DeLorean DMC-12
It was 1981, I was plopped down in front of the tube, only about half paying attention while I was reading Larry Niven or some such, and there was this puff piece running on the evening news about this new high-dollar sports car that was about to go on sale. I looked up out of curiosity and--woah! wait a minute!
What I saw on the screen looked like the car Dr. Heywood Floyd must have driven to the spaceport to catch the Pan Am shuttle to Space Station V. I could scarcely believe what the announcer was saying about it.
This is for real? It's going on sale? On this planet? In my lifetime?
It probably goes without saying that I immediately wanted one. Badly.
Most people think of the DeLorean today as either a prop in a popular movie franchise, or as the punchline of a joke. That's unfortunate, because there's so much more to the story. The DeLorean Motor Company was one of only two start-up automobile manufacturers since 1946 that have managed to actually sell a mass-produced car to American consumers. (The other was Bricklin.) That was no small accomplishment, and the car itself was, as we will see, an interesting and credible piece of machinery with great potential for further development. Sadly, all of that was soon overshadowed in late 1982 by the company's collapse and associated scandals.
The story of high-flying, fast-talking maverick auto executive John Z. DeLorean and the drug bust and financial hijinks that brought him and his company down has been chronicled elsewhere, by better chroniclers than me. I'd like to concentrate instead on the car, that Irish-built street-legal stainless steel spaceship on wheels that looked so Lust-worthy on TV in 1981.
Officially, it was the "DMC-12," but nobody much ever called it that. The "12" designation was chosen early on as a reference to the projected MSRP, $12,000, but by the time it actually went on sale, inflation and cost overruns had pushed the price up over $25,000 and everybody including the manufacturer just called it "the DeLorean."
The styling was done by Giorgetto Giugiaro, founder of ItalDesign, one of the most influential stylists of the last fifty years. (How influential? Just take a look at his resume: he or his firm designed the De Tomaso Mangusta; the Maserati Ghibli; the Lancia Delta; the VW Scirocco; the Isuzu Impulse; the Lotus Esprit, the MINI Cooper and Clubman, and, ... well, you get the point.) In the darkest depths of the 1970s, Guigiaro's crisp "folded paper" designs were among the few bright spots. At a time when Detroit was piling on the Rolls Royce-wanabee radiator grilles, opera windows, carriage lights, and other symbols of faux elegance like there was no tomorrow, and Japanese automotive design was still going through its "Bride of Gojira" phase, Guigiaro's style was neat, clean, and well-proportioned, an object lesson in "less is more." Exotics like the Esprit or the various Maseratis looked appropriately futuristic, of course, but even his more everyday cars like the humble Mk. I Rabbit had a little bit of that twenty-minutes-into-the-future thing going for them. Cars like that were a welcome sight in a world plagued by Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes with landau vinyl roofs.
Guigiaro did the first version of the DMC-12 in 1976, and came back to "freshen" it in 1979 as the car was being readied for production. The basic shape is a low, sharp wedge which has a certain family resemblance to the Esprit. It's the kind of design that never stops looking futuristic no matter how old it gets. The nose sat about an inch too high on the production cars--a last-minute change in anticipation of a federal bumper-height regulation that never went into effect--but that was the only flaw in the looks department.
The car's two most distinctive visual characteristics weren't Guigiaro's ideas, though, they were laid down in John Z's original specifications. After leaving GM, DeLorean eventually became one of its more relentless critics, taking the General to task for building cars that didn't last. (He may have felt a personal need to atone for the dreadful Vega, one of his big projects as Chevrolet Division General Manager.) He often talked about the concept of an "ethical car," one that wouldn't rust away or self-destruct just after you made the last payment.
When it came time to build a car with his name on it, DeLorean put his investors' money where his mouth was and specified SS304-grade stainless steel outer body panels over a composite substructure--materials which, of course, don't rust.
To emphasize that the car was built out of stainless steel, the body
panels were left unpainted and given a wire brush finish. It certainly
looked cool, especially on sunny days, but in practice the "natural metal" finish was something of a mixed blessing. The stainless steel wouldn't rust, but it did show fingerprints, and it was hard to repair dents and scratches and have it look right.
It also meant that every DeLorean looked exactly like every other DeLorean. To give buyers a sporting chance at individualizing their cars, DMC offered optional tape-stripe graphics packages. It also experimented with a transparent lacquer that would have "colorized" the body panels without completely covering the brushed metal texture, but due to durability issues it was never offered to the public. Some DeLorean owners have had their cars painted, and as the photo above shows, they can look rather sharp that way.
The DMC-12's other great distinction was its gullwing doors, a feature it shared with the Bricklin and the Mercedes 300SL. John DeLorean claimed the gullwings were a safety feature because they allowed for better side-impact protection than conventional doors--but no one ever quite believed that. It was obvious from the start that the gullwings were there to look pretty and draw attention, and they easily accomplished that.
They also worked surprisingly well as, you know, doors. The ill-fated Bricklin had used an electrically-driven hydraulic power door-opening system which proved unacceptably fragile and cantankerous in daily service--and which also quickly drained the battery, leaving the doors stuck and the car immobilized! To avoid those sorts of problems, the DeLorean's door had no power mechanism, relying on a torsion bar and a gas strut (such as you see on hatchbacks) to hold it open. Because they're manually operated, DeLorean doors work even if the car loses power. They are very easy to open and close, and only require about a foot or so clearance on the side, meaning that you can get in and out of your DeLorean in quarters that would be too tight for a car with conventional doors. The torsion bars are effectively unbreakable, and even if the gas strut fails, it's not a disaster--the door will still open and close, it just won't stay in the "up" position by itself. If that happens, just replace the strut and you are back in business.
The engineering underneath is a story in itself. The original specification was for a mid-engined car using resin composite material--in other words, a fancy grade of industrial plastic--for all of the structure under the stainless steel. The plastic substructure unibody would be formed by a new process called elastic reservoir molding (ERM), on which John DeLorean owned the patent. It was also hoped that the ERM process could be licensed to other users, earning income that would help finance the development of the car.
A number of different engines were considered, including a Citroen inline four and a two-rotor Wankel. DeLorean ultimately settled on a 2.85-liter DOHC aluminum V-6 made by Renault and also used by Peugeot and Volvo. It was usually referred to as the "PRV" engine, after the initials of the three manufacturers. The version of the PRV used in the DeLorean was fitted with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and kicked out 130 net horsepower at 5500 RPM and 160 pounds of torque at 2700 RPM. This was decent specific output for the late '70s, and while the small-displacement PRV wasn't exactly fire-breathing muscle-car material, it beat the snot out of any V-6 General Motors was making at that time. (Ask me how I know.) Though a good enough engine on its own merits, the PRV was chosen mostly because Renault had the production capacity to build as many as DeLorean thought it might need, and other vendors didn't. The PRV engine was mated to a Renault transaxle, either a 5-speed manual or a three-speed automatic.
Selecting the PRV led to a complete re-engineering of the car. The PRV was a heavier engine than DeLorean had been expecting to use, and it couldn't be mounted in a mid-engine position. The only way it would fit inside the body envelope was to put it behind the rear wheels. It wasn't too long before the engineering staff realized that the proposed plastic unibody might not be strong enough to hold the weight of the PRV engine--or to meet federal crash standards. (Computer simulations suggested that a 25-mph barrier crash would result in the complete destruction of the vehicle and its occupants.) It also was becoming painfully apparent by this time that the ERM process, clever as it may have been, wasn't really suitable for automotive mass production.
DeLorean went to Colin Chapman in 1978 and retained Lotus to re-engineer the car. The result of this was that, under the skin, the DeLorean ended up looking an awful lot like a Lotus. The final design had a fiberglass body under the stainless steel. This sat on on a Lotus-style backbone frame which in turn held the engine and transaxle and all the other mechanical bits. The backbone-style frame meant that the passenger compartment had a massive center console running between the bucket seats, just like you'd find in a Lotus.
A DeLorean's interior is nevertheless a remarkably roomy place. John Z. DeLorean was six-feet-four, and understandably insisted that he be able to fit in the car named after him. I'm not quite as tall as he was, but I'm a fair bit heavier, and when I sat in one two years ago I fit just fine. There was enough room between the gullwing door on my left and the Great Wall of Chapman on my right to hold me without feeling tight, but not much more than that. (If you have claustrophobia, this is probably not the car for you.) The outward visibility isn't all that great, especially to the rear, but that's also true of competing two-seaters of that era such as the Esprit or the Ferrari 308. The ergonomics of the driver's position and control layout are rather good, though the instrument panel itself practically screams "Disco era!"
So what was it like to drive one?
Shortly after the DeLorean came on the market, Car & Driver ran a series of tests comparing it to a 280ZX Turbo, a C3 Corvette, a Ferrari 308, and a Porsche 911. The cars were put through the usual battery of timed speed runs and other proving ground tests, then run against each other on the Waterford Hills Raceway circuit, then given a final frenzied workout on "an impossible, real-world stretch of Ohio asphalt":
"We will tell you only that it is one of the most devilishly tortuous and narrow tracts of pavement ever to give meaning to the words "lumpy" and "unpredictable." It has everything you could ask in order to drain the color right out of anybody's face. It also has one stop sign in the middle of nowhere (which was religiously obeyed); it has virtually no sources for interference except one tiny town with a much-reduced-speed succession of right-angled turns; and, oh, yes, it has a 2.5-mile stretch in the middle across high country that can be taken nigh onto flat-out, except maybe for the big, blind, bounding whoop-dee-doos at about the two-mile mark."
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
The results were reported in the December 1981 issue, in an article by Larry Griffin that is one of the most entertaining and vivid test-drive accounts ever to appear in a car magazine. (The first five paragraphs, in particular, are absolutely delightful.) C/D's conclusion was in line with what the other buff books found when they tested the DeLorean: it wasn't a great car, at least not yet, but it was a competent and reasonably well-executed one.
That's not to say it didn't have its shortcomings. Despite a genuine Lotus frame and suspension design, the car's handling wasn't quite up to Lotus standards. This was mostly because of the rear-engine layout, which put the heaviest components at the extreme back end (the front/rear weight distribution was 35/65) and gave the car moment of inertia issues. Though not as treacherously tail-happy as an old-school Porsche 911, in spirited driving the DeLorean developed what C/D called a "Corvairish tendency for the tail to make mild, unwanted advances toward passing its front at awkward times." It could also get antsy at high speed on rough pavement, which C/D attributed to a possible lack of stiffness in the body mounting.
Straight-line performance also left something to be desired. The DeLorean may have looked like a warp-drive spaceship on wheels, but the styling was making promises the drivetrain couldn't fill. DMC claimed an 8.5 second 0-60 time, but no independent tester ever got close to that figure. It was more like 9.5 seconds 0-60 with the five-speed, and top-end acceleration was decidedly anemic. Part of this was because the gear ratios and the final drive (3.44:1) were chosen for fuel economy rather than acceleration, but it was mostly because the PRV in base trim just wasn't quite enough engine for a vehicle with supercar ambitions. If you were more concerned with arriving in style than with how fast you got there, a DeLorean would get the job done--but at a sticker price of $25,600 in 1981 dollars, it was kind of expensive for a car of such relatively modest capability.
DMC had already sort of tacitly admitted this, and was marketing the DeLorean more as a boulevard-cruising "personal car" (in the sense of a first-generation Thunderbird) than as a pure sports car. DMC also engaged Legend Industries, a maker of aftermarket performance parts, to develop a twin-turbo version of the PRV engine. The turbo never made it into production, but those who drove the prototypes on the test track at the Belfast factory say the turbo made the DeLorean go at least as fast as it looked.
Overall, then, the DeLorean that rolled out in 1981 was a decent sports(ish) car that just needed a little refinement, a few more horses in the engine bay, and perhaps a price cut. Despite its performance shortcomings, and some early build-quality issues that were quickly dealt with, it still sold in respectable numbers. Nevertheless, within a few months after the car went on sale, DMC flat-out ran out of money.
What went wrong? There were a lot of contributing factors. As the car went on sale, the U.S. economy was in a deep recession, which reduced demand. John DeLorean had ambitions of selling as many as 30,000 cars a year, which would have been a major accomplishment even in a booming economy. DMC had paid a market researcher for a focus-group survey, the results of which suggested (inaccurately, as it turned out) that demand for the car would not be price-sensitive. Since that was just exactly what John DeLorean wanted to hear, he ignored contrary evidence and threw common sense to the winds and put too much faith in his ability to sell flashy, pricey cars in a slow economy. DMC ordered a huge inventory of parts and kept the production line running faster than the cars were selling--and didn't throttle back on output soon enough when cash started to run short. The company's accounting--particularly the inter-company accounting between the various entities making up the DeLorean empire--ran in a decidedly loosey-goosey fashion, so DMC's managers probably didn't have the facts they needed to understand the situation even if they'd taken off the rose-colored glasses.
Sadly, there is also significant evidence of acts of fraud on the part of John DeLorean and Colin Chapman which diverted money out of the project--though neither of them was ever prosecuted for it, Chapman's accountant ended up doing time in a British prison for his role in the affair. It's estimated that $17 million or so went missing, a sum which at least one insider figured would have been enough to get through that rough patch and keep the business going well into 1982.
Even with all that, DMC and its car might still have been salvageable through some sort of bankruptcy or reorganization process, but that all changed for the worst when John DeLorean was arrested in October of 1982, accused of trying to raise capital to save DMC by trading in cocaine. Within days, radio stations were running a parody commercial for a "DeLorean Snowmobile," featuring "razor sharp" styling with "a stainless steel finish as smooth as a mirror" and a built-in car phone "to call your attorney." The public image of the whole DeLorean enterprise was irrevocably ruined. No one was going to try to save the car or the company now.
Consolidated International--best known as the parent company of the Big Lots store chain--acquired and sold off the remaining finished cars in 1983. The production tooling was scrapped, but the huge inventory of unused parts--stainless steel panels, fiberglass body assemblies, frames, crated engines, and so on--was kept intact, and sold to a succession of parties who made the parts available for retail sale. This made ownership or restoration of a DeLorean relatively easy as such things go; no matter what might need fixing, you could still get the parts for it.
There was a happy ending of sorts, at least for the car itself. The factory parts inventory ended up in Texas, in the hands of a man named Stephen Wynne. Mr. Wynne formed a new DeLorean Motor Company, which does more than just sell NOS parts and restoration services. If you have at least $57,000 or so to spend, the new DMC will happily build you a factory-fresh DeLorean with all zeroes on the odometer. Available options include a hotted-up 197 HP engine, a modern stereo with iPod capability, Bluetooth connectivity (to call your attorney?), and a backup camera.
It gladdens my heart that street-legal stainless steel spaceships on wheels are once more for sale on this planet in my lifetime. What makes it all particularly sweet is that once you adjust for inflation, the base price for a new DeLorean in 2010 is actually slightly less than it was in 1981. Who says there's no such thing as progress?
--Cookie the Dog's Owner
The official DMC publicity photo at the top, the vintage advertising images, and the magazine scans are from the invaluable Tamir's DeLorean Site. The shot of the DeLorean and Bricklin showing off their gullwings is from Flickr user toolnorth. The photo of the blue DeLorean comes from member louielouie2000 of the DMCTalk forum. The chassis photo comes from the DeLorean Museum website. The interior shot is from Auto in the News. The last image comes from the new DMC's website.
That Car Guy on September 01, 2010 at 07:19 AM
Nice story, Cookie. I've always wished a DeLorean was parked here in the driveway.
Upon John DeLorean's passing a few years ago, I wanted a 1/24th scale model of the car. I have yet to find one without the various movie "attachments."
If one gets the time, please read his book. At least you get to hear the story of the car's rise and fall from his point of view... and it will both scare and infuriate you.
Anthony Cagle on September 01, 2010 at 08:24 AM
The only car that will follow the white line on the road!
Excellent post. You're right about the looks: it will probably look fresh and new a hundred years from now. A guy one block over has/had one and is finally getting rid of it; too much trouble, I think.
Still, I am also glad that they are selling them new. Fabulous car.
Tommy's Dad on September 01, 2010 at 09:59 AM
I had the pleasure of seeing not one, but two originals parked side by side with a Lotus Espirit and a Testarossa at the Cool Desert Nights car show last year. The Testarossa may have been my boyhood car lust (second only to the Countach), but to my slightly more mature eyes and head the Delorean and the Espirit are the far more timeless and gorgeous designs. Lancia, Mangusta, Scirocco, Delorean...Giorgetto Giugiaro is a freaking genius!
Zane on September 01, 2010 at 10:30 AM
> The only car that will follow the white line on the road!
Cagle for the win!
Chris Mallow on September 01, 2010 at 11:29 AM
I always liked the DeLorean and would happily own one myself, if I had the means. It's always been pretty high on my personal dream car list, if only for the looks alone.
And of course, the stainless-steel construction makes the flux dispersal...but ya'll know all about that, so I don't really need to go into it further.
David Colborne on September 01, 2010 at 11:42 AM
If you could sum up the '80s in a nutshell, it would be Max Headroom in a DeLorean. Twenty minutes into the future indeed.
Anthony Cagle on September 01, 2010 at 01:08 PM
I think if I had one I'd only wear three-piece suits while driving it.
And whenever I got out, I would stand there for a full minute with the door open staring into the distance.
Yeeeahhhhh. . . . . .
tigerstrypes on September 01, 2010 at 02:06 PM
*drools*
Just bookmarked Tamir's DeLorean Site. Gonna have a lot of reading to do. Wish I could print it all.
I read that the extra inch was so it met a headlight-distance regulation thing. There's a kit to lower the nose and make it look right.
Also, the plastic door hinges broke, but there are metal replacements, though a little pricey.
That Car Guy, visit his link. They're 1:18, though.
http://www.sunstartoys.com/back.htm
I have the regular version which I bought at a car show, and it is made of stainless steel!! A wonderful piece. Ironically I can't find a Back To The Future II 1:18 model around these parts.
tigerstrypes on September 01, 2010 at 03:33 PM
Yes, it was a certain movie trilogy that made me aware of the car, though for years I thought it was first a silver Isuzu Impulse and later a souped-up first-gen Volkswagen Scirocco II (even much later I realized their resemblance was due to Giugiaro).
It wasn't until a sunny summer day during lunchtime, I flipped it to the History Channel and just after the "Great Blunders In History" (or something like that) theme ended, that car appears with the ominous voice-over: "The DeLorean Car".
My jaw DROPPED. And I was hooked.
There was another great movie in which the DMC-12 appeared: The Wedding Singer. Not shown is the rare stripe package:
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_2865-De-Lorean-DMC-12-1981.html
It also appears on one of my favorite series, "Chuck" as an impulse buy with engine trouble. I recommend that episode. Another star car appears at the ending, but I'm not telling! :
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_208511-De-Lorean-DMC-12-1981.html
In that episode, the original owner says that the "Back To The Future" movie cars got Porsche engines for the filming, but the local DeLorean club (these guys know where every DeLorean in the island are located and are chomping at the bit to rescue them) in my country tells me that they had Chevy engines in them. There's even kits for sale for this conversion.
Oh, and I got some gnarly DeLorean pics!:
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/tigerstrypes/Awesome%20Machines/Delorean%20Machines/
That Car Guy on September 01, 2010 at 03:52 PM
There was also an episode of "Matlock" where none other than Don Knotts guest starred as Andy's neighbor who bought a used car lemon... a sour DeLorean.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?&p=matlock+don+knotts&vid=138420487668&dt=1191222000&l=214&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D138420487668%26id%3D42860e95bfe7844e33562bc9bba97c58%26bid%3DVVJMLzGv9MPemQ%26bn%3DThumb%26index%3Dch1%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.dailymotion.com%252fvideo%252fx33rz2_don-knotts-on-matlock_shortfilms&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx33rz2_don-knotts-on-matlock_shortfilms&tit=don+knotts+on+matlock&sigr=128hq7mk5&newfp=1
tigerstrypes on September 01, 2010 at 08:00 PM
Ohh! How could I forget?! Miami Vice!!
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_21875-De-Lorean-DMC-12-1981.html
And the fake Rocky III brochure:
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_28542-De-Lorean-DMC-12-1981.html
Oh, what the hell... there are the currently 53 registered sitings of the DMC-12 in motion pictures. Here, go crazy:
http://imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=De+Lorean&model=DMC+12&modelMatch=1&modelInclModel=on
Anybody wanna see Bikini Planet? ;D
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_6310-De-Lorean-DMC-12-1981.html
Jeff Weimer on September 01, 2010 at 09:34 PM
Most people think of the DeLorean today as either a prop in a popular movie franchise, or as the punchline of a joke.
Actually, it's being a prop in the movie WAS the joke, as I recall from me and the rest of the audience in the theater the first time we saw it.
But, could you imagine the free publicity (and sales!) it would have gotten had the company still been in business in 1985?
Jeff Weimer on September 01, 2010 at 09:36 PM
As I recall, it took a special and expensive treatment to paint the stainless steel so that it adhered properly.
kenny heggem on September 02, 2010 at 01:49 AM
My Dad had one as a business vehicle new in the early 80'd from the I.C.'s company he worked with.
Over heated at least monthly on the way home in traffic on highway 17 on the way to our place in Felton.
was not fast. handled pretty good. Lots of looks... do you have any idea ow many kids flipped out when I was a 4th grader being picked up from summer camp in a Delorean?
kenny heggem on September 02, 2010 at 02:00 AM
early 80's, not 80'd
Anthony Cagle on September 02, 2010 at 06:37 AM
I imagine this should be a prime example of how truly difficult it is to really build a decent car.
tigerstrypes on September 03, 2010 at 08:02 PM
I forgot to tell ya guys that Mr. DeLorean had plans to build his cars on a site that was once an Air Force base. IN PUERTO RICO!!! You guys have no idea how blown away I was years ago to hear that we were so close to building one of the coolest cars EVER!!
Alas, we ended up being bumped with a whole bunch of other countries DeLorean tried to establish his factory.
Here's The Truth About Cars take on DeLorean. It's a great read.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/magazine-memories-dreams-of-delorean/
John B on September 06, 2010 at 11:54 AM
I agree with Anthony Cagle....
If DeLorean couldn't do it...He was a talented engineer who knew the car business (albeit in GM in their glory days where they were so big that being an exec was comparitively easy so it may have lured him into a false sense of security) and the style to bring investors to his dream, I'm not sure anyone can build a car firm today from the ground up.
And accepting the British money to build them in Northern Ireland (so they'd stop killing each other) probably wasn't a great idea, removing management and market from the production site...it didn't work well for Bricklin either.
chris on September 06, 2010 at 01:35 PM
I always like reading articles about the Delorean, its a favorite car of mine. I came across an article a few weeks back with Jay Leno driving a refurbished Delorean, here is the link if anybody wants to watch it. http://chrisescars.com/jay-leno-takes-a-look-at-a-delorean/
Rob the Audi Guy on September 07, 2010 at 12:46 PM
Love the styling. Absolutely HATE the powertrain. What an awful choice. Yes, I am John Delorean! I want to build a car that runs forever and needs no maintenance! I will construct it out of stainless steel and plastic! ....
... and it will be powered by a renault V6 making 130hp.
WAIT ! COME BACK! I PROMISE! IT'S A GOOD ENGINE I SWEAR!
Yeah, whatever dude. That engine was garbage when it was new. The rest of the car is fantastic, it is just awful that it was stuck with such a horrible heart.
kenny heggem on September 08, 2010 at 09:13 AM
I could not help but thinking, why would anyone BUY a new version of this car? I guess if disposable income is the case... alright, I get it. Living that dream of a Delorean.
Money better spent on a 1993 VW Corrado. Say, buy a nice one for 4-5 grand. Then, restore it to mint for like another 4 grand or so.
A nicer all around performer, still unique with a similar shape, much better power train and handling, still a comfy touring car, parts are shared with many other VW's and readily available, and at least 5 times more reliable.
10 grand on a Corrado project, or 45 grand on a poorly engineered Delorean remake?
CJinSD on September 08, 2010 at 11:42 AM
I'm not sure why people might think the DeLorean was poorly engineered. The chassis was the work of Lotus. The engine saw duty here in Volvos and Peugeots, although admittedly Peugeots have flaws. There are more than 7,000 survivors of about 9,300 DeLoreans built almost 30 years ago. Anyone think that is true of Audis or VWs built 7 years ago?
I considered a Corrado when they were knew. It wasn't the price that kept me away. The automatic seatbelts kept me on the fence long enough for Autoweek to complete their extended test of a Corrado SLC. Less than 20K miles, and it was coming apart at the seems. VW did themselves a lot of harm with the poor quality of their German production models in the early '90s. This was when the Golf III prompted CAR magazine to spoof VW's Beatle era 'Lemon' ad on their cover. If there are any survivors from the time, maybe they were the ones that VW got right, but most of them were even worse than the cars they make today.
The DeLorean was a car that made a big impact in its day. There really hasn't been an intro since then of similar popular interest, unless maybe it was the first Dodge Viper. Sure, the DeLorean wasn't as fast as a 911, or a Corvette, or even a 308GTSi. It wasn't a slow car though, and it looked futuristic and honest when it was new. The design had authenticity, even if not everyone loved it. Some people certainly did, and that means that there are people paying big money for them today. There is a DeLorean in my neighborhood. People notice it, even in San Diego. A Corrado would have to be on fire for some kid to ask his dad about it.
tigerstrypes on September 08, 2010 at 11:43 AM
kenny, it's called Car LUST. Rationality need not apply.
Besides, I'm pretty sure that there are more Corrados than DeLoreans.
One of the greatest things of owning a DeLorean is that people still gawk at their presence, lackluster engine performance. It takes more effort to pull that off with a Corrado.
BTW, the DeLorean was decently engineered (keeping the rear-biased/high center-of-gravity engine from pulling it's best Porsche impression was no fluke).
And who the hell said that the boys in Humble, Texas, will build you a DeLorean with the same lack of build quality of the Northern Ireland plant? Plus, you can ask for them to spice up the performance a bit.
;)
Oh, and Rob, the transmission's gearing did not help at all in using the engine's power, at least in Road & Track's July 1981 test drive.
John B on September 08, 2010 at 04:10 PM
CJinSD: "There are more than 7,000 survivors of about 9,300 DeLoreans built almost 30 years ago..."
I would have thought there would be more than that!
While the car has a so-so reputation, I don't think it ever went through the "cheap used car" period tham most cars did...including the even rarer Avanti which suffered because of Studebaker's demise.
kenny heggem on September 09, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Autoweek/ really? I recall the Automobile Magazine article where they loved it to bits for 30k (auto belts, which I agree with you aside)/problem was a head gasket. That was a warranty issue later, I know my friend with a 95 GTI VR6 had similar happen.
Granted, VW was selling poorly in the early 90's... but the cars were not plagued with issues really. I mean, I have a Mexican built 92 VW GTI 16v with 180k on it. It has been average in terms of reliability.
Typical stuff for a 20 year old German car... radiator replacement and hoses, ISV, wheel bearings in front, distributor 2 times (one time was just the seal), brakes, had the timing belt done to insure no catastrophic engine failure, a motor mount, exhaust, new transmission was replaced from prior owner records, valve cover gasket, tune ups. Last year the fuel pump, clutch, and alternator finally went. Seeing I bought it with 107k in the year 2000, seems at least within reason.
Build quality? Quite good. Sun roof rolls nicely still, interior held up very nice, no weird gaps or anything. Typical little squeaks and rattles remedied by a screw driver in the trunk area.
My buddy had a black 92 VR6 Corrado. Drove it past 200k in a mere 8 years. Just fuel pump, water pump (i have not needed one yet, surprisingly), and tune ups. Most Euro magazines consider the Corrado (in VR6 form) quite durable.
My friends with later VW's seem to have more costly issues. Like my friend with a standard 2000 Beetle. The cost of parts are astronomical. Some sensor she needed was like $300+.
I will stick with pre 93 cars... thanks!
I agree about tigerstrypes comment on rationality. It is CAR LUST after all. : )
But in all seriousness, I just can't wrap myself around over 40 grand for the Delorean. Knowing it will also cost bucko bucks just to replace a body panel, or having to have special order parts...
Okay, back to the rationality comment ; )