What's the most money you've lost on a car?
Discussion
So, I've had my car for 9 months and may be looking to sell as no longer need 2 cars in the household.
It's just turned 11 years old (Golf Gti) and I did 10k miles in that time.
I got the car for free with a dead engine, rebuilt it and new tyres brakes etc gearbox service and just basically spent too much on repairs/maintenance being a perfectionist, and now come sale time il be down around £1400 compared to how much it's cost me so far. (Still needs a respray and alloys sorting).
I feel wounded as ive never made a loss on a car before. I feel awful for some reason ha! Was going to keep it a long time and am no motor trader or anything. Not sure why I feel so crap about it.
So go on, make me feel less crap about myself, how much you lost in how much time/miles?
It's just turned 11 years old (Golf Gti) and I did 10k miles in that time.
I got the car for free with a dead engine, rebuilt it and new tyres brakes etc gearbox service and just basically spent too much on repairs/maintenance being a perfectionist, and now come sale time il be down around £1400 compared to how much it's cost me so far. (Still needs a respray and alloys sorting).
I feel wounded as ive never made a loss on a car before. I feel awful for some reason ha! Was going to keep it a long time and am no motor trader or anything. Not sure why I feel so crap about it.
So go on, make me feel less crap about myself, how much you lost in how much time/miles?
Wife wanted a Range Rover Evoque, I hated it. Didn’t want to buy it but it’s what she wanted. So being a good husband I bought one and part exchanged he car.
We owned it 10 months and lost £10,000 and to be honest it was worth the loss just to see the back of it. One thing worse than a ranger rover Evoque … the dealer.
Even more gutting was I part exchanged her MINI GP 2 for it with only 3,500 miles on it.
We owned it 10 months and lost £10,000 and to be honest it was worth the loss just to see the back of it. One thing worse than a ranger rover Evoque … the dealer.
Even more gutting was I part exchanged her MINI GP 2 for it with only 3,500 miles on it.
Wish said:
Wife wanted a Range Rover Evoque, I hated it. Didn’t want to buy it but it’s what she wanted. So being a good husband I bought one and part exchanged he car.
We owned it 10 months and lost £10,000 and to be honest it was worth the loss just to see the back of it. One thing worse than a ranger rover Evoque … the dealer.
Even more gutting was I part exchanged her MINI GP 2 for it with only 3,500 miles on it.
Damn.We owned it 10 months and lost £10,000 and to be honest it was worth the loss just to see the back of it. One thing worse than a ranger rover Evoque … the dealer.
Even more gutting was I part exchanged her MINI GP 2 for it with only 3,500 miles on it.
Pre-registered Civic Type R EP3.
Bought for £16k in 2004.
Wife up the duff.
Traded for a Mazda 5 3-6 months later for £13k.
Made it up 3 years later when I traded the £15k Mazda 5 against an "offer" 2009 Mondeo 2.0 at £12k. Got £5.5k for the Mazda plus they gave me £2k for a £400 Mondeo as "scrappage". Sure the Mazda lost £9500 over 3 years but we saved about £8k on the Mondeo.
Swings and roundabouts.
Bought for £16k in 2004.
Wife up the duff.
Traded for a Mazda 5 3-6 months later for £13k.
Made it up 3 years later when I traded the £15k Mazda 5 against an "offer" 2009 Mondeo 2.0 at £12k. Got £5.5k for the Mazda plus they gave me £2k for a £400 Mondeo as "scrappage". Sure the Mazda lost £9500 over 3 years but we saved about £8k on the Mondeo.
Swings and roundabouts.
I lost £500 on an RX8 R3 I bought and sold in a month about 8 years ago.
I'll probably lose anything up to £9k on my citroen cactus I have but I bought it at 18 months old on 13k miles and will run it til it dies a death. Currently on 73k miles so as long as I can get it to ~120k I'll be happy.
Made a grand on owning an Elise for 5 years. If I had owned it for another 3 years I probably would have almost made almost £10k. Always regretted having to sell it, now even more so!
I'll probably lose anything up to £9k on my citroen cactus I have but I bought it at 18 months old on 13k miles and will run it til it dies a death. Currently on 73k miles so as long as I can get it to ~120k I'll be happy.
Made a grand on owning an Elise for 5 years. If I had owned it for another 3 years I probably would have almost made almost £10k. Always regretted having to sell it, now even more so!
Not quite as painful as "Wills2" experience thankfully!
I bought a September 07 pre-registered BMW 123d in January 2008 and sold it after 81K miles in July 2014 for £15,295 less than I paid for it.
Since then all of my cars have been much older so limited depreciation, just higher maintenance costs when things wear out.
I bought a September 07 pre-registered BMW 123d in January 2008 and sold it after 81K miles in July 2014 for £15,295 less than I paid for it.
Since then all of my cars have been much older so limited depreciation, just higher maintenance costs when things wear out.
I bought a new BMW 330Ci Coupe in 2001 for £38,500 and I lost all my money on it. But I still have the car 21 years later with 210k miles on the clock. It's currently worth nothing more than scrap value as the engine overheated and at the very least, the head gasket is blown. It also has rust bubbling up in the rear wheel arches. I think I worked out that I've probably spent as much again on petrol in that time. Let's say an average tank lasted 330 miles. 210000/330 = 636 full tanks of fuel, at an average of what, £60? That comes to £38,131. Ouch! That car took me all over Europe from Sweden to Southern Spain, from the UK to the Czech Republic, and came to live with me when I worked in Germany and Denmark. But I enjoyed every single mile in that car and if I could go back to 2001 knowing what I know now, I'd probably buy the same again or maybe an M3. Even more ouch!
Here she is at the BMW HQ/Museum in Munich in December 2015. After that visited Vienna, Prague, and Nuremberg, where my power steering pump shaft failed. Drove the rest of the way home to Surrey without power steering, which made underground hotel car parks tricky!
Here she is at the BMW HQ/Museum in Munich in December 2015. After that visited Vienna, Prague, and Nuremberg, where my power steering pump shaft failed. Drove the rest of the way home to Surrey without power steering, which made underground hotel car parks tricky!
Edited by LunarOne on Sunday 13th February 00:42
This is a great thread idea.
I've not done too well in the past on this score.
Memorable ones:
Phase 1 172, owned 6 months (or less), purchased £1400, spent £2000+ on bringing it to original and good condition, before it dumped its coolant all over the carriageway. Sold for the same price as purchased, so essentially lost the £2k on it. I just fancied a change and the coolant issue gave me the ammunition.
350z roadster, bought from dealer @ 7k, sold for 4k as little as 6 months later. Costing me a fortune, top tier VED and 40 miles a day @ 20 MPG SUL, at a the time when petrol was more expensive than it has ever been now or since, meant it was raping me, so I moved it on.
z4 coupe - Got an auto model for 9k and sold for 7k to WBAC within a year with a shagged gearbox.
I'm not a particularly sensible individual.
I've not done too well in the past on this score.
Memorable ones:
Phase 1 172, owned 6 months (or less), purchased £1400, spent £2000+ on bringing it to original and good condition, before it dumped its coolant all over the carriageway. Sold for the same price as purchased, so essentially lost the £2k on it. I just fancied a change and the coolant issue gave me the ammunition.
350z roadster, bought from dealer @ 7k, sold for 4k as little as 6 months later. Costing me a fortune, top tier VED and 40 miles a day @ 20 MPG SUL, at a the time when petrol was more expensive than it has ever been now or since, meant it was raping me, so I moved it on.
z4 coupe - Got an auto model for 9k and sold for 7k to WBAC within a year with a shagged gearbox.
I'm not a particularly sensible individual.
Wills2 said:
Bought a new M5 for 67k did 30k in 12 months sold it for 42k, £25k loss in 12 months.
Mind boggling. I've never put myself in a position for that much depreciation and never would. I guess you got plenty of miles out of it though. I've either had cars that I sold for broadly the same, though some certainly sucked up a lot of maintenance, or used them up so comprehensively that no matter what 'the loss' I felt like I got my money's worth.
Does this count? Bought a 1988 911 3.2 Clubsport in 2004 for what I thought would not only be a great car, but hoped it would make a good investment for 26k
In 2006 with a newborn baby, and what is a 2 seater car, sold it for 30k. Effectively traded it in for what is now a very stroppy teenager and that car is worth around £150k
If I could go back to 2006 I would do the same again in a heartbeat
In 2006 with a newborn baby, and what is a 2 seater car, sold it for 30k. Effectively traded it in for what is now a very stroppy teenager and that car is worth around £150k
If I could go back to 2006 I would do the same again in a heartbeat
Edited by Hans_Gruber on Sunday 13th February 06:58
Good stories here. The thing is, in normal times everyone loses money on newer regular cars- but people are forgetting that and want to invest in a 1 year old 3 series.
I try to buy older stuff to save too bigger loses though, although we always lose on my partners new cars (conversely they are trouble free).
My most gut wrenching is buying an Audi A2 as a run around to save money. I paid £1200 but it had been keyed on both sides, so paid to get that done for £600 and it had two buckled wheels, £200 for wheels off of eBay. The sunroof then broke and got stuck semi open and I had to sell for £900 after 3 months…lost £1100 on an Audi A2 that cost £1200
.
I try to buy older stuff to save too bigger loses though, although we always lose on my partners new cars (conversely they are trouble free).
My most gut wrenching is buying an Audi A2 as a run around to save money. I paid £1200 but it had been keyed on both sides, so paid to get that done for £600 and it had two buckled wheels, £200 for wheels off of eBay. The sunroof then broke and got stuck semi open and I had to sell for £900 after 3 months…lost £1100 on an Audi A2 that cost £1200
.2004 I bought a mint 996 Carrera 2 with 35k on the clock. Owned it for a year and the engine blew up about a month outside the warranty (intermediate driveshaft failure). I had the engine rebuilt for £6.5k and it eventually went on sale or return from the dealer I bought it from (who also rebuilt the engine). They did very nicely out of me 
Cost £20k for depreciation, servicing and an engine rebuild. I had sold everything I owned to buy my dream car and had a 20k loan in it too. With the money I got back from the sale I had enough left (this is true!) to buy a mountain bike and a rusty old polo with a dodgy gearbox. Since then I am a big fan of a good warranty….
Cost £20k for depreciation, servicing and an engine rebuild. I had sold everything I owned to buy my dream car and had a 20k loan in it too. With the money I got back from the sale I had enough left (this is true!) to buy a mountain bike and a rusty old polo with a dodgy gearbox. Since then I am a big fan of a good warranty….
To be fair, this thread requires the numbers to be given as £/mile or £/day or year to be properly representative. I bought a 520d for £13.5k and sold it for a grand eight years later so it cost be £12.5k; however in the eight years between id driven it 150000 miles so wasn’t too upset
The highlights...
M3csl, bought for £29.5k and part exchanged for £21k a year or so later-remember those days?!
Megane R26.R, bought for £22.5k and sold for £16k after a year or so-worth the cost!
MINI GP2, bought new for £29k new and sold for £18k after about 2.5 years
Honda Civic Type R, bought new for £30k and sold for £19k after 3.5 years.
Lost on the wife's cars but we keep those for ages so just put down to the cost of motoring, losing £10k on BMWs over 11 years doesn't seem too bad but the ones above niggle me knowing what they're now worth!
To be fair, on most other stuff I've either broke even or made enough to offset running costs
M3csl, bought for £29.5k and part exchanged for £21k a year or so later-remember those days?!
Megane R26.R, bought for £22.5k and sold for £16k after a year or so-worth the cost!
MINI GP2, bought new for £29k new and sold for £18k after about 2.5 years
Honda Civic Type R, bought new for £30k and sold for £19k after 3.5 years.
Lost on the wife's cars but we keep those for ages so just put down to the cost of motoring, losing £10k on BMWs over 11 years doesn't seem too bad but the ones above niggle me knowing what they're now worth!
To be fair, on most other stuff I've either broke even or made enough to offset running costs
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff