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That...was a mistake. Cars you've purchased and immediately regretted.

9K views 99 replies 64 participants last post by  mrothwell 
#1 ·
For me...

1997 Honda Accord EX 5-Speed - Bought it to not have car payments, but it needed a lot of maintenance when I got it, so it was a wash really
1997 Volvo V70 5-Speed - Terrible car, likely just this one
2003 Nissan 350Z Track - Just not a sports car. At all.
2012 Honda Fit 5-Speed - The only issue is it was Red, traded it in for White like I wanted
2014 Ford Fiesta ST 6-Speed - Thought Ford would've been better in recent years. Nope.
 
#47 ·
My Saab 9-5.

It seemed like the right car for what I thought life was moving toward at the time; home ownership and adopting a largish dog. Plus, my SO didn't know how to drive a stick shift and I didn't want to be sentenced to only driving a Prius on trips of any length.

I almost immediately regretted the purchase. Even with significant suspension upgrades, it never felt sporty. It was too big for easy city parking. We didn't get a dog, so I never really used the cargo space like I'd hoped.

Also, it broke. A lot. It's the only car on which I've ever purchased an extended warranty, and boy was I ever glad. I exceeded the initial warranty cost in year one of ownership...and by year 4 I think they had paid out 4x the initial warranty cost in repairs.

They are really cool cars; just not the right car for my needs or wants.
 
#50 ·
The first week of R53 MINI bonership had me in regerts. I decided to change the oil and managed to break the drain back valve off in the oil filter housing. I had no idea what BMW was thinking specing this out in plastic. The kicker is you have to buy the entire oil filter housing to get this .25 cent piece of crappy plastic. This would be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what was to come.

The first person to claim buy a 2005-2006 as they're more reliable gets kicked in the nuts. The big faults with these cars ran all the way up to the end.
 
#52 ·
Both of my regrettable purchases are under the same umbrella. Had a good car so I bought the newer model. FAIL.
1998 Saturn SL2: First one a 1993 true dead nuts reliable econobox. The 98 was a total piece of trash. Needed repairs all the time. Defeats the purpose of an economical car.
2008 Jetta Wolfsburg: First one a 2000 Jetta GLS had 183K on the odometer, had a few issues but all repaired quickly. The 2008 again in the shop all the time with issues never really fixed with multiple trips to dealers and indy shops.
Regretable car I got rid of was my 2002 Civic Si EP3. Loved that car. Wasn't fast but it was solid fun car.
 
#54 ·
I bought a new Nissan Titan back in '04. The truck itself was actually fantastic, but I am absolutely not a truck person. It was the most expensive vehicle I have purchased, and gas rose over $4 during my ownership - UGH!

However, I was able to sell it 10 years later for 50% of what I paid, so it was not that bad in the end, but in hindsight, I never should have bought it in the first place.
 
#59 ·
Audi S4 B6
 
#61 ·
It wasn't an immediate regrat, but soon after I regretted trading in my S-10 SS for a 94' GTI 2.0. I just wanted to get back into a VW (back in mid 90's) so made an impulsive decision. The car itself was okay, it was just a stupid financial move. But now that I look back at it, I learned from it and haven't made a dumbass impulsive car buying mistake since:laugh:
 
#67 ·
Though I'm not in the market for one of them (ever), that's good to know. I drove one for a little bit years ago and didn't like the way it shifted at all and didn't really fancy the interior. I think I had a lot of expectations for them before I got seat time and...yeah.
 
#68 · (Edited)
For me it was a 2008 Honda Accord coupe V6 6MT. Loved Hondas. That was my 10th + one at the time. The styling was arguably one of the nicest designs Honda put out in years. Wrap that exterior around typical Honda quality, buttoned down interior, and fun to drive with an extra dose of POWAH!! Except none of that was there..... the power was but too bad the brakes and FWD set up made it an awful drive. Heavy in corners. Interior was rattle squeak buzz buzz constantly. By the time I traded it at 30K it needed its third set of brakes. That's the car that sent me running from Honda. Been with Mazda ever since and haven't looked back.
 
#70 ·
My 2006 4Runner Limited V6 4WD in 2012 with 62k miles. Mint condition, nearly stole it off a Cadillac dealer in PA. I was dumb with money and had three cars. The 4Runner would creep forward at idle and scared the **** out of me every time, would nearly bump the car in front of me.

Sold for a very small loss after six months. In retrospect, I wish I was able to figure out the issue and wish I still had it, would be paid for and still looks good. Paid $16500 or something like that back in 2012 and wouldn't be worth much less today.



My least favorite car I've owned was my 2015 A3 1.8T


FWD, not fast, suspension was too soft, flat seats, no adaptive lighting. If it was an S-Line 2.0T I might have liked it a bit more. At least I stole it, was a loaner in Charleston, SC.

Sold after four months, traded on 2015 GTI that was a great car marred by awful Kuhn VW Marietta and VWoA customer service.

I've driven my 2006 XC70 300 miles since I bought it September 2016 as it popped a motor. I speculate the oil pump pickup was clogged and had low/no oil pressue. Now I know why it was traded. Bought below wholesale as a trade-in, and it had a lot of work done before it was traded like new suspension and brakes, but I went from being below wholesale to nearly retail as I had to buy a used motor, pay to have it put in, and try to fix the Haldex. Hopefully a used pump fixes that.

Still love the car and excited to get it back, sometime. :heart:


 
#73 ·
My 2006 4Runner Limited V6 4WD in 2012 with 62k miles. Mint condition, nearly stole it off a Cadillac dealer in PA. I was dumb with money and had three cars. The 4Runner would creep forward at idle and scared the **** out of me every time, would nearly bump the car in front of me.

Sold for a very small loss after six months. In retrospect, I wish I was able to figure out the issue and wish I still had it, would be paid for and still looks good. Paid $16500 or something like that back in 2012 and wouldn't be worth much less today.
It's a common issue on the 4th gen 4Runner and FJC, Toyota even issued a TSB. All it needed was to have the driveshaft zerk greased. When you break too hard/quickly, torque would build up in the driveshaft and it trying to unwind was that "bump" you felt at a stop.

Before I figured the technical reason out with my FJC, it completely changed my driving habits to be more cautious coming to a red light so it didn't bump.
 
#72 · (Edited)
I had wanted a fun car for a while and was eyeing mk5 and mk6 GTIs. Found a 2009 mk5 5-door at a local dealer...with the DSG. Decent price, 115,000km, so high-ish mileage, but I figured mostly highway. I had never bought an automatic, but thought; why not. Took it for a test drive, thought it was fast, liked the farting, I was sold.

That car rusted so fast, it was ridiculous. Both front fenders were poo. Hatch and rear fender had a rust spot. This is in 2012-2013! How does a 4-year old car rust like that... Also, the passenger doors looked slightly misaligned....accident maybe? Pedal cluster module became faulty and went into limp mode once in a while.

...and then the damn DSG gearbox started developing...quirks. Repairs were going to be in the $6k region.

Sold it after 2 years of ownership. I loved that car, but...nope. I need something that isn't going to make me wonder if it's going to...not shift because Volkswagen.

Bought a manual Mazda. It's slow, but it shifts. :laugh:

Looked identical to this one, but with rust. I may buy another Volkswagen one day (maybe) but never ever another DSG again.

 
#74 ·
2004 Nissan Murano. I had a modded 2003 WRX at the time and thought I wanted something more comfortable. My first red flag was when the dealer was backing my new Murano out of the showroom, they had the door open and it caught the building door frame, folding the cars door back against the front fender. They called me and said everything was fine, they would fix it in their body shop. I went and looked at it, needed a new door, front fender and the frame where the door attached was twisted. F-that! I wasn't spending 40k on a brand new car with all that damage. I should have walked away but they offered me a demo of the next trim level up for nearly the same price. It was a nice enough SUV and great for sitting in traffic but it was boring to drive outside of that. I sold it after 5 months and bought another WRX and a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to replace it.

 
#75 ·
bought a '13 jetta sel new. this was the top of the line, soft dash, fender, kessy, sport seats, etc. figured buying top of the line would help circumvent some of the cheapness complaints. and to a degree it did in that the car looked good inside, but the doors rattled when it got hot outside. i also had never had a fwd car before so i constantly felt like i was sitting over the front wheels (no "prestige gap").

ultimately what did that car in though was the SUPER ****ty rns 315 head unit, and the SUPER ****ty MFI and digital gas gauge. the rns was slow as balls and used its own ipod shuffle algorithm that sucked, and you couldnt go backwards through shuffled tracks in the order you went through them - it would shuffle in reverse also which was infuriating. as for the mfi, there was just no f'ing excuse. 15 months and 20k miles and i unloaded it for a coyote.
 
#76 ·
Good news: VF Supercharged VR6 GTI, peloquin LSD, Koni coilovers, 5 Sparco wheels and winter tires (as shown), 5 summer wheels with Michelin PSS, BBK, all the other goodies you could want. Original owner probably dropped $15k-$20k in it. Did I mention 1 owner?

Bad news: 14 years old, 100k mile supercharged mk4 :(.


Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk
 
#77 ·
Biggest regret, hands down, 2000 Monte Carlo.

This was 8 years ago, sr. year of high school. My parents bought me my first car - a '97 Altima. It was clean, rust free, low mileage and I did a nice thorough tuneup on it. Automatic with power everything, A/C & keyless entry. I liked it, but it wasn't "me." So, I sold it, at a profit no less.

I then proceeded to realize hey I really need to get a car quick! I have a job and I need to get back and forth from school. So, I hop on Craigslist and find a 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS with just about 100k miles. Yeah, I know. It was in good shape aesthetically, it had the SS style spoiler, alloy wheels, window tint, XM radio, dual zone climate, etc. Wellllll then the problems started, about 2 months into ownership. The 3.4L V6 is a boat anchor and very quickly, the infamous lower intake manifold gasket leak developed. Then, the resonator started to rot out. Then, a wheel bearing went. Then, the emergency brake seized. Then, the transmission developed a (notorious) 1-2 shift flare at partial throttle. Then, the rear wheel wells started to bubble after one winter with it. The list goes on and on. What a terrible terrible car, it also drove like **** to top it off. I ended up selling it for a big loss (bought for $3200, sold for $1400) and bought a '99 Taurus SE. Surprisingly enough, I loved that car 10x more.
 
#80 ·
1984 Pontiac Trans Am H.O. 305 with the 5 speed.

First mistake-inspecting and test driving it at night at no more than 25 mph, right after thinking I actually wanted a project car :screwy:. The engine was completely worn out and it was completely gutless. It ran like crap-it would diesel when shut off, and it also overheated like crazy if you drove it more than 10 miles and it was warm out. Also, all the paint had flaked away from the bottom of the body, replaced with rust. Never really enjoyed driving it, either. Suspension and brakes were shot, bad 2nd gear syncro. Paid way too much for it and sold it at a large loss.




Although I don't think this purchase was a mistake, it has been underwhelming at times, especially after driving a few Acura TL 6Ms. 07 Accord sedan V6 6 speed. Now, I did get it for a good price, and it's in excellent shape inside and out. But it lacks many of the things that the TL has- The Accord has sleepy steering, a notchier shifter versus the slick TL shifter, the TL has a shorter, sportier clutch, the "premium" audio is very weak, it doesn't have HIDs and it had two issues that reared their head shortly after I bought it-leaking coolant, and the common 3rd gear pop out neither of which were apparent when I test drove it.

 
#82 ·
My '88 Saab 9000 Turbo. Simultaneous best and worst car purchase I ever made... :banghead: (what a pile)
 
#83 ·
My Mk6 Sportwagen. It's not so much that I hated the car (I loved it), but just the circumstances around its lease.

At the time, my then-GF and I had 2 older vehicles, an '02 Civic and a '97 Cherokee. Figuring that we should have at least 1 reliable, newer vehicle in the fleet, I decided to get rid of my trusty XJ and lease a Sportwagen. They had great lease deals going for gasser models, so I got one. I figured that having a manual wagon and a utility trailer would make me cool, even though it didn't have the same knockaround factor as the XJ. And to add insult, the car we deemed more reliable than the Cherokee, puked its head gasket shortly after we got the VW.

About 6 months later, my job situation changed (commute increased from 20 miles to 100 miles a day), and my wife also took a new job making a lot more money, so we decided to replace her increasingly-tired Civic with a Mazda3. The Sportwagen continued to serve truck duties for another 18 months until I traded it in for a leftover Frontier. It was about 6 months before Dieselgate tanked any value that was left, so I'm glad I dodged that bullet, but it would have been great to have some more time with the XJ before it finally gave up the ghost.
 
#85 · (Edited)
2017 Ford Explorer 2.3 Ecoboost Base

Although I can't complain much because it's a work car and I pay nothing for repairs, gas, insurance, or registration.

This SUV is absolutely junk. The vehicle has 48,000 miles and has a leaky radiator, transmission already had to be replaced when it failed on the highway, trim pieces falling off everywhere. Oh and I forgot every other week the electronic system goes crazy and every light comes on in the gauge cluster for about 5 minutes. And sometimes the radio changes stations out of nowhere.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#97 ·
2017 Ford Explorer 2.3 Ecoboost Base

Although I can't complain much because it's a work car and I pay nothing for repairs, gas, insurance, or registration.

This SUV is absolutely junk. The vehicle has 48,000 miles and has a leaky radiator, transmission already had to be replaced when it failed on the highway, trim pieces falling off everywhere, and the thing has so much turbo lag it drives me crazy. Oh and I forgot every other week the electronic system goes crazy and every light comes on in the gauge cluster for about 5 minutes. And sometimes the radio changes stations out of nowhere.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
wat

holy lemon car. ive never had a trim piece fall off of any of my 15 vehicles in my life. :|

or a trans have to be replaced, or have a leaky radiator.

and some of these have had 200k mi.

wow.
 
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