In a message dated 10/26/2001 6:16:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, heskin@xxxx writes: << I have to chime in here one moment... I certainly did my homework (about two years worth) before buying my '81 Delorean, VIN# 1619, and I could not be happier with it. I've certainly had some of the problems common to all Deloreans, but by no means more than average. It depends 90% on how well the car was maintained before you get it, and 10% VIN number and year. In my case, it had 17k miles last spring when I bought it, and now it has 24k miles. I am "technically" the second owner, as the original dealer owned the car for the first 15 year under the original dealer title, but in reality, I am the third owner. The dealer did all the recalls and updates. I bought it for $16K and have put about $6k more into it (not all necessary - about $4K was necessary, hitting the $20K rule dead on). As Les said, it pays to do your homework - mostly to be able to evaluate whatever car you may find, regardless of Year and VIN number. Personally, I'm very happy with my gas flap and hood lines. >> Did you do the work yourself? How much of the repair bill paid for the labor? There was a DeLorean car #1554 donated to a vocational high school in my area for the students to work on. The original owner was a teacher, who crashed the car (poor workmanship on the front frame extension replacement & fiberglass bonnet, grill was missing, etc.) DMC dealer repaired it and she was scared to drive it. She donated it with 18,ooo miles. The car sat for 8-9 years on a lift in the vocational school. I looked at this car 10 years ago... VIN 1554. The car was in very poor condition. The county board of education wanted $18,000 for it, 10 years ago. The car was later sold to a junk yard owner who got it running, then sold to another local owner who rescued it, pouring his life saving's into it. He later sold it 4 or 5 years ago to a Naval Academy cadet, who put more $$$ into it, then drove it from Maryland to "Top Gun flight school" in San Diego with no problems. So the rule of $20,000 needs further analysis and a new figure (much Higher) will likely surpass the "old rule of thumb."