What made you want a Delorean?

[88Ngone]

Hi all!

Jared here with VIN #10541. Maybe I'm doing a repetitive discussion, maybe not, but I thought it would be fun to see what led each of you to buy your Delorean. There's so many cool stories involved with this car and I guess I just enjoy hearing them. So with that said, why did you buy a Delorean? What made you want the car?

For me, growing up I always wanted that amazing car. At first, I wanted a 1997 Dodge Viper, blue with white stripes. But when I got my first couple of jobs I knew there was no way I could afford that $75,000 car. I remember walking by the T.V. one day and back to the future was on. I always loved that movie and of course it was the mall chase scene. It was that moment where I said, that's it, that's the car I want, a Delorean.

It took roughly a decade, but fast forward in time and I had a great career and loving wife and child. I brought up my dream car to my wife, and over the next various months was able to convince her to pursue it. This was done by having my 2 year old daughter walking through the house and lifting her arms up like the Deloreans doors, and making a hissing sound to imitate the doors opening from the movie. My wife let me begin my search with 1 rule, you cannot spend more than $15000 loan wise. After that I began my hunt and found an awesome owner by the name of Ed Garbade. He talked to me for hours about the car and was as genuine as you can be, even offering to warranty the car for 1,500 miles. In May 2007, I came home in my very own time machine!!!

So how about you?

Respectfully,
Jared

[Col Bennett]

To be perfectly honest - "Back To The Future".

I went to see the movie as a kid with my Mum and Dad and as soon as the DeLorean rolled out of Doc Brown's van I was mesmerized. Like many of you, it's been my childhood dream to own one and after looking on and off for over 10 years (without really having the funds), I finally had enough savings to buy a lovely example in 2016, which I've been perfecting ever since.

[jackb]

BTTF is what made me *aware* of the Deloreans existence.
If the movie never existed and I just happened to see one out of the blue, I’d have the same reaction.
What made me want a Delorean? Just look at it. That’s your answer.

[opethmike]

I'm deeply afraid of attractive women, so I figured what better way to keep them at bay?

[AdmiralSenn]

I tripped over an old man at the market and roundly cursed him for being such a layabout in the middle of a public space.

Alas, the man was a sarcastic wizard of considerable power. My punishment is to bear this vehicle around with me for the rest of my days. Always garaged, never running, mocking me endlessly.

Also he burned down my house and murdered my wife and three children, but in the grand scheme of things the car is the far worse punishment.

[Spittybug]

Some harsh replies above!!!

I was a college kid '80 to '84 and therefore remember the "Living the dream" marketing..... Cool car. At the time I was driving my dad's '71 straight six Camaro when I needed it. I didn't have my own car until after graduation. The movie certainly didn't hurt, but the first attraction was being the right age at the right time.

Fast forward to 2006 and going to a big Houston car show with my young daughter and noticing the absence of any Delorean when usually we'd seen them. I came home and checked on Ebay to see if they were super scarce or anything and found an auction ending in half an hour. I joked with my wife, "can I buy a Delorean?" thinking the $14,000 price wouldn't last.... she said I had to sell my '79 Spitfire and I agree. Well, although the bid went up a couple thousand more, I won, much to my surprise...... "Honey, I just bought a Delorean...."

The last 13 years were the longest that I had owned any car. I did so much to it, especially after retiring in 2011. It was sufficiently easy to work on like other 70's or 80's cars, but had enough substance to it, modern features and value to not be something I would lose money on. Modernizing it to EFI, performing the necessary maintenance for a nearly 40 year old car and using it as a reliable 2nd car in the household was the agenda for years. Only the life change of building a new home in Hill country and the desire for a fun little convertible to enjoy in that environment was enough to get me to sell it on. My wife won't miss is though; she never liked sitting so low and getting in and out was tough for her.

All in all it was an enjoyable chapter in my automotive life, but time to move on. As I think back, I've had quite a few cars! In rough chronological order of owning....

• Hand me down '71 Camaro (GREAT car. Brother inherited after me and ended up abandoning it for back parking tickets...ugh.)
• Used Honda 175cc motorcycle that I wrapped around a tree, rupturing spleen and fracturing back... no more bikes.....
• Used '79 Dodge Challenger (Misubishi by then.... troublesome)
• Crown Victoria LTD (company car, ugliest thing you've ever seen with blue Brougham top)
• Chrysler LeBaron GTS turbo (company car, quite nice)
• A couple of Tauruses (company cars, boring but hey, free)
• New Ford Festiva (wife's)
• Pontiac Grand Prix (company car, but I bought it)
• New Isuzu Trooper (wife's - love the old boxy style)
• Used '79 Triumph Spitfire (too many parts missing, sold it to get the '79)
• New Nissan Quest (wife's)
• Used Acura TL - 5 cylinder (short lived, got pickup)
• Used Nissan Frontier pickup
• Used '77 Triumph Spitfire (frame off restoration - beautiful)
• New Honda Odyssey (wife's)
• Used '79 Super beetle convertible (frame off restoration - labor of absolute love - for wife who didn't drive it much....sold to Alaska customer)
• Used '81 Delorean (just sold to Canadian customer)
• New '08 Infiniti G35 Sport (WOW)
• New '15 Ford F-150 (turned in right away after discovering stuff about towing...)
• New leftover '14 Ford F-350 Superduty (WOW, power for towing RV)
• Used '16 BMW 228i convertible (new toy!)
• Next toy car for life in Hill Country????????

[88Ngone]

Yall rock. I absolutely love the stories.....the awesome rhymes....and even wizardry tales!

There truly is nothing like the Delorean community!

[Rich_NYS]

I saw the car commercial and the magazines when I was a young teen....back then it was like a spaceship was landing, and it was completely awesome. Several years later I saw BTTF and was reminded of how cool it is.

Several years after that I saw one for the first time in person; it was around 2001, parked along a main road, and for sale (7500.) I wanted to buy it but we were renting an apartment at the time. My wife encouraged me to buy it anyway, but without a garage or a place to put it, I moved on but didn't forget about it.

After my kids were born I was in a conversation about how not many people know how to drive a manual transmission. I proclaimed that my kids will learn how to drive a stick in a DeLorean. A few years later I bought a 3-speed auto, then a 5-speed.

I started teaching them the shift pattern last week, and my 11 year-old started shifting 2nd-3rd-4th this past weekend....

[DMCMW Dave]

I was into the car from the first magazine articles in the late 70s. Fascinated by the rear engine/gullwing doors/stainless thing. I was able to see a car in person for the first time at the 1982 Chicago Auto Show. I'd been married a few years at this point, 2 kids, station wagon etc. = no disposable toy income.

1982 Chicago Auto Show.jpg

Then, a couple of houses, kids etc. later, finally decided that I "needed" a father/son project car (son was by now 14 or so). Found one locally and the rest is history. It's either a hobby gone wrong (or second career, depending on how you look at it), leading to DMC Midwest.

My DeLorean is by far my longest-owned car (22 years, next closest is maybe 8 ).

BTW the father/son project car idea worked out too, he's currently an engineer in the automotive (tire) industry. We'll see if I can hold onto the DMC until his son is 14, only 9 years to go! So feel free to use that line of logic if you need to.

[BladeBronson]

I saw Back to the Future in ‘85 when I was 6 years old. That movie taught me that skateboarding, electric guitars, DeLoreans, and not really caring what the principal said was cool. I told my Dad that “they should really make a car like that.” He told me that “they” did. I was hooked.

Maybe 3 years later, I heard a rumor from a kid on the bus that the Cadillac dealership in town had a DeLorean. My mom took me there and that was the first time I laid eyes on one. She wrote the dealership a letter, thanking them for letting me see the car and asked them to call if they were ever going to move it around the lot. They called and asked her to bring me over for a ride.

In 1999, I was 20 years old and living in Chicago. Now a very tall adult, I wasn’t sure if I’d fit in a DeLorean. Through DMC News, I got in touch with DMCMW Dave (yeah, 20 years ago!). He was going to be showing his car at a car show and offered to let me sit in it. He was also very helpful in helping me find my first DeLorean, and with fixing a bunch of its issues.

So yeah, a combination of the movie, going for a ride at a young age, and a community of folks like Dave convinced me that this was for me.

1A6FF4D2-42EF-4A54-A19D-82C236ADA193.jpg