On Buying a DeLorean...a Primer!

[Les Huckins <jhuckins@xxxx>]

First, read a copy of Stainless Steel Illusion, that will give you the
background you need to make a proper selection. I've purchased 2 Ds in
the last 10 months, I did my homework, here's what I came up with:

After reading the book you'll note there were a lot of changed made
month by month, there's a certain VIN segment that is more attractive
than the rest. Best suggestion is get the latest one you can find,
preferably an '82 or better, or if you find an '81 you like, it would be
best if the VIN is 5000 or better. This is important.

The consensus is you should not buy a fixer-upper, it'll kill you in
time and money. Best reasoning is something that has been driven with
some regularity but not a high mileage unit, around 30,000 miles is
about right. What you really want is a nice car that someone else has
spent the fixup money on, you'll see advertised a car with $15,000 in
fixup costs and the car is for sale for $18,000. That would merit a
look.

With that, my first purchase was an '82 with 35,000 miles on it,
previous owner had paid $17,000 for it and spent several thousand on
fixups during the 5 years of ownership. New upholstery, new battery,
new brakes, new steering wheel, new metal radiator and overflow bottle,
new steering bushing, new door pulls, new shift boot, painted the dash
and facias, no dents, no eyebrow (drooping over the headlights), new
tires (Yokohamas), no dents, looked good and ran very well. Asking
price $18,000, I bought it for $17,000. I've put another 3500 miles on
it with no problems except the otterstat fell off because the metal clip
was discarded in favor of a sealant. The really terrible thing is the
"mechanics" who get to a car before you do and throw things away that
you have trouble finding and who also change factory settings such as
wiring and vacuum hoses. Anyway, nice car, no regrets.

Fast forward: about September of this year there was an ad on eBay for
an '83 with 8,245 miles on it, like new, no known problems, asking
$16,500 with no bids and was in CA. I negotiate the price down to
$15,000, now here's the part to pay attention to. The VIN number is
listed on eBay ads, with that I went into the owners list on the DML and
found that although the current owner (from NJ) wasn't listed, the
previous owner in NY was. Called him and found the car had been
purchased from PJ Grady and that they had owned it about 2 years, the
NJ owner had had it about 9 months. I called Rob. Rob remembered it
well and said it was a really nice car, he had gone all through it and
given it a 1 year warranty. I . Armed with that info I took a check
and went to see it. Awesome, very much like new, the tires, the
upholstering, everything. Brought it home and have added about 500 very
happy miles, only thing I've done to it is change the exhaust tips, as
recently mentioned, it had the tiny pipes without tips. Has Lockzilla
and Fanzilla the braided clutch line, all kinds of upgrades, a dream
car.

What I'm saying is that first of all it's very much a buyer's market,
there are a lot of cars around, do your homework first, get a nice one
you can enjoy, and at a reasonable price. Don't get dazzled by the
first one you see and/or by a cheap price, take a little extra time to
get it right rather than spending a lot of time regretting a hasty
choice.

Addendum: I only do 5-speeds, the consensus is the automatics tend to be
a little slower off the line and do have some exotic things go wrong
with the electronic shifting etc. but that's personal choice, it may be
worth the extra pain to have an automatic.

There's a nice one out there waiting for you to discover it but first DO
YOUR HOMEWORK!