One that got away

outfox · 08-03-2021 10:45pm #1

Now and then I'm reminded of a classic that was for sale at one stage, and that I probably should have purchased, or at least had a close look at it. But for one reason or another, I didn't. Lack of garage space usually features. The one that particularly comes to mind is a 928 S4 for sale in Kilkenny for around €14,000 maybe a year or two ago. It was a smokey colour if I recall, with black and white checkered seats. Boy do I regret not going to see that, given the way 928 prices have shot up.
Is it something that bothers all classic car enthusiasts? What haunts you?

FR85 · 09-03-2021 1:31am

outfox wrote: »

Now and then I'm reminded of a classic that was for sale at one stage, and that I probably should have purchased, or at least had a close look at it. But for one reason or another, I didn't. Lack of garage space usually features. The one that particularly comes to mind is a 928 S4 for sale in Kilkenny for around €14,000 maybe a year or two ago. It was a smokey colour if I recall, with black and white checkered seats. Boy do I regret not going to see that, given the way 928 prices have shot up.
Is it something that bothers all classic car enthusiasts? What haunts you?

About 8 years ago a yellow Fiat 850 appeared on DD in Wicklow for about €1000, two weeks later it appeared again for about €5000 but in a different part of the country.......kicked myself as I assumed it was a dog at the original money. If memory serves me it had minilites or cromodora alloys and all.
There have been numerous 500's down through the searches but that yellow 850 had me distraught for a long time, never surfaced again.

kadman · 09-03-2021 9:30am

About 5 years ago a beautiful VW Notchback came up for sale at 6500 euros.
Contacted the seller and exchanged a alot of info. Aussie car so would probably be rust free.
Pondered on it too long, and when I contacted to arrange a view, it was gone.
Looking out for it since.

unkel · 09-03-2021 10:11am

outfox wrote: »

Now and then I'm reminded of a classic that was for sale at one stage, and that I probably should have purchased, or at least had a close look at it. But for one reason or another, I didn't. Lack of garage space usually features. The one that particularly comes to mind is a 928 S4 for sale in Kilkenny for around €14,000 maybe a year or two ago. It was a smokey colour if I recall, with black and white checkered seats. Boy do I regret not going to see that, given the way 928 prices have shot up.
Is it something that bothers all classic car enthusiasts? What haunts you?

Don't mention the war

I sold my 928 S2 for €2950 at the depth of the recession

Lurching · 09-03-2021 11:09am

Almost a classic, I guess.
Bought a '99 Evolution VI in 2009 for €16,000 and sold it a year later for €6,500.

In hindsight, I probably should have been a bit more sensible in 2009, but things hadn't gotten bad yet.

Miscreant · 09-03-2021 12:06pm

I remember about 20 years ago I was offered a Clubman 1275 GT for nothing by a friend of my then girlfriend (now wife). It had been his dad's car and was in a garage for about 3 or 4 years as he could no longer drive it. The car ran and drove and was in very good condition but I had nowhere to put it as I was living at home with my parents so I gave it a miss. Roll on 4 years and I had got married and bought a house with a garage so we called my wife's friend to ask about the car... They had scrapped it the week before as they thought it was worthless!

I'm still kicking myself over that one.

kadman · 09-03-2021 1:35pm

This thread has also painfully reminded me of another, snooze and lose car.

Abought 10 years ago I visited my aunts house to chase up my uncles 54 VW Beetle he had years ago.
I was told it was down the bottom of the garden still, and had not moved for years.
So armed with slash hooks, strimmers and chainsaws, my brother and my self ventured where no on had gone before.

Amidst all the scrub and trees, lay the beetle. Quick look confirmed that it was worth the effort, so we locked and loaded
the saws. About 4 hours later, there she sat. An original, unmolested 54 beetle. It needed a major resto, but was complete
except for an engine.

Delighted we headed home, well pleased with our days toil. Two months passed before we were ready for collection.

Quick phonecall to my aunt to let her know we would be down to collect the beetle.

Our hearts sank when she told us it was given to a local scrappie who was passing:eek::eek::eek:

pmurphy00 · 09-03-2021 2:27pm

I've a friend who offered me a beautiful 1982 911 for €20k 9 years ago,

i was only new in my business and not yet turned 30 i juts thought it would be too flash but i do regret not buying it of course.
he still has it and maybe some day i'll buy it off him

he also takes great enjoyment in telling me what it's now worth!

ArielAtom · 09-03-2021 5:08pm

Great idea for a thread. Cars I've owned and in hindsight sold for little or nothing in real terms that would now be classics!! 1990 Citroen XM and a 1981 Alfasud 15ti Cloverleaf, regrets!!! But the biggest one was not buying a Lancia Fulvia when offered it after selling the Sud. I'd say everyone has stories like these.

Andrewf20 · 10-03-2021 1:40am

One of these. I went to view one in Tipperary in 2018 and was blown away. What an engine. Couldnt disable the passenger airbag to take a rear facing child seat is what killed off the purchase. Still haunts me to this day as they are almost never for sale in manual in Ireland.

BluePagoda · 10-03-2021 11:08am

In 2008 I could have bought an original Irish reg 1970 280sl Pagoda for €18,500. T'was very tatty but driving. It even had a towbar!!

Peter T · 10-03-2021 3:06pm

My friend and I would be interested in japanese imports. For a few years after coming out of college he would often offer me something he was thinking of moving on. He always seemed to poke out some great cars for reasonable money. Give them a service or nct and move them on after a few months. Altezza for 3k, s14 with great spec for 6, r32 skyline for 6.5 and a toyota chaser for 11k. All great examples but ever had the money at the time to buy and prices for this stuff has gone crazy. Also went to look at a trueno ae86 with a supercharged engine but didnt have the balls to take on the restoration. I'm still pretty sore over that one given ae86 prices these days.

I also remember a few e36 m3's for around 3-4k.

One that I had and left get away was a lovely mk2 gti I had bought. Wasn't even old enough to get a license at the time. Was a helios blue gti with some very minor work to get it back on the road. Recession hit, summer work dried up and I had to sell it on. I bought that car for 700 quid at the time. Another 1000 would have seen it back on the road

bluesteely · 10-03-2021 4:44pm

I was at a car show in England in 2010 with my Dad and an Aston Martin DBS was parked outside the gates with "For Sale, £5,000" on the windscreen. Did we follow up? We did not. They are worth a lot more now. A lot.

More recently, there was a Porsche 914 that popped up on the classic section of Done Deal (probably before Christmas?) for very little money, I'm guessing it was snapped up instantly because when I went to phone the ad was whipped..!

Blue850 · 10-03-2021 10:19pm

A Fiat 127 Sport for £250. I left it because the windscreen pillars were rusty. The real kicker is that it was the now very rare silver colour.

w124man · 10-03-2021 11:14pm

Sometimes the one that got away was a bullet dodged!

Remember the girl you fancied in school all those years ago and you met her years later and she wasnt quite as you remembered her!

galwaytt · 11-03-2021 1:15am

unkel wrote: »

Don't mention the war

I sold my 928 S2 for €2950 at the depth of the recession

I'll see your 928 @ 2950 and drop you a 968 Tip for 2700.....

Peter T · 11-03-2021 9:07am

w124man wrote: »

Sometimes the one that got away was a bullet dodged!

Remember the girl you fancied in school all those years ago and you met her years later and she wasnt quite as you remembered her!

Or is it the one that never drew much attention in school and turned into an absolute bombshell a few years later :pac:

Tazio · 11-03-2021 11:28am

An Alfa Romeo GTV6 - back in 2004; I took too long to 'think it over'. It sold.

Not going to make the same mistake twice.

W123-80's · 11-03-2021 2:45pm

Back in 2003, I was about 23 I think. I spotted an advert in the old 'Buy & Sell' for a 1979 one owner '79 Mercedes W123.
Made the call and got chatting to a nice old farmer in Roscommon.
Myself and a mate made the trip. Arrived at a little old cottage with a farmyard beside it. The old farmer came out and brought us to his hay shed where the car was parked.
He went on to explain that his brother was an engineer for one of the big oil companies back in the 70's, he was based in the middle east but bought this to have in Ireland when he was home. It lived all its life in a shed in Roscommon :pac:

Anyway, it was the worst W123 possible, white, manual 4 speed box and a 2.0 diesel engine, but it was immaculate and had only about 40k miles on it!
We took it for a drive and I have never drove (floated) in anything like it before or since. Thinking back it was grim in the manual/diesel combo but I regret to this day not buying it for the craic!

He was looking €5k so it wasn't cheap and it probably wouldn't have gone up much in value, but it was certainly different!

w124man · 11-03-2021 6:42pm

Peter T wrote: »

Or is it the one that never drew much attention in school and turned into an absolute bombshell a few years later :pac:

Well yes, there is that too! Then you have to work out if you can afford her ......

RobAMerc · 11-03-2021 9:33pm

so many cars I went to see, or spent hours researching and then didnt buy and regret. Porsche 964, TVR Tuscan are 2 that really stick out. Honestly I could spend the rest of my days posting about them all.
Not unlike the girlfriend analogy though, there's 1 or 2 I did go for that I regret more !

unkel · 12-03-2021 12:54am

RobAMerc wrote: »

so many cars I went to see, or spent hours researching and then didnt buy

The researching and the working up to go see and buy it is half the fun!

We'll never know but I say you would have regretted buying that Trevor a lot more than you now regret not buying it :pac:

kadman · 12-03-2021 1:52am

RobAMerc wrote: »

so many cars I went to see, or spent hours researching and then didnt buy and regret. Porsche 964, TVR Tuscan are 2 that really stick out. Honestly I could spend the rest of my days posting about them all.
Not unlike the girlfriend analogy though, there's 1 or 2 I did go for that I regret more !

Thats nothing. There's one or two I went for, and THEY regretted it

MrCostington · 13-03-2021 1:39pm

Not a classic at the time (but getting there), but back in around '95/'96 I was after a Mk2 Golf GTi, had looked at a few. I had two lined up to look at in dealers one Sat morning, looked at the first, it was great, seemed the one for me, but thought I may as well look at the second one, would be back to buy in 2 hours if not better than the first. It wasn't so headed back to the first dealer, trying to find a working phone box on the way (before my first mobile). Found one, he sold it 10 min before! Got a Sierra Cosworth in the end. That put several mechanic's kids through college!

More recently a W123 230E in Thistle Green, decided to pass on it due to rust (I posted pics here) but regretted it later, really fell in love with the colour.

KevRossi · 13-03-2021 1:57pm

Around 2008 I was looking at buying a 1987 328 GTS. For sale by a former colleague in Switzerland. Actually had every single receipt that was ever attached to it. Fully serviced, about 50,000 km on it. In genuinely perfect condition, two owners, almost never driven in rain, always, always garaged except for holidays, the leather and paint were perfect.

Originally on German plates so not EU VAT needed. Problem was I couldn't get a VRT quote, so I left it as if VRT was in excess of €10K I would be in trouble. Car was sold to a friend of the then owner, he sold it 2 years ago for €90,000. I try to convince myself that I'm not that bothered as I wouldn't have held onto it for that length of time.

Tried to convince a colleague in Germany to buy a high mileage Porsche 959 for €165,000 in 2012 or so. Anyone familiar with Trier would know it, it's a red Komfort model, was often parked on the street near St Paul's. He had just sold a company for around €800,000. Kids were out of college and no mortgage. He turned it down and got a 964 turbo instead. 959 is now worth near €1,000,000.

KevRossi · 13-03-2021 4:04pm

There was a SWB Mercedes 600 (W100) for sale here for €70,000 (?) for a long time, ended out in the UK I think, just after that prices exploded. Think it was 2013/14. Reg was 200 XXX I think.

There was also a blue Testarossa in Offaly for €70,000. 89-OY-2222. Couldn't sell here with a full NCT during the recession, ended out in the UK AFAIK. Very low price even then for a car like that.

w124man · 13-03-2021 10:30pm

KevRossi wrote: »

There was a SWB Mercedes 600 (W100) for sale here for €70,000 (?) for a long time, ended out in the UK I think, just after that prices exploded. Think it was 2013/14. Reg was 200 XXX I think.

darragh o meara · 17-03-2021 1:48am

Went down to buy a Miami Blue Peugeot 205 Gti about 20 yrs ago. Car was in mint condition but had a slight misfire that the owner had failed to diagnose. Made a decent offer but he wouldn’t accept so went home. Later that night I rang him back to tell him I’d give him asking.. car was sold. Seen it converted into a rally car a few months later

it was genuinely the best one I’ve ever seen.

There was a few others through the years but that’s probably the “One that got away”

Hifive · 17-03-2021 11:11am

galwaytt wrote: »

I'll see your 928 @ 2950 and drop you a 968 Tip for 2700.....

Sold my 1989 635 CSI for €1750 and a few years later, my 928 S4 for €4000.
Recession prices, mixed with a bit of frustration with road tax I suppose.
Still have the Stag though😀

unkel · 17-03-2021 10:17pm

Hifive wrote: »

Sold my 1989 635 CSI for €1750 and a few years later, my 928 S4 for €4000.
Recession prices, mixed with a bit of frustration with road tax I suppose.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I wasn't desperate for the money at the time, but the car was deteriorating in front of my eyes (no garage) and I could not afford the motor tax which is over €500 per quarter for just a handful of trips :rolleyes:

Silver lining was that I really needed a second car on the road occasionally and selling the off the road Porsche allowed me to buy a cheap and cheerful MGF convertible (bought in very decent condition, nothing needed, with tax & test for €550)

colm_mcm · 17-03-2021 10:40pm

Went to England to buy a Saab 900 Turbo I saw on carandclassic. I had just sold a Mitsubishi FTO for relatively big money and wanted a more insurable weekender for around the same money.
The advert was astounding, every bit of work ever done on the car was listed on the ad. Two owner car, owned by the sellers father who was a Saab mechanic etc etc.
Met the guy, went over the car, fell in love with it. Drove it, then there was a slight hesitation on acceleration. Seller was embarrassed and a bit concerned, probably more than I was.
He basically said be wasn’t going to sell a broken car, and would get it into his garage on the Monday.
I did a few bits in the uk over the weekend with friends and flew home the Sunday for work Monday.

Then on the Monday afternoon, a bizzare thing happened, another FTO which I had seen go through the auctions in Japan a few months previous came up on donedeal or whatever site was the thing back then. It was only up the road, the guy that bought it couldn’t get insurance on it and was cutting his losses. He had already paid the VRT and all. Anyway I bought it, and later in the week the other guy rang to say the Saab was fixed.

I often wondered if I would have actually kept the Saab long term, if I would have minded it enough, if it would have gotten nicked. I’d love to have it now, but I reckon I’d never find another one as nice unless it was megabucks.

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The first sad twist in the tale is it got stolen from the guy who bought it within a few days, it was recovered but with a lot of damage, looking at the MOT history it doesn’t seem to have survived.

The second is that I kept on to the FTO for a few years, it was the most sorted one I’d ever come across - but in the first recession, I couldn’t justify keeping it. I sold it to a guy I knew could take care of it. It got stolen from him within a few days too and written off.
Again, I’d love to have it now.

unkel · 18-03-2021 10:35am

That Saab is the most desirable of them all imho :cool:

outfox · 18-03-2021 4:43pm

Beautiful Saab. I almost bought one when I was about 25, as a first proper car. It was for sale in Cork for £1800. About 10 years old, silver, with the Aero wheels. Then I priced the insurance: £1850. That was the end of that.

alexv · 19-03-2021 9:42pm

I always loved BMWs growing up - e12, e28, 3.0csi, and 2002s. One Christmas in the nineties I was back in Dublin for a couple of weeks before heading back to the continent. Saw an ad in the Evening Press for a 1974 2002 in p.m.o. selling for £400 - reg. 2002 ZO (not sure of the letters but it was the numbers that made it feel meant to be!).
Didn't buy it because I wasn't gonna be in the country and had no spare garage to park it up. Always wondered what happened to that little beauty though.

Later I was in Buenos Aires for a while and fell in love with a 1980 Torino that had a notice in its window offering it for sale. I'd never seen one before, but it seemed to have it all: looks, performance, reliability and staying power. This one was immaculate even though it was over twenty years on the road. I toed and froed about buying it for a few weeks, but in the end the bureaucracy related to foreigners owning a car there, the price (US$5,000 - which the locals told me was pretty steep for a Torino), and the fact that it wore the later Renault badge, rather than the original IKA one, inclined me to turn it down. Still wonder what might have been with that rare gem.

https://www.caradvice.com.au/874486/cars-you-didnt-know-you-want-ika-torino/

vjmcdonnell · 04-04-2021 11:31am

Remember seeing a Metro 6R4 Group B for sale in Autosport for 25k in the 80's. More recently I was looking for a daily and ended up with three car's in my budget. Octavia vRS MK1 nearly new, Lotus Elise and Lancia Intergrale. I decided on been sensible and bought the Octavia but back then the Lotus and Lancia was a lot cheaper than they are now. Hence when I seen the prices of Impreza a few years ago I might have bought one. Wasn't ready at all but not missing the boat this time. Currently building a 6 car garage, not connected at all

Wibbs · 05-04-2021 11:20am

In the 90's I was offered an E30 M3 for buttons. IIRC 3 or 4K. The guy who was selling it I knew through mutual friends and he was emigrating and wanted shot of it. Because it was LHD he was getting pretty much zero interest in it. It was in immaculate condition with low mileage and I was interested after driving it a few times, but my insurance would have jumped by quite a bit, again the LHD was the reason given. And to be fair as my only car the steering wheel on the wrong side would probably have irritated me after the first flush of love had worn off. Still I do regret that, financially if nothing else.

I remember it not being a particularly fast car, but it was quick if you know what I mean? Very chuckable with great feedback, even back then when more cars had more feedback than most modern iron anyway.

Another was a Clio Williams, series 1. Again for feck all. What put me off that was a minor dent in the door. I know. Daft. Funny enough the drive didn't impress me as much as I thought it would have(the same week I drove an EK9 Civic R which would have left it for dead), so I'd probably not have held onto it.

Another LHD, this time a Ferrari 348 for 15K, only I didn't have 15k.

Plus the insurance would have been beyond crazy.

Hyperbollix · 06-04-2021 7:41pm

In a similiar vein........................About 7 years ago I was on the lookout for an early 90's Mini for small money. I signed up to the Irish Mini's forum and mentioned this and soon got a PM from a member of the club who had a freshly restored Rover Mini City in his garage and he had to let it go for space purposes. The car was very decent to begin with. It had been a "one lady owner" job for the first 20 years of it's life, til he bought it. He then spent a bit on getting any welding/new metalwork done and had given it a full respray. It was immaculate. He let it go to me for €2k, which when you consider the kind of dogs you could spend €2k on, to get a solid, rust free, professionally resprayed Mini with tiny mileage......it was a bargain. It was robbery tbh.

I put a set of minilites on it, chrome trim and finished off a couple of bits and pieces that still needed work. Took it to a guy who races Coopers and got the little 1l tuned to perfection, as it had poorish MPG for what it was. When I was finished it was a showstopper. I kept it for about 18 months, but then, as always happens, you get a niggle for a change and you sell to buy something else. I let it go for €3500.

My biggest regret in the last 15 odd years I've been driving classics. If I had it today, tid never leave the garage.

steinbock123 · 07-04-2021 9:55am

In the mid 70’s , maybe 76 or 77, I answered an ad in the Evening Press (no Donedeal or even Buy&Sell then) for a Mk 2 Lotus Cortina. It supposedly had “a knock in the engine”. Myself and a buddy went to look at it one evening, it was on Jones Rd. near Croke Park. Unusually, it was all red, not white and green and had no stripe, but was genuine Lotus. It had a Louth reg. no. , something IY , and the number was 500, I remember that. The car was parked on the road and looked immaculate.
We knocked on the door, and the owners landlady said he was having a bath. We said we’d wait. Anyway , we spent about 20 mins i(IIRC) looking at the car, but no sign of the owner. We called again, and the landlady said he was still in the bath.
So we headed off to Swords, where my buddy wanted to look at a Mini for sale. By the time we looked at that, it was too late to go back to the Cortina.
We went back two days later, but yer man was gone out in the car when we called. We never went back.
He was asking £500 , quite a lot for the seventies I suppose, but it was a bargain, was an unusual colour and had a nice reg.
I’ve always wondered where it went or does it still survive. It would be a mid thirties car now I suppose.

One that got away

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