At what point does a DeLorean become salvage.

[garyg@xxxx]

Hello All,
There is a guy in my area trying to unload a DeLorean that he's had
in front of his salvage yard for quite a while. The advertised price
was $7500. When I asked him about it, he immediately dropped the 
price to $5000, but I suspect that I could get him to go lower.
As for the car, it needs a lot of work. Currently it isn't running.
He said that the car was running about six months ago, but that the 
fuel pump has gone out. Regardless of whether this is true or not, 
the car cannot be driven to verify the condition of the motor or
the transmission. The car's interior is in pretty bad shape. The 
driver's side door does not open and close properly. It looks like 
someone may have forced it closed at some point. The passenger side 
door opens, but does not stay open. The windshield is cracked and 
all of the rubber that I could see from outside the car looked dried 
out. I just spend a few minutes checking out the cosmetics. I 
didn't dig into the engine bay. One of the body panels has a small 
dent, but other than that they look pretty good. So, I guess my 
question is at what point does a DeLorean become a write off or at 
least a seriously bad investment. I'm looking for a car needing some 
TLC that I can slowly bring back to life. I'd be interested in 
anyone's opinions on this. 

Thanks,
Gary

ps. I didn't see any rust, but are there any areas in particular to 
check out. The car is currently in Georgia, but I'm not sure how 
long it has been here.