Cars you could kick yourself for overlooking

[ozpacman]

Late 70's and I was an apprentice at a Qld country Ford dealership. There were a couple of recent trade-ins I was interested in that were parked out the back. One was an XB Falcon 500 ute in Copper Bronze with 351/T-bar auto and the other was a Jewell Green XA GT which was auto as well. The XA was actually a much cleaner and straighter car than the XB. Both were available to me for $2900 each. Because I was into dirt bikes at the time, the ute won out with its ability to carry bike and gear. That, and for some reason I didn't want a green car. It seems crazy now, but back then the GT wasn't really a sought after car, it was just another old GT.

Yes, I still shake my head at that one. It was probably the closest I ever came to owning a genuine GT. Then again though, the chances of me holding onto it for all this time would probably have been slim to none, so I guess it's immaterial in the scheme of things.

[raised by monkeys]

Unfortunately we were lead to believe that we would be in Jetson's flying cars, safer in plastic bumpers and all steel would be redundant and unreliable. I was born in the 80's and by the time i was into cars steel had pretty much been phased out.

[LoBelly]

Originally Posted by Brodes

Early 2000's, turned my nose up at a 2 door XB, stunned they wanted 8k for a 6 banger.

Early - Mid '90's just after purchasing a house: for months drove past a nice looking XC Cobra ~351 4-Speed $5,000 said the sign
Eventually saved a 'spare' $5k and decided I go have a look (even tho it wasn't a GT) - gone.


Excellent thread by the way...

[Sprintey]

Great thread.

I got the important ones, the XW and the ED. There's not much kicking to be done, but it's more to do with new cars I should have bought and rationalised away at the time.

AUIII XR8 blueprint auto on runout in late 2002 - Horsham dealer. Was working through there and saw it sitting there and unloved. Would have been a fun car.

AUII red wagon also lonely on runout, Hamilton dealer mid 2002. If they made it today I'd buy it new.

Also should have just gone in and bought both a 2016 final petrol Territory (was on strike as no AWD on the petrol) and also a final Calais wagon. Had the savings, but justified against because reasons. It would have been nice to own them from new. Also comparative bargains from today's perspective.

[Rallye Sport]

We went to look at a Mk1 Cortina in the mid 90's when the seller said he had another one for sale.
It was an old racecar and had odd sheetmetal brake ducts on the front, a big fuel tank behind the rear seats and some '500' badges that looked like they'd been pulled off a Fairlane. He kept mentioning it'd been built by a guy named Harry Firth and had been in the Armstrong 500.
We had no idea what he was on about and bought the other one instead.
...and that my friends was the day I passed up a GT500 Cortina with Bathurst pedigree for $2000

[ford71V8]

Ouch!

[PG2]

Back in the early 90s I had the opportunity to buy a SL/R 3300 manual for $1400.

I passed it up as it had no rego and thought starting rego from scratch was too hard to do (back in the day of having to take them to the pits).

[kcee]

For me it was around 1994/95, was 18ish, and no one would go guarantor for a loan for me ( as in my family at all) to purchase a HZ GTS 4 door, 308, manual, $5500.


I think i ended up with a HX sedan, with a 202 and 3 speed column shift for about half the price....so much not what i wanted

[CyberWasp]

Hahahaha I am not as stupid as all you guys are.
In 1989, I was after a 265 Charger and after looking at probably 20+ bought one for $2500.00.
See I have nothing to kick myself for at all. I didn't miss out on the opportunity or walk past it.




Until I sold it a year or so later, after spending over $1000 on it for $2500.00.
Now I will Kick myself........and again.....and again for good measure......idiot.

[Trendseeker]

My regret isn’t about a good price or deal; it was more about the car itself. I overlooked the Ford Territory when it came time to replace my lease car in 2004. I just didn’t consider it and bought another Commodore. I woke up to it as a great family car in 2008 and replaced the Commodore with a Territory. I regret not getting one in 2004 when I think of the times there were 3 kids in the back of the Commodore on long drives; it would have been so much better with a Territory in those years.
My very first car was one that I wish I had overlooked, but that’s another story.

[yanknbank]

OT a little but it fits with the thread. After the war Pop was looking at buying a couple of P-40’s out of Mildura that were being used at the No.2 OTU where the RAAF was training its fighter pilots at the time.
The Kittyhawks and Spitfires were up for disposal and you could buy the P-40 (no prop) for £14 with the wheels and £7 without them (I can’t remember what the deal was with the Spitfires, it’s been 40 years since of seen the old documentation from the time).
He was mainly after the Allison’s (and other bits and pieces), looking to convert them to ground power units/generators. It didn’t happen due to the difficulty at the time of transporting the airframes to where they needed to go.
Considering that today it’s going to cost you northwards of $2.5 mil USD for a fully restored P-40, it would’ve been nice to have a couple of donor airframes sitting out the back in the shed!

[FairmontGS]

XC Cobras... they were everywhere in the 80s and cheap as chips. Daggy ones for $1k all the way up to pristine for $6k. I never thought they'd be worth anything.

About 2008? I had the opportunity to buy # 29 for ~$80k. I thought that was top of the market for a Bathurst Cobra given I'd paid $15k for mt XB GT coupe a couple of years earlier.

Sigh...

[PepeLePew]

Oh don't you hate your ignorance sometimes. Well it wasn't ignorance really my first tale. Mid 90's saw a white XB GT sedan in a yard Main Nth Road Adelaide. Thought hey that looks good i'll take a look see....went in, salesman was a slime ball. Maybe life might have been different if he wasn't so Steve Bisley selling a Jag type, 'theres a little bit of you in this car'. Hm. Test drove it Golde roof and all the mod cons four speed early XB production. Maybe if modded i'd have gotten excited but just didn't and walked on the $5999 XB.

But the truly ignorant....early 80's 18 just got my licence in Karratha. My dad was good friends with the guy owned a local servo/workshop, super nice guy. My dad said the owner was thinking of selling his car and i asked more about it. Torana sedan, V8. I saw it on a driveby, thought thats nice looks pretty cool, but looks like it's got bloody hubcaps and kinda try hard. Though it was absolutely pristine, he loved that car. But i thought the unearthly price of 12K was excessive for my budget and quickly passed (and ended up spending 10 on a 2 yr old XE 6, go figure, my Ford bias even then we solid). The main problem was, i didn't know what an A9X was and it flew straight over my head.

[ford71V8]

I remember spotting a red XY in an Adelaide caryard, way back when that was not uncommon.

Hard pass after noticing what looked like a big axe wound in the roof. Always wondered if it was the car from the film Running on Empty.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

I remember spotting a red XY in an Adelaide caryard, way back when that was not uncommon.

Hard pass after noticing what looked like a big axe wound in the roof. Always wondered if it was the car from the film Running on Empty.

Could have been worse..



My last kick yourself was a truck, 77' Kenworth K100 V8 Cummins with all the fruit, including a rare aluminium chassis. running condition $2 500 I passed with all the what ifs.

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by yanknbank

OT a little but it fits with the thread. After the war Pop was looking at buying a couple of P-40’s out of Mildura that were being used at the No.2 OTU where the RAAF was training its fighter pilots at the time.
The Kittyhawks and Spitfires were up for disposal and you could buy the P-40 (no prop) for £14 with the wheels and £7 without them (I can’t remember what the deal was with the Spitfires, it’s been 40 years since of seen the old documentation from the time).
He was mainly after the Allison’s (and other bits and pieces), looking to convert them to ground power units/generators. It didn’t happen due to the difficulty at the time of transporting the airframes to where they needed to go.
Considering that today it’s going to cost you northwards of $2.5 mil USD for a fully restored P-40, it would’ve been nice to have a couple of donor airframes sitting out the back in the shed!

Kittyhawks and Spitfires, that's amazing!

The Kittyhawks were there at Milne Bay, the RAAF's finest hour, that was the literal turning of the tide for Australia in WW2!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pToxEa30KdU

[XR Martin]

Oh I forgot.
At the 2003 FPV open day, at the end they auctioned off the Tickford wings and Tickford letters from the front of the building.
I think they went for ~$600.
I wanted to buy them but didn't know how to get them home to Canberra.

Still wonder where they ended up.

[FERG_51]

As i have worked at a Ford dealer since 1978 there have been many missed opportunities, including XR to XB GT's,XC GXL's , XD XE Ghias etc and real clean XY 4x4. In 2000 was in the market for an XY GS when i was offered a yellow glow XA GT for 16k, with a very healthy built 2v cleveland and the original 4v went with it, but no i wanted an XY. Sort of regret that decision but i did get an XY GS and still have and love it.

[rare ss]

I always wanted an XY GT as my first car but the old man never let me get one when I was on my P's.. my cousin got a genuine Tru Blu GT for his first car, think he paid 26k for it around '98 or so - we thought he paid too much at the time!.. he still owns it btw

I took a very series look at a burnt orange XB GT sedan afew years later for 11k but wasn't a fan of the auto - that later sold for around 9k

Next major miss was a genuine VK Group A/Group 3 that was on the market for 30k down south of Perth in Harvey, spoke to the owner about coming down to look at it - was on the market for 6+ months with no bites but I was waiting to finish moving into our first home we were building, moved in on the Friday, rang him on the Saturday to come down and it sold

Good news story, a seller spotted my wanted advert and was thinking of selling his VK Brock Group A/Group 3 he had owned for 20 odd years, managed to be at the right place and right time to land this one for well below market value at the time



Rolled the dice and got another Brock, this time a VK Director locally for 18k, owned it for a year or so before kids came along.. ended up selling at the doom and gloom times of 2008 for the same as what I got it for, spewing I sold it these days but keeping both wasn't a real option at the time

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by rare ss

I always wanted an XY GT as my first car but the old man never let me get one when I was on my P's.. my cousin got a genuine Tru Blu GT for his first car, think he paid 26k for it around '98 or so - we thought he paid too much at the time!.. he still owns it btw

I took a very series look at a burnt orange XB GT sedan afew years later for 11k but wasn't a fan of the auto - that later sold for around 9k

Next major miss was a genuine VK Group A/Group 3 that was on the market for 30k down south of Perth in Harvey, spoke to the owner about coming down to look at it - was on the market for 6+ months with no bites but I was waiting to finish moving into our first home we were building, moved in on the Friday, rang him on the Saturday to come down and it sold

Good news story, a seller spotted my wanted advert and was thinking of selling his VK Brock Group A/Group 3 he had owned for 20 odd years, managed to be at the right place and right time to land this one for well below market value at the time

image

Rolled the dice and got another Brock, this time a VK Director locally for 18k, owned it for a year or so before kids came along.. ended up selling at the doom and gloom times of 2008 for the same as what I got it for, spewing I sold it these days but keeping both wasn't a real option at the time

image

Bloke that owned the caravan park I had our little annual site on had to sell everything so he could get the place out of debt. (2013)
He offered me his gen 1 White Brock Commodore at the time for $11 000. Knocked it back because I wasn't a Commodore fan.
Was a beaut car to drive.
Never occurred to me to re-sell it later. Bugger !

[Mulva]

Looking back to mid 90s, housemate had a VC SL/E 5.0, black over silver with red pinstripe. Wasn't good condition but also wasn't bad condition - literally ok condition for approx 12yo country car.

He sold it for $1800, which at the time was about right. I had zero interest then, but the VKs and the Brock above made me recall that car just now and yeah, looking back I do kick myself. If it had been a VH I would have been interested at the time - nowadays I'd be happy with that VC

[rare ss]

Bloke I work with just got a silver and grey 2 tone VC SL/E with factory 308 and grey trim, one owner from new (got it off the original owners son) pretty tidy "unmolested" car did pay high 20's but todays money it's worth it

[.:4:.]

My brother has an 82 vh sl/x so not quite the same, but a factory 253 car with only 107k on it. Its been in bits for 20 years or maybe a bit more. Its very much the gunna project. As in he has had parts for it for the duration but things like the un efi'd black 304 and stuff have been sitting for way too long so will cost $ to be re gone through. The car was only $1000. It does have old new carpet, and the red interior out of his old vc as opposed to the ugly light blue the car had. Prior to that car he had an 83 vh brock. 3k he payed for it as in the very late 90s they were just seen as old commodores. But he did the standard issue young bloke on it... thrashed it and crashed it. He was the 2nd owner. My aunty and uncle bought that car new.

[lra]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Bloke that owned the caravan park I had our little annual site on had to sell everything so he could get the place out of debt. (2013)
He offered me his gen 1 White Brock Commodore at the time for $11 000. Knocked it back because I wasn't a Commodore fan.
Was a beaut car to drive.
Never occurred to me to re-sell it later. Bugger !

About 1985, I was given first option on buying a black VC HDT from the original owner as he was trading up to a later model HDT.
Around $8K, I think. Could have scraped up the asking price, but I also was not a big fan of early Commodores, which I thought were cheap and nasty compared to a 'real' Holden.
As for reselling it for a huge profit years later, whoda thunk of that back then ?