These thread titles would have anyone believing that these cars are crap..

[DMC-81]

+1 on everything said so far.

Why do I enjoy my car? Well, I haven't been able to drive it yet because I bought it for two reasons:
1) To pursue my passion to do a car restoration project and after that...
2) To have a reliable, unique show car

As a car guy, there are many things that I enjoy. What do I enjoy the most? The car's fame:

I knew that these cars had a certain mystique, but I was surprised at how it affects many different people. For example, when it was backed off the delivery truck in my neighborhood, an elderly gentleman came out of his house to watch the whole process saying "I haven't seen one of those in 30 years!" As I was signing the delivery paperwork, the first car drove by and it stopped abruptly in the middle of a T intersection, and all of the occupants piled out to see it. The middle aged mother said excitedly "It's really a DeLorean"!!

Over the past 2 years as I carefully restored it mechanically, I had many different people stop, comment, and ask to see it. They all were smiling, and had nice things to say. I have even met some new people because of the car. This is while it was on 4 jack stands in my garage!

Last night, I was able to let the car down off its perch, and today, I will test drive it for the first time since I limped it home. Guess what! I'm really excited!

That is why I enjoy my car.

[davidc89]

The Jeep WJ forum and Miata forums I am also on are no different.

Each forum has the "What have you done to your _______ today" thread, the same questions asked over and over by newbies (miata forum NOT kind to newbies) etc etc.

From the forums I have seen, none of them are nice to newbies. If someone posts a duplicate question, they go nuts. On here, people are nice enough to post the link for the already created thread. Maybe its because we are used to getting ask all the same questions? Flux Capacitor, Cocaine, etc. It seems like other forums are filled with keyboard warriors. In my experience anyways.

[mr_maxime]

It's one of the most affordable cars to properly blast synth music in. I've owned the car for 6 months, driven well over a 1000 miles since and the main issues I've had are: really old alternator belt breaking, generic alternator belt burning off, side skirt clips failing, power antenna dying, having to hit the RPM relay to start the car and hitting a truck tire causing a bulkhead wire to come loose.

DMC alternator belt is still holding strong after 1000 miles. New clips were installed to hold the side skirt in place. New relay kit was installed. All bulkhead connections were checked. I plan on taking out the antenna soon since I never listen to the radio now that I have a new radio with aux input. Only 2 of those were probably delorean specific problems, the clips and the RPM relay. DMCMW did fix some running issues where the car was not getting power which ended up being a combination of improper fuel pump, bad injectors and fuel filter. Because the 2 belts broke during my first 80 miles with the car, I dont feel its reliable. Not so much because it's a delorean, but because how old the car is. Im not worried that the car will break down so much as some little part I havent checked yet or have the technical know how of fixing will break.

Back to awesome things though, gull wing doors. I have never felt more awesome opening a door in my entire life as when I open my delorean doors. It's so needless and the car is so ridiculous it can't help from being awesome. You can buy lambo door kits for any car, but you cant bolt on gull wings. What other car has the ability to excite by merely opening the doors? Even with the stock suspension, the car sits insanely low and the seats lean back so far. It's like a big go kart. It's the complete opposite of driving SUVs that I dislike so much. Other cars try to separate you from the road too much and the delorean does the opposite, no power steering, 5-6" of ground clearance, and stiff suspension. Yeah, it's not fast, but you don't need to go that fast driving in this much style. People often ask me what made me want to get a delorean and my answer is always "its a delorean!" What else is there?

[David T]

I thought some more about the question. A big part of why you see so many threads about fixing the cars is because a newbie gets one home and then realizes he doesn't know how to fix it or where to buy parts. He thinks he is the first and only one to have ever done this. Before looking for answers he just posts. The FAQ section is not the greatest anyway and the search function doesn't work all that well, especially if you don't know how to use it. This is THE place to go to for all of the technical stuff and there is a lot to a Delorean that is not common to other cars like the doors and the body panels. This forum is not all that unusual compared to most other car forums except that this is about the only one for Deloreans and other makes may have many places to go for information.

[sdg3205]

Maybe its because we are used to getting ask all the same questions? Flux Capacitor, Cocaine, etc. It seems like other forums are filled with keyboard warriors. In my experience anyways.

It's true. I think we've developed thick skins!

I always see helping or giving advice (not that I'm qualified to give either!!!!) as one of the best parts about this forum, even on the same questions week after week. I was there once, even if I had an issue i could find an old thread on, my issue or circumstances sometimes seemed different enough to warrant a new thread. I can't recall more than one person in 6 years on this forum being negative about it. On other forums the same guys pop up over and over again and cry foul. I don't even use the miata forum anymore because my experience there was consistently unpleasant. Also, other forums are harder to navigate; this forum is EASY. We have one model! Other forums have sub-forum after sub-forum after sub-forum and the search engines often limit you to one search a minute unless you're a paid member. How annoying is that when you're stranded in a parking lot?!

DMCT for the win.

[mr_maxime]

I'm not the biggest fan of the search function's capabilities. The how-to section is great, but could use more stuff. The hardest part at times though is reading through someone's full restoration thread hoping that they had a similar issue. I've had two occasions of my car not starting, both of which were different and would have been difficult to go through the forum. Kind of hard to search why the ignition coil isnt working when you didnt even know it was a thing until your car wasnt running. So one of the great things about this car is the community, both forum and in person. Wouldnt have been able to get my car back on the road without DMCMW Dave and Andy Blackmon.

[Some guy]

I love this question, VW just has 500,000 cars recall. Toyota had to replace millions of gas petals because people were getting killed. Mazda said it is normal for there transmissions to slam into gear. Dodge is well Dodge. Ford explorers were rolling over because of bad tires.


All cars are crap.

Deloreans just happens to be one car worth keeping on the road.

[81dmc]

I love this question, VW just has 500,000 cars recall. Toyota had to replace millions of gas petals because people were getting killed. Mazda said it is normal for there transmissions to slam into gear. Dodge is well Dodge. Ford explorers were rolling over because of bad tires.


All cars are crap.

Deloreans just happens to be one car worth keeping on the road.

You forgot GM and their ignition switches.

[PJ Grady Inc.]

I know my title is shocking but I believe it to be true. Many Delorean's over the years have suffered from;

1) Lack of regular use and poor storage procedures and/or simple neglect over long strechs of time.
2) Poor repairs made by inexperienced or misinformed PO's or "hack" mechanics.
3) Incorrect or modified parts not suitable for the intended purpose in the name of false economy, performance, or simple apathy.
4) Changes of ownership from a responsible PO to a misininformed or financially stretched owner and back again over a 34 year stretch of time.

Most Deloreans have experienced at least one or multiples of the above over time. I've always considered my job to be to piece together, through inspection, observation and documentation, the history of each car I work on. After that I try to determine the best and most expedient way to bring the car back to it's former glory, or better, within the current owners budget and expectations. That is not always possible with an owner who is financially in over his head. Barring that virtually every possible thing that can go wrong has repair or fix that done correctly, and pursued thoroughly, will leave you with a car capable of driving coast to coast without the need for spare parts, tools, or a mechanic in the trunk (Boot for our English friends!). I know of many Deloreans, often ones I've maintained/restored to be quite frank, that I would not hesitate to drive anywhere at the drop of a hat.

The truth is that "good news is no news" and everyone uses these forums to search for answers to problems, parts advice, vent, complain, etc. We forget about all the positive posts about reliability and various joys of ownership because that is our nature. The recent runup in Delorean prices indicates to me that more people understand this than ever before and are placing a higher value on Delorean ownership. Whether the cause is the red hot collector market, "Back to the Future" anniversary mania, the improving economy or a better appreciation for the car is anybodies guess. The bottom line is as a collector car I think the Delorean's time has finally arrived. I've sold three Deloreans in the last month without advertising and no quibling about the price. It's finally a good time investmentwise to be a Delorean owner. Sit back, enjoy and hope it lasts!
Rob

[DMCVegas]

Dude, if you were an extra terrestrial send to study humans, and you only utilized hospitals as your only reference, you'd come away with the impression that we were consistently weak, dumb, sickly creatures. Same thing here: This is where neglected cars come to get fixed, so you're going to mostly conversations about cars with problems.

DeLoreans are great cars. I own one, and have used it as a daily driver before with it being my only car when I was single, young bachelor. It was, getting right to the point, fucking awesome. But I don't sit around just posting stories of my glory days, and pretty much most people have already heard most of my stories at least once anyway. Likewise when I did have it on the road, I also didn't post every single day how I made it to work, made it home, took it grocery shopping, ran errands in it, etc. It's a car, it did it's job, and did it very well as to be expected. It is an odd experience to go from "Yay! I've got my dream car!" to an attitude of "I drive a used car." when you keep a DeLorean as a daily driver. It wasn't that excitement wore off in a bad way, not at all. It just wasn't, to me any way, much of a big deal anymore. It's awesome to live and breathe everything DeLorean, and for me, well, it's not just a dream car, but it's the 99% perfect car for me. But like I say, since it's so prevalent in my life, it just wasn't a 24/7 thing of reporting in. It may not be 100% the exact same way for everyone, but unless it's a big road trip, even the daily drivers and 100K Club members just don't "report" their cars are still working just for the sake of doing so.

Plus anytime you mention a thing about a car going into the shop, no matter what the case is, it immediately becomes negative with people. I've got a '14 Focus that just got a recall for a Fuel Pump, and a TSB for a Transmission Reprogramming. I just got it back from over the weekend, and when I tell people they're like, "Whoah, that's terrible!" and then act like I'm going to rant. No, it's a recall. They happen, and it doesn't mean it's a bad car. Hell, I've got am 8 year old F150. Never had a single recall, never given me any problems outside of wearable parts. Someone asked me about it, and I made mention that since it's now over 100,000 miles, I've got some service items I need to take care of. Same reaction by people where because it's a vehicle that needs work, it's immediately a bad car. It's warranty fear at it's worst because people are just so dumb. Hell, look at your modern cars and you'll notice that they no longer list temperatures for the engine coolant. They just indicate either cold or hot. Why? Because people are idiots. I once knew a DeLorean owner that complained his car always ran hot. He showed me the temp gauge and how it always hovered below 220. Since water boils, he thought the car was constantly overheating. That also was a wasted conversation trying to explain the physics behind that. Even with a bottle of Prestone in my hand. But again, people only complain (mostly out of ignorance), and that's all you hear about. It's universal with ALL cars.

By the same token, like me, what the hell else do I have to talk about around here when it comes to all things DeLorean? What really do any of us have to talk about? Most of us could probably write how-to's on any part of the car. And lots of information is still contained in almost 20 years of just online conversations alone that anyone can, and does research. We got one model vehicle that was in production for 2 years, with 3 official model years, with minimal variations. This isn't like other marques. That's a big reason as to why we pretty much never complain if someone brings up a question about a well-covered subject. It's also why some of us started infighting with the nasty trolling; we needed something to do, and there wasn't really much of anything else. Even the DML still has a handful of yokels that are still bringing up arguments from 10-15 years ago because they've nothing else DeLorean to talk about. We're bitching about being bored.