[neo_narender]

The shortest car ownership I have had was with my first car. A 2002 Subaru Outback AWD with a manual transmission. It had done 178k miles. I bought this car in California, USA. Only after five months & a mere 5,000 miles, the transmission gave up. They asked more than what I paid for the car to repair/replace with another used car transmission. Had to sell for whatever I got. Big mistake to have bought a manual with so many miles under the belt.

Neo

[BoneCollector]

Ours was a Santro. It was with us for less than 12 months. We purchased it in October 2012 after exchanging our earlier 2005 Santro. This was supposed to be for Dad as he wasn't comfortable driving the Wagon R (February 2012 till date). He suffered a Sub Dural Haemorrage in March 2013 and recovered fully post surgery. But after that he was not comfortable driving around. So the Santro was sold off to my Uncle with less than 5000kms on the odo towards end September 2013.

[HrB]

It'll take some doing to break my record of 15 days. Bought a brand new Maruti Omni meant to run on contract with a reputed hotel only to get into a serious disagreement within 10 days. Took my car off, sold it in the next 5 days. Loss: over 60K.

[SSD2122]

My car ownerships:-
Longest : Maruti Omni Van - 1996 to 2010.
Shortest : Hyundai Getz - 2006 to 2014
Current : Linea Tjet & Nano Twist - 2014 till date.

Omni Van was one of its kind. Our first 4 wheeler and some memorable road trips with family and friends. Excellent for carrying tons of luggage and easy to drive.

[nma83]

I have to sheepishly submit here my short ownership of the Nexon AMT for 6 months in 2018/19. Coming from a Rapid TDi it was a gross misjudgment by me and I could not live with it (no offence to owners!). I have learned to never step down a segment when changing cars.

[Viraat13]

My shortest ownership period has been 5 months (twice!).

The first was a W124 E250D, which I sold after 5 months to get another W124 (this time a 300E). It was a mixed bunch. I didn't really want to sell it, but it was unreasonable to keep 3 W124s as well (already had an E220), hence the E250D AT had to go.
A picture of my W124 E250D Automatic. Sadly the car has been scrapped as the next owner got a notice from NGT:


Second was a classic case of never meet your heros. I bought a Civic (prev gen) to replace my Skoda Octavia. I'd loved the Civic till the time I owned it. Despite the great dashboard and driving position, I never felt "connected" to the car for various reasons. After 5 months, I sold the Civic and went back to daily driving my Octavia MK1.
The well liked dashboard of the Civic:


Other than these, my next shortest ownership would be 4 years with my 2006 Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI AT. The ownership period had to be cut short 2 years ago due to NGT, else I would have still had the car.

I did some quick calculation, and if I exclude the two 5 month stints, my average car ownership is 9 years. However, on including them and my current ride (almost at 2 years), it drops to 6.8 years. All things considered, an average ownership period of 7 years is pretty decent considering I mostly buy used cars.

[batladanny]

Originally Posted by GTO

Tata Indigo. We owned it for just 5 years or so. Reason = horrible construction & quality. By the time we sold it, the Indigo was creaky, full of problems, had suffered innumerable breakdowns and no one in the family was willing to travel in it. The Sunny replaced it; 8 years up and the Sunny has held up twice as well as that wretched Indigo. Tata destroyed its own brand name by building such low quality cars.

Wow we also had the same sequence of cars and a similar experience. Dad bought an Indigo Marina and while we have fond memories of travels in the car, the quality was quite poor. Bought a Sunny next and it's been 7+ years but it still performs and looks like new. Really underrated car and a great buy for someone in the used car market (reliable, spacious, good quality, peppy engine and available at a great price)

[avsrihari]

My shortest ownership experience was the MG413 Gypsy - 11 months. It was my first car and bought off from the Customs Dept in Chennai. Bought it for a steal price in Feb 2009. Petrol was retailing around 47/lt and it rose by almost 20 percent within a year. Sold it off and bought the 96' Esteem. Had my share of fun while it lasted.

[Abbas]

Well my shortest ownership would be of a Tata Nano for just 1 Day

Well, the story is that i bought this car in the morning from a second hand car dealer to take it to a local (very near from the car dealer) RTA test driving track for my Wife`s DL.

My wife found the car very cute and took the driving test on the same car. It was only couple of hours i bought it so the RC transfer was also not done to my name. After we were done with the RTA thing, we came back home and as we entered our driveway, my neighbor spotted the car. He immediately asked me how much did i buy it for. I jokingly told me 15k higher than the actual price. He told me he would transfer me the same amount in a while. I laughed it off and called it a night.

Next day Morning i see a credit in my account. I called him and "pretended" i didn't want to sell. But the deal was too mouth watering and i quickly caved in before he changed his mind.

So yeah, bought it for 60K and sold it for 75k. A Tata Nano 2012 Lx model. kept it for just a day and drove for not more than 20 kms

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Abbas

Next day Morning i see a credit in my account. I called him and "pretended" i didn't want to sell. But the deal was too mouth watering and i quickly caved in before he changed his mind.

So yeah, bought it for 60K and sold it for 75k. A Tata Nano 2012 Lx model. kept it for just a day and drove for not more than 20 kms

Well that's the most unique experience of you ask me.

But what about the rest of the story? Did you buy another car? Which one?

[Vipinprasad]

Bought a used Santro Automatic for city use in Sept 2016 as a replacement to my 15 year old M800 and sold it in August 2017.

Reason- The belongingness was missing! And never really enjoyed it. I am somehow allergic to Hyundai!

[lamborghini]

We've had a few cars that we've used for less than 1 year - though all were not sold within 1 year - they were used by another member of our corporate family.

- Red facelift Maruti 800 (first year when they moved the parking lights from bumper to fender / grill) : Not sure why it was replaced to be honest

- Red 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer : the car was plagued with shoddy HM quality - an armrest that didn't fit into it's sleeve, bumpy ride, etc.
As running increased 4 fold and often saw more passengers, it was replaced by the Fiesta TDCi in 2006

- Red 2011 Etios Liva D : No real need to replace except need for an AT - the W211 was too big for driving around Lower Parel. Also, the company had an Indigo eCS, a Manza that needed to be replaced so the Liva went to the company & the Laura L&K entered the garage - a brilliant decision that even resulted in us selling the Combi L&K + W211 over the years due to lower usage.

Interestingly, all of these have been Red cars

[ZMG]

The shortest ownership we have had are 15 years each - Maruti 800 (1987 - 2002) and Maruti Zen (1997 - 2012)
Currently have a 2004 Honda City and 2012 Swift, and no plans of changing the rides for at least next 2 - 3 years.

I still miss the Zen, and feel should've just retained her.

PS: If anyone knows of a white zen with Karnataka registration and last 4 digits as 2690, please get in touch.

[Sasanka_Sanga]

Shortest four wheeler owned:

I took a wrong step and brought the much hyped Dabwali Jeep and I sold it in less than 5 months.

Reasons for selling it so early:

1. First of all this is NO JEEP. This is just a Jeep body with heart of a car.
2. This is not performance oriented but just showoff stuff (Bling-Bling).
3. Engine is from a different vehicle usually Toyota 3C or 2C and finding spares is next to impossible.
4. Registering this vehicle in your local town is another challenge (I found it hard to get it registered in Telangana).
5. Completely unreliable for long drives. Do not ever dream of going as you might be stranded in the middle of nowhere.

[sleepyhead148]

3 years. An Alto 800 LXI. Brought entirely out of savings over a decade (quiz winnings and parents' pocket money bottled up in a deposit). I have some fond memories of drives in the car to beaches and out on the highway at night. Had to sell it because:

1) The low seating position would ensure that oncoming vehicles with headlights were a minor issue. Especially on high beam

2) Was getting a tremendous deal on exchange. I effectively paid 75,000 for almost 3 years of usage

3) Well this is a bit personal. But there were a few...nostalgic and not-so-happy memories associated with it. A fresh start was due and thus, bid farewell to this guy with a heavy heart

Point 3 also explains why I spent around 15-20 minutes trying to find pictures of the car, while this post was in draft, only to realise that they've all been deleted. Let's just say