What's Your Most Expensive Automotive Mistake?
Cars are terrible investments, generally speaking. You spend a significant sum of money to buy the car, then you have to continuously pay to keep it fueled and maintained, and then when you go to sell it, you realize it's lost half of its value since you bought it thanks to depreciation. Some cars are better investments than others, like Porsche 911s and Toyota Tacomas, but it can be quite easy to lose a lot of money on a car. Despite this, car enthusiasts tend to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, developing a connection with our respective vehicular money leeches, so we want to know, what's your most expensive automotive mistake?
Whether you accidentally put diesel into your gas tank, performed a modification that ended up getting your car impounded, or a new car purchase that backfired quicker than you anticipated, share your experience in the comments section below. Who knows, maybe your story could help someone else avoid making the same mistake you did!
My most expensive automotive mistake was buying my first car
I feel fortunate because I find that The Universe has taught me a lot of lessons very early in my life. One of the most brutal lessons I learned was with my very first car, a 2005 Saab 9-3 Cabriolet that I bought off a guy on Craigslist for $5,000. I was desperate to get a car, my family couldn't afford to buy me a car or even to get a license and insure me, so I had to wait until I was 18 to get my license and buy my own first car. I ignored innumerable red flags and bought the Saab and was elated for about two hours. Then everything started going wrong.
As soon as I got my new car home, the issues began. The battery died where I parked it and the key fob didn't work so I went to use the metal key to unlock the doors, only to find out that the metal key was just a blank key slug that hadn't been cut. I had to call a locksmith to get into the car and cut me a new key, and over the course of the next few months I faced calamity after calamity in that Saab until it ultimately developed a catastrophic intermittent computer failure that would've required the entire wiring harness to be replaced, so I had to junk it and buy something boring and reliable. After everything, I probably lit around $7,000 on fire with that car. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but I think I'm better for it. What's your most expensive automotive mistake?