First off Welcome to the ODOC Blog Page. It is our intention that this page be an open one, so if you are an ODOC Member and want to submit an article for publication here please feel free to send something along. It just needs to be Delorean related of course. I will get the party started with a situation that has been developing for many years now and seems to be increasing of late.. Goldmine Syndrome.
What is Goldmine Syndrome you may ask? Well it boils down to the mistaken belief that any Delorean in any condition is worth a boatload of money. This is certainly not the case.
Over the years, many ODOC Members have contacted me about derelict Deloreans that have been found in sheds, barns and pastures in Ontario. Sometimes covered in blue tarps and sometimes left open to the elements, these cars sit silently rotting away while their owners believe that they are increasing in value year over year. They believe they are sitting on a Gold Mine. Please be advised if you are reading this and your Delorean is not being maintained to at least some standard of mechanical integrity, your car is NOT an appreciating asset. Far from it.
Just last week, I got a report of a car east of Toronto. The ODOC member who discovered it reported it as an 83 Canadian Spec car which “had the pontoons behind the rear window gone as were the body panels. There was no drive shaft nor rear suspension. The passenger door was crumpled at the back and the engine is now seized. The interior smelled like a horse.” Now want to know the asking price? $12,000.
Most seasoned Delorean Folk know that is a ridiculous ask, but if you tell the owners of these rust buckets that their cars are worth perhaps $4000 tops and are conceivably too far gone to be economically viable to save, they think you are trying to low ball them and cheat them out of their Delorean Lottery Ticket. The end result is that the car will sit there for another 5 or 10 years in the field, as frames turn to dust, binnacles crack and fascias fade and warp. I hate to see this happen with any vintage car, but particularly so with the Delorean, as it is such a rare piece of automotive history.
My only hope in writing this is that it may reach at least one of these derelict car owners, and they might realize you are not doing yourself or the car any favours by letting it rot. Your non running car that has been sitting on blocks behind a barn or even in a garage is not likely a $12,000 car and certainly no where near the $50,000 cars you might happen to see on Barret-Jackson.
No well-schooled Delorean buyer is trying to swindle you with a sub $4,000 offer. To be clear, I am not interested in buying another Delorean, I am fine with the one I have now so I have “no skin in the game” as they say…. I am just tired of seeing these cars go past the point that they can be saved.
Michael Borthwick