2012 State of Our Cars Poll

[WelmoedJ]

Good to read that so many of you drive the car regularly and without much problems.
Since I have 6513 I only have performed pre-emptive maintenance, which of course also can be costly.
There has been only one case that 6513 left me in the breakdown lane.
That was after I couldn't get the shifter out of 5th gear and used only that gear to get as close as possible to home.
A traffic jam however landed me in the breakdown lane as I didn't want to put too much strain on 5th in stop-and-go traffic.

This year I did a 1200 Mile roundtrip to the south of Germany, no on-the-road accidents or failures met.
Recently however I had to replace the upper U-joint of the steering axle and purchased a new battery.
That's about all I did this year.

A recent appraisal for Insurance raised the insured value of 6513 to 24k euro.
Not bad for a 31 year old "can".

Momentarily it's a DD as my Pontiac lost all oil pressure and need repairs.
I have to put the repairs on hold as I first need to find out the cause of the pressure loss.
Probably (145k Miles on it) it's the oil pump and that's a bitch to get to.

So 6513 probably will be adding the Pontiac Miles during the upcoming winter as well.

[Michael]

4915 ... Thirty one years and 365,000 miles later she demanded a break. She is being disemboweled at DPI by Josh and crew and I'm expecting great things when she comes home. I'll be blunt ... after spending close to $30K ...the Bitch better be ready to party!!!

I assume you are an original owner. You should do a post on your experiences and impressions from day one since not to many people do what you do with your car. I think a lot of people would enjoy a lengthy write-up on your ownership history. I know I would.


PS: I'm not sure you are being clear enough in the poll options, I chose a because I would definately trust it anywhere, it b says that I drive it only on short trips, which I do. I dont take it on long trips(that's what the Volvo is for). I think b should he worded " I only take it on short trips because I don't trust it enough" or something to that effect.

[hmcelraft]

Last year a "new" auto trans @ 87,000 miles. In mid-September this year a "new" engine @ 91,000 miles. Over 92,000 now trying to get it broken-in before winter.

[Dangermouse]

PS: I'm not sure you are being clear enough in the poll options, I chose a because I would definately trust it anywhere, it b says that I drive it only on short trips, which I do. I dont take it on long trips(that's what the Volvo is for). I think b should he worded " I only take it on short trips because I don't trust it enough" or something to that effect.

I can't edit the text on the poll after the fact, unfortunately. I had tried to cover that description in my original post with

"If you have successfully undertaken a long trip, pick #1.
If you only take the D on local adventures but are an optimist – pick #1
If you only take the D on local adventures but are a pessimist – pick #2"

Next year

[Dracula]

Since 2006; when I acquired the car, I've put over 27,000 miles on my car; averaging about 4,500 miles a year. Though, if you subtract the 3 years I was unable to drive the car due to my time with the Army, I get about 9,000 miles a year's worth of driving.

[Jonathan]

For my car and it's condition, I chose #1. There is technically very little wrong with it. Not to say I don't have a to-do list, but most of the current to-do list is cosmetic versus mechanical/electrical or all that important. Stereo deck and speakers upgrade for example. My car is far from perfect, but it starts every time and has never actually left me stranded somewhere.

Here's the thing though, under option #1 about being confident on taking long trips, I would say I myself score lower than the car scores. I still to this day don't always feel at ease behind the wheel. This might have early on been to do with a problematic brake master cylinder, or auto trans shift computer, or fuel accummulator, but even with all that behind me, the "curse" feeling continues. Something about the combination of driving a 31 year old car, getting spooked by new noises, having a lot of your time, money, heart and soul in the car, and especially when you factor in the endless supply of dumb-dumbs driving around you, I still am quite nervous driving the car.

Even on short drives I build more confidence after a while behind the wheel. But more often than not I am worried about what "might" happen in the DMC. It's not really founded, as very little if anything bad has ever happened, but a ton of the time I would rather let it sit in the garage than take it out. So when it comes to big road trips, especially far enough away that it is over night and you don't know where you're going to park it, I pretty much always choose to take my Pontiac.

So in terms of your poll, my car is a #1, but I myself am more like a #2.

[Shep]

4915 ... She is being disemboweled at DPI by Josh and crew and I'm expecting great things when she comes home. I'll be blunt ... after spending close to $30K ...the Bitch better be ready to party!!!

Boy do I know the feeling!

[Jacko,] you should do a post on your experiences and impressions from day one since not to many people do what you do with your car. I think a lot of people would enjoy a lengthy write-up on your ownership history. I know I would.

Seconded! I have not yet spoken to or heard from an owner who bought their D new from the dealership enough to hear their story, and I would be greatly interested in such a story!

I think b should he worded " I only take it on short trips because I don't trust it enough" or something to that effect.

What about simply adding "would only" so it becomes "I would only drive it on short to medium length trips only"? Same meaning, but worded more similarly to option A. That's where I'm aiming to be -- I don't even trust my non-DeLorean daily driver enough to make any >250 mile trips.

[jawn101]

I voted 250 miles confident this year.

The interesting thing is I voted the same way last year, but since that poll I've done so many things I would consider critical preventative maintenance and upgrades that I think I'd like to change my 2011 vote

As of now however, I'd seriously trust it to get me just about anywhere. Except maybe Tahoe in February.

[Dangermouse]

I've think that next year I will have a pre-poll thread where we can thrash out the verbiage for the options

These are all valid points. Feel free to qualify your choice with a note here.

I would also "third" the suggestion that Jack starts a thread outlining his experiences. Perhaps not all at once, but piece by piece. If I recall correctly, Jack has a second D, but it's only got 220,000 miles, no interesting stories there, I'm sure

PS - I've owned my car for four years today. Yeah baby.

[Cory W]

1. From the roughly 2500 mile trip home in 2008 (did I ever mention sight unseen?) to the various weekend trips this summer, I'll take it any time the opportunity allows. It's harder to have a weekend alone or with only one passenger than it is to drive it places.