[DML] Over-valuing our D's/My Expieriences as a buyer.

["Robert Rooney" <dmcvegas@xxxx>]

On this subject, I'd like to give you my point a view as someone who is
looking to purchase a D. I've been on the list here for around 3 years
(I arrived before the "My girlfriend thinks I'm a poser/what's a
poser?!?" thread, but that wasn't me!), and no, I don't own a DeLorean
yet. At this point I now have the cash to pay for a D up front, but I
do also expect to have to sink another $2-3K into the car I get, to
make it the car I want, an everyday driver I will enjoy. No, I'm not
someone who is nessisarily "looking for a fixer-upper for under
$10,000" (though it would be nice!), but I'm not willing to put out my
$20,000 just because the car I'm getting is a DeLorean either. I do
realize that there will not be a cheap way out, but nor should there be
an outragously expensive one. The one thing that I keep running into,
are owners who keep wanting outragous prices for their cars, but even
they know that the condition of the vehicle does not warrant their
demands. I've run across everything from an over heated engine because
the previous owner ran NO2, to DeLorean's with chassis with so much
rust on them, just looking at them made me want to get a Tetnus shot!
I've seen seats clawn, & torn up from hyper dogs, to cobwebs literaly
flying out when I opened the door! The car we looked @ last week had
been so badly scorched by the sun while sitting in the middle of the
mojave desert for the past 8-9 years that the leather & vinyl were no
longer gray, they were black & brown! In all these cases, the owners
were demanding absurd prices, claming that the cars only needed a
little "TLC", and they were actually reasonable because the car was a
D. Whats most disturbing about all of this, is that none of the owners
themselves were honest with me. Every time I asked what I felt were
simple questions (what type of alternator do you have, how is the
condition of the car's underside, who did your last oil change, etc..),
I always end up with the same answer, "I;m not really sure." Usually
this is because: "I really don't know too much about the car.", or my
favorite: "Well you know, it's never really been my car to begin with."
The only time that I ever have found truly honest owners are one such
as people here on the list. The ones who won't sell their cars because
they love them so much, and I admire that very much so. What I have
found unsettling here on the list is the discussion that arrises every
so often, "We should demand higher prices for our cars." Demanding a
unjustified price to place more $ in your pocket is not what the
DeLorean is about. Maybe it was for the dealers back in '81, but not
anymore. Yes I want to own a DeLorean, and yes, I now have the means to
obtain one, and yes I will get one. But just as there will always be
more than 1 buyer for a car, there will also be more than 1 car for a
buyer! Questions, comments, just add an "s" to the end.

-Robert