What's the most money you've lost on a car?

2KBlackGT

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*Deep inhale*
  • Bought the car bone stock in '07. Did some basic mods (exhaust, gears, tune), got hooked.
  • Put on a KB 2.1, nitrous, and SVT fuel system in early 2008, Roush S3 body kit, started getting really addicted between car shows and hitting the drag strip
  • In 2009, I bought an MP 2000hp shortblock, Trick Flow heads (I was on the waiting list for 'em for months), custom cams, sprockets, head plane adapters, the works, everything 100% new. Also had all suspension replaced with UPR Pro-series and Wolfe Racecraft.
  • In 2010, I sold the KB and started spec'ing a custom turbo system. MMR 5.4 hotside w/ Jet Hot, 91mm Y2k turbo, Lightning intake w/ sheet metal upper, massive intercooler in the passenger footwell area, TiAl, Aeromotive Eliminator return system, lots of custom sheet metal work, cage, it was a stupidly expensive year. Finally got the car running in late 2010, just in time to shove it in a garage for winter
  • Took it out in 2011, debated on a Lentech 4R70W or built TH400, new converter, driveshaft, 9" rear, axles, etc. A friend/shop owner talked me into letting him build me a 4R70W. While he was building it, several people reached out and said he was building it with junk and blowing the money on drugs. I asked him for receipts, things got ugly (even had a gun pulled on me, found out last year it was a fake). He took the car for a "Test drive" and came back in 1st gear after 45 minutes. Transmission was roached. He starts rebuilding it a few days later. Around that time, I noticed that my parts and tool bins were disappearing, so I drove down and took everything that was mine, which lead to an ugly encounter. A friend got the car out of there for me and told me that the owner pulled that stunt so he could leave it on his lot and apply to the DMV for the title. Around that time, I moved to SC and my friend helped proxy the sale for me.
  • Sold it for $10,500. It was a work in progress with a garbage transmission, which I had to disclose to the buyer. I didn't feel too bad- he talked me down substantially and got a disgusting deal out of it. Whatever. New owner finished the transmission right. It made 1196rwhp at 27psi and weighed 2950lbs.

Lesson in naivety learned. Can't say I'm faultless these days, but I'll never make a mistake like that again. The guy that owned the shop was a friend for years. He'd give anyone the shirt off his back, and unfortunately he did. Customers started taking advantage of him, bad. It caused him to lose a lot of money on his business, which changed him, and unfortunately he fell victim to his demons. He got out of jail a few years ago and from what I hear he is doing well again. Honestly, I was glad to hear that for him.

Damn! Yeah that's wild af.

For you to not have a grudge speaks volumes of the type of person you are.

Regarding the original topic, I haven't lost much on any vehicle beside depreciation. I don't mod my cars much, if any.
 

CompOrange04GT

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I lost on my 350z

It’s sat for so long I won’t sell it anywhere near what I paid for it
 

Mpoitrast87

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If any of us bought a stock car, modified it then sold it. Then we have all lost money on cars. Can’t recoup mod money. With that said them most money I lost on a car was a 2001 Chevy prism. Paid $2200 for it and a year later sold it for $200.
 

B0B

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bought a 6.0 for 18.5, put 14k into it, sold it for 19.5 2.5 years later. loved that truck.

bought a new 2014 f150, traded it in for what i owed on it 3 years later. Thats about 16k worth of payments plus 2k down.

my whipple 04 mach 1... probably lost close to 20k on that.

i don't really count any of it as losing. I get good use and enjoyment out of all my vehicles.
 

CV355

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Damn! Yeah that's wild af.

For you to not have a grudge speaks volumes of the type of person you are.
.

I really appreciate that. I'll admit, I was absolutely beyond livid while it was all going down. As time went on, I considered it more of a life lesson and was more thankful that it happened at a point in my life where I could recover. The shop owner went through a rough time of his own- too rough if you ask me. I'm usually the first one to demand throwing the book at someone, but in this guy's case, the punishment was far worse than the crime.

To other people's points, if you got good memories, enjoyment, and learned from the experience, it wasn't a total waste. Sure, I blew a stupid amount of money into that '00 GT because I wanted to set a 2v record. I learned a lot from that experience which helped me avoid the same mistake with my GT500 and hopefully the Mach 1 as well. Something nice about being able to just get in and drive....
 

CV355

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Will probably lose a ton on the 56 resto mod I am building but so what. At my age cannot take it with you.

You're not building it to make money though. Gotta keep that in mind. It's an experience to build/own something unique like that.

Also, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned insurance/taxes. Let's see, I've spent over $50k in insurance since I started driving, and paid over $7k in property tax. Roads still suck, ambulances are still chased, paid actors are still screeching "yall I got fahv hund'd thound dollas from jawg sank!" and my rates aren't going down any.

At least I got a windshield replaced, so I mean, that's something, right?
 
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13COBRA

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On a personal level, I haven't ever lost money...knock on wood.

On a business level, probably in the neighborhood of $10k.
 

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