Practically Classics Forum

I have bought a fair few cars I wished I hadn't in hindsight, but,

In 1988 I was offered a nice Mini Marcos for £300 quid, one owner, who worked with me but if I remember correctly used to work for BL and bought every part for it brand new when he built it.

Nah mate, says I, not interested in a kit car.

To this day I still think about it on occasion, and more and more I wish I'd owned it for a little while at least.

What car do you folks regret not buying most?

I tend to buy cars as and when the old one falls apart (or gets written off). However, in 1974 or so, my Wolseley Hornet was about to fall apart and I had a look at a Hillman Super Minx estate in the bargain buy at the local Toyota dealer. I passed it up as it had a quilted dashboard - a DIY stick-on covering. It was also slightly expensive at forty quid!

I was looking for one when I bought the Land Rover but they've gone up a bit in value since then and, more importantly, there were none within sensible distance - they all seemed to be in Devon or Cornwall.

Good question!

I had the chance to buy a solid, completely spotless and mechanically excellent Vauxhall VX 4/90 of the FB series flavour back in the late '80s. That car - like the Victor but with an extra, vertically oriented tail lamp on each side - was maroon with a grey sidestripe, it had a four number two letter plate that was original to it and was transferable, it went like stink compared to most family saloon cars of its era and it even had decent seats, carpets and door cards. The asking price was a mere £395 and that would have included an MOT conducted at a testing station of my choice! But the seller also had a metallic green Volvo 244 GLE with beige leather and the injected B21 engine plus it was an automatic which, although I was still allowed to drive manuals back then, made my mind up for me so it was the Volvo that came home with me that day, for a very reasonable £295. Its crankshaft succumbed to the usual problem, that's to say it managed to bend in spite of its five stout main bearings and it knocked out three of its big ends during a trip home from Bristol after we'd been to the classic car show there. I stripped and rebuilt the engine but then the transmission died and the electrics were far too French in their behaviour so it was bye bye Volvo and something else came along.
I last saw that VX 4/90 as recently as two years ago and stopped to have a chat with the owner one day. It turned out that he was the guy who'd gone to see it after I'd opted for the Volvo instead, he'd had no trouble with that car in the intervening years and he'd taken a welding torch to it for the first time in its life as recently as 2009, when a small hole in the o/s outer sill proved to be no more than that, the rust didn't extend beyond that which could be seen. I congratulated the guy on his car and resisted the urge to punch him.

Must have been a '62 VX then - we had a 62 FB (bought in 1970) and were told by a parishioner that it was a '62 even though he hadn't seen the number plate! Apparently there was a "sweet" year - earlier and later cars rotted like nobody's business, but the '62 models were sound.

Coincidentally, I had been offered a similar VX just after I passed the Super Minx up - the lad wanted £60 for it, so it was out of my league (my take-home pay was only £19 per week). I bought a Rover 60 for £40 and it lasted a month before the front crossmember collapsed. The local garage sold me the '65 Minx for £60 - on interest free monthly payments!

D'you know, I do believe it may have been a '62. The plate wasn't local so I couldn't say for sure. But yes, it was clearly one of those which escaped the worst of the rust but that may, from the '80s to present times at least, have been as much a result of the owner's treatment of every box section, hidden potential mud trap and even the inner frame of the boot lid with his rust preventative substance of choice since the steel wasn't too bad in those days, but paint processes were definitely not the best so if someone had a rust free car, keeping it that way was much less challenging than it would be with - for example - an Alfasud or the Dolomite built between 1975 and 1980 from the same nasty Russian steel that killed off so many 'Suds.
I'd not be remotely surprised if I were to discover that the 4/90 is still around now, such was its excellent state of preservation when I saw it last. I really ought to have grabbed that car when I had the chance.

When I bought my very 1st car back in 1985. I 1st test drove a blue 1300 Triumph Dolomite. I loved it and was all for buying it. My Dad though, perhaps trying to make sure I wasn't just buying the 1st car I saw, made me test drive the red 1300 Morris Marina that was also on the forecourt. I quite like the Marina but preferred the Triumph. Trouble was, by the time I got back from test driving the Marina, Someone else had bought the Triumph!!

I ended up with the Marina...but I still loved it of course...it was my 1st car after all!

But since then I have developed a love for all things Triumph and wish I could say that I'd had one as my 1st car.

Easy has to be a Cortina 1600E many years ago. I decided I wanted one and started looking around, came across a beautiful silver one - low miles, immaculate throughout but at a price premium that the guy would not shift on, in the end I walked more out of sulkiness than anything. Anyway roll forward a couple of months and I went to scrap yard to get parts for a car and there was the 1600 E it had been 't boned' and was literally folded in half

Great thread!

Easy one for me, an immaculate shiny red Aston Martin DB5 in a showroom when I was 16 (a long time ago, sometime in the 70s) with a sticker price of £5,000. Now £5k was a lot more then than it is now, but I can't help feeling that by today's standards that'd still have been a major bargain eh?

Gutted!

E type jag 4.2 manual. many many years ago. father in law talked me out of it.

What did i recently cut up and regret ? Last month ,i had a poverty printed tax disc for the Pajero..."cos they'd run out of perforated ones...and they was finished with them anyway at the end of the month...so we printed some ..just cut round it and stick it in the window... "

OK. NOW LOOK ON EBAY FOR TAX DISC UNPERFORATED ! HIGHEST PRICE 2 GRAND !!...