“Aw man, I regret selling that old Holden Torana. I’d have made $50 grand!” was the type of conversation I recall hearing in rural Australian car-parts stores back when I was tackling Project Cactus. “Man, that old Jeep XJ I had would be worth like $20 grand now,” I hear from my friends all the time. Regret is a tricky part of being a car lover: You often have to let go of the cars you love, and those cars oftentimes gain value; it’s like watching your ex make it big. You find yourself looking from the outside in, watching the Bring a Trailer auctions climb and climb on a car you bought for pennies, a pang of guilt compressing your chest.
This is a universal experience among car-people around the world: Cheap cars you once owned become more valuable; it’s just inevitable. Car-lovers tend to buy cars that car-lovers enjoy, those car lovers have to sell those cars for one reason or another, and those car-lover-cars end up becoming worth something 30 years down the line. We’ve all suffered through it, and this website here is a safe-space to just let it all out and come to grips with the fact that, yes, if you’d held onto that car, you’d have a fat stack in your wallet.
But here’s the thing: You can’t just hold onto every vehicle you’ve ever owned. It’s impractical. Most people can’t maintain that many vehicles, and they can’t just rent a huge warehouse to fill with cars so that, in the future, they can sell those machines for a bundle. The cost of renting a big garage for 20 years is prohibitive. So, like me, you have to let go of machines that have potential. It’s just part of being a car-hobbiest.
I know that my 1987 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which I sold for $4000, will soon be worth $30,000:
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I know that when I sell this 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle for $8000, someone will clean it up and, in a five or six years, sell it for like $40,000.
I know that my minty five-speed 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I sold for $9500 could someday fetch over $20,000 on Bring a Trailer:
And then of course, there’s the “stolen” 1958 Willys FC-150, which I sold for $5000, and which will be worth $20,000 with a bit of elbow grease and some new paint (the blue FC-170, which I sold for $4000 and which is shown in the top photo, will likely see a similar high-dollar fate):
And then there’s my minty five-speed 1991 Jeep XJ. Sure, it has a salvage title, but just look at it. You know this thing will command a mint in due time:
But that’s OK, and though we can jokingly regret selling cars that have gained value, we should always remember: We sold the car for a reason, and it was reasonable at the time. This is the hard thing about regret: Regret is just you being unable to put yourself into the mindset you had in the past. You were a logical, intelligent person then, and you made this decision for a reason. It’s OK. Don’t feel bad.
Now that I’ve made you comfortable, you can let it out: Which car that you sold has gained the most value? How do you feel about that?
In high school I bought a 1965 Chevy Impala Super Sport Convertible for $750 from the original owner back in the late 70’s. It needed a paint job and some mechanical work, but the red interior was like-new and body had minimal rust. Worked on it a bit and drove it a few years, but never had the money to fix it up. Didn’t really know much about the value of cars, it was just fun transportation. My parents ran into financial problems, so I sold it when I went to college for $750 and gave them the money. (took out loans for college) Realized the real value later – it had the original L-78 396 engine. Only something like 1800 of all Chevrolet models combined got that engine that year. Saw it a few years later all restored, red on red with a white top. Damn it looked good.
I’ve been listening to my dad talk about how he wishes he held on to the xk120 he once owned for my entire life. Apparently he would have kept it if the steering wheel didn’t fall off while he was driving down the road.
The one thing that always calms me down is realizing that car I spent $3,500 on (and now would cost something north of $15k) would require the $$$$ spent on rebuilding all the mechanicals, quality rust repair and full paint, etc. to get near the “market rate”
Like most hobbies I’m probably in for more than it’s worth but since I’ve spent 20 years paying for the improvements the sting isn’t so bad.
Not a car, but:
1945 Farmall A. $300. Big mistake.
1967 Pontiac Firebird: $1200
1979 Honda CBX: $300
I sold a 1980 Mark 2 Ford Escort sport for a few thousand, which was just slightly more than I bought it for at the time. I was flying overseas for an undetermined amount of time & my parents didn’t want to store the car at their place. Even then I could have sold it for more but there were issues with rust, so there was a bit of money needed to really return it to what it should have been.
It’s worth around $50,000 now so the chances of owning another are pretty slim.
I sell my 15yo cars at market price for something that was much nicer than the market. Not going to sweat the $500-$750 I missed out on. Not worth my time to chase that and deal with all the hassle of selling stuff. Price it right and let it fly. Spend my time with family instead of answering craigslist emails and showing cars.
As the buyer of the 87 Grand Wagoneer, I greatly appreciate the vote of confidence in my restoration abilities. I hope to come through on this one… if I ever get back to the states. When I bought it, I lived in Italy. I got orders to a tiny island in the Indian Ocean after that. Expecting to go back to the US, I was surprised with orders to Japan. Now, nearly at retirement, I am getting sent to the UK. Why automotive gods?! Why must you deny me my restoration project for so long?
– on a positive note, i did store it in a garage, fill the cylinders with ATF, pour some stabil in the fuel tank, put it up on jack stands, and disconnect the battery. It is not getting better as it sits, but it shouldn’t be getting much worse.
Most of them 🙁
My mum, being a freshly widow, was implored by the guys from the service garage to give away my father’s beloved 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL. They told her it would cost way too much to fix the car and make it roadworthy again after sitting in the garage for fifteen years. The chassis, paint, and such were in very excellent condition. The engine could use bit of work to get it running.
She believed them instead of me and my brother. Three years later, the same car appeared in the classified listing for €6,500. Apparently, the seller described what he had done to make it roadworthy again: not much (about €500 to €750). My brother and I were very obviously incensed about it and showed our mother this classified ad.
Long story short: ALWAYS make the will and last testament about what to do with the vehicles and any properties! My father didn’t because he didn’t want to “acknowledge” his morality. She got rid of his 450 SEL and Citroën 2CV Charleston quickly before we could file the documents with the probation court to force our mother to accept the German law that the properties were equally divided between the widow and children (meaning we own half of both cars).
I definitely lost money on a ’98 Grand Voyager I sold to a friend’s boyfriend because, get this, it was way more reliable than what he was driving and she was sick of being in a barely functional vehicle.
So he got the you’re-dating-my-friend discount and got rid of his trash Land Rover.
Also, pretty sure it’s “car-hobbyist”. I don’t think hobbiest is a word. C’mon editor DT =P
Actually gave away a 1970 Challenger to a friend.
I did some pretty stupid stuff way back then.
I had a choice to make when we got married and headed off for our year-long honeymoon in our ’76 VW camper. I needed to sell one of my other VWs, either the ’67 squareback that was my second purchased car that I had owned by then for 6 years, or the ’64 deluxe sunroof walkthrough bus. I knew then that the bus would be worth more in the long run, but I sold it anyway for less than $1000 (1984). Yeah, it would be worth a whole lot more now. I still have the squareback. I still miss that bus as it was utterly reliable, very useful, slow, but reliable.
Every Toyota truck I ever owned was sold way too cheap.
I hate to haggle. Time to get over that.
Had a mint 1969 Dodge Super Bee at age 16. Blew the engine up.
Left at parent’s house and went out to Colorado to work for the summer and save up for a new engine.
A few months later my family moves back to Colorado, but without my car…
Brother says that Dad sold it to a friend for $400 bucks in 1974 money.
I have forgiven that asshole move, but have obviously never forgotten.
Also sold my Ferrari 308 for 20K back in around 2008. Now worth about 70-80K.
Shit happens…
Sold my ’82 Corvette Collector’s Edition right before the pandemic for $8.5k. Would have been at least a few grand more if I’d waited till the next summer and now similar cars are going for mid to high teens.
I daily drove a 2002 BMW E39 M5 for 3 years. It was an immaculate and stunning LeMans Blue over a Caramel extended leather interior. My twin brother and I got into autocross, where it just wasn’t a great car for the task, so we decided to buy a Mini and sell the M5. The M5 did need the LSD rebuilt, the clutch packs had hard spots causing insane axle hop sometimes. Otherwise it was pristine. 116k miles, sold it for $16.5k. If I’d have fixed the diff and parked it for 10 years, it would be worth easily $30k today. That said, I don’t regret a thing, it was very expensive maintaining that car to perfection whilst also daily driving and putting 15-20k miles a year on it.
I regret selling or donating all of them actually, I loved most (not all) of the cars I have had. Although none were really anything special, they were all something I was interested in at the time. When I had worn them out or the maintenance was more than I was willing to pay (most cases), I donated several to charities for a tax write off but never asked for a value anywhere near what I thought they might be worth. Wanted them to get the best value they could, but I hated letting go of a couple of Saabs (900T, 9-3 convertible), an Isuzu Impulse, a Volvo 142, and the one that got away, a 1954 GMC pickup.
I bought a ratty 72 Blazer for $800 in 1997. Rusty sure, but bulletproof 350, towed my boat like it wasn’t there. The top was almost never on it, I would lend it to friends to haul things or just to drive. Really liked it. Sometime around 2000, the rear let go. I shrugged, locked the hubs, and drove it for a week in 4wd. I was trying to figure out where to get parts, since this was before the internet was prevalent. Some guy offered me $800 in a parking lot and I thought I would be stupid not to take it.
I always thought I would replace it one day when I found the right one. I should have spent the $100 and put a set of gears and axles in. Basket cases are selling for 20k+ the last time I looked.
When replacing my 2000 Saab 9-3 with 397000km on it for a 2006 PT Cruiser, I decided to trade it in. I got $250 for the trade.
I could have likely gotten a lot more by trying to sell it on my own. But I decided not to as I was very busy with other stuff going on in my life at that time.
Oh man, I don’t even know where to start on this one.
In 1970 when I was 15 I got into my head that I wanted to buy a car, and started looking at the want ads in the San Francisco Chronicle. Back then you could buy a Ferrari GTO for about $5000, but that was kind of out of my price range having accumulated maybe a couple thousand dollars doing farm work and lawnmowing, and $20 bills in birthday cards and having no social life. The Altamont concert was maybe 15 miles away and I couldn’t get anyone to take me, but I digress.
I was really interested in a 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom 2 hearse for $750 that I thought would be great to convert into a panel delivery. My parents were unenthused, but suggested that something for $2000 – the list price for a 1970 Volkswagen or a Ford Pinto without the optional heater or the optional radio – would be appropriate. So we went shopping. A notable car we passed up was an absolutely stunning Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster for $2000, but it smoked a little bit and probably needed rings, which is a common thing because the mechanical fuel injection would pump raw gas into the cylinder if you blipped the throttle just before you shut it off. A couple weeks later there was an ad in the paper for a 1960 Maserati 3500 GT Vignale Spyder that some kid at UOP was selling for $2000. So that was my first car. It was an absolutely amazing car, pretty ragged cosmetically but it was pretty fast and sounded like god was making vroom vroom noises.
Interesting stuff happened outside the scope of this anecdote…
Anyway I went off to college in upstate New York, which seemed like a pretty miserable place for a Maserati convertible, and left the car at home. Apparently my mother eventually got tired of looking at it and sold it to some guy for $2000. Occasionally I mention “Oh look a car just like that one we had was auctioned off for 1.2 million” it was somewhat contentious. Just a a couple days ago one sold for $710,000 on BaT and it had an ugly paint job, had the wrong upholstery and was missing the optional hardtop.
The used Volkswagen Dasher that I got to go to school in eventually got a paint job by Keith Herring before he was famous, but it got towed and junked before I could retrieve it. Maybe that’s even worse.
Wow, are you kidding me?! Now THAT’S a first car. I’m only a few years behind you, but there was never anything like that around my area. Closest was a kid got a MGB in green, we were all jealous.
Definitely my 1977 Type 2 Westfalia. It was the orange one with plaid interior. Her name was Velveeta, for obvious reasons. I kick myself for not just spending five hundred bucks on a rebuilt 1600 for it back when you could do that, because I fought its tired factory motor for too long. I sold it for $500 with the engine in a plastic bag. To a guy who wanted the IRS out of it for a dune buggy. Ugh.
One of very few cars I’ve ever owned that would be worth five figures in good shape today if I’d kept it, and also one of those unavoidable “in the same circumstances, I’d do the same thing again” kind of things. What can I say, it was the move at the time.
2006 LJ Rubicon for basically what I had paid for it 8 years prior. If I had tried, I bet I could have turned a profit. But I didn’t want to be a dick, so I stand by it.
There are a few I miss at times, but none I exactly regret selling.
1965 Corvette, made a bundle on BaT, after 1 year, but had no garage to keep the fragile thing.
1965 Mustang needed everything redone, and at least I got back every dollar I ever put into it.
2001 Viper because I was actually bored of it after 15 years and 42,000 miles. Nowhere outside a track you can safely drive such a thing and do it justice.
Onwards to new driving experiences….
1999 Tacoma single cab, 4×4, manual. Cassette deck. Got better mileage than the new Tacoma hybrid. Sold it for $4000 in 2012. Had 50,000 miles.
Bring A Trailer moved that exact setup for $30000.