Average length of ownership

[Hill Valley PD]

I talked about getting one for a long time and researched them for a couple of years by reading all the books, monitoring this site, and visiting DMC MW to look at numerous cars in person to get a feel for which production changes I wanted and what different cars looked like at different price points. Research and patience keep us non-original owners around longer because we know what we want and set out to get it rather than buy one on impulse and not know what we've gotten into.

I am at 1.5 years now and bought a really nice one off the bat (25K mile originally from CA car), but still have put a good amount of money in it to get it even better/routine upkeep. That is another mistake an uneducated, enthusiastic new owner makes. A cheap DeLorean is an expensive DeLorean in the long run. These cars cost some money to maintain regardless of how nice they are, especially if you don't do the work yourself. I have 20K in invoices on my car since 2012 from DMC MW, mostly done by prior owner. I am fortunate enough to live an hour from DMC MW, so they have done a good amount on the car. I also have a friend who owns his own shop and is ridiculously cheap, so the car goes there for more basic things that require a lift. He's my Car Wizard for you Hoovie's Garage fans.

This is leads to the point of one of the above posts. The more I tinker with the car myself, the more I feel connected to it. I am by no means handy. I know how to do oil changes, tire rotations, detailing, etc. Th biggest project I have done to date myself is converting everything to LED, sans dash and headlights. I also learned about the ridiculous placement of the oil pan plug and how it squirts all over the frame during oil changes. Now if I only get the damn glove box to close right haha. This is also the first "fun"car I've had where I am not researching a replacement...

[mhanch]

Prices now are so high, that it's actually cheaper to restore the DeLorean and put it into service as a spare car.

This is so true in many ways. I've given up for now on new cars. You just get more for the money with older cars and used deals.

[JBaker4981]

I can't really speak much here... I've owned my car going on 7 months now. It's a life long dream that started when I was 6 or 7 and has evolved over the last decade. As others have said, I'll live out of it if I have to. My wife and my mom talked me into pulling the trigger early as opposed to waiting this summer (2020) and I am glad that I did. The more I work on the car, replace parts, tinker, etc, then the more that I enjoy it and respect it.

[Derek Quint]

I have owned mine for over 13 years, hope to keep it for the rest of my life.

[crbritt83]

It is so true that you become more connected to the car if you work on it yourself. I'm fortunate to be reasonably handy when it comes to working on cars, as my dad instilled that in my brothers and I as we grew up working on the family cars (mostly out of necessity to save money!).

I can vividly remember every piece of work I've done to the car (but note I did send mine off for some more heavy restoration work to DMCFL).

A few of my favorite memories -
1. When I was working to get her cranked again after long term storage, and trying to change the oil for the first time. Hand grinding a socket drive to spec to fit into the square female plug. The sense of accomplishment when the plug finally broke lose with the help of a copper breaker bar, and the shot of oil that splattered my face (eye protection was a good save and made this a funny event).

2. Replacing the fuel distributor, and dropping one of the infamous copper washers into the abyss. Spending 4 hours trying to fish it out with a telescoping magnet, and finally finding it!

3. Hand cleaning the tank of rotten gas and black sludge

4. Replacing the door struts and seeing the magic of the gullwing doors working properly for the first time.

5. Working on the accumulator - the art of hand/arm/tool placement to work in the confined space.

6. The feeling of freeing out a stuck piston in one of the calipers after meticulously soaking it for a week.


The list goes on and on... but I agree with living in the car if I ever get into a financial crisis!

[ritztoys]

I'll be celebrating my ownership of 27 Years in two weeks, it's been a 'sometimes' great experience in taking care of my car. Every time I repair/upgrade a system/item on my car I know it will be even more reliable and enjoyable.

I've had numerous "no starts" in my steep learning curve of maintaining this car from the my early days of ownership, now just an unpleasant memory that I can reflect on, "I fixed it myself" helps me further the knowledge I've acquired over all these years of "Livin' the Dream" and keeping my car in good driving shape.

I even taught myself how to rebuild the transmission shift computer, haven't had any issues since I rebuilt it three years ago.

Always eager to learn something new on the maintenance of this iconic car, 04629 will always be in my life!

[Andrew]

I will hit 22 years in July. Time flies when you're having fun!

[SS Spoiler]

Someone needs to start a "road trip disasters"
thread telling of breakdowns and how you solved
fixing and getting home....

[Mark D]

It's what people know you by. "Oh yea, I know that guy. He's got the DeLorean, right?"

This rings so true. I'm sure there are other collector cars that have a similar effect, but being described as a "that guy with that car" seems particularly strong with DeLorean ownership. For whatever reason the car becomes a part of your identity.

I almost never bring up the DeLorean in casual conversation or when I meet new people, yet somehow they always seem to find out (or already know) that I own one. I will bump into people I don't remember meeting but they'll remember who I am because of the car.

It's actually a little strange sometimes. Last summer I was talking to a guy at a car show who knew I had a DeLorean... but I hadn't actually met him before. It turns out he lives a few blocks away and has seen me washing it in the driveway.

I wonder if this kind of stuff happens to the Porsche or Ferrari guys?

...and getting back to the original question in this thread, I just passed 12 years of ownership in October. It'll probably be a forever car for me unless something life changing happens and I'm forced to sell it.

[Jonathan]

I'll be celebrating my ownership of 27 Years in two weeks, it's been a 'sometimes' great experience in taking care of my car. Every time I repair/upgrade a system/item on my car I know it will be even more reliable and enjoyable.

I've had numerous "no starts" in my steep learning curve of maintaining this car from the my early days of ownership, now just an unpleasant memory that I can reflect on, "I fixed it myself" helps me further the knowledge I've acquired over all these years of "Livin' the Dream" and keeping my car in good driving shape.

I even taught myself how to rebuild the transmission shift computer, haven't had any issues since I rebuilt it three years ago.

Always eager to learn something new on the maintenance of this iconic car, 04629 will always be in my life!

Another thing working on your own car does is make it more reliable and less likely to breakdown and leave you stranded. Not because any of us are expert and superior mechanics, but because the more you know your car, the more you'll pick-up on a subtle change in feel or noise or rattle or position of one of the needles in the instrument cluster. Realizing something small just changed gives you a better chance of catching it before it becomes something big. I don't think owners that let someone else do all their work would pick-up on this kind of thing quite as well as the owners that do their own work.

The list goes on and on... but I agree with living in the car if I ever get into a financial crisis!

As a buddy of mine used to say, "you can sleep in your car, but you can't drive your house!"