Your biggest purchase regret?

[RATATTAK]

Wearsider said:

Thanks for the reply great choice coincidence I was also looking at the DB9 what changed your mind

Had the Aston for about 18 months ... worried about costs if anything went wrong such as hood caved in due to snow (kept outside) ... rear lamp failure due to poor design (water ingress if you so much as show it a hosepipe) ... poor paint (blebs not covered by warrantee) ... great sound but how often can you boot it at 3000 +rpm ... not keen on the colour (California Sage) ... not a daily driver in the same way as a 911 is ... just a bit of a money pit with little or no payback

[Wearsider]

Thanks mind made up definitely Porsche 911 997

[HumanDoing]

I dun a bemused at all the people who seem to have bought cars without ever test driving them and then can't control what comes out of their botties when the car doesn't live up to 'what they'd read about'.

Seriously what universe do people live in where they'd fork out £15k+ on a car based on Clarkson's review in the Telegraph or a bit of hype on Youtube? Seriously I think people forfeit the right to soil themselves with disappointment when they don't even take the time to drive the thing before buying it. Do people feel that emasculated and out of adult self-control that they'd rather risk being totally bummed out by the car rather than spending 10 minutes actually driving it, for fear of ... what? Not wanting to 'disappoint' the salesman by not buying? Fearing they'll somehow be duped in to buying by smooth sales patter? Preposterous!

[colinrob]

C32 AMG never use it haven't driven it in last 3 months it is stupidly quick had it remapped and smaller pulley straight after getting it but just sits on my drive use the van to get to work and the SQ5 if we go anywhere

[RATATTAK]

HumanDoing said:

I dun a bemused at all the people who seem to have bought cars without ever test driving them and then can't control what comes out of their botties when the car doesn't live up to 'what they'd read about'.

Seriously what universe do people live in where they'd fork out £15k+ on a car based on Clarkson's review in the Telegraph or a bit of hype on Youtube? Seriously I think people forfeit the right to soil themselves with disappointment when they don't even take the time to drive the thing before buying it. Do people feel that emasculated and out of adult self-control that they'd rather risk being totally bummed out by the car rather than spending 10 minutes actually driving it, for fear of ... what? Not wanting to 'disappoint' the salesman by not buying? Fearing they'll somehow be duped in to buying by smooth sales patter? Preposterous!

What do you think of your Fiesta ST ?

[HumanDoing]

RATATTAK said:

What do you think of your Fiesta ST ?

I love it. If people don't, fine - this isn't about me being protective about my choice of vehicle. But there are geezers on here who are implying, if not outrightly stating, that they bought cars (not just Fiesta ST) without ever sitting in one, presumably purely based on reviews and hype, then feel entitled to throw their now-voided Huggies out of the window on the forecourt because it isn't what they dreamed of. Do these people buy houses sight unseen then sit in them moaning about how bad they are?

[RATATTAK]

HumanDoing said:

RATATTAK said:

What do you think of your Fiesta ST ?

I love it. If people don't, fine - this isn't about me being protective about my choice of vehicle. But there are geezers on here who are implying, if not outrightly stating, that they bought cars (not just Fiesta ST) without ever sitting in one, presumably purely based on reviews and hype, then feel entitled to throw their now-voided Huggies out of the window on the forecourt because it isn't what they dreamed of. Do these people buy houses sight unseen then sit in them moaning about how bad they are?

OK thanks

[996jim]

Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster. Always wanted an Aston Martin having been shown round the factory when I was 10. Aston are a fantastic company but alas the 4.3 V8 Vantage was in reality a bit of a dog. Sold an immaculate 996 turbo for it just as prices on 996 turbo's started to increase.
Never liked the Aston's narrow cabin, awful sat-nav, never liked the gearbox, in my opinion awkward to use and who puts a cup holder in the way of the throw of the gear lever and the engine never felt grunty enough - and if you ever let the battery go flat (which it often would) you had to remove the fuses in the passenger footwell to get the roof and windows working again. I reality I think I need counselling. As others have mentioned, really poor build quality.
Thank god for the new injection of money and expertise into Aston Martin, DB11, which is pretty darn good.
Also, whilst going down memory lane, a couple of cars I bought my wife. Jeep Grand Cherokee, what a crock of s!!t and a Volvo XC90, gutless piece of junk that didn't actually go any faster when you accelerated, it just made more noise and absolutely destroyed tyres. Hateful cars.

Edited by 996jim on Tuesday 17th October 10:45

[gary58]

Had a Jaguar XJ 8 sport could not fault this motor it had it all then sold And got a poxy vectora VR6 with regrets ?

[Jimmy Recard]

gary58 said:

Had a Jaguar XJ 8 sport could not fault this motor it had it all then sold And got a poxy vectora VR6 with regrets ?

Thanks for your insight, Gary

[ExPat2B]

HumanDoing said:

RATATTAK said:

What do you think of your Fiesta ST ?

I love it. If people don't, fine - this isn't about me being protective about my choice of vehicle. But there are geezers on here who are implying, if not outrightly stating, that they bought cars (not just Fiesta ST) without ever sitting in one, presumably purely based on reviews and hype, then feel entitled to throw their now-voided Huggies out of the window on the forecourt because it isn't what they dreamed of. Do these people buy houses sight unseen then sit in them moaning about how bad they are?

The problem is that even a test drive doesn't give you a clear idea about what a car is like to live with. A quick trip 15 minutes up and down the local roads where you won't be getting anywhere near the handling limits due to unfamiliarity with steering, clutch gearbox etc doesn't give a good idea of performance or how the car drives at 8/10ths, and you need to drive at least an hour on the motorway before any NVH/ comfort issues really start rearing their heads.

[Robatr0n]

Jimmy Recard said:

gary58 said:

Had a Jaguar XJ 8 sport could not fault this motor it had it all then sold And got a poxy vectora VR6 with regrets ?

Thanks for your insight, Gary

[Bone Rat]

Reading these accounts at least most sound interesting but flawed cars. I'll raise you my high spot of 1988, a brand new Mk2 Astra Merit 1.3. A symphony of grey plastic and interesting squeeks. Managed to give the 2 of us chronic back ache due to the driving position. One of the rare 4 speed only versions, brilliant at motorway cruising, a lazy 4.5k rpm at 70 made for relaxing commuting combined with the AM only standard radio. Eventually disgraced itself by peeing out it's gearbox oil in a hospital carpark.

The only car you could confidently leave parked at the main hospital in Merthyr, no-one wanted to nick it...

An utterly hateful 3 years, the following Lada Niva was a comparative joy to drive

[kurt535]

Jaguar XJS Celebration Model.

16k on the clock; had sat in a museum for donkeys years. car not used as bad as a car thats done 1000's. spent lots of money and heart in mouth moments getting her recommisioned. turned out only one guy in the country and the proper ECU reading equipment.... unbelievably managed to sell her for all i'd invested less £500. year of utter strife not to be forgotten.

[C70R]

popeyewhite said:

C70R said:

popeyewhite said:

I was going to say that VAG seems to crop up a lot. But the truth seems to be unless you buy one of their top RS or R models they're really not very good.

Curiously, I'm taking away the exact opposite. Most of the mentions in this thread are OF the "top" models, suggesting that they don't live up to their hype.

I don't recall any mention of any RS model in the thread, perhaps you could could find a couple? The Golf R does seem to crop up a bit though, but I've not seen mention of the Scirocco R or Tiguan R.

I would suggest that's probably a function of the volumes sold (and availability on cheap leases). Let's face it, the Scirocco is basically the same car (and the Tiguan is also MQB), so it would be surprising not to hear the same feedback. Also a couple of mentions of the S-model Audis.
The high-performance models certainly seem to be more frequently mentioned than the cooking-spec models.

[RobM77]

C70R said:

popeyewhite said:

C70R said:

popeyewhite said:

I was going to say that VAG seems to crop up a lot. But the truth seems to be unless you buy one of their top RS or R models they're really not very good.

Curiously, I'm taking away the exact opposite. Most of the mentions in this thread are OF the "top" models, suggesting that they don't live up to their hype.

I don't recall any mention of any RS model in the thread, perhaps you could could find a couple? The Golf R does seem to crop up a bit though, but I've not seen mention of the Scirocco R or Tiguan R.

I would suggest that's probably a function of the volumes sold (and availability on cheap leases). Let's face it, the Scirocco is basically the same car (and the Tiguan is also MQB), so it would be surprising not to hear the same feedback. Also a couple of mentions of the S-model Audis.
The high-performance models certainly seem to be more frequently mentioned than the cooking-spec models.

Expectations are higher and money spent greater, although personally I do normally find that a manufacture's high volume base spec models drive better. I get repeatedly insulted (and even bullied) for saying this, but a few years ago I drove a 135i and a 116d, both M Sport, and whilst the 135i was faster, the 116d was actually the sweeter car to drive. For starters the engine in the 116d was at least 50-60kg lighter and the unsprung mass from its smaller wheels and brakes much lower, but I'm sure it goes even further than that.

[colinrob]

C32 AMG never use it haven't driven it in last 3 months it is stupidly quick had it remapped and smaller pulley straight after getting it but just sits on my drive use the van to get to work and the SQ5 if we go anywhere

[Fats25]

Gad-Westy said:

Most annoying thing about this is that two of my mates went on to buy 205 GTi's about the same time. They weren't perfect either but were a lot better than the Rover and far more fun. And to this day I still haven't owned one and probably never will now.

Can I make you feel better?

I bought a 1988 E plate red 205 GTI. Paid £2750 for it. In hindsight, everything was dodgy, place I bought it from (private), how long the guy had owned the car etc. However it was shiny, and very tidy on the inside, no rips on the leather, not smoked in, flash stereo. It was also so fast on the test drive. I would have been 19 years old I think. Within a week it was overheating. It was head gasket.

Had the head skimmed, and gasket fixed. £800 from memory. A lot of money for a 19 year old that had already loaned the money in the first place. Drove for a year, and had a great time, and then the head gasket went again. I was about to buy my first house, and couldn't afford to repair again. So sold it for £700 from memory. I know £2800 loss does not sound a lot over 18 months - and I did have some fun - but was a lot of money for me at the time.

Between me and a couple of mates, we had Golf GTI, Renault 5 GT Turbos, 205GTI's, Astra GTE's, even one had the Rover GTI as well. The cars with the most issues for us were the 205GTI's. Put it this way I can smell a head gasket failure before I see it now!

[HJMS123]

Krise said:

My current car

Massive regret

Didn’t buy an M3, C63, RS4 because everyone told me to be sensible

It’s a 2012 523i 3litre touring

Owned it 18 months has been to BMW 12 times, thank god for the warranty

It’s a lovely place to sit but dull as dishwater to drive me the fact it’s had so many problems has really soured the experience.

And also the fact that I’ve lost 9 grand in deprecation over the last 18 months has made things even worse, plus the warranty excess, plus my daily driver died last year so had to use this daily for a few months so that meant more maintenance means that this has cost me about 15 grand in total !!

Massive regret letting the head rule the heart

a 5 series touring is your weekend car?

Sounds like a horrid experience so far tbh

[clarkeysntfc]

Was in my mid 20's and bought a 57 plate Z4 Roadster with a 2.0 4 cylinder engine.

Bought it privately at 3 years old and barely 18k miles on the clock as it had been used as a weekend/occasional use car up to that point. I was expecting trouble free motoring and that I could use it as my daily car.

Loved driving it with the top down when it was working properly, but the thing was forever demanding care. Either the EML light was on or the run-flats had low pressure, the list went on and on. In the end I became eligible for a company car and flogged it privately.