Your biggest automotive regret?

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Mention of the Austin Maxi above reminded me of my brief flirtation with a Maestro, which I had fortunately forgotten about until now. A truly dreadful car. The transmission system included a plastic ball joint that was prone to coming apart! :crazy:
 
Now, I loved my Maestro.....:rolleyes:

It was an MG edition, with 4 carbs (two twin choke webbers) on an ageing 1600cc engine, but it was black with shiny alloys, red seat belts a digital dash that talked to you :p
And I was 22!:)

Looking back, perhaps the amount of timing / tuning of those webbers was a pain, as was the relentless cleaning out of the mayo from the oil cap and the dramatic fuel consumption when I pressed the loud pedal did get a bit ruinous.

But, hell, I was 22!:):):):)
 
I had an almost new MG metro turbo...not quite my biggest regret but right up there.
I was won over by red seat belts and the greed led turbo boost thing that lit up all green and led like.
Probably the most unreliable piece of junk I’ve ever had. It used to break the gearbox once a month.

My biggest motoring regret is not keeping all the cars I had when I was younger.
Dolomite Sprint
Alfasud 1.5ti Green Cloverleaf with no rust
XR2 mk2 and 3
XR3
Nissan 200sx
Peugeot 1.9gti
Plus a few others
They’d be worth a few quid now.
God knows how much money I’ve spent on cars over the years. One day I’ll try and tot it all up and I’m just Mr Average not a 911 wealthy type owner lol
Best car ever is still my black disco 3. I properly loved that vehicle even when it broke.




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As post#63 above, not keeping cars I’ve owned, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

cars like:
1937 Morris 8 tourer
Morris 1000 Traveller
Frogeye Sprite.

one I don’t regret though is selling my Rover 75 to my son in law. Not because it was bad, just the opposite, I loved it, but "professional image" (yuk) dictated I had to 'upgrade'. I sold it at 154000 miles, he still has it at 268000 miles and going strong. He needed a car to do a long daily commute
 
Don't have too many regrets about selling cars. But I still squirm about the time I was trying to explain to an Alfetta GTV owning mate how different the 105-based Spider was to drive and how, having a live rear axle and LSD rather than a transaxle, how easy it was to do a 180 degree powerslide from rest, pivoting it on the inside front wheel.

On the smooth, wide, flat piece of road on which I'd perfected the technique it was, indeed, extremely easy. But I'd moved the car to a different lock up and the road outside was totally different. Narrower, grippier, lots of camber.

Needless to say, the "Watch this." was followed by the world's worst power slide which I aborted halfway through. Unfortunately, this led to me clouting a nearby lamp post with the front wing. He proceeded to wet himself laughing for the next 15 minutes.

Bastards.
 
Probably selling a much-loved E36 M3 Evolution too soon.

Saying that, I sold it to make my life comfortable with my first flat and it did that and was worth getting on the property ladder financially, so I don't regret it too much.

I also didn't buy another when I could have done so perhaps I wasn't so gutted after all.

If I could go back, I'd probably change my car journey here and there. I wouldn't have bothered buying an Alpina B10 V8, I'd have bought an L reg Lexus LS400 instead of the pile of shit P reg MK1 Mundano I bought... that kind of decision which as ever, is always easy in hindsight!
 
I don't like to have regrets. However my 1988 MG Metro Turbo wasn't the most reliable car I've ever had. Luckily under a user Rover dealer warranty but 2 new engines and 5 new gearboxes in 18 months wasn't the finest ownership experience. Couple that with being broken into and £2-£3k of lovelingly installed car audio I admitted defeat and sold it soon after! It was the only red car I ever had until I bought the current TVR Chimaera 500 last year.

It is my 3rd Chimaera but the first foray into TVR ownership and my 1st Chimaera. The 1st didn't go so well as had only owned for 30 mins before an issue struck.

I've had a few lemons along the way but some real crackers so can't complain on the whole.
 
Had a heavily modified Nissan sunny pulsar GTIR, sold it for peanuts (now worth good money).
Did buy an evo 7 which was great fun, got married had kids so all the toys went! Kids grew up and I got a c63 so every cloud...
 
My biggest regret is buying a 1979 Alfa Romeo Alfetta 1.8 back in 1982, which gave me no end of grief during the 5 years that I owned it.

Err.... no, actually, my biggest regret is not getting the V6 2.5 GTV instead.
 
You might be right there. I can concur that an Alfa V6 Busso is a peach of an engine and one of the best sounding engine's in a car I've owned.

Trouble is I've been blessed to own some of the best sounding engine's made. I still have a few on the bucket list and working my socks off to see if I can tick those off! I think a few might be out of reach but I'll give it my best shot!!
 
You might be right there. I can concur that an Alfa V6 Busso is a peach of an engine and one of the best sounding engine's in a car I've owned.

Trouble is I've been blessed to own some of the best sounding engine's made. I still have a few on the bucket list and working my socks off to see if I can tick those off! I think a few might be out of reach but I'll give it my best shot!!
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Yes the Busso V6 is sublime. Mine has an Alfaholics/Autodelta exhaust with CDA induction and sounds epic at full chat. It has a few other fancy bits: koni’s, Quaife etc. Definitely a keeper.

my biggest regret is losing my Alfa Sprint Cloverleaf I had when I was 21. Got written off when a bmw ran into it. I was saving for my first house so bought a “sensible” Peugeot 106. Ecu failed just out of warranty and cost a fortune which made the regret worse!

my Dad though still regrets selling his 1960 something Radford Cooper S, almost Works spec, twin tanks etc. It was a custom aubergine colour. Traded for an 1800 Landcrab when I came along!
 
Selling my '79 Maserati Khamsin, bought for a mere £10K with hydraulic issues in the mid '80s. After giving up on the project, I sold it to a friend for what I paid for it (I thought I was doing well!!). He still has it and it's currently worth north of £150K! :(
 
I bought the Alfetta after having written off the Alfasud 1.3 ti that preceded it...

The Alfetta got K&N filters on it's pair of Dellortos (mine didn't come with Webers) and Konis at the rear, but that's about it. So many things went wrong with it that I never got a chance to do any moding work... it was the Astra that followed that had the works done to it :)
 
I had a whole gamut of Alfas in the 80s and 90s, but the most memorable was a yellow 'Sud 1.2 which was the best handling car I've ever had before or since. Lovely little car and led to a 1.7 Sprint, a 33 and loads of others including an amazing Guilietta with a racing gearbox which gave unbelievable acceleration! Ah, those were the days..... :)
 
The wife's Alfa Spider (with factory sports suspension) 1996 that was a German import so had the 3.0 V6 12V that was never sold in the UK - only the 24V version. It was then converted to RHD by the Germans so they also fixed a few inherent issues. Fitted a straight through exhaust. The engine with that exhaust made the most wonderful sound and my wife just seemed to drive everywhere in 2nd or 3rd just for the sound. Being 12V the torque from low speed was so much better than the 24V. Somehow it always cost £500 every MOT. Finally died when a rodent destroyed the wiring loom - decided to say goodbye (sadly) tough the wallet was better off.
 
There have been a few -
The Ponton 220S Coupe for £300 ( which was sold when I went back with the money )
The 190SL for sale in Glasgow for £200 - was beaten to that one too .
The 280SE 3.5 Coupe in a breakers yard , just in and complete , for £60 , but nowhere I could've put it .

It's best not to dwell too much on these things .
 
The wife's Alfa Spider (with factory sports suspension) 1996 that was a German import so had the 3.0 V6 12V that was never sold in the UK - only the 24V version. It was then converted to RHD by the Germans so they also fixed a few inherent issues. Fitted a straight through exhaust. The engine with that exhaust made the most wonderful sound and my wife just seemed to drive everywhere in 2nd or 3rd just for the sound. Being 12V the torque from low speed was so much better than the 24V. Somehow it always cost £500 every MOT. Finally died when a rodent destroyed the wiring loom - decided to say goodbye (sadly) tough the wallet was better off.

I remember there was an article by Roberto Giordanelli in Auto Italia where he took a V6 GTV (the 916 version from the late 1990's) and swapped out the 24V for the 12V (partially for that reason and i think the main bearings are a little stronger), turned it into a track car for £5k. From memory it was faster round the track than a Fezza 360. (That was the point of the article - to show what could be done). I've tried to find the article but no joy. I remember having a cringeworthy conversation with Roberto when he used to run a garage near me - i wanted to know the merits of longer manifolds on my otherwise standard 1.7 Sprint. He was restoring his personal Miura at the time and probably thought why was i even bothering!
 
Selling my Escort Mexico for a pittance in 1983, and buying a Suzuki GSX1100ES instead of a Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans
 

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