The Ones that Got Away

[MikeyMike]

Being a serial Pistonheads Classifieds "window shopper" for many years now, on more than one occasion I've been very close to pulling the trigger and buying something that pulls at the heart strings but lost my bottle at the last minute. Lo' and behold many (all) of those near purchases are now beyond my financial reach much to my angst.

Those I've seemingly forever missed out on are;

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 3dr.- Tidy example that needed some minor welding work up for 6.5k (The welding work put me off). I daren't look at what they go for now, its too depressing.

Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - Drove from Cambridgeshire to Dover to test drive a fresh import up for 7.5k, at 350bhp it felt heavy and lacklustre after my MR2 Turbo and the PX offered for my MR2 was too low. I walked away from that one and a similar car would now be 12k+.

BMW e39 M5/Alpina B10 V8 - Looked at many of these when they were hovering around the 6-8k mark. A seemingly too good to be true M5 came up for 6.5k about a year ago, I missed out on that one by 20 mins according to the seller who did a deal over the phone with the guy who beat me to it. Most are now 10k+.

Thanks to my reluctance to take the plunge, and several years of ever increasing prices of 2nd hand performance cars I can't help but feel that I've massively missed out on what could've been some fantastic cars to own and run. And I cant see the prices of any of those models dropping now, I fear they're only going one way.

[kiethton]

A very ropey TVR Tuscan in '10 for £6.5k

Pockets weren't deep enough/insurance reasonable enough at the time, would now be ~12k in similar condition

[Riley Blue]

A mate was interested in a Porsche 914 and I drove him a couple of hundred miles to north London to have a look at it. It wsn't until we got there that I found out it was a rare Crayford RHD conversion. After a good look round and a short test drive, my mate wasn't interested but I was - slightly. I really wish I'd followed it up but I didn't. I even bought the Haynes 914 manual which I must still have somewhere...

[JakeT]

A nice E36 328i sport. Saw a beautiful one with a decent mileage and spec for the right money, but being 18 I couldn't quite make the insurance work. While I have a 325ti now the E36 still captivates.

[Zippee]

99 S plate Black on black 355 GTS about 3-4 years ago. Up for £35k, agreed a great p/ex deal on my TVR.
Drove home and my TVR felt so much more alive than the Ferrari which is now worth 60k plus

[toon10]

I remember being 18 and looking at cars and a Mk1 Escort came up for £400. My father talked me out of it.

I also nearly bought an Alfa 155 up for about £7000 back in the day. I put myself off with the reliability stories so bought a 16V Calibra from the same garage. It inevitably broke down a lot and finally gave up the ghost with only 88k on the clock.

[topless360]

Ferrari 355 Spider in Red, Manual from a Porsche dealer for £40k almost 2 years ago. They would've given it a Cambelt service and 12 month warranty too. Probably worth £100k now.

Luckily I bought a 360 for good value instead which has also appreciated, just not as much as the 355.

[hufggfg]

Only a few years ago, when I bought my C63 (for a smidgeon over £30k), you could buy a 996 GT3 for around the same money (maybe £35k for a good one). I strongly considered one but ultimately decided I wanted the newer car and practicality... In many ways I was right, and loved the C63, but clearly a bad financial decision!

I wasn't actually close to buying one, but I've always lusted after a Dino 246GT. When I first got paid a relatively large sum they were just around £80k if I remember correctly, and I thought to myself "If I borrow a bit more money I could go and get one..." Didn't really think about it seriously as I assumed they'd continue to get a bit cheaper over next 5-10 years.... oops

[LordHaveMurci]

Loads, nearly bought a Mk2 Escort RS2000 Custom, bought an Opel Kadett (FWD) instead

Test drove an Audi RS2, bought a year old Scooby instead.

Test drove an E30 M3 when they were £8500k & I had cash burning a hole in my pocket, don't want to dwell on that one.

Nearly convinced myself changing my 996 C2 for a Mk1 GT3 was a good idea 2-3yrs ago when everybody was aying they were going to rocket - probably my worst decision yet. Also thought about swapping it for a 348 but the running costs scared me off that idea.

[stuckmojo]

Z3 M breadvan for very, very, very cheap. Still kicking myself years later.

[mikearwas]

Low mileage, great condition Z4M roadster in the summer of 2014. Was up for under 14k. It would have paid for itself.

[NDNDNDND]

About 8-10 years ago, I was out jogging with my Dad and he suggested we go past a classic car dealership he knew. Lots of american cars, but among them was a beautiful yellow 1970 RHD Maserati Ghibli, one of only seven in RHD apparently. We both knew it was a steal at £25k. It was a competitor to the Daytona, which was already being valued north of £150k. It was a financial stretch my Dad could manage but couldn't quite stomach.

The last one I saw for sale was £275k.

[Frankthered]

During the mid 90s (I think - it was a long time ago!) there was a Ginetta G32 up for £3495 in the AutoTrader. It was dirt cheap because Ginetta were out of business at the time.

Didn't go for it, but they're worth much more than that now.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Jesus I'm depressingly good at this game......

M3csl I sold it with 33k on the clock for £21k
Porsche 993 in speed yellow with factory RS kit sold for £28.5k
Nut & bolt resto 911 3.0 in orange sold for £25.5k
Z4M coupe with 25k on the clock sold for £15.5k

To be fair, apart from the CSL I made money on all of them but not as much as I could have

The ones that got away?

Numerous 964RS' the car I actually joined pistonheads to buy. They were £40-£45k when I started but just never got a deal together.

Renault 5 Turbo 2 back in the day, fully rebuilt but at £7.5k was a grand more than my Fiesta RS Turbo was worth and I needed the cash for a house.

911 GT3RS (996) I offered £45k, they wanted £48k.

Ferrari 360 I offered £30k but they held out for £33, then a month later the vendor got in touch to say if I could complete for that weekend I could have it for £30k but I'd already bought something else.

E30 M3, quite a few of them as well but at that point the nice ones were fetching £15k and that just didn't sit well when a year before they were £10k. How much is a 60k miler worth now?

The biggest regret however were two separate 911 carrera clubsports. One at £25k was the car evo magazine used in their feature for the ultimate 911 and was high mileage but perfect. The other was low mileage but stripped interior and set up for track (but with all the original bits kept). The seller wanted £35k iirc and I couldn't (wouldn't) go above £30k. Both those cars would be £100k+ these days and I'm an idiot.

Not my fault this one but I found a Back To The Future Delorean built by the guy who did the movie cars, came with remote control prop and everything! Up for £20k and I wanted a mate to go halves but he wasn't interested, God knows what that would fetch these days.

Same mate did want to go halves on a Countach or Testsrossa back when they were £50k but I didn't have the money & the bills terrified me a bit!

Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Tuesday 9th February 13:30

[P5BNij]

Not long after passing my test in the late '80s I was offered a usable but MOT'd and slightly tatty bright orange BMW 2002 for £400. I've no idea how much the insurance would have cost me, but I didn't care at the time.

[LankyLegoHead]

Even in its tatty old modified state, the MK1 Golf Driver I had should never have left me!

Also seems like not that long ago I was looking at 911 SC's for south of 8-10k. Just couldn't be bothered with the insurance. God, if only I had a time machine! That'd be a nice deposit for a mortgage now....

[dudleybloke]

I can remember RS200's going for about £14k a few years back.

[MrBarry123]

I've never really been in a position to miss out on an opportunity such as this however purchasing a mint E46 M3 CS or a Mk2 Focus RS instead of the Scirocco may have meant I would have taken a far lesser hit on depreciation, if not none at all, than I have done.

Oh well.

[Guvernator]

E30 M3, back when they were £10k. Went and viewed a few and even though I liked them, my head said £10k was too much for an old 3 series so I'd wait till they went down a bit more.

E40 M3 CSL. Went to view one, enjoyed the experience but head said £25k was too much for an old 3 series so I'd wait till they went down a bit more.

Honda NSX. Went to view one, enjoyed the experience but head said £25k was too much for a Honda so would wait until they went down a bit more. (can you see a pattern forming?)

911 GT3 Mk1 - Arranged a viewing with a dealer but cancelled on the day as if I went to drive it, I'd probably buy it and decided £35k was too much to tie up in a 2 seater toy which would probably sit on the drive and depreciate.

My old man owned a BMW 2002tii and a Mercedes 190 Evo 1 for a number of years. Sold both for peanuts well before they were on the radar as appreciating assets. We both wish he'd kept them now.

[Leins]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Numerous 964RS' the car I actually joined pistonheads to buy. They were £40-£45k when I started but just never got a deal together.

April 2012, Essen, LHD, 110K kms, €65k (would have been about £53k at the time I think):