Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda

[Sage]

Woulda

Coulda

Shoulda

 

[Boz Mon]

I'm gonna cry.....

 

[Sage]

When I was shopping for a car, I found a drop-dead gorgeous Black Cherry Mica Miata at the local Honda dealer, and within my price range. But my dad wouldn’t hear of it.

 

[CDailey]

What I bought
Chrysler 300M Special

Woulda... if it wasn't for a cracked head I get a bit sad every time I see one on the road
Cadillac STS

Coulda...
Lincoln LS V8

or
P71 Crown Vic (original car I looked at purchasing)

Shoulda...
Honda Civic (or some other small fuel efficient car)

What I think now...

I really wanted the STS. If it wasn't for a cracked head the dealer mechanic caught while we were signing the final papers on the car, I'd be driving it right now.

I never really looked at the Lincoln LS V8 until after I had bought the 300M, but had I researched a tad more before purchasing, the LS V8 would have been a bigger contender.

I'm glad I didn't get a P71. Yeah they are cool, and people GTFO of your way when you drive one, but it's hard to find one that isn't worn to hell.

I should have gotten a small 4 cyl fuel efficient car. I wouldn't be as worried about it getting scratched or dirty, and it would be a lot easier on the wallet when at the pump.

Overall, I am very happy with the 300M. It's surprisingly quick for it's size, it's actually a bit quicker than the STS, and a little quicker than the P71...a little slower than the LS V8 though. It sounds badass, and the interior is excellent. It's not the most fuel efficient car, but it's not too bad either. It gets around 16mpg city and up to 26mpg on the highway. With mixed highway/city driving, average MPG sits around 20/21.

 

[JCE]

Your 300M is a much better buy than the STS. The LS is probably the best of that group...but I actually really like the 300M myself. Hurry up and get some black wheels and "murder" out that 300 already!

 

[CDailey]

It's only a better buy if only because it handles like its on rails, and dealer maintenance would be a little more expensive on the STS. Otherwise the two are very similar...FWD psuedo performance luxury sedans. Maybe it was just my situation though. I was originally going to get the STS for $6k when it stickers for almost $12k.

Like I said though, no complaints. I love my car.

 

[nobuffalo]

Woulda:MA71 Supra Turbo

Coulda:ST165 All-Trac Celica

Shoulda:AE86 Corolla GTS

My love for 80's Toyotas is very obvious, more than likely because thats the only gen I can afford. And none of mine would have been near that nice either

 

[Gil]

When I was 14, (1978) My dad sold his 1966 Mustang to a girl at church. I had kinda started to like that car and hoped to have it around to drive when I turned 16. (As well as the classic T-bird). Unfortunately, that little 'Stang was parked on the street about a week after my dad sold it, and a guy in a Semi drove over it. I was devastated.

However, My only really serious one of these happened back in the early '80's. I was 17.

My old man hadn't taken to letting me have the Austin America all the time, So I drove my T-bird a lot, but at 10 MPG it was killiing me financially.

I had a friend that wanted to sell her "cherry" 1970 Camaro for $2,500.
I had $1300, but couldn't talk my dad into hitting me up with the other $1,200.
AS a dad now, with a bunch of teen and grown sons, I understand that he didn't have a spare $1200 lying around to give me, But I stayed mad for a couple of years over that.

Before you go wondering what the big difference would have been...The T-bird required Premium Leaded gas, the only stations that were still selling it, charged $1.40 a gallon.
The Camaro, while sporty looking (It was Red with White Racing Stripes, and White Vinyl top. Cragar Super Sports, BFG's), it had a 307 with a 2 bbl carb under the hood. It ran fine on Regular at under a buck a gallon, got twice the MPG and some of the bird, and was nearly as cool.
It would have been a fine car to run around San Diego in during my first few months out of Boot Camp.

 

[ND4SPD]

What I bought
2000 Ford P71 CVPI

One of the few automatic cars I would buy. I still love this car to death though. Gets way too much attention, but it's also very fun.

Woulda...
Chevrolet Caprice 9C1

More like, "Was going to purchase" this too was also an ex police car. The particular one I was going to buy was a white 9C1 with the LT-1 and had a converted T56 Tremec 6 speed. I had the cash and was going to purchase the car but the owner had sold the car about an hour before I got there. Makes me sad thinking about it.

Another Woulda
1981 Porsche 924 Turbo

This is a picture I took of the 924 Turbo I had plans to purchase after the 9C1 Caprice got sold. It was fully restored by a local Porsche mechanic and had 80 000 original km's. It too was sold before I had a chance to make an offer....Would have been a fun ride.

Shoulda
Another FC RX-7.

Well I actually did want another RX-7 but at the time, there were no good FC RX-7's for sale in my price range. I'll own another RX-7 some day though.

Coulda
Mercedes W124

Well, I've always wanted a W124. Something about those cars that I liked so much. I couldn't find one in decent shape or for a good price around me. They were all far too much or had way too many km's for my liking. Even though they do last forever I would rather prefer to have a W124 with under 200 000 km's.

 

[Keef]

I just got in the mood reading through this thread and finally remembered what I was looking for at the time I bought my car. So, here goes...

Woulda:

Coulda:

Shoulda:

This is what I bought:

 

[Azuremen]

casey_2005, that is a crazy clean Supra. On the AE86... they've lost a lot of their appeal, with them being over priced now, and completely over hyped. A bit more practical than a Miata, but with inferior handling and such. MR2 is far more sporty and reasonably priced as well.

Keef, bummer that GSR I showed you wasn't for sale when you were in the market Still, the EM1 is a nice looking solid car, and you have like, the last clean example ever

 

[nobuffalo]

casey_2005, that is a crazy clean Supra. On the AE86... they've lost a lot of their appeal, with them being over priced now, and completely over hyped. A bit more practical than a Miata, but with inferior handling and such. MR2 is far more sporty and reasonably priced as well.

Agreed on the 86 being over priced, way over priced. I mean come on, it's a mid eighties corolla, and the majority of them have 200k plus miles with good amounts of rust, they shouldn't run you more than $800. When I was 16, being practical was a bit of an issue so the mr2 and miata where kinda out of the question, not much longer though and I shall once again be driving a mr2.

Yes, that is a extremely clean supra. I would settle for a nearly 2 ton car if it looked like that one. And please, call me Casey.

 

[eiriksmil]

On the AE86... they've lost a lot of their appeal, with them being over priced now, and completely over hyped. A bit more practical than a Miata, but with inferior handling and such. MR2 is far more sporty and reasonably priced as well.

Fully true. I love the Corolla's handling when you're sideways, but you've got TA64s, KE70s, TE70s, TE71s, etc. if you want to stand out. If I was to build a real drift car, I'd import a TE70 over an AE86.

When that's said, a local dude has aquired an AE86, and I really hope I'll be able to drive it this summer. They have awesomeness written all over them, and you can't really ignore them, or label them as bad/boring cars, even though they're a bit hyped and such

 

[homeforsummer]

Great idea for a thread 👍 Mine are fairly humble choices, as this was for my first car.

What I bought - Ford Fiesta:

It's been a great car and served me well for the last six years, but had I known when I bought it that even with low mileage like that and if looked after well it would still collect problems this quickly when it got to this age, I would have bought something with more longevity.

Woulda - Ford Ka:

There was one of these, for only £500 more (£4k, rather than the £3.5k of my Fiesta), newer and with more equipment sat right beside my eventual Fiesta on the forecourt. It would also have been cheaper to insure, slightly quicker and handle even better. In the end, I went for the Fiesta as it had lower mileage and more space.

Shoulda - VW Polo:

Comes down to the longevity thing. The Polo I could have got would have been slower and maybe a little more to insure than the Ford, but it'd be looking a whole lot better six years down the line than my car does, and would probably be costing me less today.

Coulda - Porsche 924:

For a long while before I passed my test I wondered if I could somehow afford a 924 as my first car. I could have bought one quite easily for the money I spent on the Fiesta, and kept in good condition it would be worth more today too. Would have been infinitely cooler, though considerably less practical. In the end, as a 17 year old new driver, the insurance would have been prohibitive - the same cost again on top of that of the car.

 

[TVC]

Southern California is more like it... All of California is hardly close to perfect weather 24/7.

But it's been raining here for the past 3 days. Southern California has the perfect climate for storing cars and for the most part driving them but I think it's worse than most people believe it to be (it gets down to about 25 degrees here and I don't even live close to the mountains or anything).