QOTD: If You Could Turn Back Time…?
Every last one of us remembers sitting in a restaurant, wondering if we’d made a horrible mistake by choosing salad over the potentially superior soup of the day. Soup is unpredictable; salad is a safe choice. But what if the soup, as it sometimes is, was actually the more satisfying choice?
You missed out, and time only makes the doubts and regrets grow stronger.
Out in your driveway, or perhaps stashed in a nearby parking garage, is a car you bought or leased based on the assumption it was the best choice of all available options in your price range. Has the passage of months or years revealed your present vehicle as a safe salad to someone else’s weak-at-the-knees, far more satisfying soup? Did you make a mistake this time around?
In your author’s case, any lingering doubts about the purchase of the red sedan parked outside are diminished by the wildly affordable nature of an off-lease General Motors compact. At the time of purchase, gas prices in this neck of the tundra rang in at about $5.30 a gallon. For regular unleaded.
Buying a tank of premium required haphazard surgery in order to first sell a kidney on the Asian black market.
So, yes, the less-than-watertight durability of the Cruze’s 1.4-liter engine seen in the ensuing years was offset by the car’s long-lasting suspension and brakes, faultless electricals, and a body that refuses to rust, even if immersed in salt. Also — and this was key to the decision — the now-departed Cruze Eco’s highway gas mileage could not be topped in the pre-owned price range, unless I was willing to make do with a much older diesel vehicle (with, assumedly, a lot more miles on the odometer, coupled with the risk of Germany-sized repair bills).
Your situation could be quite different. You might find yourself regularly getting down on your knees and thanking the deity of your choice over the decision to not purchase that other vehicle. Perhaps you dodged a bullet.
But what if it’s the other way around? Has time revealed a lemon, a bland vehicle that increasingly fails to inspire, or just a disconcerting sense that your other choice could have made life so much better? Reveal your innermost emotions in the comments below.
[Image: Toyota]
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Two regrets, during the same purchase. 1991 - (first) wife and I had an '86 Isuzu P'up and an '88 Isuzu Trooper. Sold the Trooper and the wife got a '91 Mazda Protégé LX. Dark Blue, automatic transmission. This is the car that looked like an E-class got caught in the dryer. Great car, no regrets there. Then, we decide to sell the P'up and replace it with something for me. First choice was a similar Protégé - only this one is light blue with a stick shift. "Nah", I think to myself, "I can't have two of the same make and model in the garage". Pass - regret #1. Then, I decide to get a '91 Nissan SE - red, with a stick shift. Regret #2 - I really, really wish I'd been firm with the spouse and gotten the SE-R; it was only $1000 more. Damn. The SE was my car when we split up and I moved out of state. I traded it in for a '93 Accord - DX. 5-speeds, but completely stripped. Last one on the lot before the new '94 redesign was released. Had that car for 5 years and 60,000 miles, and it spent about 30% of its time in airport parking lots.
Early in 2013 I bought a business and it was a major financial commitment. Late in 2013 my beloved E36 BMW sedan was acting like it was ready to give up. Needing 500 trouble-free miles a week it was time to move on. I ended up with perhaps the only Chevy Cruze ever made with the 1.8-litre N/A four, 6-speed, no nav system and I said “…. ahhhh, no, but thanks for asking…” about 500 times to OnStar. The depreciation gods were smiling as my car was used (6,100 miles) and had been in service for only 20 months when I stepped in. I bought it for about $12k plus a totally worn out, 17-year-old BMW. I expected to HATE the thing and to sell it as soon as the acquisition debt for the business was paid off. But it’s a fine little car and the only small GM car of my entire lifetime that’s not clearly an embarrassment. And it came to be in the storm that was GM’s bankruptcy, making it all the more remarkable. So far, the Cruze has been remarkably economical (31 mpg overall, 44 mpg on a recent highway trip) and quite reliable. It’s well-made and kind of fun to drive. I put a set of Blizzaks on for the winter. Is it love? Nope. Relief at not having made a mistake. Somewhere else in the comments to a different post I mentioned that the Cruze was, to me, the world’s nicest beater. I drive it in the winter when my Porsche 928 must sleep. I’m looking ahead to getting a BMW motorcycle or two. And keeping the 928 forever. And the Cruze makes much of that possible.