Looking to buy my first DeLorean, have ZERO experience with these cars. Advice?

[Kane]

So, a $20,000 difference in asking price for two vastly-different cars that both appear to be in the condition I'm looking for. A couple questions:

• Based on the quality level I'm looking for, is there anything specific I should be looking for on the cars I'm looking at?
• Do the upgrades mentioned on the more expensive car add enough value to justify the cost?
• Would you pay a premium to buy a waranteed car from a DMC franchise instead of a private buyer? How much?

1. Some of the things to check were listed in a previous post
2. Some people will disagree, but I don't think the upgrades are worth a $20,000 difference. The DMC Florida car partly costs so much more because it is a DMC Florida car. That's about it.
3. I would whole-heartedly say no. The warranty is all well and good, but not worth enough to justify buying the higher priced car (upgrades not withstanding).

I would suggest checking out the cheaper car. The seller may not provide support, but you can still go to DMC Florida to have work done. They will answer all your questions and be a great source to get parts through. I think a stock DeLorean is fine for me, so I don't need Stage 2 or anything. But some people want to push the power of this old car and see where they can take it. LANAAAA! DANGER ZONE.

[AgentDL]

1. Some of the things to check were listed in a previous post
2. Some people will disagree, but I don't think the upgrades are worth a $20,000 difference. The DMC Florida car partly costs so much more because it is a DMC Florida car. That's about it.
3. I would whole-heartedly say no. The warranty is all well and good, but not worth enough to justify buying the higher priced car (upgrades not withstanding).

I would suggest checking out the cheaper car. The seller may not provide support, but you can still go to DMC Florida to have work done. They will answer all your questions and be a great source to get parts through. I think a stock DeLorean is fine for me, so I don't need Stage 2 or anything. But some people want to push the power of this old car and see where they can take it. LANAAAA! DANGER ZONE.

Thank you. I still need to test-drive a stock car. The upgraded car was definitely fun to drive as far as the power and the exhaust notes but I have no basis for comparison.

[DeLorean03]

A new victim...er....soon to be owner .

Welcome to the community. I read most of this thread, and here are my thoughts:

1. That $20k difference = you're paying for dealing with a car from a DeLorean vendor. Nothing wrong with that, but that is a lot of ki-zah to say "it came from DMC-X".

2. The warranty sounds attractive, but inevitably, it will run out, and you'll be on your own or paying $$$$ to have them fix it - if you decide to take it to strictly DMC vendors. Not to say this is a bad thing. I had my auto trans serviced by DMC-MW, and I was VERY pleased with their work.

3. I try not to get too much into the "get ready for hell" mode with soon to be owners for two reasons:

a. There's no need to be a "sky is falling" kind of guy.

b. New owners will learn, soon enough, that there is a balance of fixing vs driving this car.

That being said, for whatever reason, my car's K-Jetronic was ALWAYS wonky in one way or another. 1 week it was great, another week it was weird, another week it misfired, another week it straightened itself out, another week I had manual fuel gauges on the car diagnosing things, another week more stuff broke, another week it ran again, and another week it acted wonky again. It never seemed to be solid as a rock for me. It was ALWAYS something.

Now, my car seemed to be the exception. Most - not all - but most other owners seem to have good experience with the KJet fuel system. For me, the KJet was about as dependable as waiting for a boat to arrive at a train station. I don't say all of these things trying to discourage you; I say them to get you mentally ready - remember - dreaming is nearly always better than the reality.

Make no mistake, the car is 33 years old, things will break. It just happens. It's ok though - we have a pretty solid community and excellent members here and at DMCToday that are willing and able to help.

Words of advice:

1. Be patient. I cannot stress that enough.

2. Buy good tools - not cheap ones. Craftsman/Kobalt/Husky/Stanley tools are welcome members in my garage. Air tools will SERIOUSLY save your butt - believe me. Remember, this is your car - take awesome care of it.

3. If stuck, Florida has a solid number of owners. Providing pizza/take out/ free lunch or pizza and a 12 pack of beer will typically be very welcoming to other owners for help/tech day if you need assistance.

4. See the big picture. Do not focus on fun things like fancy radios, ground effects, color changing lights, and remote lock/unlock kits. Make sure your car is in solid shape - brakes, cooling system, and fuel system mainly. All the toys won't mean a dang thing if you cannot start it and drive it.

5. Never, ever, ever throw anything away unless it is snapped in half or broken beyond recognition. We have seen some members in a nasty jam because they threw things away they thought could not be used or would be easy to replace.

6. Emoticons here help a lot. We have had some mountains from molehills happen due to things being misconstrued.

7. Make friends both here and face to face. Fellow owners can and will definitely provide some solid support and save your butt in a time of uncertainty.

8. It's just a car. It's a very special car - but - it is not a rocket ship. As long as you keep oil and coolant in it, pretty much everything can be fixed. You may get stumped and frustrated. Walk away - cool off - don't keep working while angry or out of frustration. You will break things. The most steady and surgical hands can become sledgehammers when working out of emotion. It can be fixed. It will get fixed. Maybe not now or tomorrow, but it will get fixed.

Looking forward to you joining us as a fellow owner soon! Explore these forums thoroughly; there's a lot of information here.

[NightFlyer]

That being said, for whatever reason, my car's K-Jetronic was ALWAYS wonky in one way or another. 1 week it was great, another week it was weird, another week it misfired, another week it straightened itself out, another week I had manual fuel gauges on the car diagnosing things, another week more stuff broke, another week it ran again, and another week it acted wonky again. It never seemed to be solid as a rock for me. It was ALWAYS something.

Now, my car seemed to be the exception. Most - not all - but most other owners seem to have good experience with the KJet fuel system. For me, the KJet was about as dependable as waiting for a boat to arrive at a train station. I don't say all of these things trying to discourage you; I say them to get you mentally ready - remember - dreaming is nearly always better than the reality.

You LOVE K-Jet and we all know it, so drop the routine already

Make no mistake, the car is 33 years old, things will break. It just happens. It's ok though - we have a pretty solid community and excellent members here and at DMCToday that are willing and able to help.

Thanks for mentioning DMCToday - you da man!

2. Buy good tools - not cheap ones. Craftsman/Kobalt/Husky/Stanley tools are welcome members in my garage. Air tools will SERIOUSLY save your butt - believe me. Remember, this is your car - take awesome care of it.

Made in USA tools are preferable to Asian made garbage.

However, I think in the case of the OP, who sounds like he has no interest in getting his hands dirty, it would be better for him to budget accordingly. Plan on $500-$1k annually to have someone else maintain whatever car you end up buying. Some years, you won't need anything other than fluid changes - those will be cheaper than your budgeted expectations. Other years though, you'll need a new clutch or the trans rebuilt - those will be significantly more expensive years than your budgeted expectations. In the long run though, it should work out to average somewhere around there.

So long as you have realistic expectations, you'll be alright. But to expect any 33+ year old car (and especially a marginally engineered car such as a DeLorean), even if it has been restored/rebuilt, to perform without much issue for the next decade and 120k miles with only oil changes, as you would a new car, is wholly unrealistic and your just begging/asking for trouble.

A AAA card is essential for someone like the OP.

4. See the big picture. Do not focus on fun things like fancy radios, ground effects, color changing lights, and remote lock/unlock kits. Make sure your car is in solid shape - brakes, cooling system, and fuel system mainly. All the toys won't mean a dang thing if you cannot start it and drive it.

Well, now you're just being a killjoy, aren't you? Everyone knows that a banging stereo, color changing lights and door launchers are way more important than a solid cooling system, functioning brakes, etc!

Of course I'm being sarcastic.

Biggest mistake new owners make is to continue driving the car while it's overheating. That's a big no-no!

6. Emoticons here help a lot. We have had some mountains from molehills happen due to things being misconstrued.

As you didn't use an emoticon here, I'm going to interpret this as being a personal slam against me and get all bent out of shape over it!

J/K - although, we have been somewhat light on BS and drama lately (ever since the brake upgrade kit war died down)...

Explore these forums thoroughly; there's a lot of information here.

[DWDuck]

If you take a girl out on a date in it, down play the car, and let her think all the people looking at the car is because of her.

Can't think of anything to say in reply. Just grinning...

[acaciolo]

I started out the way you did. I actually got info on that $55k car in fla (that the told me they would sell for for $50k).

then I spoke to josh at DPI about one of his $45k complete rebuilds (which I still dream about...)

but I ended up with an amazing car for $24k with 13k miles in terrific shape.

I purchased a stainless exhaust form josh and a bunch of other parts (from grady, dmcmw, dpi) and have the car being updated now. fuel lines...master cylinder, belts, gaskets, fuel pump, etc. I will probably spend about $4-5k on everything (including tires, springs, shocks) and I'll have a great, updated car for under $30k. If I didn't go that route (and didn't enjoy this upgrade part so much,) I probably would have gone the josh DPI route.

Tony c

[Mark D]

55K for a DMCFL rebuilt car and 35K for a private party sale both sound pretty high, especially the latter.

DMC vendor rebuilt cars give you the warm fuzzy of knowing that it was recently refurbished by someone who knows what they are doing and the limited warranty is nice but I don't feel it's worth a 20k premium. I like to work on my own cars so I don't really see the value there. If you want a turn key car with as few worries as possible it may mean something to you, but even DMC-X cars will have problems. They are using the same components that everyone else buys to fix their cars. Think of it in terms of maintenance you may need to do down the road... There's no way you're going to need to spend 20K in repairs to fix up that similar 35K car.

You shouldn't expect to even pay 35K for a cosmetically clean, updated, well maintained DeLorean. The private party seller you're considering sounds overpriced. It would literally need to be in perfect condition with all of the known mechanical issues recently fixed with lots of receipts to prove it. I'm talking Fresh rebuild similar to what DMCFL would do.

For what you're looking at in terms of reliability and 'get in and go' usage I would steer you away from low miles original cars because that just means you know it's going to need a lot done to it as soon as you start driving it.

Best bang for your buck would be to find a well maintained enthusiast owned car in the mid to high 20K range and then put a few thousand into repairs if anything needs attention Then you'll have the reliability that you're seeking and not break the bank on a fully refurbished car.

[NightFlyer]

For what you're looking at in terms of reliability and 'get in and go' usage I would steer you away from low miles original cars because that just means you know it's going to need a lot done to it as soon as you start driving it.

Disagree with this portion of your comment.

When I bought my car, it was all original and had low miles. First thing I did was take it on a 2,000 mile vacation to Mount Rushmore and back. Only problems encountered were a hot start problem (caused by the original accumulator), and I rolled the driver's side window down too far, causing it to jump the track. Other than that, those were the only problems I encountered before I stored the car away for roughly a decade. The awakening process required fuel system and brake work, but that was all admittedly caused by my improper storage.

As many know, I'm still running the factory original belts, plastic header bottle, plastic tanked radiator, factory fuel hoses, factory coolant system hoses, Ducey alternator, factory clutch fluid, etc. Hell, up until last year, I was even still running the NCTs (I only replaced them to preserve them, but will have them on my car for the trip to DCS and back).

It's all about proper storage and maintenance vs having the latest and greatest in new parts on the car, IMHO.

Also, with an original car, you don't run into any DPO surprises....

[DMCMW Dave]

Disagree with this portion of your comment.

When I bought my car, it was all original and had low miles. First thing I did ..............

What year was that? Not trying to give you a hard time, but if at that time it was only 8-10 years old, it's a lot different from what people are finding in low mile survivor cars.

[Delorean02378]

http://store.delorean.com/p-10550-th...tomobiles.aspx

Best $29.95 you'll ever spend on anything Delorean related.