What is your biggest automotive faux pas? So far as acquiring a vehicle or?

Mine was trading a 03 SRT4 which was mint for a 93 Civic Si hatch. Car was presented as all stock and low mileage. Dumb ass me didnt check the carfax. One day Im sitting at a light and wonder why the car does not have the higher redline the Si cars did. Somebody swapped the cluster.  I then decide to run the carfax and it turns out to have OVER 300K.  That car was dubbed Betty White.  Regardless I did my thing, fixed it and upgraded it. Ran great but was always "that" car that the wife would remind me was NOT what I should have gotten.  

Second is the current project/daily. Which sits in my driveway waiting on a fuel pump. Its solid, miles are accurate.....but its borked. Needs alot (which I will fix) to be what I wanted it to be.  99 Miata. Traded for it and again, the wife........well she is not happy. Other day it broke down on lunch and I had to be picked up. Driving courtesy shuttles and other vehicles around from work till I get it right.  Truck is almost done, so thats a thing.  

How about y'all? Ever trade or acquire a build or a project that you just did not know what to do with - but your SO sure does. 

If you ask my wife, all of my automotive decisions have been faux pas.  She doesn't get why I rebuilt the engine in the truck instead of just getting rid of it.  

You guys get it, and thats what I appreciates about ya.

In reply to bonylad :

The secret is to keep something relatively modern and reliable (NOT A PROJECT) around to drive. Then the stupid decisions aren't an inconvenience therefore said wife or husband won't complain about them not working.  Try not to have ugly things too, that helps. 

Last year I sold my perfectly sorted and very nice NC to a forum member because I had too much money tied up in a toy car.

Went out and bought a cheap turbo NA as it's replacement and have dumped piles of cash into it.  I'm now further in the "toy car budget" hole than I got for the NC.  SMH

bought a 06 GS300 on ebay. So many mistakes were made. 06 GS300's are the red headed step children of the lexus family. learned that 20 minutes after purchasing a car with a bad transmission. Bought an ebay transmission for cheap, and made it all of 15k miles before it started burning through oil. 

back at the end of high school I thought I  needed a car for college that was "more reliable " than my 85 RX7.....even though it was a really clean, strong runner for the most part.   So i sold it (cheaply)  and leased a new Z24 cavalier on the GM  family plan.  I didn't know better, and my parents weren't car people, so they didn't point out my stupidity.  So many other great cars of the time I should have bought up to. 

Then, to add insult to injury i made another financial blunder. I racked up what I thought were "too many miles" to turn the lease in because i didn't want to pay the additional fee.......so i bought it out.  Ended up loosing my ass on that car of course, because GM resale values in the 2000's were E36 M3.  

In reply to lnlogauge :

offf. yep. mid 2000's were not great years for Lexus in general. lots of recalls and issues. The 3.0 engine was a oil burning underpowered lump which was rightfully tossed the following model year in favor of the 3.5 basically still in use today. Red headed step child indeed.  

Found a Unicorn car on CL ( 2010 SAAB 9-5 Aero) at a small local dealer for about half what it should have been.  Paid cash for it, 2 weeks later car was repoed from my driveway because the dealer never paid the auction company for it.  He had been buying cars on credit from the auction company, selling the cars and gambling with most of the money he was getting, I think there were 40 some cars repossessed eventually.  I eventually got my money back but I was sweating bullets for a couple of days.

In reply to Aaron_King :

Didnt you post that saga here??   I thought you wanted to end up with the car?

Oooh! I thought of an actual one!  My '59 Lonestar boat; wife was concerned it was going to be another hole on a trailer.  I told her it wasn't, I had a clearly defined plan, AND a clearly defined budget.

Then, I let her see the budget, and the receipts.  At the time it was pretty good, everything was nice and aligned, I was on track.

Now?  Well, I keep trying to use Challenge budget rules, and they don't work on her.  "Tools are tools, hon! They don't count towards the budget!"

I bought a diesel Mercedes.

Got this, had every intention of doing a build and life (having kids) got in the way. Sold on for what I had in it, $40. I think Andy may still have it?

The other great would be an 81 Datsun 280zx that we got with a house that I didnt look underneath before letting him give it to us, frame rail was GONE.  I think I sold it for a few hundred bucks in running condition.

A buddy was getting rid of an E30 because he was moving. Asked if I wanted it, I said no, he said give it a chance.

Of course I ended up buying it, and it ended up being so rusty that I had to buy another good shell to be able to even think about selling it to get anything back out of it.

Now I have two partially disassembled E30s and no garage space.

I also proooobably shouldn't have bought my 944 project. Bought it because I blew my turbo E30 up at a track day, and I always wanted a 944. So there is also a non-running 944 (started a build thread what, 3 years ago now?) also taking up garage space, and I still haven't rebuilt the engine on my turbo E30, which sadly looks me in the eye every time I walk outside.

4 non-running cars, 3 of which were kind of knee jerk purchases, and all of my time now has been spent racing motorcycles (and maintaining those bikes....) anyway.

Sold the only car I wish had back for a 1994 Mark VIII. Like new, paid 15k. Turned down an extended warranty for 1800.  50k and the tranny explodes. Costs 1800 to fix. Sold the still like new car 2 years later for 5k. Not my finest moment.

In reply to wae :

I got you beat, i bought a diesel Buick Regal..  But I traded a blown-up (literally, the engine had caught fire) Chevy Citation for it so I guess I came out even, at least the Regal ran (until it didn't).

I bought an audi. And an alfa. And a jag. And a bmw.

I still call myself a GM guy but it's hard to tell sometimes.

In reply to iansane :

Well, it's wise to have at least one reliable car in the fleet

I waited years for the original owner to finally sell me the WRX, then only kept it for six months. I'm still driving the Ralliart wagon that I've owned since 2009. 

Edit: re-reading this, I realize that it's not clear that I think the mistake was buying the Subaru, not selling it. 

Back when I was looking for a family transporter for the wee ones, I bought a clean Volvo wagon at a dealership, thinking I could trust them to sell me a good car.  (!)  Turned out it had a rod knock.  They said they'd change out that one rod bearing.  I said they needed to put a new short block in the car.  They said "not happening."  I said "keep it."  I applied the value to a 2001 Subaru Outback manual they had on the lot.  I had high hopes for that car.  It was a stick shift wagon!!!

The car turned out to be such a disappointment.  From head gaskets (fixed under warranty) and clutch issues, to mediocre fuel economy and pitiful lack of power.  Excessive body roll and tire squeal just about every time you'd take a corner.  Not even the 5-speed could make that car fun to drive.   I endured it for about a year, then paid thousands to get rid of it.

The only good consequence was finding the 945T that replaced it.  That thing was a joy.

Not mine, but looked just like it.

Mr. Peabody said:

In reply to iansane :

....reliable...

What's this word? I've never seen it before?

I've made so many mistakes over the years I can't really narrow it down to one really good one.

And as I keep learning, it's often in pursuit of the deal...

I had a chance to buy a late 80's G body from a friends brother. I wanted to build a drag car, and he wanted a mustang. It had a well sorted 350, build th350, build 9" and everything sorted to be a quality drag car. All for $3,500. 

I turned it down, to then spend twice that building a turbo LS car that was in worse condition.

My reliable daily driver is an Alfa, I bought a high mileage BRZ, the list goes on...

In reply to jfryjfry :

I did post about it:  Got a unicorn for the family - 2010 SAAB 9-5 content

The short version is the Auction company said they would hold the car for me until I got reimbursed, they then waited until I got my check and then sold it at auction before I could get it back.

Everything worked out in the end, I got this almost 2 years ago and it is much nicer than the first one. 

I'm currently finishing my second basket case TR6.  The first one was bought for $3000 and had plenty of rust.  It needed everything and took 5 years to rebuild.  The second was a pile of parts that, while less rusty, still needed everything and is taking 7+ years to restore.  Overall it's been worth it, but there were times when I considered giving both cars a Viking funeral.