Did you finance your Delorean?

[DMC81]

I financed mine. The bank had no issues with setting up a loan on the car. The interest is a little higher for used vs new. I wanted her, was within my means to buy her, and have no qualms about letting her sit undriven for extended periods. I just didn't have all the cash to purchase her outright. I wanted a fixer-upper and was willing to take the risk on a painted D for a good price. It paid off for me.

Driving or not she's my project. I could spend the monthly payment paying for a gym membership I'll never use or on some other stupid hobby to occupy my time. Instead I spend it paying for my car and buying parts if needed. In the end I have zero regrets.

Well said Sir.

[mluder]

I financed mine as well. Quite honestly I could not afford to pay cash for my car. That being the case I have had no problem making payments AND buying parts/maintaining my car. It's no different from buying any used car that might need unknown parts or service.

If you want it and you can afford the payments, do it.

Cheers
Steven

[jawn101]

Wow! I honestly didn't realize I'd be in the minority on this. Live and learn I guess. I still stand by my opinion, but that's all it is - there are a lot of very successful owners on this thread, and if they made it work it's obviously possible!

Best of luck finding your car. Just buy wisely if you do buy - I doubt there will be any argument on that

[Josh]

Wow! I honestly didn't realize I'd be in the minority on this. Live and learn I guess. I still stand by my opinion, but that's all it is - there are a lot of very successful owners on this thread, and if they made it work it's obviously possible!

Best of luck finding your car. Just buy wisely if you do buy - I doubt there will be any argument on that

I agree with you Jon. I saved up and bought my car, which is almost insignificant in the scheme of things. The purchase price of the car is only 1/3 or even 1/4 of the amount of money I am going to put into the car within the first few years of ownership. But its all budgeted for and paid with money I have saved. If I didn't have the money, I would not have a delorean (at this time at least)

[seventy4burban]

I am looking at options for financing classic cars. I have good credit and could get a new car loan easily, I have just noticed that most lenders won't lend for older vehicles. I have some money saved towards purchasing a D, I am just getting antsy Any advice to this novice would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

Zach

I financed mine. I didn't have the money to outright buy it but I could put money aside for a monthly payment plus extra. I used the Capital One blank check program. At the time I was able to get a pretty good interest rate and since I got the car for a pretty good price so I went for it.

[SteveyP]

From my own experiences then here's my opinion (and that's all that it is - so please feel free to ignore it if you like.) But financing a toy (and that's what a DeLorean really is - a lovely big boy's toy) is kind of troubling to me.

My D - VIN 4468 was a cheap Texas 'project' (somewhat more of a project than I had expected LOL) car imported back to the UK last September. And she has burned up an equal amount of money this side of the pond already. These toys are very expensive. There is rarely such a thing as a cheap DeLorean. So don't have any misconceptions about that before you enter into the buying process. Even a seemingly strong one, with great interior, will probably require a couple of thousand spent on it straight away.

BUT, I guess these cars hold there value well. And if you invest money into it, then you should see some/all of that money back if you had to sell it (although a proviso here is that a quick sale will inevitably mean accepting a lesser offer.)

It's up to you mate. But for a second car, a bit of fun, then I'm not sure I'd be happy having a loan hang over me for 3/5 years. At the end of the day it's totally upto you though ain't it?

[dmc6960]

I financed half of my car but no, I dont recommend it. Not because I had a bad experience. In fact, mine was pretty good. It was just a perfect storm of conditions which would be hard to replicate for others.

I purchased my car from a dealer, so while negotiating the final price sucked, they handled all of the problems getting a bank to finance part of a 19 year old car (at the time). They say it was VERY difficult for them.
I happened to negotiate a price FAR less than the market value at the time was.
I had enough cash to pay for half of the car outright, WITHOUT completely draining my bank accounts.
I had been involved with local DeLorean owners for 2 years, so I already knew most of the gotchyas and a lot of the general systems.
The particular car I purchased was in very very good condition, and needed no work. I also knew how to inspect it to know that for sure.
The loan term was for 3 years (was supposed to be 4 but that was part of the bank not wanting to do it). I paid it off in 2.

Without all of those factors combined, I likely would not have 06960 today.

[LordFly]

ABSOLUTELY! It's the only way I could ever get it. I won't technically "own" the car until about 2018, but the important thing is that I'm driving it NOW My parents co-signed, as my credit is (was?) terrible, but the bank didn't seem to care about the age or type of car or anything like that, they just want to make money off me.

[DavidProehl]

I'm also in the camp of "don't finance." Not for maintenance reasons, but because I don't believe financing cars is a good "investment."

Why would I pay interest on a depreciating asset? Yes DMCs depreciate, $25k in 1981 is not the same as $25k today. Also, what would I do if I lose my job, get really sick, or some other tragedy happens and I have to choose between paying the mortgage, eating, and paying the car loan? Well, I'd lose the car to the bank and lose all the cash I'd put in thus far.

Car loans create additional risk for you. Not a problem if everything goes according to plan, but if you run into trouble you'll wish you'd saved for a few years (I saved for the better part of a decade before buying).

Plus, if you haven't lived without a car loan, you don't know the freedom of having an extra couple hundred dollars every month to do whatever you want with, like buying DMC parts!

[Jonathan]

SteveyP mentioned more or less what I was going to add... that it is a toy. I would look at your decision to finance a DeLorean similar to how you might if buying a boat, jetski, snowmobile, motorbike, etc. And do so whether it is a project requiring a lot of additional time, money, and effort, or whether it is ready to go right out of the gate. The Ds are toys in much the same way these other items are, and some hold their value well and some are terrible at holding their value. A classic car can hold its value a lot better than a boat in most cases, but you don't have to look far to find a classic car guy that put some significant amount of money into his car and years later is selling it for no better than half that amount.

Point is, I wouldn't justify buying a DeLorean or not on credit the same way you would when justifying buying a daily driver on credit (and Ds not being DDs is another topic!). I would consider your decision as to put it on credit or not more along the lines of what you would do when buying any of these other toys, heck, even household stuff like living room furniture, a home theatre system, or putting a pool into your backyard.

That might get us into a discussion on using credit in general and the "generation now" debate. Put it on a credit card if you pay the balance at the end of the month and earn cash back or points, etc. But the whole "don't spend money you don't have" message seems to have gotten lost a number of years ago. If you finance your car, don't worry about being an oddball in your decision, as you will be among many who did. The debt problems in the economy extend quite a bit further than just those of us on a car forum.