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Thread: Group photo at QAC?

  1. #21
    DMC Texas 800-872-3621 or +1-281-441-2537 DMCH James's Avatar
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    As I understand it, only about 350 cars were shipped on that first boat from Belfast. At best that meant each dealer could only have had one car. Some dealers may have kept their cars on display in the showroom to show to other potential buyers until they knew they had more on the way to them.

    Had John not doubled production, both to make stock offering look better and also gambling that adding workers would entice the British to continue supporting DMCL, they probably would have made it through the bad winter of 1982 and high interest rates of 82/83. Slowing production (IMO) would have allowed the factory to further improve quality and address design issues that would have further improved the product. Then, the addition of the twin-turbo would have addressed the performance concerns.

    James


    Quote Originally Posted by louielouie2000 View Post
    I had no idea cars weren't sold to customers until mid June. They had been coming off the assembly line for 3 months at that point, and production was starting to really ramp up. I was always under the impression that the cars were available earlier, but in small quantities... hence the initial demand. This changes my entire view of DeLorean saga. The cars were in demand and the company was successful for such a short period. By the end of '81 demand was low and supply was seriously mounting. It seems the only successful timeframe DMCL experienced was perhaps June-October of '81. It makes more sense now why the British government stopped funding DMCL so quickly after the cars entered production... the company as it stood was not viable, & was based on utterly unrealistic numbers.
    James Espey, President
    DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)
    http://www.lcassicdmc.com

  2. #22
    Member vin6635's Avatar
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    Anyone have an address of the east coast QAC?

  3. #23
    Guy with a DeLorean Mark D's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DMCH James View Post
    Had John not doubled production, both to make stock offering look better and also gambling that adding workers would entice the British to continue supporting DMCL, they probably would have made it through the bad winter of 1982 and high interest rates of 82/83. Slowing production (IMO) would have allowed the factory to further improve quality and address design issues that would have further improved the product. Then, the addition of the twin-turbo would have addressed the performance concerns.

    James
    The biggest question on my mind recently is whether or not it was a good thing that John ramped up production...

    It was obviously bad for the company back then and played a major role in accelerating the failure...BUT in the grand scheme of things are current owners better off that this was the way in which the company went down?

    What I mean is, did they really stand a chance of lasting much longer than they did? Would quality improvements and a turbo engine really have saved the company? It's possible that they would have failed anyway from overextending into other ventures like the ATV, DMC bus, aircraft tug, etc. Those projects all came to an end when the DMC-12 sucked the company's capital dry, but had they slowed things down with the car the company could have still went under from those other projects continuing on. Then we'd be left with 3000 cars and a handful of busses instead of 9000 cars.

    Or maybe they would have survived for a few more years and eventually hit the same production numbers?

    Either way, if they were in fact on an eventual path to failure I'm glad they at least went out leaving us with a sizeable stockpile of cars that still exist today.

  4. #24
    DMC Texas 800-872-3621 or +1-281-441-2537 DMCH James's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vin6635 View Post
    Anyone have an address of the east coast QAC?
    685 Highway 202-206 N.
    Bridgewater, NJ 08807
    James Espey, President
    DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)
    http://www.lcassicdmc.com

  5. #25
    DMC Texas 800-872-3621 or +1-281-441-2537 DMCH James's Avatar
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    Sizeable stockpile of cars AND parts for it. Had production NOT been ramped up, they wouldn't have bought all these parts and we'd have been left with very little NOS supply.

    I think quality improvements, interior and exterior colors, performance improvements and an improved economy (the Reagan years) would have kept the company going.

    James

    Quote Originally Posted by mjdehlin View Post
    The biggest question on my mind recently is whether or not it was a good thing that John ramped up production...

    It was obviously bad for the company back then and played a major role in accelerating the failure...BUT in the grand scheme of things are current owners better off that this was the way in which the company went down?

    What I mean is, did they really stand a chance of lasting much longer than they did? Would quality improvements and a turbo engine really have saved the company? It's possible that they would have failed anyway from overextending into other ventures like the ATV, DMC bus, aircraft tug, etc. Those projects all came to an end when the DMC-12 sucked the company's capital dry, but had they slowed things down with the car the company could have still went under from those other projects continuing on. Then we'd be left with 3000 cars and a handful of busses instead of 9000 cars.

    Or maybe they would have survived for a few more years and eventually hit the same production numbers?

    Either way, if they were in fact on an eventual path to failure I'm glad they at least went out leaving us with a sizeable stockpile of cars that still exist today.
    James Espey, President
    DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)
    http://www.lcassicdmc.com

  6. #26
    Member vin6635's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DMCH James View Post
    685 Highway 202-206 N.
    Bridgewater, NJ 08807
    Thanks, James. Looks like the original QAC building is long gone now...replaced with an office building.

  7. #27
    DMC Texas 800-872-3621 or +1-281-441-2537 DMCH James's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vin6635 View Post
    Thanks, James. Looks like the original QAC building is long gone now...replaced with an office building.
    I seem to recall reading that it was on old (Chrysler?) dealership at one point and was closed when DMC bought it - perhaps JZD bought it and was leasing it to DMC.

    James
    James Espey, President
    DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)
    http://www.lcassicdmc.com

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