Great thread - I have several that fit this category:

As a high scool kid in 1970 a buddy and I found a '60 or '61 Plymouth convertible, black with red interior sitting out behind the local Farmers Co-op store.. One iof the ugliest cars of that era with a very strange front end. Under the hood was a cross ram 413! We got it running and took it for a ride. It had retread tires on it and I recall throwing a tread on the test drive. Neither of us could afford it but what a blast to drive. As I recall it wound up in Chicago.

Same year I found a used '68 Road Runner that I wanted in the worst way. My Dad wouldn't let me buy it because the engine was "too big" It was just a 383. He went out looking for a "better" car and found a really nice '68 Cgarger. Salesman told him it was a 318. Turned out to be exactly the engine the Road Runner had. It was bright blue with a blindingly white interior. Probably one of the prettiest cars I ever owned but a total pierce of s##t mechanically.

This one most of you probably never heard of - I owned a '71 AMC Hornet SC360. Had a 360 4 barrel angine and 4 speed. Wound up selling iit cheap. Turns out they only made 900 of them.

I passed on a '69 Superbird on a used car lot in St Augustine, FL in about 1980 for $1000. It was what they called a 'beach car" down there. It had rust all over, especailly at the top of the fenders.

The one I regret the most was '70 Buick GSX Stage 1. In about '83 someone had actually traded it in to the local Buick garage on a new car! I knew the sales manager there and worked out a deal to buy it. I don't recall the price but it was pretty much just a used car at the time so I know it was reasonable. Unfortunately, the bank didn't share my enthusiasm and I had to back out.

There have been numerous others but those are the biggest misses.

Randy

 

One more and I'm done-

In 1969 AMC made about 50 (arguments on actual total) SS/C AMX's for Drag racing. They were all produced in a batch and all sent to Hurst for modification into drag cars. Goben AMC, the AMC dealer in Madison, WI got one of the cars and had a local guy (cannot recall his name right now) racing it for them for a few years. In about 1980 or so I got interested in the cars and tracked down the one Goben had to the guy that had been racing it years earlier. He lived in a little twn outside Madison. After talking with him for awhile he invited me to go look at the car. Pretty typical story - little tiny 1 car garage behind a small house. When he opened the garage door there it was 1 of 50 factory race cars, complete and ready to go. He wanted $3,500 for it.

I had the money to buy it but was really turned off because he had converted it to 1970 sheet metal. He tried to convince me that the conversion was a factory sponsored program but I didn't believe him. I walked away from it. Now years later I'm digging through some stuff I found all of the factory paperwork documenting that there actually was an offical AMC program to convert the '69's to the current '70 appearance

What a miss!

Randy

 

ya mean one of these? they bring big money today...of course you didn't want to her that

 

1969w3155

That's esactlu the engine I was talking about. Incredible motor but the car was no where as good looking as the Chrysler in your pics.

 

Not a purchase. Back in 1970 we lived in a trailer park east of Plano, TX, out Hwy 544. A neighbor's car went bad, and I had just gotten a Ford LTD company car (Fram Corporation), we had a '69 Pontiac H/T, and didn't need the '57 2 door post (black/white) that we had, it just sat, so I gave it to the other couple. Saw one at the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour that was an awesome restoration. Oh, my. Sold my '50 88 2 door sedan for $650 back in 1956 - a really nice, solid baby blue car. Paid $500 for it a year earlier. Then bought the '50 98 H/T, drove it for 2 1/2 years, motor went bad, saw it dumped in the crusher at the junk yard..........duhhhhhhhh! Priced either of those lately?

 

In 1984, I saw a super low miles Caddy Coupe deVille d'Elegance in Saffron Firemist with all the comforts you could pack in a Cadillac. It was $4700. I opted to buy an 82,000 mile '77 Toronado instead for $2850, then spent money on a repaint, new tires, radiator, etc. In the long run, the Cadillac would've been a much smarter buy. It was a tough lesson in economics.

 

This one will make you cry! The year is 1976 and I am stationed at Homestead Afb Fla. A friend of mine bought a 1970 Chevelle SS 396/375 hp 4 speed and financed it at the base credit union. Nice original car that was black with gold stripes. He Spent all his car payment money on dope, beer and cigarettes and never made the first payment on the car. Fast forward 6 months and the credit union is days away from repossessing the car. I could have taken over the loan for 800.oo. Instead he sold all the drive train and SS parts to a guy with a beater 69 El Camino for 300.oo. I can still see the sad site of the Chevelle sitting on its frame with no drive train waiting on the repo man to come get it.

 

1969 Cutlass S 4 speed CA car
1971 442 W30 mint original owner low miles and dirt cheep
1969 H/O CA car
The above three cars were for sale at a good price back in the day.

Found the 69 cutlass/442 from the HOT ROD movie parked on the street in San Fran back in the 80's. I should have tried to buy it. It would have made a great street strip drag car.

There were so many cars that are rare to day that were cheep back in the 80's that I could have bought.
A co worker had a 1970 454 SS silver and black stick car that he was selling for around $5000 grand that was near mint.
70 442 w30 with w27 stick car was yellow with black int. The car was for sale along time before it sold.
There were muscle car dealers just full of muscle cars problem was wages were low and these cars still cost a fare amount of coin so one could really own only one or two.

 

Very true! And also these cars were not in great condition. They were showing their age and abuse at a time when their value was low. It would have cost a fair amount of money to make them presentable. They were not a good investment.

 

Great thread! Mine was a '70 challenger 383 pistol grip 4-speed 4:11 posi for $800 @ 1991. It had a broken timing I chain and I assume valve train and someone had broken the quarter window as it was sitting. Black on black straight with no rust. I decided I didn't want to fix that much (plus it was a dodge) and walked (literally cause I had no car at the time). Thanks guys! I felt bad about that one 'til I read what some of you have passed on!

 

This isn't a car that I tried to buy but kind of a strange story that seems to fit into this thread. After my Dad retired from the Air Force we moved back to our family home in Northern Wis. Near the end of the '69 model year the local Dodge garage got a '69 Daytona Charger. There were very odd circumstances about the car. First of all, these cars had proven very difficult to sell so why would a dealer in a town of 9,000 even have one? It came in late at night on a transport completely covered. This was actually a pretty common occurence back in the day as the dealers tried to keep the new cars secret until the new models were officially announced. However, this was well after the cars had been in public for quite some time. Even stranger, the car was red when it was delivered to the dealer but was sent immediately to their body shop and repainted Sublime Green! It sat there for over a year before finnally disappearing. I never really did find out what happened to it.

 

In 1976 when I bought my 65 Vette Coupe I also looked at a 67 427 roadster. I don't think it was a Tri Power but im not sure, cant remember that far back...... It was 4000, I paid 3300 for my coupe. Muscle cars were a dime a dozen then, gas prices soaring and insurance going up. Don't you wish we still had those soaring gas prices today? Im 59 I can remember when they had gas wars, and paying 18 CENTS for a gallon!