One difficult aspect of being a car enthusiast is being hopelessly in love with a car that you know you shouldn’t buy. You may think about this vehicle often and maybe even have an example saved in your Facebook Marketplace list, but you just can’t get yourself to buy it. Maybe the car you want is known for its performance but is also known for emptying its owner’s bank account. Maybe you work one of those jobs or live in one of those places where you’re expected to drive a certain kind of vehicle. No matter the reason, what car do you want to buy but are too scared to actually follow through with?
Some of you see me as a bit of a fearless collector. Currently, I own a Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI, a retired transit bus, a couple of BMWs, and a Suzuki RE-5 rotary-powered motorcycle. Any one of these vehicles can bankrupt a person when they break, but I’ve rolled the dice on them. Thankfully, if these vehicles ever do break on me, I could either just sell them or wait until I can repair them. I don’t need to depend on any of them to get me around.
With that said, there are cars I want, but keep myself from buying. Ironically, one of those vehicles is a Volkswagen with a 2.0-liter turbo four from the late 2000s and early 2010s. These cars are notorious for timing failures. I mean, Jason’s wife’s Tiguan had a timing failure, even though Jason knew the crossover was a bomb just waiting to blow.
It’s a shame because so many cool cars came with that engine from the Holy Grail Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen SEL to the surprisingly capable Tiguan 4Motion. Of course, don’t forget that there are a lot of cheap GTIs with those engines But even I am too scared to pull the trigger.
While we’re on the subject of sketchy VAGs, another vehicle I want to buy but stop short on is the Volkswagen EuroVan. I’d love a EuroVan MV Weekender as a sweet factory camper, but I keep reading reports about automatic transmission failures. This wouldn’t be an issue with a manual transmission, but we didn’t get higher trim EuroVans in America with manual transmissions. It was hard enough to find a B5.5 Passat that didn’t have a dying transmission, so I’m not sure how quickly I want to repeat the process with a van.
Yes, all of this is patently ridiculous when you remember that I own a Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI and used to own a Phaeton. Both of those cars are known to break catastrophically, costing their owners piles of money. In my silly head, at least those vehicles are special enough to take the chance on, whereas a Tiguan and a GTI are cool, but not exactly V10 TDI cool.
Another vehicle I want but am too scared to buy is an old Land Rover Discovery. I’ve heard enough horror stories from David Tracy and Rob Spiteri that I have yet to buy one. Yet, I’m still allured by a Disco’s off-road capabilities and excellent style.
Alright, so you know my fears and the vehicles that make me toss and turn at night. Seriously, I’ve lost sleep over buying a EuroVan once. Are there any cars that do that for you? What do you want but are too scared to buy?
VW arteon, alfa romeo giulia, 80’s Jags
All Alfa Romeo’s. Jaguars before 1990. W107 Mercedes.
A Mazda RX-8. Or any German diesel vehicle for my lengthy highway commute
Anything with a V-12.
Used EV
Datsun Roadster. Totally cute, totally not-my-lifestyle, and there’s not enough room in the garage with all the firewood, hay, horse stuff and motorcycles. More realistic is to replace my Frontier with a stock-looking older Datsun pickup.
All of the pretty ’90s Jaguars.
What’s funny is, those are the reliable ones, if you’re referring the the inline-6 cars. X300’s are straight up bulletproof and will go 250k+ with minimal maintenance. The V8 cars… they had some issues until they did a revision halfway through the 01 model year
The engines are great, trying to find climate control and suspension parts for my XJ40 is nigh impossible. But it just so pretty…
Lamborghini Gallardo. I have always wanted one of these, even though I am generally more interested in redneck trucks than sports cars. I see decent Gallardos for sale for $100,000 to $120,000, which is a lot of money but not a completely unreasonable purchase for me. I’m not too worried about depreciation, but I have heard horror stories of very expensive engine failures ($40,000+), particularly in the earlier cars which are, unfortunately, the ones I can afford. Although, if the thought of expensive repairs is this distressing, it probably means I can’t actually afford the car.
FRS / BRZ / GT86
Before I bought my Miata, I messaged the seller of a clean well-maintained 1991 Volvo 780 Bertone to ask if the interior had been reinstalled yet (ad mentioned it was being reupholstered).
For those not in the know, the 780 Bertone was Volvo’s flagship model at the time, a low-production coachbuilt luxury car made to prove Volvo could compete with the German luxury brands of the time. And it did. It had the turbo red block engine under the hood, full independent suspension, every luxury item you could ask for in the 80s, and styling reminiscent of BMWs and Mercedes.
And not only that, but this 1991 model was the Holy Grail of 780 Bertones – one of less than 400 imported to the U.S. for the final model year, which included a number of improvements over earlier 780s including a limited-slip differential. It was arguably the Holy Grail of 1980s/90s Volvos in general. And it was within my budget!
What prevented me from buying it was three things: 1, the seller never responded to me. Never learned if the interior was reinstalled or not, nor if I could buy it and wait a while for that to be finished. 2, I also really, really wanted a Miata. Couldn’t buy both.
But reason number 3… I realized I don’t know if I can handle owning a car that rare. All the body panels, trim, and even several lighting components in that car were entirely unique to that vehicle. All the mechanical parts were shared with other Volvos (except maybe the fancy diff, idk), but if it got in so much as a minor fender bender and the damage couldn’t simply be pulled out by a skilled body shop, the only way to fix it would be to track down one the handful of these ever imported in a pick-n-pull yard and hope nobody else has taken parts from it.
Yeah it’d be fun to live the 80s Euro luxury dream in something that isn’t a ticking time bomb or expensive to insure, but if that thing needed to be my new daily… I’d just be too concerned about anything bad happening to it to really enjoy it.
There’s also a Fiat 850 Spider in a local junkyard that I’d love to save, but it’s not the Italian reliability that scares me (so what if it’s unreliable, the engine is the size of a toaster and more basic than Starbucks, it’d be the most relaxing project to get running again and not expensive either), it’s the rust that’d keep me up at night. It looks solid enough… no obvious rust holes at first glance… floors are still there…. but it’s old and Italian and clearly already infected by the tinworm, so it could very well be in need of like, so many patch panels. Plus I already have a roadster, so it’d be kinda redundant.
Does it have to be 1? Lets start with “Most want” to “why not want”
-Honda Beat. Not because of mechanicals, but because NYS is being dicky about Kei cars, and randomly decided all trucks are bad. cars seem to fly under the radar, but I cant afford to buy, ship, then not register it.
-VW Arteon: I hear a lot of bad about the EA888 engine once I researched. But they look so good!
-Saab 900 Convertible: Its a saab.
-Corvair: I dont have enough storage, and outdoor storage isnt great in the northeast.
-VW Based dune buggy: What if I dont drive it enough?
-BMW 3-series convertible: Because ive never owned german. But also, because I have never owned german.
I bought a 2003 bmw 325 convertible and got rid of it 60 days later happy as hell to see it dissapear.
I replaced a starter and a few other things and broke even.
Huge sigh of relief similar to when I got my divorce.
No thanks. German isn’t for me.
If I was born cluelessly rich absolutely though!
A TVR. Especially a Cerbera. Oh man, those looks make my heart race, but each mile would bring me closer to the death of my body or my wallet.
I’m also firmly on team LR Discovery as a dream I wouldn’t want to wake up to.
A B5 Passat. I would absolutely, for real, be driving one as my daily driver right now, but I just can’t do it with a car that needs so much attention.
Any Citroen with hydropneumatic suspension, but I especially want a DS.
A Maserati Biturbo.
The OG Audi Allroad
As of late, 3 cars that I’d love to own come to mind. Keep in mind that I own mostly Toyota/Honda/Mazda products, and am not used to surprise repairs.
1) 2018+ Ford F150 2.7EB. I really like the way these drive/look/perform. I’ve heard reliability on those is hit or miss. The 10 speed also has a checkered past.
2) Ford Maverick 2.0 Tremor. Same story…the engine/transmission combo isn’t known to be bulletproof.
3) 2015 Volvo V60 T6 R-Design. Super rare Swede. The Turbo I-6 is the most reliable motor on those, but these cars are aging and repairs aren’t necessarily cheap.
Fun mention: Amphicar. Most parts are available, but the dang transmission/PTO/prop drive unit is over 10K used. Ouchy.
My wife has a XC60 T6 R-Design w/Polestar and it’s been rock solid. I would buy another T6 R without hesitation. We bought it after comparing it to the redesigned XC60 that came out in 2017. I wouldn’t buy one of the new I-4 Volvos.
I lack both wrenching skills and the mental bandwidth to own more than one car, although I do have a driveway. With that said:
I do have some anxiety issues to work through.
The Honda 1.5 issues is actually oil delusion. Only seems to be an issue for people in super cold climates and with super short commutes.
I’m not ina super cold climate, but I had (still past tense) a one-way commute that was slightly less than four miles with most non-commuting trips about the same length.
2.0 Giulia and three-time 500 owner here, as well as wife to RX-7 owner. The first two are perfectly fine with correct care and feeding. The RX-7 is a bit more moody, but survivable. It is a vintage car though, so you have to treat it that way
Nice list!
Ford is better then Chrysler generally from my experience.
Chrysler makes some nice products then all of a sudden they are garbage the next year is what I’ve seen.
Porsche 944. My favorite Porsche (can you tell I’m a child of the 80’s?), but 30 hour clutch jobs … no thank you!
Saab 9-3 Sportcombi Aero circa 1997-98. Had a chance to buy one in 2016 but if I had pulled the trigger, I’d still be sleeping on the sofa.
New Volvo V60. I had a ’92 Volvo 960 and it scarred me. The upside is my mechanic’s kid has straight teeth and a private school education because of work he did on the 960.
Every late ’80s Saab 900 Turbo Convertible (manual, of course) that I look at almost every week. I might as well buy two, because I’m convinced (possibly irrationally) that every part on it will be unobtanium.
I actually saw an add selling a pair of 900 Turbos . . . both with blown transmissions so you couldn’t even make one working car out of the two.
Easy, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadripastaspicymeatballsauce
An old Disco is the headache they say it is, but you’ll keep coming back for more
Quadripastaspicymeatballsauce!
Best comment ever!
A gently used Polestar 2 AWD with the performance package. The depreciation curve has hit and hit hard. I’m seeing an AWD with 40,000 miles and no accident history for $20k and one with the performance package and 29,000 miles for $28k. They’re amazing vehicles and those prices are very reasonable but that’s still a lot of money… and I’m scared the company will go belly up sooner than later, with Volvo abandoning all support. When that happens, the battery will immediately shrivel up and die and I’ll be left with a beautiful but useless paperweight.
I wish I had waited a hair longer to pull the trigger on a used EV. I’m fairly happy with the Kia Niro EV but if I could’ve gotten a Polestar with AWD they would have been sweet. I have until April 18th to get another EV with the $4k incentive from PG&E and I’m trying to decide whether to just go as cheap as possible on a $7k 60Ah i3 or go a little newer and nicer 94Ah for $14k. The fed incentive will be bigger on the latter but the overall spend is higher. There’s also another $1k I can get but only if they don’t have range extenders…
A turbo V8 BMW 5-series like a 550i, M550i or even an M5. So much power for reasonable used prices, but those prices are just the down payment on the maintenance nightmare that is the N63 V8.
My friend’s 750 just had $9k work done under the extended warranty. Crazy for a car with 60k km on it.
Maserati GranTurismo
2015 Sport, blue over tan, w 24k miles for less than 40 grand!
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/708374016
We’ve all been here. Anyone who says they haven’t is lying. The combination of raw sex appeal, what’s essentially a Ferrari V8, and otherworldly depreciation is hard to ignore. I even like the Coupes from the early 2000s. Gorgeous things, and allegedly the dreaded sequentials aren’t that bad if you shift for yourself and treat them like a clutch-less manual.
I want a fast Audi for the pavement, and a Land Rover off it.
but I’m too lazy to do the work—and certainly too cheap to pay someone else to