I worry about a lot of things on my car, but my VIN tag rotting away isn't one of them! There were several cost saving measures taken during production, but half of what you list below has nothing to do with money. Some changes were made because they worked better, not because they cost less: - Antenna was moved from the windshield to the exterior to improve fringe radio reception. - Door pull straps were relocated to pull closer to the door's center of gravity. The ones on the handle are really too far forward to work optimally. - VIN tags were very likely changed to avoid having to paint each one. The glare on those stainless tags would be irritating on a daily driver (though I'd still love to have one) - Dual key system is much more robust than the two-key in my opinion. I like my big lighted key, but I don't like having to carefully "rake" open the exterior lock each time I use it (two-key D people know what I'm talking about...) - The leather dashes and binnacles were likely just small runs of "custom" parts because the rest of the pieces weren't ready yet (Rich probably has more info on the accuracy of this statement) Jake 1063 cbl1739 <cbl302@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Patrick, It's a rare item indeed, it was on my last Delorean(vin 00570)as for one thing it is made from SS,while the later production ones are made from crappy tin materials,that could easily get damaged or even rot away!!(if exposed to the elements) Like other stuff on the Delorean,as production went on,cheaper materials,and more cost affective materials were used some examples were: door weights,hoods without lines and gas door delete,cheaper radio,leather delete on the dash,windshield antenne/fender antenne (labor savings),seperate door pull strap,dual key system,The more expensive early owners manual,tool kit/tire jack ect ect.I am sure I missed out stuff,that became/was downsized,the big one of course was NOT to use a SS frame(only one car(that I know of) was factory made with the SS frame)(see James report somewhere on the DMCNEWS site)but you get the picture. cbl [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/