We’ve all made mistakes through our lives on the road. Some of us put diesel in petrol tanks, some of us crash into width restrictors, and some of us buy awful cars.
To find out what purchases you thought were a mistake, we asked what cars you regretted buying. Here are some of your best responses.
“It rusted like it was its job, it leaked every fluid it had in it and you’d fix one leak and it’d develop another, it hard the cargo capacity of a car with the fuel efficiency of a truck. I thought it was an amusing vehicle at first but it quickly got old.
“It was the easiest vehicle to sell though. I listed it on Facebook Marketplace and people were practically pushing each other face-first in mud puddles to buy it before everyone else.”
The Baja was produced by Subaru in the early 2000s. The utility vehicle promised it all, and built a powerful niche following among the few who stuck with it. Not everybody was on board, I guess.
Suggested by: Nick Dixon (Facebook)
“It’s actually a great little car, but I was a bit obsessed with it as far as keeping it clean and neat and perfect and it drove my wife and daughter nuts. When the dog jumped up on it and scratched the door I was physically sick. I didn’t own that car, it owned me.
“It also turned out to not be the WRX hatch replacement I thought it would be. Just a bit too small on the inside and too nice to consider throwing skis and bikes in the back, forget about going off road. It was also enormously annoying to drive in my area. You couldn’t go two blocks without having to negotiate a dip at an angle and slow down to walking speed to keep from scraping the front end.”
A high-spec Golf is a car to be enjoyed. But the whole point of a Golf is to have it be your d0-everything car, and at a certain point, it can price itself out of making sense.
Suggested by: mwake1
“Leased a new Dodge Durango in 1999, I thought it was cool looking, unlike any other SUV at the time. It was heavy as hell, with a V8 engine. It only became a regrettable purchase when gas in SoCal jumped to $2.50 a gallon!”
Regret can take many forms. For this poster, rising running costs made a Dodge Durango a burden. With increasing fuel costs today, don’t be surprised to hear this story repeat itself.
Suggested by: Kurt Radelow (Facebook)
“It was beige. It was boring. I didn’t discover it lacked ABS until an emergency braking situation almost killed me (no ABS in the mid ‘00s? REALLY?!). Also, its styling was an uninspired, ugly update to an already lumpy design. Only owned it for a year, when a new job allowed me to replace it with a brand new Mazda2, which I absolutely loved.”
A boring and dangerous set of wheels is always going to fill you with regret every time you sit in the driver’s seat.
Suggested by: dirf
“Cayman S. Sort of. I only owned it for about a year, and between overpaying for it, and a little bad luck with parts failing in quick succession, that year of ownership cost me almost $10,000. Just wasn’t worth it at that cost. Really should have shopped around and taken my time to find the right example, instead of going for the best one available locally.”
Again, the point of a Porsche is to offer the performance of a finicky exotic at less cost and with less unexpected maintenance. The cult of Porsche driving up prices hasn’t helped, has it?
Suggested by: tps22az
“Absolute garbage right off the lot. Junk transmission, it was gutless, every car that passed us it felt like it was going to fly off the road. it had no space, fuel economy wasn’t even good, and to top off the crappiness of the car we had been forced by our co-signer into all of the BS extended warranties and other junk, and were paying almost $800 a month for it.
“We had it less than six months, and replaced it with a 2006 Pontiac G6 base that was a better car in every way despite already being nine years old at the time.”
We love driving Fiestas here at Jalopnik, but we are more than a little familiar with reporting on their perhaps less-than-stellar reliability, dual-clutch transmissions especially.
Suggested by: Troy Haupert (Facebook)
“Nissan Rogue. Killed me a little bit inside every day that I drove it. Bought it new and luckily I couldn’t take it with me when we moved to Puerto Rico. I was able to unload it for what I owed on it.
“I should’ve just kept driving my 2001 Honda Civic LX that I had bought new, it had 203,000 miles on it and I thought I should move on. It was stick and could at least be fun to drive when I wanted it to be.”
“Life is too short to drive boring cars” is the mantra you’re looking for here.
Suggested by: thancr
“I have one car I regret buying and that was my Fiat 500 Abarth. When it worked (which wasn’t often) it was great fun, you knew it was slow and too tall, but it didn’t matter because it made you feel special. When it didn’t work...
“Air conditioner compressor sounded like a Harley Davidson and had to be replaced twice. The driver side window fell into the door when it was freezing outside. The side skirts started to come off of the car, replaced. The waste gate for the turbo charger would get stuck open and that 1.4L made no power off boost.
“Starting it up a hill either resulted in a burnout or stall due to the on/off nature of the turbo. The transmission decided to detonate one day while shifting into reverse, making 1st and 2nd gear unusable. The car would sit for 51 days before a new transmission would be sourced from Italy. When I got it back, the shift points were all to the right so 1st gear sat where 3rd did, and so on, 5th gear sat really far to the right.”
Small and fun, but woefully unreliable. Isn’t that Fiat’s motto these days?
Suggested by: btdubbin
“Volvo V40 T4. Should have been a competitor to the BMW 3 series. Should /could, but never was. Also breaks weak as biscuits and super soft suspension although “Sport Edition.” Went directly back to BMW, a true premium car.”
Solid Scandinavian build quality isn’t enough to make up for lost performance, as this commenter soon found out.
Suggested by: Kevin Blankenburg (Facebook)
“Bought an Alfa Romeo 4C back in 2017. Totally emotional purchase, as I’m 6'4", 240lb, and it was to be my daily driver. Picked it up on Henderson, NV, and on the drive back to Los Angeles, I knew I was in trouble.
“At the first rest stop a few hours in, I couldn’t even stand up straight. Drove it for a year, and finally sold it, took a $20k + haircut, and got a TTRS, which I actually fit in perfectly.”
Honestly, the Alfa Romeo 4C was one of the Italian company’s best-looking cars in years when it launched. Buying one without being sure if you fit in it is understandable.
Suggested by: crispyfrog