Hey all. I’m a brand new member on here and I’ve joined as I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and (hopefully) become a DMC-12 owner!
I’ve been after a “D” now for quite some time now and I’ve really seriously thought about buying one over this past 12 months. This last year I’ve been noseying around on forums to glean some information from you experts. I’ve been looking at possibly exporting one from the US but don’t know if that’s the way to go for many reasons such as not actually seeing what you are buying and of course all the red tape with importing it, the fees, and making it legal for UK road use – the positives of course is the fact that there is a much greater choice in the US and they are cheaper to buy in most cases, although this is counteracted by the costs associated with importing it as mentioned.
I think what I really need to do is buy one locally - UK or Ireland (I live in Northern Ireland myself) but I think I should buy a cheaper one that is a little rough around the edges ie; needs some bodywork tlc but is mechanically good. My reasoning behind this is that I can get a feel for the car – owning it, driving it – and ultimately deciding whether it is something I would want to stick with permanently. If it’s the case that I want one permanently I would then sell this one as is in a year or so and spend bigger money on a good restored example. The last thing I would want is to go all out and spend 20 grand on one now, realise in a few months time that it isn’t for me and then have trouble getting my money back when I go to sell it what with the market being the way it is…at least if I can buy a roughish one now for reasonable money I should always get it back.
Therefore I am in the market for one for somewhere around the £10-12k mark – I fully realise that it’s not going to be a clean example but I would want one that is mechanically good. I won’t be doing a resto job on one as I don’t have the time or knowhow so I would be selling again in the same condition it was when I bought it and buying another one which has been restored already. I have seen a few on ebay and dmc forums around this price range over the last while but I had either spotted them after they had sold or I didn’t have the funds available to buy at the time.
If anyone can help me out with something in this price range please do let me know by dropping me a message and we can talk.
Thanks for reading!
Joe.