but not bad. I had the money. I was worried it was too old to drive daily. What did I buy instead? £500 Austin Maestro that I eventually scrapped. Idiot.

[PandaSelecta]

Seems i do have a third 'one that got away'. When i had my Mercedes i was told that if i got it moted (just needed a patch weld), i could have a pastel blue Fiat 850 Coupe with mot as a swap. I didnt think the 850 was worth it so i didnt swap. In the end the Mercedes went for £950, whereas i probably would still have had the 850

[DavidB]

Oo, forgot about this one - Celica owned by girlfriend's family from new, was passed down to brother in 1996->.
I could've bought it around 1999. It's since been scrapped ...
Will try and get more photos!

[guslopez]

2 190sl's , one running & the other for spares for £200. didn't fancy them at the time!!
a lincoln continental ,ex secret service , armoured & with bullet proof glass. £ 950 I realy fancied it but there was no way I could afford it !
Daimler V8 S type ,T&T. Brother -in -law owed me £200 & offered it instead but I had enough cars at the time :
I lose more sleep over the ones I had & sold on !!