Road to regret: the cars we should have kept

Matt Prior

Porsche 911 S

I’m probably the only person on the planet who sold a classic Porsche 911 and doesn’t like talking about it. With fantastic timing I managed to sell our 1970 911 S just before prices went crazy. Okay, mine wasn’t a perfect example by any means, but values went so high that it would have been worth investing a bit of money on sprucing it up. Doing that and then selling it on would have paid off our mortgage. But never mind. We did 67,000 miles in it, which included a drive to Sicily and back for our honeymoon.

Colin Goodwin

Nissan Micra

Hard to believe a 1.0-litre Nissan Micra Mk2 could make the cut, but when you’ve put blood, sweat and tears (all literal, alas) into turning granny’s shopping car into a rally weapon (all exaggeration, alas), you grow quite fond it of it. 

All but the welding work was done my myself and mates, from swapping the shocks for Bilstein competition units to various safety upgrades and stripping out as much weight as humanly possible. The car cost £500 and the kit to make it eligible for the Formula 1000 (as in 1000cc – this was a 50bhp beast) Rally Championship another £1000 or so. 

I do have to admit, however, that the majority of the car you see here wasn’t the one I sold: an unfortunate roll wrote off most of this red devil, necessitating another shell… 

Jim Holder

Jaguar XJS V12 HE

I’ve never been a total fan of the XJS, which drives too much like a saloon, but its combination of velvet manners, extraordinary styling (and ever more so with time) and V12 power tempted me to buy a chestnut metallic 19,000-miler in 2007. I put 7000 totally reliable miles on it in nine years and only sold it because of a tax bill. I’ve regretted it ever since. The car’s amazingly original rust-free condition would be hard to repeat and I even liked its oh-so-’80s brown paint, despite my wife’s unprintably disparaging description of the hue. My regret led to some auction bidding for another later, but prices have risen substantially since my foolish sale. 

Richard Bremner

Porsche 911 RS Carrera

‘It’ was a 1995 Porsche 911 RS Carrera. The 993-generation car. Rarer than a Ferrari F40 and probably the best air-cooled 911 of all to drive. I bought it in the early part of this century when such cars were cheap and sold it after two years to buy an old Chevy Camaro race car. It took two seasons of racing for the Camaro to run me out of money, so then I had no Porsche and no racing. Not good. But nothing like as bad as what happened to 993 RS prices after I sold: today my car would be worth at least £200,000. I’m too ashamed to admit in print what I sold it for back then.

Andrew Frankel

Volkswagen Golf GTI

Obviously I should have kept them all. Life happens, though, and with the arrival of our daughter we needed a big, safe second-hand Saab 9000. The 1984 Volkswagen Golf GTI I’d had for almost 10 years had done so many miles, the odometer had gone on strike. It was only an eight-valve and there was no power steering, but it was a truly wonderful way to travel. I got about £800 cash for it, which was pretty good for a tired hot hatch, which is all it was. But it was an iconic one, too, which paid for a cot and lots of nappies. 

James Ruppert

Peugeot 205 GTi

After lots of bangers, the first nice car I ever owned was a 1988 1.6-litre 205 GTi, bought for the princely sum of £2500. It gave me 20,000 low-trouble miles as a daily driver, but then I got a job in London and made the mistake of trying to bring it with me. Living on-street and covered in bird mess and tree sap, it soon started to look sad and shabby and I had to make excuses to use it. Eventually it failed an MOT spectacularly and I pretty much gave it away in 2001. It’s still alive today, though, and sold on eBay for £3500 last year. 

Mike Duff

And then there are the cars that we wish we’d bought in the first place…

BMW M1

Shockingly, back in 1984 a BMW M1 wasn’t an easy car to sell. I know, because I tried. There was a white one in our showroom parked front and centre. I had one fairly serious enquiry and the ball-park price was around £30k, I think. You could buy a flat for that back then. 

Julian Rendell

Jaguar E-Type

Anyone born in the early ’60s or before will have dozens of missed opportunities. My biggest blunder was not buying an E-Type that had only 18,000 miles from new on its clock, was mint and was up for £1800. I even had the money as well. It was a 2+2, which is what put me off. 

Colin Goodwin

Fiat Dino

I chose between a Ducati 748 and a Fiat Dino coupé. Both cost £7000 and both were effortlessly pretty. The car’s value would have increased eightfold, but I went for the bike instead. I loved every minute of it. 

Matt Prior

Alfa Romeo 33 1.5 Amica

The princely 1989 Alfa Romeo 33 ‘Amica’ edition: white, with a colour-coded bodykit, white rims, Momo wheel and 1.5-litre boxer four. Made a deal. Got gazumped. It still smarts 24 years later. 

Richard Webber

Fiat 130 Coupé

It was the blue of a Caribbean sea, looked out of place in a 1978 repmobile auction and, said the auctioneer, needed a wheel bearing. This otherwise immaculate Fiat 130 Coupé netted £600 – searingly cheap, even then.

Richard Bremner

Ferrari Dino 246GT

In a previous career I worked in the City so was, briefly, reasonably well off. But I nonetheless turned down the opportunity to buy a perfect Dino 246GT for £19,500. That would be a £300,000 car today. 

Andrew Frankel

Commer Camper Van

The plan was to spend a summer driving round Europe going to various F1 and MotoGP races, and it got as far as putting a deposit on a 20-year-old Commer camper van. Alas, it became apparent the bargain £1500 price was related to the fact the seller didn’t appear to actually own it. I got a job instead. 

Jim Holder

Land Rover Defender