You're reading your data twice: once into $text and again with a regex. I assume your data is in a file and you've only shown a small portion of it.

Now that you've shown the data structure you're trying to create (in "Re^2: Parse structured text using regex"), I'd probably parse it line-by-line.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $parsed = parse(\*DATA);
use Data::Dump;
dd $parsed;

sub parse {
    my ($fh) = @_;
    my ($parsed, $car_key, $model_key);
    my $last_record_only_has_key = 0;
    my $new_model_array = 1;

    while (<$fh>) {
        my ($leader, $info) = /^([A-Z]*)[|]?(\S*)\s*$/;

        if ($leader) {
            if (! $info) {
                $car_key = $model_key if $last_record_only_has_key;
                $car_key = $leader unless $car_key;
                $last_record_only_has_key = 1;
            }

            $model_key = $leader;
            $new_model_array = 1;
            next unless $info;
        }

        $last_record_only_has_key = 0;

        for (split /[|]/ =>$info) {
            my ($key, $value) = split /=/;

            if ($new_model_array) {
                push @{$parsed->{$car_key}}, {$model_key => { $key => 
+$value }};
                $new_model_array = 0;
            }
            else {
                $parsed->{$car_key}[-1]{$model_key}{$key} = $value;
            }
        }
    }

    return $parsed;
}

__DATA__
CAR
MODEL|name=Mustang|Quality=A|Speed=
MODEL|Chevy=Cavalier|MPG=20
MODEL
|Color=blue|type=hatchback|crashrating=spectacular
|explodes=true|speed=|storage=none,little
[download]

Output:

{
  CAR => [
           { MODEL => { name => "Mustang", Quality => "A", Speed => ""
+ } },
           { MODEL => { Chevy => "Cavalier", MPG => 20 } },
           {
             MODEL => {
               Color       => "blue",
               crashrating => "spectacular",
               explodes    => "true",
               speed       => "",
               storage     => "none,little",
               type        => "hatchback",
             },
           },
         ],
}
[download]

Thanks!!

do it in parts

my $pat = q{
^([A-Z]+)$ # $1 global model name
|
( # $2 optional model name
[A-Z]+
)?
(.+)$ # $3 the rest of line
};
my @stack;
while( $input =~ m{$pat}gmsx ){
    my @token;
    if( $1 ){    push @token, ['global_model', $1 ];    }
    if( $2 ){    push @token, [ 'model', $1 ];    }
    if( $3 ){    push @token, [ 'pairs', split /\|/, "$3" ];    }
    push @stack, \@token;
}
use Data::Dump qw/ dd /;
dd( \@stack );
__END__
[download]

Shotgun Re: Count Quoted Words, Re^2: POD style regex for inline HTML elements, marpa scanless, Re: print output from the text file. (marpa scanless dsl calculator), Re^2: Help with regular expression ( m/\G/gc ), JSON parser as a single Perl Regex, Re^2: Help with regular expression, perlfaq6#What good is \G in a regular expression?, RFC: A walkthrough from JSON ABNF to Regexp::Grammars,Re^2: parsing XML fragments (xml log files) with... a regex

Thanks for help. I see that split needs to be in it somewhere. What I got from that is:

[
  [["global_model", "CAR"]],
  [
    [
      "pairs",
      "\nMODEL",
      "Make=Mustang",
      "Quality=A",
      "Speed=\nMODEL",
      "Chevy=Cavalier\nMODEL\n",
      "Color=blue",
      "type=hatchback",
      "crashrating=spectacular\n",
      "explodes=true",
      "speed=",
      "storage=none,little\n",
    ],
  ],
]
[download]

What I am looking for is this:

{
  CAR => [
           { MODEL => { Make => "Mustang", Quality => "A", Speed => un
+def } },
           { MODEL => { Chevy => "Cavalier" } },
           {
             MODEL => {
               Color       => "Blue",
               crashrating => "spectacular",
               explodes    => "true",
               speed       => undef,
               storage     => "none,little",
               type        => "hatchback",
             },
           },
         ],
}
[download]

Maybe I am missing something...?

"What I am looking for is this: { ... }"

That should have appeared in your OP, not here.

You've been here almost two years and, by now, should have read "How do I post a question effectively?". Please follow its guidelines in any future postings.

-- Ken