Hi, we wanted to move up from our 15' Intex donut to an 18' x 33' or 16' x 30' AG with an eye to building an inground in a few years. We shopped around a bit then went to the town construction office to get started with permits etc. I was very surprised to learn that our town requires a 15' setback from the property line. This may sound reasonable but most of our town is 7500 sqft lots with 75' frontage - not much room for a pool and anything else. I said "OK, our neighbors don't openly hate us, we'll ask for a variance". Silly me. It turns out we won't be able to get on the Planning Board's agenda, heard, memorialized and permitted before September - October. We'd like to swim this year, so... Plan B. We'll install a small 12' x 24' AG (that will fit inside the setbacks) to keep us wet for the next couple summers and save up for, and get permission to build, the IG or maybe bigger AG. Sorry for the long story.

My question is:
Are cheap AG pools really so crappy that it's just not worth buying one at all even for a relatively short expected life. I am really uncomfortable with this, I tend to prefer to purchase quality and take value over time ( I drove my frst new car 14 years and my second 11). Since we're throwing money on the fire ( expecting to get a new pool in a couple-few years) I'd like to burn less of it.
Will a cheap pool give us headaches or nightmares (awake at night fearing a wall collapse) or will it be fine for a few years with limited long term value?
I sure would appreciate some advice / experience.

I keep thinking of the gas grill we have. We upgraded our old painted steel Weber that gave us almost 20 years of trouble-free performance to a shiny stainless steel model from another mfg. that cost 30% less than a comparable Weber. I hate the new grill and have since the first month we had it. I eagerly await the day I can thow it out, when I do it will have given us four years of frustration and big dose of buyer's remorse.