What cars do you wish you'd bought?
Discussion
Dino for £70k - only about 7-8 years ago
Muira for £220k in 2007 (yes, really)
Stratos for £60k about 10 years ago
22b for low 20's about 3 years ago
CSL for £30k in 2014 - currently up for sale for £47.5k
Still, managed to buy a few which have rocketed in price (Pagoda, GT3 Mk1 CS, NSX, 944 Turbo Cabriolet) but sadly, I'd sold them all before the big money was made.....!
The joys of motoring.......!
Muira for £220k in 2007 (yes, really)
Stratos for £60k about 10 years ago
22b for low 20's about 3 years ago
CSL for £30k in 2014 - currently up for sale for £47.5k
Still, managed to buy a few which have rocketed in price (Pagoda, GT3 Mk1 CS, NSX, 944 Turbo Cabriolet) but sadly, I'd sold them all before the big money was made.....!
The joys of motoring.......!
Well, really loads and loads, but I was never seriously thinking of buying due to lack of readies.
However, my father, that was a different story. In the early sixties, not long before I was born, he was, like, *this* close to buying a Type 57 Bugatti. Seller wanted something like 1200 quid (ok, a lot in those days) and my dad wouldn't go above 1100, so he said. I don't remember what he said it was exactly, but I think it was a drophead coupe of some form. (Dad passed away years ago now, so I can't go ask him.)
Recent auction results suggest a 2016 average value for the type of somewhere around $US1m-ish. *sigh*
However, my father, that was a different story. In the early sixties, not long before I was born, he was, like, *this* close to buying a Type 57 Bugatti. Seller wanted something like 1200 quid (ok, a lot in those days) and my dad wouldn't go above 1100, so he said. I don't remember what he said it was exactly, but I think it was a drophead coupe of some form. (Dad passed away years ago now, so I can't go ask him.)
Recent auction results suggest a 2016 average value for the type of somewhere around $US1m-ish. *sigh*
David A said:
Testarossa a few years back. They were "cheap" then. 
This definitely. Also, I really wish I'd grabbed a Dodge Challenger when the prices were still in the toilet, or one of the £10-15k series 2 E-Type coupes needing a bit of gentle fettling, which were all over the classifieds a few years back. Nearly got my dad a Jensen Interceptor for £7k back in the mid-90s that was being sold by a guy going through a divorce and wanted to get shot of it. He bought a rusty Fiat camper van to restore as a hobby instead - I could cry now...Paul O said:
Escort cosworth when they were £15k. I bought a boxster for £18k and sold for £7.5k. Cosworth went up and now about £30k.
Ferrari 348 when they were £20-25k. I bought a Cayman for £30k. I sold it for £18k, 348s went up and now worth about £45k.
Ferarri 360 when they were £40k. I bought a 911 for £32k. I sold it for £18k, 360 went up and now worry about £70k.
I make very bad decisions when it comes to cars. :-s
I feel your pain. Avoided buying a cossie when I could afford them and now where you could have got a 4wd sapphire cosworth for a £4K punt, they are way past the cost of taking a gamble. Integrates went the same way - I remember seeing Evo II Kat late models going for £15k and now they are silly money...Ferrari 348 when they were £20-25k. I bought a Cayman for £30k. I sold it for £18k, 348s went up and now worth about £45k.
Ferarri 360 when they were £40k. I bought a 911 for £32k. I sold it for £18k, 360 went up and now worry about £70k.
I make very bad decisions when it comes to cars. :-s
My own regret is missing a £1200 Elan Sprint. But let's imagine you travel back to 1967 with some 2016 cash - take 20k and look what you can buy secondhand (as advertised in 1 June 1967 Autocar)
Ferrari 275GTS - £3,850 or a bargain 250 GT 2+2 £1750
Porsche 356 Speedster- £499
Jaguar E Type dhc- £895
Or maybe Sir likes Astons? How about a DB4 convertible for £1550?
Lotus 7 S1- £225
You are thinking - of course they are cheap- inflation innit. True- so allowing for that you can still get the Speedster for £8000 and the Seven for £3600- but the now million pound 275GTS would have cost you a bargain £64k at 2016 prices
Ferrari 275GTS - £3,850 or a bargain 250 GT 2+2 £1750
Porsche 356 Speedster- £499
Jaguar E Type dhc- £895
Or maybe Sir likes Astons? How about a DB4 convertible for £1550?
Lotus 7 S1- £225
You are thinking - of course they are cheap- inflation innit. True- so allowing for that you can still get the Speedster for £8000 and the Seven for £3600- but the now million pound 275GTS would have cost you a bargain £64k at 2016 prices
Of the cars I actually wanted and could have bought I wish I had picked up a 911 Carrera in the early 90's when they could be picked up for about 5 grand.
Another 5 grand in 2000 or thereabouts could have got me a white series 1 Lotus Esprit that was part restored and just needed paint and reassembly. Damn.
I could never afford it at the time but you could pick up 80's Aston Martin V8s for about 30k back then too. That was the going price for a Maserati Bora too.
Another 5 grand in 2000 or thereabouts could have got me a white series 1 Lotus Esprit that was part restored and just needed paint and reassembly. Damn.
I could never afford it at the time but you could pick up 80's Aston Martin V8s for about 30k back then too. That was the going price for a Maserati Bora too.
great_grandad said:
A brand new Ford Focus RS with lux Pack 1 for £23,500 (using the privilege discount) it was March 2010, I would happily have kept it until today and hardly lost much in the 6 years!
Excpet over those 6 years the value of money has gone. £23,500 6 years ago is equivalent to £28,500 now With respect to used cars values increasing, I heard an interesting statistic the other day. Of the objects featured on the antiques roadshow typically only 10% have actually increased or even maintained their value in real terms. What many of the people were failing to realise was that the value of money changes with time so that painting that you have that is now worth £500 but was only bought for a tenner back in 1935 has actually lost money.
I wonder how many of the cars discussed here have actually really inceased in value?
I wonder how many of the cars discussed here have actually really inceased in value?
A DB5, in bits 7-8 years ago, think he wanted about 70K for it I think from a friend of the family, wouldnt have been able to fix it up but had garage space to keep it, Had I got it and sold it in this bubble I would be a lot closer to being mortgage free. so that sucks.
A life times worth of hording cars of all sorts was being liquidated, a ton of very intersting metal in that shead. Recent home purchase and peak credit crunch mean I missed that one.
A life times worth of hording cars of all sorts was being liquidated, a ton of very intersting metal in that shead. Recent home purchase and peak credit crunch mean I missed that one.
I had a fried who worked at an auction house in bristol, he called me to say that they had a ferrari in and that as I was into cars I should come and have a look at it . The auction house didn't normally sell interesting cars so he was convinced it would go for a low price.
Another mate , who was also into cars, agreed to come with me to have a look so we popped down and there was a Ferrari 400i Auto.
It looked in reasonable nick, though neither of us are qualified to judge this , it was back in the mid 2000s.
We had a agreed a max of £5k between us , but after looking at the car, chickened out, scared off by possible v12 engine rebuild costs. It went for £7k in the end.
So now about 10 years later they are now worth £30k hey ho.
Could have avoided massive costs or it could have been a smart investment who knows
Another mate , who was also into cars, agreed to come with me to have a look so we popped down and there was a Ferrari 400i Auto.
It looked in reasonable nick, though neither of us are qualified to judge this , it was back in the mid 2000s.
We had a agreed a max of £5k between us , but after looking at the car, chickened out, scared off by possible v12 engine rebuild costs. It went for £7k in the end.
So now about 10 years later they are now worth £30k hey ho.
Could have avoided massive costs or it could have been a smart investment who knows
It doesn't work! This buying a car to put in a garage is just plain silly. If I buy a car, particularly a sports car, then quite naturally I like to drive it and enjoy it.
Example being a 1984 911 Carrera S, bought second hand in 1990. Loved it, great car to teach my then girlfriend, now wife of 25 years, to drive in. Superchipped the engine and had a habit of tanking it most places, as you do in your early 20's. Knackered the synchromesh in the gearbox, buggered the engine, oil pressure was non existent so sold it and bought something I thought would be more reliable, a Lotus Esprit.
The Lotus wasn't more reliable of course. It was an impulse buy because it looked good and had nothing to do with reliability. Exhaust cracked on a Sunday whilst trying out the long straight at Le Mans, requiring some negotiation with a garage owner about the price of a few spot welds to hold it together. And later I managed to collapse the front suspension on a speedbump in the Pyrenees. This also cracked the radiator and required a lot of Bars leak seal and then keeping the speed up as the radiator wasn't that effective when bunged up. Also had to reverse on the cross Chanel hovercraft as the chin spoiler was so close to the ground it wouldn't get on the ramp frontwards. As a sideline, don't ever put a Lotus Esprit on a hovercraft. They vibrate too much and bits fall off the car.
So I sold that as well and went onto the next of a long list of cars that are now far more valuable than when I had them, the last being a R129 Mercedes SL.
The point is, yes a Ferrari Daytona was incredibly cheap 20 years ago, and an Aston V8 Efi (series 5) would have been the perfect buy 10 years back, but only if I'd put them in a garage. If you want to buy an investment then might I suggest gold, or a forest. Forests are very cheap these days.
Taming the nasty rear end of the 'arse engined natzi slot car'
Example being a 1984 911 Carrera S, bought second hand in 1990. Loved it, great car to teach my then girlfriend, now wife of 25 years, to drive in. Superchipped the engine and had a habit of tanking it most places, as you do in your early 20's. Knackered the synchromesh in the gearbox, buggered the engine, oil pressure was non existent so sold it and bought something I thought would be more reliable, a Lotus Esprit.
The Lotus wasn't more reliable of course. It was an impulse buy because it looked good and had nothing to do with reliability. Exhaust cracked on a Sunday whilst trying out the long straight at Le Mans, requiring some negotiation with a garage owner about the price of a few spot welds to hold it together. And later I managed to collapse the front suspension on a speedbump in the Pyrenees. This also cracked the radiator and required a lot of Bars leak seal and then keeping the speed up as the radiator wasn't that effective when bunged up. Also had to reverse on the cross Chanel hovercraft as the chin spoiler was so close to the ground it wouldn't get on the ramp frontwards. As a sideline, don't ever put a Lotus Esprit on a hovercraft. They vibrate too much and bits fall off the car.
So I sold that as well and went onto the next of a long list of cars that are now far more valuable than when I had them, the last being a R129 Mercedes SL.
The point is, yes a Ferrari Daytona was incredibly cheap 20 years ago, and an Aston V8 Efi (series 5) would have been the perfect buy 10 years back, but only if I'd put them in a garage. If you want to buy an investment then might I suggest gold, or a forest. Forests are very cheap these days.
Taming the nasty rear end of the 'arse engined natzi slot car'
No, not bought but kept what I had. At the time they were bought very cheaply, believe me, and sold on for a bit of profit. Not lots but a profit plus the driving whilst I had it:
Porsche 911 RS 2.7, real one, sold for £18.5.
Porsche 944 Silver Rose, £8.5.
Lancia Integrale, various, sold none of them over £3k.
Alfa Bertone coupes, various, sold none over £3k.
Out of them all, only one, which would I want back purely for ownership and driving, the 944. Every journey was special. If you drove hard, you couldn't ask for help. The integrales were amazing but they covered the drivers inadequacy.
Porsche 911 RS 2.7, real one, sold for £18.5.
Porsche 944 Silver Rose, £8.5.
Lancia Integrale, various, sold none of them over £3k.
Alfa Bertone coupes, various, sold none over £3k.
Out of them all, only one, which would I want back purely for ownership and driving, the 944. Every journey was special. If you drove hard, you couldn't ask for help. The integrales were amazing but they covered the drivers inadequacy.
Wish I had purchased an ur-Quattro when they were new, or at least nearly-new. Great car forerunner of effective 4WD technology although current "Quattro" badged cars do not have the original mechanical Torsen rear gearbox and in some cases unfortunately suffer from reliance on electronic management of the rear drive and unless manually selectable have no driver control of engagemnent of 4WD. I have had both Audi 80's and 90's and 4WD VW Bora V6 4Motion cars and now VW Tiguan Sports which have suffered rear gearbox failures suspected to be due to failure of electronic nmanagement systems so can talk with some experience of VAG group the Audiu chassis and 4WD systems.
A recently imported R33 GTR for circa £8k in that purple colour they come in with a fair few nice typical JDM mods. Insurance was pretty reasonable for a 23 year old at the time too. Unfortunately, I was too far into an ill fated turbo conversion on an existing car and a bit too risk adverse to punt my savings into it.
Hindsight is a fine thing!
Hindsight is a fine thing!
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