The Meandering Thoughts of a Fickle Mind & Potential Regret (Anyone Else Like Me?)

[Westygav]

Firstly, how many of you have owned, then sold your Westfield, to then regret it and then up buying another one further down the line?

 

You see, I'm fickle and an impulse purchaser of many different things in my life and my Westfield was no exception to that. 2 years ago I woke up on a Saturday morning and completely out of the blue and thought to myself. I wouldn't mind owning one of those Westfield's and the following week I bought the one I have now. 

 

I few other examples of past purchase history impulse buying. I had a lovely Mercedes, I really liked it and I took it in for it's service. On the way to the service counter I passed another one which looked nice, 2 hours later and I'm now the owner of different but perfectly nice Mercedes. 

 

Several years ago a friend of mine had a Jaguar XKR, he took me out in it, he turned the TC off, I strongly advised him not to do it and well. We ended up in a tree, the car was smashed to bits, BUT the car was brillent (before he put it head on into a tree of course)! Two weeks later I bought one myself for a weekend car. Supercharged V8 through a stainless steel system was such an amazing sound. My wife loved that car too, especially when she was heavily pregnant, because to drive, it was such a nice car for her to get in and out of and with loads of room. 

 

More recently (Aug 23) I woke up one morning at 04:30am, decided I wanted to buy a Mazda MX5 for the track and by 07:15am I was at a chaps house and now the the new owner of it. And just like all the many impulse purchases in my life, I got bored and sold them. The MX5 went last month, I did a few trackdays and got bored. 

 

The Westfield has lasted a while for me and I'm not......'bored' I just get itchy feet. I've driven it loads! That's another side to my personality, I get into something (whatever it is) and I just absolutely go full beans addictive at it. If I got into knitting, I'd make everyone on this forum a jumper within a week!

 

It's a fantastic car, drives lovely, it's an absolute head turner and if I'm honest, I really like the attention and it sounds great too. Plus, I love the social side that it's offered, I've met some fantastic people and I've now got some great friends too. 

 

I'm not sure if I want to try something else for a while, but not entirely sure what. But this could be one I regret selling if I did sell it.

 

So, back to my first line. Who's regretted and bought again?

[Richard (OldStager)]

Lovely car @Westygav, there have been times during my ownership ( since 2008)  that I had thought about selling it, as money was tight that year etc, but just could not bring myself to do it. As I know full well if it went, that's probably the last time I could afford one, besides which the time and  effort I have put in during that time is just a distant memory, not to mention probably never recouping the cash back. Above all else though, I can't see anything else matching the experience of driving a 7.  In fact to commit myself into keeping it, I wrote in my will about gifting it to my most trusted friend ( also a car geek), so that's it now - for life.....

 

[CRAIGR]

Built one then sold it ( regretted it) bought another and sold it (regretted it ) ,just bought another and loving it 😁

[Richard (OldStager)]

Have you learnt your lesson yet Craig ?. 

[CRAIGR]

Probably not but hoping the Megabusa will tick all the boxes for sometime to come 😁

[DamperMan]

Very funny and abolutley, relatable.    So many purchases i've made have been impulse.   Or I've needed to itch the exciting itch of what ever it is before i can move on to normal stuff, only then to not actuall use the item just ordered as by the time its arrived i've lost interest.    I'm not very good at selling stuff as i hate the though i might want it at some point so best keep it.    I have a room full of bikes and garage full of stuff i'll never use.    Its been suggested to me I may have ADHD, i've no idea or care really.   

 

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

5 minutes ago, DamperMan said:

  I'm not very good at selling stuff as i hate the though i might want it at some point so best keep it.    I have a room full of bikes and garage full of stuff i'll never use.   

 

 

 Oh my gosh , it's not just me then !!, every time a friend or family member visits they say what the hell I have still got this XXX for, get it on Ebay it's bound to sell. But I just can't - Given your last sentence @DamperMan, I'll see you at the clinic then 

[Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator]

Between my second and third westfield I went for a week without one, the garage was empty…..  it was a horrible week 🥲

[Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset]

Bought one in 1994, owned it for about 14 years, crashed it, sold it to a mate who did it up and he owned it for about 14 years. When he wanted to sell it, I couldn’t bear to see it likely disappear to France so I bought it back a year or so ago. Won’t be selling it again 🤪. It will hopefully go to my son when I am too decrepit to drive it!

[Onliest Smeg David]

Yep, regret selling my Westie after 10 years of fun.

But to be fair don't regret replacement ND MX5, as I use it for general outings and  sprightly driving all the time.

 

Now I'm partially retired and drawing my pension, I'm concentrating spends on 'active' pastimes and trips while am able (mtb / skiing / walking)

Desperate for another 'kit' but will have to wait a few years (and values drop signifcantly) before there's space.

 

But back to OPs "fickleness" yes I can be impulsive for purchasing my next 'thing' but probably tempered a bit more by attempting to get my perfect 'thing' 😁

 

If I had more 'disposable' funds I'd be a nightmare of impulsiveness!!!! 🤣

[Westygav]

I guess it’s a nice problem to have isn’t it, which toy car to have!  
 

The fact that I’m thinking I might regret it, is a pretty good indicator I suppose. 
 

I think if there was something else that I absolutely had my heart set on, then that would make the decision easier. 
 

The trouble with me is, once I’ve planted my own ‘mind seed’ I find it very difficult to shake off. So difficult that I’ve never actually managed to shake it off in the past. 
 

I’ll see what this next month holds for me.

[Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset]

31 minutes ago, Westygav said:

I guess it’s a nice problem to have isn’t it, which toy car to have!  
 

The fact that I’m thinking I might regret it, is a pretty good indicator I suppose. 
 

I think if there was something else that I absolutely had my heart set on, then that would make the decision easier. 
 

The trouble with me is, once I’ve planted my own ‘mind seed’ I find it very difficult to shake off. So difficult that I’ve never actually managed to shake it off in the past. 
 

I’ll see what this next month holds for me.

It’s also a timing decision I guess. You would get best price for it now, but would miss out using it through the summer when they are at their best. It looks a cracking car, hard to replace in terms of driving experience.

[RickRack]

23 hours ago, Westygav said:

Firstly, how many of you have owned, then sold your Westfield, to then regret it and then up buying another one further down the line?

 

You see, I'm fickle and an impulse purchaser of many different things in my life and my Westfield was no exception to that. 2 years ago I woke up on a Saturday morning and completely out of the blue and thought to myself. I wouldn't mind owning one of those Westfield's and the following week I bought the one I have now. 

 

I few other examples of past purchase history impulse buying. I had a lovely Mercedes, I really liked it and I took it in for it's service. On the way to the service counter I passed another one which looked nice, 2 hours later and I'm now the owner of different but perfectly nice Mercedes. 

 

Several years ago a friend of mine had a Jaguar XKR, he took me out in it, he turned the TC off, I strongly advised him not to do it and well. We ended up in a tree, the car was smashed to bits, BUT the car was brillent (before he put it head on into a tree of course)! Two weeks later I bought one myself for a weekend car. Supercharged V8 through a stainless steel system was such an amazing sound. My wife loved that car too, especially when she was heavily pregnant, because to drive, it was such a nice car for her to get in and out of and with loads of room. 

 

More recently (Aug 23) I woke up one morning at 04:30am, decided I wanted to buy a Mazda MX5 for the track and by 07:15am I was at a chaps house and now the the new owner of it. And just like all the many impulse purchases in my life, I got bored and sold them. The MX5 went last month, I did a few trackdays and got bored. 

 

The Westfield has lasted a while for me and I'm not......'bored' I just get itchy feet. I've driven it loads! That's another side to my personality, I get into something (whatever it is) and I just absolutely go full beans addictive at it. If I got into knitting, I'd make everyone on this forum a jumper within a week!

 

It's a fantastic car, drives lovely, it's an absolute head turner and if I'm honest, I really like the attention and it sounds great too. Plus, I love the social side that it's offered, I've met some fantastic people and I've now got some great friends too. 

 

I'm not sure if I want to try something else for a while, but not entirely sure what. But this could be one I regret selling if I did sell it.

 

So, back to my first line. Who's regretted and bought again?

That’s a beaut, waited 30 years for mine & want to be buried in it or leave to my Grandson 

plus just on the off-chance you do take up knitting - could I be 1st to order a jumper in Chrome Yellow with black sleeves in XXXL - funds available 🙏🫶🏼👍

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I know plenty that have happily moved on to the next project. But they usually divide up into certain groups, the “I’ve developed the car as far as I possibly can” group, the very low use “it’s only got annual mileage to and from the MoT” group, the “I enjoyed it, but the novelty has worn off” or “I like it but struggling with health to use it” groups etc.

 

Then you have the other side of things, the “itchy feet” group; often used to changing regular cars every two or three years, who do still use and enjoy the car, but have other car related boxes they want to tick. I understand fully the desire to try something else, if only to satisfy curiosity. Sometimes the grass is greener, but a surprisingly high number end up coming back to Westfield’s. - sometimes finding that they struggle to recapture quite the attachment they had to that first car! It sometimes takes a few goes to find a new Westfield that’s the right fit for them.

[Stuart]

@Westygav if that's Mark's old car then it had a lot of perfectionist money put into it. Most attention to every detail I've seen on any Westy. IIRC he called it 'Old Skool' and it had stickers to that effect. Think it did very few miles per year as well so it could be kept perfect.