Best car deal you ever screwed up on .

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

early 80's - 1968 440 Charger for $3500
early 90's - 1968 400 Firebird Convertible for $6000

Both mint condition!

[Tonefiend]

1986.  I was 16.  I ran across a guy with a 73 Charger with a 440 and and a tunnel ram sticking out the hood.  The rear and had shackles jacking it up with huge tires.  This was in Minnesota so there was a bit of rust, but man you shoudl have heard that thing run!   

I was scared $hitless what my folks would say if I brought it home.  I was driving a Chevette at the time. 

[Aussie Challenger]

This is the opposite, I was moving house and I had a 1926 Dodge 4 which I was selling, had a few calls then this guy rings and talks to me for over an hour about the car, hangs up and and rings back talks some more. I tried to close the deal, he said he wanted it but wanted to think about it some more and I had told him I had many calls but he might not have believed me. Phone rings again and another guy says he wants it and will be right over as he lived 10 mins away. He comes with a trailer and cash, we start loading and the phone rings again and it is the other guy asking could he come over and have a look but he now wants it....... so he wasn't very happy, thought I was just stringing him on about all the calls. Offers me more and he will be right over but I tell him its already loaded on a trailer, he was even more unhappy, I felt for him but....

[bb71challenger]

Second place would have to be circa 1994. 1973 Duster 340, 4 speed, air conditioning, Root Beer paint, white interior and top, sunroof. 1 of 40 but with 4 speed and air it would have to be very rare, possibly a 1-1. 1500 and it needed nothing, nice original driver with ice cold air. Top crank was stripped though.

[inot2old]

A few years ago there was a '68 Dart 2 door a/t, /six for $600.  It looked like a little old ladies car, body & interior were perfect.  I had just bought my 'Cuda & could not bring home another car, no matter how good a deal.

[JH27N0B]

Back in the early 80's when I was in college, I decided I wanted to buy a original hemi Challenger or cuda.  With school and 2 jobs, I couldn't travel far to look at a car, anything that I could drive out to see and drive home in less than a day was my limit.  During the time I was looking, only one car turned up in my traveling radius, a hemi '70 Challenger R/T in West Bend WI which was a little over 2 hours north of me.  It was February and I drove up there in my '79 Bronco, I pulled in the guys driveway and he walked out and started checking out my truck, then he says "Looks like you have the ultimate winter cruiser!  Maybe we can trade???"  I'm like no, I'm a cash buyer.
He was looking for best offer on the car, and had advertised it in 4 states.  It was a B5 auto car with a shaker.  The paint job was sort of crummy, one step above Earl Sheib, it had cragars, the dash was cracked.  But otherwise it was a solid car, drove really good.  He had an offer of $4500, so I offered him $5000, he said he'd let me know, I never heard from him again.
Why didn't I try to trade him my Bronco, in the late '70's we had some horrible winters in Chicago and everyone rushed out and bought suv's, then gas prices went up, and everyone was trying to unload them cheap.  I could have traded him my Bronco and found another one back home to replace it for a good price in a matter of days!

[loco340cuda]

Mine was a 1970 440 6pack 4 speed sublime green Cuda, the asking price was $8500.  I saw the ad in the paper and I called the guy and everything was legit, so I talked to my wife about it and being newly married and not having a lot of money she asked me if I thought this was really a good idea.  At the time not knowing what the market was going to do I agreed that it did not make since to buy a hobby car when we were living in an apartment.  The guy also had a ralley red 1971 340 cuda for sale that had a dented driver quarter panel for $3500 but I still could not justify the purchase before we had bought our first home.  Oh well... 10 years later we had already purchased our first home and I bought a 1970 340 4-speed Cuda so it worked out in the end.   

[moparclown]

I just did one the other night,if you go on e-bay and check out the 69 super bee(orange project car in NY state)The pics suck of course but I spotted the car 5 minutes after it got listed.I contacted the guy and he said to make him an offer?I felt then that the reserve was gonna be high.Only because the 5th digit was an M(A12 440/6)Well it wasn't to long after I contacted him the bidding started and passed the very small reserve and now its not mine damn it.I really want a 68 coronet R/T or 68 Super Bee 4spd car but would have graciously settled for a real lift off hood 69 4spd.

[quapman]

i've got bunches of 'em, but here are a couple. Call me the king of bad timing. Early 90's:

Sold my Harley Softtail Custom for a loss, just before the big boom. 6 months wait would have netted another $5-7K. I sold it to buy a T/A.

I had my choice of 2 T/A's. First was an FM3 car, matching numbers, complete, but needing resto. $7500. Second was FE5 red, non-matching, apart, major project, $5K. I wanted to do a rotisserie job and decided on the red car so that I'd have cash to buy the rack, tools, etc. The red car also had $5k worth of NOS parts, so it was a tough decision at the time.

I sold the T/A to buy some property (which I sold at a loss 5 years later) and bought an FC7 V-code Challenger for $3900 from the same guy who had the pink T/A. Got so tired of lame body guys f-ing up a quarter install that I traded it for a clean, freshly painted 318 car that I planned on cloning. The guy that got it put $15K into it and sold it for $10K, but of course, not to me. The clone project is long gone, too.

Currently working on an FC7 70 U-code Chally STP, a 73 Chally and a time machine.

[ChallengerGary]

Hey Steve - how much for a ride in time machine when you get it done?  Bunch of deals I've passed up on would like to go back and do again...

[troutstreamnm]

Not a Mopar, but I passed on a maroon 69 Jaguar E-type vert in excellent condition for $2500.  I mean this car would turn an 80 year old womans head for a look!  I wanted the car, but this was back in college days and I couldn't afford the insurance 

[ChallengerGary]

My best "screwed up on a car deal story" is actually my Dad's.  In 1969, we lived near and he worked in Detroit.  We were in the market for a new car.  my Dad did some research and was leaning towards either a Challenger or a '70 Camaro.  He test drove both and then did a little more research and found that although the two cars cost about the same, the Challenger actually weighed more.  So he thought, "What the heck is going on here? Looks like GM's trying to screw the consumer by giving less for your money."  That being said, he decided on a Challenger.  So, he went to what he told me was "The Factory" to pick out his new car.  He said when we was walking around that there were "rows and rows" of these winged cars with sloped noses - obviously Charger Daytonas.  He asked his sales guy what the deal was with them and the sales guy replied, "You can have any one of them for $1800."  seems they just were not a big hit on the sales floors of the dealerships.  My Dad said he thought about it but then figured my Mom would shoot him if he came home with one of those "Big Ugly Things."

Needless to say, for YEARS after that everytime he saw a Daytona or a Superbird at a car show, he mentally kicked himself.  He could have bought 2 of the Daytonas for just a little more than his 318 SE Challenger ended up costing him.. .

[Bluemonster71RT]

Kinda like ChallengerGary's story mine was my fathers also. When he was in Texas 1970, in the Airforce he decided to buy a Challenger. He wanted to get a Hemi. After talking to the sales guy he was told that as of the 1971 model year there are no warranties on the Hemi because people keep racing them, breaking them and then getting replacments. So he didn't want to have his first car have a motor with no warrenty if something should go wrong. His other thought was getting the 440-6 but a friend told him of issues that others had with overheating all the time so he ended up with the 383. Then he asked about the 71 TA. Nope not making it. He then wanted to get the 70 style TA spoiler but they only offered the Go wing, So he got nothing.  But geeze if only he had ordered the Hemi.  As rare as I understand my car to be without it I can only dream.     

[Barracudadan]

Well here is my screwup story back in 85 I bought an AAR for $500.00 far from original but it was running and drivable.I was too young to get my license and sold it 3 months later for $650.00 cause I didn`t have any real tools to fix it up with,plus I couldn`t drive a stick to save my ass! I didn`t even know what an AAR was untill I saw an ad in a Hemmings for someone offering up to $5,000 for an AAR in any condition!After all this time I still miss that car,so I just bought a 72 Barracuda to help take some of the pain away!

[ragtopdodge]

Five years ago, local paper had a '70 Barracuda 'vert for $6k.  Had no room or money, but I could have found a way if I really wanted to.

20 years ago, saw an ad in the back of Hot Rod Magazine for a '70 Challenger 6-pak 'vert for $6500.  Again, no money and no place to put it.