Posted on 01/09/2022 5:54:08 AM PST by super7man
Let's get right to business.
What car have you owned and then sold, that you wish you could get back? When did you buy it and what did it cost? When did you sell it and for how much? Why did you sell it? What is it worth today?
Pictures are allowed.
I'll start.
1957 Porsch. Don’t want to talk about it.
1976 Levis Renegade CJ-7 Jeep.
What a POS that 304 engine and 3-speed transmissions were, but it was a fun thing to drive!
British Racing Green. 1969 was the year i sold it/joined the Navy.
Summer of 1971. I was in college. Saw a car advertised in our local newspaper. 1965 GTO. Called on it. Guy wanted $700 ... I paid $650. Mellow yellow / Convertible / 4 barrel / 325 Hp / Automatic ... Almost cherry ... Required premium gas ... Fast ... Drove it for less than two years ... sold it for $600 ... wanted a ‘67 LeMans because it had an eight track tape player stereo ... that GTO today, almost 50 years later, would bring over $50,000 ... have regretted selling that car since day one !! It’s called life !!
8 years, 2 weeks later (aka a month ago!). The buyer contacts me to tell me that he's thinking of selling it. I'm now in the position to be able to buy it back, so I DO! (After he made a bunch of improvements to it as well) 
1 57 Porsche, Dad would not sign”We only buy Ford.”
2 34 Packard, 4 dr. Phaeton, B, 57, drafted 58, sold.
3 79 Firebird, Bought, maxed on order black, red bird &
interior. Stolen in Miami 87!
My brother had one of the Shelby’s. He also had a ‘06 Mustang GT.
I bought a 1969 Chevy Nova 350 SS for $700 in 1974. I traded it a year later for a 1972 Ford Pinto because even at 50 cents a gallon, I couldn’t afford to feed it.
I tend to buy cars and keep them until they need a repair that costs more than they are worth. Then junk them.
My favorite was a 1973 Mercury Comet. With V8 and none of the performance-robbing anti pollution gear that came later, I could out accelerate later model Corvettes.
That’s too funny — sounds like we’d all get along really well! ;-)
The 3 main cars I wish I had back.
70 Mach 1 Mustang
76 Datsun 260z
88 Pontiac Firebird GTA T top
A restored Mustang and GTA now would go for around $50000.
I illegally street-raced the thing. Drag raced it on Front Street in Philly,
(and consistently lost to the big block Mopars - 400/440 Charger,
Challenger, Baracuda, etc.). The small block 302 would lose
to a big block anything, basically. (Yes, illegal street racing is a sport
only for young crazy guys. Dangerous and reckless. A hazard to civilization.
At the time I fit that description.)
Truth be known - I had a heckuva lot of fun beating the living h@!l out
of that car. It would be worth a bit of money now, of course. (If I had
kept it in pristine condition - and not had all of the fun... )
The speedometer cable was broken for a long period of time -
so the odometer was totally inaccurate - but conservatively
that car had well over 300K miles on it when it gave up
ghost and I sold it for parts.
We won't talk about the 1980 Ford Thunderbird 'boat-mobile'
which came next - drove it for less than year. It had a soft,
comfortable ride is the best thing I can say about it.
Oh, and my car insurance bill was cut about in half.
In 1986 I bought a Ford Ranger pickup brand new. I now forget what I
paid for it. V6, 2-wheel drive, extended cab, two-tone blue.
Pretty reliable except the electrical system in that thing ate headlights -
consistently. I got 296,000 miles out of it before in 1996 I traded it in
for a new 1996 GMC Sierra pickup. 4WD, extended cab, short bed,
350 V8, burgundy with a silver pistripe. Now THAT is the one vehicle I
wish I had kept. I should have replaced the exhaust system and kept it.
I drove that thing through the majority of the lower 48 states.
Super-reliable truck.
The thing was an absolute billy goat in the snow and the mountains
of VA, NC, OR and NV. Hit two deer with that thing with minimal
damage. 185,000 miles it gave me before I sold it outright.
Then I bought a 2006 Hyundai Elantra. Drove it for 170,000 miles
before I sold it (years ago) to the college-age sons of a friend
of mine. Last I heard it is still going strong. That thing was even
more reliable that the GMC truck. Only bad thing I can say about
it was Hyundai at the time had a problem with one specific type of
black paint (in 2005/06). The problem affected several Hyundai models.
Paint would fade seriously after a few years. So the boys got
the thing a cheap paint job, which fixed that.
I also remember hearing that they replaced the exhaust system.
Hey, all exhaust systems rot out in time.
Now I just lease affordable, reliable (hopefully) transportation. The thrill is gone, really.
1978 Monte Carlo. Could drive it with one finger and could sit a coke on the seat without it spilling a drop.
1973 Buick Centurion Convertible! Was my college car, had to sell when it broke down and I was too poor to fix!
Yowza!!
My entry here was going to be a 1973 Dodge Swinger Coupe. Burnt orange with ivory top. Slant 6.
My very first car in 1981, 73,000 miles. I kept it great and then I married a moron who insisted he must do all maintenance and killed it from lack of oil changes.
Yup. Dropped dead with a horrible noise on Route 202 in Theills.
He subsequently killed my 1983 Toyota Cressida with the same MO. I subsequently killed the marriage.
I still despise him with a passion.
55 Chevy 4-door wagon. Bought it for $400.00 and later handed the title over to my brother to clear a debt of about $2K. Still miss that car 30+ years later.
I’m in my fifties and would love to have the vehicles I had in the 1980s. 1973 Ford Bronco- top was off May through September! 1968 Barracuda with 383 and four speed— would get sideways year round! Sandbags in the back November through March…
Great photos!
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