I find it fascinating just how many low mileage DeLoreans we have come across over the years. Finding any low mileage classic hiding in a barn or garage is amazing, but they really didn’t build very many of these stainless steel wonders. Each time that another one pops up, I first assume we’ve already seen it (they all look the same) and then wonder why there are so many with so few of miles. Were they that special that everyone bought them as a collectors item and kept them safely stashed away or were they actually so bad that no one wanted to drive them? I’ve never driven one, so I can’t say, but it’s something I’m really curious to know. This example has just 9k miles and is in fantastic shape. It can be found here on eBay in Lebanon, Indiana with a current bid of $18k.
The seller has gotten the engine running, but admits it is going to need maintenance and some repairs. While I’d recommend bringing it back up to top shape, if it’s only ever going to be a display piece, I wouldn’t worry too much about making it perfect.
These really are neat cars, with an interesting story and an even more interesting design. It’s too bad things went the way they did, but that’s all part of what makes them so intriguing. I’m still left wondering though, as to why such a large percentage of these cars have survived with so few of miles. Do any DeLorean owners out there have any theories they’d like to share?
That’s because whenever the miles get over 100K the owners just take them back in time & switch them with one that has lower miles.
“DUH!”
:-P
Funny, but please show us ANY Delorean that even made it to 100,000 miles!
Feel free to google Oliver & Terry Holler, who drive their DeLorean all over the country (and world) raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research. They have around 800k on their car and counting! There are plenty of high milage cars out there…its a Volvo engine…very reliable and long lasting! (ps, I own one…)
They were not a good car……….he used the wrong drivetrain. There are a lot of low mileage Yugos around too. Also like the last VW beetle convertibles, many people bought them to keep thinking they would be a good investment over time and they were seldom driven.
l hope the seating ergonomics on this production one are ok, because the prototype I sat in in Detroit before production got underway was miserable re seat vs center console height and awful side & rear vision. And as I’ve said before, they only look good painted.
First of all I will admit I am spoiled, very spoiled. I have owned a series of Porsches, a Speedster, a 1964 356 coupe, a 1967 912, and a few 911’s, one at a time for the past 30 years. I my first and only experience with borrowing a friends new DeLorean for a day was not good. The fit and finish was not very good. It was uncomfortable. It was underpowered. It rattled a lot. Several more problems. I just didn’t like it. He sold it after less than a year.
It’s a Lousy car? Fugly, with poor ergonomics its slow and nautical on the road. The leisure suit of cars if you will. For a sports car it makes a good golf club.
The speedo cable on a DeLorean can be simply unscrewed from the back of the gauge and presto, you’re driving without any miles being recorded…
Like any other car back in the day.
The angle drive was notorious for breaking and there wasn’t a simple fix back in the day ….hence the low mileage as the speedo didn’t then work. Funny how so many low mileage ones have warped front fascias from the headlight heat. I have owned 6 Deloreans over the years
They’re an interesting car and I’m sure many thought it would make them a small fortune if not driven much. I know of one with only 3000 miles and the owner had about 10 other very low mileage cars (not Deloreans). I ended up buying one of the other cars which is another story for another day.
Be honest the DeLorean was a copy of the sv1. Bricklin . And that was a POS.too. always breaking down, had to be under 5’10” to fit in to drive and that was very uncomfortable. If it wasn’t for the movies they all would have been scrap.
The owners got tired of being passed by Peel 50’s.
The appraiser’s guide to old cars: Rare. Desirable. Valuable. And, Condition. 8 door Checkers are rare: were they ever desirable and popular? Pininfarina Nash?Desirable: was it popular and desirable back when? Several hundred thousand Mustangs: popular and desirable? Some of them (or many of them to some degree). Is it fun to own and drive? Valuable: the buyers decide the value aka how many of them want it, and what they will pay. Condition: does not top all other considerations, and may or may not make it valuable. If work is required dramatically impacts value. Three kinds of value: Actual Cash Value, Stated Value (agreed w/ insurance co) and Insurance Replacement Value. These are NOT interchangeable! Condition and “novelty” do not make the sale beyond a certain point. Every DeLorean ever made was a “collector” car!
The reason the world is filled with low mileage Deloreans is simple and it happened OVERNIGHT! Back in “the day” dealers couldn’t give these things away – as a car they were awful and the public knew it. Then ol’ John Z Delorean got arrested for trying to traffic cocaine to save his company! While that was the obvious death knell for Delorean, too many of the car buying public, people who just a few years earlier snapped up “Twenty Fifth Anniversary” Corvettes also thought that the Delorean was an absolute sure thing for long term investment, in fact I heard people talk about how these were as good as a Shelby Cobra! So the dealers managed to sell every single Delorean at sizeable mark-up instantly whereas the day or week before they were discounting them drastically just to dump them!
But what they failed to consider, apart that the Delorean was just an Irish expression for P.O.S., is that unlike the Cobra, people never drove them, raced them, enjoyed them, wrecked them and lusted for them. When I was a kid you saw Cobras – the real genuine cars – being driven to the supermarket, being raced on the weekend and we all lusted after them long before we could even drive.
Apart from the silly “Back to the Future” movies, kids then just never saw them, didn’t want them then and thus, don’t want them now!
It’s just another proof of the fact that anything immediately believed and promoted to be a sure-fire instant collectible never is!
We have only to look at the ’76 Eldorado Convertible, the Bricklin, the “Anniversary” Corvettes and now the Delorean.
Not to mention Thomas Kinkaid originals and Danbury Mint collectibles.
How often did you see one on the road in the heyday, 1980’s? They sold in sufficient numbers to make them at least visible now and again, but you rarely if ever saw them being used. Bad reliability, people storing them? Don’t know, but to brakesrvo’s point, if no kids saw them then, they don’t want them now.
If only they had some decent fit and finish and a reliable V8 conversion…..
Want a new one??? https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/want-to-buy-a-2017-delorean-dmc-12-nows-your-chance/
Anyone taking bets on how long this new Delorean co. will last? I won’t. Even Bob Lutz didn’t get anywhere when he tried to resurrect the Cunningham, and that seemed to be a real enthusiasts car worth owning.
Brought to you by the guy who gave us the Vega. I’ve driven one of these. It has little to recommend it.
Just saw one behind me on First street on N. side of San Jose Ca. a couple days ago, moving under its own power. I had just finished fiddling with a crusty Panhard Dyna. So there’s at least one runner around the SF bay area.
I for myself would more likely choose à Bricklin SV1 over à De Lorean, just for the choice of motors you Can have ( AMC or FORD) has they are less à problème mechanicly wise, but for the Acrylic body, it is another story.