Like keen fishermen, Autocar’s writers are often spinning yarns about “the ones that got away”, but they’re not talking about elusive carp.  If you’ve been lucky enough to own one of your dream cars, you might be familiar with longing for a machine you once owned. Whether through financial necessity, profit-hunting or just poor decision-making, these are the much-missed motors we let go. Subaru Impreza WRX My dark blue ‘bug-eye’ 2001 WRX stayed only a year, and that pains me. I bought it for three grand in 2011 and sold it for half that. You’d pay a bit more today, but finding a car like mine would be tricky: it was as discreet as a WRX could be and mechanically just as Fuji Heavy Industries had intended. Aside from its over-light steering, it did much of what a Lancia Delta Integrale Evo could do – accelerate, grip, turn and soak up B-roads with ease – with the significant advantages of feeling rock solid and costing buttons. Proof that beauty is skin deep. Richard Webber Triumph TR2 Special Ideally I’d have kept every car and bike I’ve owned, but selling them on has let me afford the next one, so I’ve no real regrets. Well, maybe one. Two. Three at a push. I do miss a Triumph TR2 Special (pictured), which was beautifully crafted, looked like a 1930s racing car, drove quite endearingly and was a one-off, so I won’t find another. It now lives in Germany. But if I’d kept everything I wouldn’t now have a Honda Africa Twin, which, in a ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ way, I’m bonding with immensely. I’ll never sell it Matt Prior Porsche 911 S I’m probably the only person on the planet who sold a classic Porsche 911 and doesn’t like talking about it. With fantastic timing I managed to sell our 1970 911 S just before prices went crazy. Okay, mine wasn’t a perfect example by any means, but values went so high that it would have been worth investing a bit of money on sprucing it up. Doing that and then selling it on would have paid off our mortgage. But never mind. We did 67,000 miles in it, which included a drive to Sicily and back for our honeymoon. Colin Goodwin Nissan Micra Hard to believe a 1.0-litre Nissan Micra Mk2 could make the cut, but when you’ve put blood, sweat and tears (all literal, alas) into turning granny’s shopping car into a rally weapon (all exaggeration, alas), you grow quite fond it of it.  All but the welding work was done my myself and mates, from swapping the shocks for Bilstein competition units to various safety upgrades and stripping out as much weight as humanly possible. The car cost £500 and the kit to make it eligible for the Formula 1000 (as in 1000cc – this was a 50bhp beast) Rally Championship another £1000 or so.  I do have to admit, however, that the majority of the car you see here wasn’t the one I sold: an unfortunate roll wrote off most of this red devil, necessitating another shell…  Jim Holder Jaguar XJS V12 HE I’ve never been a total fan of the XJS, which drives too much like a saloon, but its combination of velvet manners, extraordinary styling (and ever more so with time) and V12 power tempted me to buy a chestnut metallic 19,000-miler in 2007. I put 7000 totally reliable miles on it in nine years and only sold it because of a tax bill. I’ve regretted it ever since. The car’s amazingly original rust-free condition would be hard to repeat and I even liked its oh-so-’80s brown paint, despite my wife’s unprintably disparaging description of the hue. My regret led to some auction bidding for another later, but prices have risen substantially since my foolish sale.  Richard Bremner Porsche 911 RS Carrera ‘It’ was a 1995 Porsche 911 RS Carrera. The 993-generation car. Rarer than a Ferrari F40 and probably the best air-cooled 911 of all to drive. I bought it in the early part of this century when such cars were cheap and sold it after two years to buy an old Chevy Camaro race car. It took two seasons of racing for the Camaro to run me out of money, so then I had no Porsche and no racing. Not good. But nothing like as bad as what happened to 993 RS prices after I sold: today my car would be worth at least £200,000. I’m too ashamed to admit in print what I sold it for back then. Andrew Frankel Volkswagen Golf GTI Obviously I should have kept them all. Life happens, though, and with the arrival of our daughter we needed a big, safe second-hand Saab 9000. The 1984 Volkswagen Golf GTI I’d had for almost 10 years had done so many miles, the odometer had gone on strike. It was only an eight-valve and there was no power steering, but it was a truly wonderful way to travel. I got about £800 cash for it, which was pretty good for a tired hot hatch, which is all it was. But it was an iconic one, too, which paid for a cot and lots of nappies.  James Ruppert Peugeot 205 GTi After lots of bangers, the first nice car I ever owned was a 1988 1.6-litre 205 GTi, bought for the princely sum of £2500. It gave me 20,000
Origin: Road to regret: the cars we should have kept