Well, I'm certainly not going to lie, the only reason I wanted a DeLorean was because of Back to the Future. When I was 5 my parents bought Back to the Future and after seeing the time machine I was just in awe of the DeLorean. I remember bugging my parents for years trying to get information out of them about the car. I was so desperate to get answers to my questions I would call and check out the libraries around my area and rent any books they had on a DeLorean, which wasn’t many. Fortunately for me the Internet came around and I did a lot of research and looked up quite a bit of information about the car. Well, fast forward many years into the future, the time came for me to seriously start looking around for a DeLorean. I was on a mission, I wanted to get a low mileage, later model 1981 DeLorean, mainly because it didn’t have the gas flap in the hood, the radio antenna was hidden in the back engine compartment and the pull straps where built into the doors. Also I wanted to get a car that was all original, the car had to have the original window sticker, the original tires, original radio, etc… I had been looking for several weeks and was getting a little discouraged because every car I wanted to get either had a deposit on it or it had been sold like the week before. Anyway, I just happen to be checking out one of my sites and came across a November built 1981 DeLorean with 20,900 miles, it had the original window sticker, original tires, etc… I was very excited and called the guy up and to my luck he still had it for sale, we exchanged a few more calls and few e-mails then I went up to go look at it. It was a very nice car and I actually ended up buying it for $16,500 in 2005. So after 16 patient/long years I finally had my dream car. I bought the car April 15, 2005 and it had 20,900 miles on the car and now it has 21,500 on it. I’ve taken it to several car shows and events the last few years and everyone gets a kick out of actually seeing one in real life.

To me the DeLorean in a very unique vehicle, what other car is made of stainless steel and was originally going to have a warranty on it for 25 years? John DeLorean had a wonderful vision, it’s just sad that it ended so soon.

Also a major misconception with people is that you can’t get parts for the car anymore. Not true, originally the factory was geared up to produce 30,000 cars a year and when the company went out of business there were stockpiles of parts left over. The DMC Headquarters in Houston, TX bought all the remaining parts and sells almost everything you could ever need. Of course there are certain stockpiles of parts that have run out, but the DMC Houston Company is hard at work trying to reproduce the parts that owners badly need.

Here is a little bit of info on the DeLorean Motor Company:

The DeLorean Motor Company produced the DMC-12 in Belfast, Northern Ireland from early 1981 to December 1982, these spanned 3 model years, later '82s are considered '83s. The changes between the years are very minor, early ‘81s had a gas flap in the hood along with hood grooves, the radio antenna was embedded in the windshield then relocated to the front right fender. Later ‘81s had the radio antenna in the rear, the gas flap was eliminated, the hood grooves remained and the pull strap was installed into the door, allowing the doors to close more evenly. All 82 and 83 models had flat hoods, instead of the grooved one, and the original Craig radio was replaced for an ASI radio.

Plus, all models came with leather seats and the option of either the Grey or Black interior, with your choice of a Manual or Automatic Transmission.

The DeLorean, styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign, has an extremely reliable Peugeot/Renault/Volvo rear-mounted engine and transmission, and a Lotus designed double-wishbone frame. Some DeLorean owners have upwards of 300,000 miles on their cars, and parts are readily available from Volvo and several DeLorean specialists across the US.

Contrary to popular belief, no DeLorean’s were painted at the factory, however 2 were gold plated for an American Express promotion and a 3rd one was built using the left over gold plated panels. The rest were all bare stainless steel, and 8583 were ever built. Some dealerships painted a few of the DeLorean's in order to attract customers, but none left the factory painted.

If anyone is interested in finding out more information here are a few very good DeLorean sites:

Tamir's DeLorean Site - The Quenesential De Lorean Site - DMC Talk: A DeLorean Community - DeLorean Motor Company's Home Page - Delorean Owers Association - DMC News

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