DMCH Making new vehicles

[WNY1983]

Ok let's review. Over the years DMC Houston has made a few claims. 1. The production of DeLorean wine. I'm sure that was a real seller? 2. The proposal of manufacturing the Saturn Sky and the Pontiac Solstice, That did not happen. Oh and lets not forget the DeLorean Luggage. I never thought of buying that. And last but not least. The electric DeLorean DMC-12. I heard they made just one. So now they want to make Back to the Future cars with old stock. Cost about $100,00.00. Well if they make a profit I will be amazed. I'll just sit back with the pop corn, and see what happens. I would not bet the farm on this one.

[cpistocco]

To my knowledge DMC has never built a car from NOS or anything else without a VIN plate from the original vehicle. That will change now and new VIN's will be issued. A few weeks ago a never registered vehicle was in their showroom for 54k, but it was not new and had an old VIN.

I wonder if they are going to use up a lot of rare parts????

[Rob Greenhaw]

I wonder if they are going to use up a lot of rare parts????

That's my fear, too that they will use up parts needed for current cars, thus driving the price even higher due to increased scarcity.

At this point, you'd think 3-D printing would alleviate the pains of unavailable parts these days.

[Nicholas R]

Honestly, the thing that keeps getting me is the 1 car per week figure that is mentioned everywhere. Is this really possible? Is DMCH opening a new production location with an assembly line? If so then thats great for them, it's just something I've heard nothing about.

We've had multiple "follow the process of my new build DMC" threads on here in the past and they take months to build (if not years). Check out Mario's DMCH electric delorean thread, which is currently ongoing, and has been for over a year (http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?11...ctric+delorean), and DMCH isn't even doing the drivetrain. How do we go from building 75% of a car in a year, to one car a week? Were 52 other cars from scratch (refurbs) built last year from the time Mario placed his order and started his thread, up to today? I'm really curious how they're going to ramp up production so much.

Aside from that, I'm just curious about demand. Is there really a demand for $100,000 DeLoreans? I mean heck, there's not THAT big of a demand for $25-40,000 DeLoreans. Are there 52 people every year ready to buy a "new" 100k DMC?

EDIT: According to one article, they currently make one car per month. Not sure if this is credible or not but I figured it was worth sharing. If this is true, a 400% increase in production is pretty huge.

[RamblinDMC]

Ok let's review. Over the years DMC Houston has made a few claims. 1. The production of DeLorean wine. I'm sure that was a real seller? 2. The proposal of manufacturing the Saturn Sky and the Pontiac Solstice, That did not happen. Oh and lets not forget the DeLorean Luggage. I never thought of buying that. And last but not least. The electric DeLorean DMC-12. I heard they made just one. So now they want to make Back to the Future cars with old stock. Cost about $100,00.00. Well if they make a profit I will be amazed. I'll just sit back with the pop corn, and see what happens. I would not bet the farm on this one.

What's the Sky/Solstice story?

[Mario]

At this point, you'd think 3-D printing would alleviate the pains of unavailable parts these days.

3D printing isn't really the solution for things like this. There's a couple problems with 3D printing parts for, say, a DeLorean:
- Making large parts is very expensive. Anything over, say, a foot in any dimension is going to cost a lot of money.
- 3D printed parts can be made pretty strongly depending on the technology used, but they're never as strong as properly machined, cast, or injection-molded parts. Printing, say, a valve cover would cost WAY more than it would cost to cast it, and wouldn't even be as strong.
- Cosmetic parts still need to be sanded and/or painted to get a good finish. The printing process leaves visible layers and other visual artifacts.
- You can print transparent plastics, but they are cloudy or have bad finish.

3D printing IS good for small, non-cosmetic, low-strength parts. It'd be perfect for the back half of the clock module housing, for example. The fuse block might actually be a suitable part to 3D print. But if you want to make a whole lot of them, injection molding is still the best way to go.

3D printing is often used for fast prototyping of products, since it's much faster than machining and lower-cost than injection molding or machining (for small quantities).

[Peripatetic]

That's my fear, too that they will use up parts needed for current cars, thus driving the price even higher due to increased scarcity.

At this point, you'd think 3-D printing would alleviate the pains of unavailable parts these days.

Driving up the prices of the rare parts would backfire on them as it would make the cost of the new cars even more expensive. Most likely theyll need to reproduce all of the missing parts which would bring the cost of parts down or remain flat. Having a DeLorean made of all original parts would be harder, though. I'm not sure how important that is.

[DMCVegas]

What's the Sky/Solstice story?

When GM went bankrupt and had to shut down divisions, the Wilmington Delaware plant where the Solstice and Sky were manufactured went onto the chopping block. Then GM was looking to unload both the entire factory as well as the full Kappa platform. DMCH made it publicly known that they were looking to be the buyer for everything, and wanted to take over Wilmington Assembly to keep the entire plant open to keep cranking out cars... but they would be rebadged as DeLoreans, and this was the proposed rendering of the rebadged Kappa in DMC skin:



For whatever reason, GM pretty much refused to even acknowledge the offer and instead sold the plant off to Fisker... who went bankrupt. So not only did Wilmington loose a significant manufacturing plant, but Delaware and the Federal government took huge losses for Fisker's subsidies that never paid off.

Honestly, the thing that keeps getting me is the 1 car per week figure that is mentioned everywhere. Is this really possible? Is DMCH opening a new production location with an assembly line? If so then thats great for them, it's just something I've heard nothing about.

You know what's hilarious about that? I have a coworker who on Tuesday was arguing with me that somewhere up north of Houston off the freeway, he saw a large building with a DeLorean Motor Company sign. I'm pretty sure that he was confused about the Humble location, but if he ever figures it out, I might just take a drive for the hell of it.

Come to think of it, while Fisker got the plant, I don't remember who the Kappa platform was sold to, if at all... Pure coincidence at this point, but a fun "what-if" story none the less.

Aside from that, I'm just curious about demand. Is there really a demand for $100,000 DeLoreans? I mean heck, there's not THAT big of a demand for $25-40,000 DeLoreans. Are there 52 people every year ready to buy a "new" 100k DMC?

If this car is any indication about what *might* be coming our way based upon a potential drivetrain choice, then yes, there is a damn good chance there is a solid demand for DMCH's new car.



It's funny to me, because everyone as of right now is up in arms because it's not a "real" DeLorean given it isn't made by the old DeLorean Motor Company, and therefore isn't as good. But the irony may just be that if we finally see a production car that has modern performance to finally match the looks with this proposed program, we may just find that it will be the Replicas that garner more respect than our old cars.

You've got legions of people who hate the DMC-12 because hating it is the cool thing to do. But if there is a "new" car the proves them "wrong" by showing off what was always the car's true potential, BUT also has a new, separate provenance as an excuse to still dislike our old cars while gushing over the new ones? Well, we might yet find ourselves on the short end of the stick thanks to a new little cousin that literally runs circles around us. Be prepared.

[toyotafreak88]

This is amazing news! And sad news for people like me who could not afford a good original, let alone a new one.

I wonder how it will look with the new wheels they say it will have? I'm also excited to see what they bring to the table for redesigning the drivetrain and mass producing that. They could also sell conversion kits to refit older cars, theoretically. .. If they don't already.

I saw a video where someone had a single piece main transmission shaft (I think that was the part) made for his ls1 swap, I wonder what DMC will change in the transmission?

[81dmc]

Maybe now DMCH will finally start reproducing many parts that are NLA. (Interior panels, shift linkages, etc.)