We all like getting misty eyed about the greatest, wisest or luckiest car purchases we’ve made, but we we want to hear about the buying decisions that still haunt you
December 7, 2024 at 16:00
- The Mk2 VW Golf GTI I bought was plagued with red flags but I went for it.
- The Audi A4 I purchased had a CVT transmission that was completely unreliable.
Some cars you buy are so good, so much fun and so reliable that you wish you’d jumped into ownership sooner. Or, looking back, you wonder why you ever sold them. And then there are the other cars. The ones that you wish you’d never clapped eyes on, and maybe went ahead and bought even though a voice in your head was already telling you you’d regret it.
Like you, I’ve had plenty of cars that annoyed in some minor way. But I can think of at least two real dogs in my back catalog. The first was a Mk2 VW Golf GTI, my first performance car, and one I bought despite it raising more red flags than Xi Jinping’s birthday guests. I had enough money for a nice 8-valver, but bought a terrible 16-valve model instead, suckered in by the promise of the senior model’s extra 27 hp (27 PS), bee sting aerial and the kudos that came with the the badge.
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If the simple fact that I could afford it when every other 16-valve was out of reach, or that it was on the wrong wheels, wasn’t enough to tell me to stay away, the total lack of service history and a confirmation via a history check that it had been previously totaled should have done the trick. Imagine paying for a history check and then buying the car anyway when it came back bad. Yeah, that was me.
The GTI was really quick when running well, but that was rare. Usually it refused to start, and when it did, it would often refuse to rev cleanly above 4,500 rpm – which was exactly the point at which the extra valves began to earn their keep.
A close runner up in the turd stakes is a 2004 B6-generation Audi A4 that came about 15 years later. A smart Avant wagon powered by VW’s crude but effective 128 hp (130 PS) 1.9 TDi motor, it would have been a great car if we’d bought the manual version. But ours came with the Multronic CVT, a transmission so unreliable it was the focus of a class-action lawsuit in the US.
Unfortunately I was in the UK and spent thousands of my own money trying to chase down problems that still weren’t resolved when we finally, mercifully, got shot of the thing. Since then I’ve bought smarter and been luckier with my cars.
So what car do you most regret buying and why? Leave a comment below and share your nightmare purchase.
