What do you know about your PO?

[sdg3205]

I find the ownership lineage of cars interesting. It's a story really; who has driven my car? What possessed them to buy it? Where did they drive it? What are their fondest and worst memories of it?

3205 was originally sold to Virgil Schafer of Omaha Nebraska in 1981 from H&H Chevrolet. He was a war vet, and died in Lincoln before I had the chance to let him know his long lost car was alive and well in Canada.

He sold it to a a gentlemen in steamboat spring Colorado. I'm not sure who this was, but it was then sold again to someone else in steamboat named gene. Gene was a car collector, but seemed to have bought and sold a lot of cars as well. From what I gather, space was limited and he shipped 3205 (in rough shape at this point) down to Gilbert Arizona to live in the desert behind a friends barn.

I found 3205 on craiglist in 2009 and watched it come and go on CL and eBay for a long time, with the price dropping as time went on.

While down at my folks place in Scottsdale in 2010, it popped back up. I asked my wife if we could make the 1 hour journey to go look at it. She agreed. It was in terrible shape - the windshield was caved it, power windows dropped into the door, door handles missing, wouldn't start, brakes went to the floor etc etc etc. didn't matter - the stage was set. It had been 25 years of "dreaming" and this was actually the first time I had even sat in one.

I'm the 4th owner of 3205 and it ain't goin anywhere.

[Rad Dad]

Your reference to Steamboat Springs, CO caught my eye. I moved to Stmbt (local abbreviation) in 1989. At that time I had, or so I thought, the only DeLorean in that town with a population of 8,000. I kept hearing references to "another one of those cars", but never saw it nor could I discover who owned it. It obviously wasn't driven. In 1997 I traded 6530 (which I had purchased new) on 16867 (which I still own). I lived in Steamboat Springs until 2011 and still had never seen another DeLorean owned by anyone else in Stmbt. Towards the end of my stay there was a sighting or two, but not by me. Of course, by then the town had grown to a whopping 12,000 people so you can understand that a DeLorean wouldn't stand out :head scratch:.

FWIW, I did once meet a 16 year old boy in Stmbt who claimed that his Dad had bought a"fixer-upper" and that he had it stored at their trailer home on the edge of town. He was not anxious to share any info so I didn't follow-up. I did mention that meeting to another car guy in town and he said he had seen the car in question and that it was pretty badly beat up - especially the windshield. I guess that could well have been the car you ultimately purchased.

Dick Ryan

[sdg3205]

That's pretty interesting. It wouldn't surprise me. The Delorean degrees of separation becomes pretty small sometimes!

[BABIS]

I know only the name of the first owner, she is/was a woman :shock:

[Jonathan]

My previous owner(s) was a strange sort.

He (or she) was fond of parking the car for long periods of time in damp areas, perhaps on top of some dirt or grass. He was an avid pet mice collector and used to give his little furry friends free rain on building little homes in the car. At one point he also must have enjoyed the company of wasps of one kind or another as they took up shop in the left rear vent.

He was concerned with vehicle security and installed an astonishingly loud mechanical siren, complete with a variety of wiring here and there and various fasteners strew all about. He was an avid 1981 penny collector as at least seven separate pieces from his private collection were later found under the carpets. Not much of a radio or stereo listener apparently, as you can't do much of that when none of it is working.

For driving skills, he must have been clever with sensing someone was coming as this is the only explanation how someone could safely navigate a car with brakes that bad. He also must have enjoyed driving in 1st gear as that was all the auto trans ever did when I first got the car. He didn't care much for how fast he was going I guess as the speedo wasn't about to tell you anything.

I think he might have also held local scavenger hunts right there on the car considering all the pieces missing.

.... all joking aside, I don't know anything about my PO. If I got to meet him one day though... hehe :)

[Domi]

The previous owner of my car was a French guy who only kept it a year and a half.
He bought the car when he was in the USA to a lady in Missouri.
Her husband was the original owner, but, unfortunately I don't know more about it.
I'd like to be able to find out more about the history of 16951 but now it is quite a difficult mission.
I don't even know the name of her and I bought the car 19 years ago, so...

[refugeefromcalif]

My PO was DMCF. There was a thread a while back where we could get a Free CarFax type report. (bug in their system since fixed).
From that I found that my car came from NJ to Florida. Before that is was registered and titled in WI? If I remember right.
I saved a text file and screenshot of the report but can't find it now. The report showed that my car was first Titled in 1983.?
I'd also Love to find out more about the owner(s), that put its first 4,300 +/- miles on its clock.

George

[Gfrank]

Affriad I know vary little regarding my 81. How ever the girlfriends 82 is somewhat neat, was raffled off in michigan, and was won by a friend of the dealer giving it away (she had no intrest in the car just helping out buying a ticket) I've got the newpaper article after she won, then another saying she may not be able to keep it due to having to pay for the taxes. Was later sold to another fellow, not sure who, damaged, and never ran again untill last week

[Rich_NYS]

I met my car's PO when I bought the car off him. Nice, fairly honest guy. The car was 11 years in storage, he said he started it no less then every few weeks during that time....the condition of the fuel & tank seems to support that.

Not sure about the previous PO, but included with the car was the shop manuals with notes from/about PJ Grady's. (This car is from that area.)

[Kenny_Z]

Mine was purchased from an Illinois DMC dealer (red paint by them) by an older lady. When she passed away it sold to the owner before me in 2001. He started it every once in awhile and rarely drove it. When he passed away in 2011 his daughters wanted nothing to do with it and sent it to a cosigner where I bought it. I heard my PO loved the car and would drive it around the block as much as he could with his failing health. I met the neighbor who was able to tell the widow that the car wasn't red anymore and was being taken good care of. She wanted to see it again but unfortunately she passed away before I got the car back on the road after the paint was stripped. I've promised the neighbor that I'll bring it out there eventually because the entire neighborhood knew of the red DeLorean.

[SS Spoiler]

The first DeLorean I ever saw was next to a jacked up Jeep at Park Jeep Burnsville Mn. The Jeep was so high and the DeLorean so low, it looked like you could drive right under. The light reflected just so....I was
entranced. Stopping to look at it stirred up something in me that fanned the flames of desire, that I was losing
sleep. After a month of reading about the car, I approached the dealer with cash in hand only to discover it
had been sold. heartbreak....hotel here I come. Six months later a gal in our church mentioned she thinks
there might be one of them funny cars at Trail Dodge. [after moaning about my missed opportunity to any and all] Turned out the car had been bought by an 18 year old that couldn't get insurance, and it ended up at the
repo lot.
You guessed it, straight to Trail Dodge, one mile test drive and it was ours. Did the worst thing I could have done, bought the first one I saw. Went into it cold turkey, knowing nothing of the car or its history. Later meet the original owner at his tiny one man apt. on the twenty second floor of a high-rise in downtown Minneapolis.
MN uses so much salt on the roads to melt snow that bridges are falling down. Probably why I had to replace the frame in 1988. [see "rust never sleeps" in DeLorean World mag.]
27 years later, and much wiser our car still gives my wife and I a thrill when on the road.

Paul / Kate Cerny #2691
Kalispell, MT

[wrkey]

I was dating the PO of Della when I found out she had it. I was not really that interested in the vehicle when she first mentioned it. Her and her ex-husband has bought the car new from the San Antonio, Texas dealer as their oil field consultation business was doing very well. She drove the car most of the time but never really liked it for the lack of power, visiability, ect. Since the car was sitting the garage most of the time, everytime the took it out it ran terrible and then they would spend a lot to make it run right. Then that cycle woud happen again. Aftr I had dated her about a year, she mentioned that her ex-husband was wanting to sell the vehicle and she didn't want to 'buy it back' (they traded the car back and forth several times since their divorce but never changed the title). We went and looked at the car in the storage unit (he had the title, she had the keys, go figure). I made an offer and he counter offered and I gave him my absolute final number and he accepted.

So, I am the second owner and after a good amount of work by DMCH and myself, I happily drive the car at least once or twice a week and she hasn't let me down yet. I purchased the car with 13k miles on her and now she has 21k.

[Mark D]

Chuck, the previous owner of my car purchased 06125 in June/July of 2001 when it had around 6,000 miles on the odometer. He's from Sandusky, OH and treated the car very well during his ownership until he sold it to me in 2008. He was fairly active in the DeLorean community during his ownership and attended a few major shows and events. Included when I bought the car was every receipt from every purchase he ever made for parts & service. I cataloged it all in a binder and logged it in an excel spreadsheet. I continue to document all work that I've done and keep a running tab of work and expenses.

From what I can tell 06125 was mostly original prior to Chuck's purchase from a local dealership in Sandusky. The car must have been stored indoors most of its first 20 years because of the minimal rust and great shape of the interior. After Chuck purchased the car he spent a few years upgrading the fuel system to resolve hot start issues and he did some cosmetic updates. He was meticulous about keeping it clean and the car has been extremely reliable since I've owned it.

Prior to Chuck's ownership I know very little about the car. The dealership listed on the previous title didn't have any history on it when I called about 5 years ago. DMV records are all private now due to privacy laws so I'm pretty much out of luck there...

The only potential lead I haven't exhausted yet is the Delorean Owners Association sticker in the passenger lower corner of the windshield...whoever owned the car prior to Chuck was most likely a member....Chuck said he investigated during his ownership but could never get a name of the PO. I haven't done much searching of my own but I'm interested to dig deeper.

In my 6 years of ownership I've done a lot of work to 06125 to restore as much of the car back to factory new...earlier in my ownership I used to email a few photos to Chuck every once in a while when I refurbished a part or after a fresh detail so he knew I was taking good care of the car. I've never gotten a response back though, so I haven't put any effort forth in a while to try and keep in contact. Maybe he doesn't want to be reminded of it, or maybe he just doesn't care anymore. Either way, I feel lucky that I was able to find a car that was well taken care of for so many years prior to my ownership.

Great thread by the way, I love reading about the history of other people's cars and how each car has been on a unique journey.

[GS450-Junkie]

Perhaps ancestry.com could branch out a bit more and have a classic car PO lineage section. :tongue2:

[Dangermouse]

Haha, my PO was called Chuck too. I'll throw together a short history later

[DMCVegas]

No much. PO died years ago and the car was left to rot since he was the only one in the family that apparently liked it. One of his surviving children decided to sell it off, and felt that it was not prestigious enough for him. This is all that I know since the car was at a service center being sold, and the seller and all family wanted absolutely zero contact with the buyer for reasons I'm not entirely certain of (though I think I may have an idea given price discrepancies on the paperwork).

After some research, all I was ever able to find out was that the son in charge is some guy that broke off and helped found some splinter faction of Amway. Still trying to sort it out, but it looks as though the PO was a lawyer and then a dentist (if he was a lawyer, it's a first). 2 months after buying the car brand new, his step son died. The mystery just gets deeper and deeper....

[Dangermouse]

I guess I am fortunate to be able to trace the owners of my car all the way back to the stone age. Or at least 1981.

Claude T (the owner/builder of AristoCraft Boats) bought 2743 new from Hub Motor Company in Atlanta in October 1981. I assume that it came in through the East QAC but I am still researching that bit

Claude lived (or possibly still lives) In Roswell, a short 5 mile drive from Hub. He drove it for 32,126 miles before he (or his family) auctioned it off in June 1997 to a guy named AJ in Kennesaw GA (PO#2). AJ lived 21 miles from Claude. It had 32126 miles on it. AJ was a CEO of a major carpet retailer that seemed to get into some financial hot water around about the time that he bought 2743.

AJ Auctioned it 9 months later in April 1998 to PO #3 Chuck in Atlanta. Chuck lived 22 miles from AJ (and 1.58 miles from the OO, Claude). He immediately had it repaired and the invoice shows 32216 miles, which could easily be a number transposition and AJ didn’t turn a wheel, or at best AJ put 90 miles on it.

Chuck undertook considerable renovation with Byrne H in 2000/2001 and I bought it in 2008 with still only 35000 miles on it. I am 20-ish miles from Chuck and only about 22 miles from the original dealer, Hub.

I don't think it has ever left the state and may not have been more than 100 miles from it's aptly named Hub dealer. Though that is pure speculation as I have no idea what Claude did with it.

[David T]

Tracing the "Chain-Of-Ownership" can be an interesting experience. You do a Title search in the last State of known registry. In some States the search is very reasonable and in others it is expensive. Sometimes one State leads to another and another depending on the number of previous owners and where they lived. Like a Carfax you see dates, mileage, owner's names and addresses. Don't be surprised if previous owners are not as enthusiastic about the car as you are. Always ask if they kept any mementos or extra parts, you will be surprised at all of the stuff you can get!

[sdg3205]

Tracing the "Chain-Of-Ownership" can be an interesting experience. You do a Title search in the last State of known registry. In some States the search is very reasonable and in others it is expensive. Sometimes one State leads to another and another depending on the number of previous owners and where they lived. Like a Carfax you see dates, mileage, owner's names and addresses. Don't be surprised if previous owners are not as enthusiastic about the car as you are. Always ask if they kept any mementos or extra parts, you will be surprised at all of the stuff you can get!

I think it's fair to say when you get the car in terrible shape, the PO is probably less than enthusiastic. Gene, my PO (the 3rd owner) didn't care much about the car from what i could gather.

[TTait]

I got a lot of documentation with my first D, and knew the original owners name, and that he had worked at Universal Studios about the same time I did (he sold to Universal and I rescued it from them a dozen years later). Every couple years I googled him but he keeps a low profile. Finally after 5 years he popped up on linked in and I got in touch. By this time he was then working at Disney, and moved over there shortly thereafter as well.

We scheduled a lunch, but his schedule got tight, so we just took a 20 minute drive in the car. The resto was still in progress but he he was pleased to reconnect with the car nearly 20 years after he last saw it. I invited him to come see the car at the company car show a few years later, not sure if he made it or not as it was a busy day. Unfortunately the car was totalled by a yahoo in a pickup a few months later - did not have the heart to tell him.

I know the name of the PO of my second D - he's from Taunton, MA which I have driven through many times heading for Cape Cod. Have not looked him up. The car was pretty jacked up when I got it so I'm not sure he had a lot of love for the car, so what would we talk about?

T

[Michael Babb]

I will have to nudge Kevin and get him to post here. I am the PO for his car. . . and I am also the PO for that car as well. I bought 3472 in `97, sold it in 2000 or so, bought it back and then sold it to Kevin.

Hard to cuss the PO for doing stupid things when that PO is you.

I got the car on consignment from DMC-Houston from a NY owner . . .never got any additional info on them

My current car 1141 is more interesting, I think, I have a lot of the original paperwork and receipts, and it was at one time owned by Hank Greer, former DOA president (if memory serves). Was funny seeing his name on some documents and remembering his posts from DMC-News.

[djdogbone]

My PO is a friend of mine named Kevin. He and his wife are film makers and make family friendly films. He's is a BTTF fan and bought the car after their first film was sold into distribution. The needed start up capital for their third film so he asked if I'd like to buy. You can buy their films in Walmart. Their second film just came out not too long ago called "My Dog the Champion." http://www.walmart.com/ip/33490510

They are nice folks and he keeps tabs on the car.

[jackb]

My car was listed for sale on the .com forum, with a link to the ebay auction for it.

A quick search on the forum revealed the previous previous owner (81DMC-6720), and I contacted him to ask more details about the car, as he had done most of the work (with forum members Morpheus and Mike of DCF) on the car to put it in the condition it was in at the time.

I took a day off work and drove 4 hrs to Tampa with a friend to inspect the car, came to a deal with the owner, and he removed it from ebay.
About 2 weeks later, after the banks finished the paperwork and stuff, I got a ride back to Tampa and drove it home :)

81DMC-6720 owned it from 4/05->3/07, then Precison25 from 3/07->9/09 when I bought it.
It had originally gone to a dealer in NY, but I believe the PPO told me he got it from a guy in Michigan.

[Mike F]

I purchased my car from the PO via a semi-local Craigslist ad. He was a very nice guy and loved the car very much, but due to health issues and a need for space he reluctantly needed to sell it. The story of how he purchased it was quite interesting. He was in the Army; stationed in Germany (this was 1990). He was a fan of the D and had always hoped for the opportunity to purchase one. While in Germany, he discovered that 2861 had been put up for sale at the US consulate. Apparently the owner had brought the car over from CA when he took a job there. Once his initial contract ran through, he made the decision to stay in Germany but not continue employment at the consulate. He was told that if he wished to keep the car he would have to pay all of the required taxes and fees on it, as he would no longer have the benefit of being exempt from that as a function of his job. He decided to let the car go; apparently it was a rather steep amount of money. Enter my PO. He had recently been deployed on what he explained was a risky mission, and told himself that if he made it back alive he would buy the car. He did, and he did! He had it over there for a while before his tour ended, then left Germany for Texas. The car came with him, and once back in the states he took it to DMCH (fresh from being renamed from D1) for an extensive amount of work. He had the car up until 2012 when he sold it to me. I got all of the receipts from everything that was done under his ownership, as well as all of the paperwork from Germany (which is kinda cool; all in German), and the transfer paperwork from its journey to the States. He also gave me some pictures of the car that he took while in Germany, as well as the plates that were on the car over there.

Previous to him is a bit more fuzzy. I am still trying to trace its history between the original purchaser and him. Luckily, 2861 is fortunate enough to be one of the cars that The Delorean Museum had original owner info on, which was an equestrian center in CA. I am guessing it was a company asset. I contacted them, and was told that "the owner of this facility did have a DeLorean at one time, but they have no information about it." Dead end. I contacted the original selling dealer, which not surprisingly has changed hands a time or two since then but is still around. I spoke with the general manager of the current facility, and he was nice enough to check for info for me, but came back empty. I suspect that my PO was the third owner, since the paperwork from Germany lists the name of the person that he bought it from and it didn't match the owner of the equestrian center; not to mention the whole job at the consulate thing. I don't know for sure though, he may have been associated with it for all I know. The car has a DOA sticker on it, but I don't know for sure if the owner(s) previous to him was a member. He gave me several DeLorean World magazines with the car, and they are all issues that came out during his tenure as owner, so I'm sure he was a member. I thought it might be worth checking with the DOA to see if they had any info in archives about 2861. Does anyone know if they have that sort of stuff?

Well, that's my story. Hopefully as time goes on I can discover more!

[DMCVegas]

I thought it might be worth checking with the DOA to see if they had any info in archives about 2861. Does anyone know if they have that sort of stuff?

They might have something if a PO was a previous member. John Truscott who has since passed away was the Membership Director, but I've no idea who has that information now. But they only have info on past members. Otherwise what data they have on all other cars is whatever they've read online about owners.

[PB Co]

Not enough.

I bought mine from a business that only had it two years. They didn't do anything to it except run it once in a while and it was left outside during this time.

From the paperwork I found inside I can tell it used to have PA tags, TMETRVL, or something similar. Internet research reveals it was originally sold new in Texas, but more recently was in PA. I tried reaching out to the PO on Facebook but it does not seem that he gets on there too often.

I have found new metal relays with dated orange DMC 2008 stickers. Updated cooling system with DMCH radiator and an aluminum coolant tank. Suspension dated 2007. Someone at some time spent some money on it. Thanks to the PO everything works and I've already got new seat covers.

Even though some of your wiring was questionable, thanks PO, whoever you are.

[Shep]

TV Star. Maybe you've seen him on Pawn Stars :wink:

In a hilarious turn of events, even though Egull was in Las Vegas, he wound up moving to Ohio. A couple years later, I met my now-fiancee online, and she lives one town over from him! I looked for him in both parades I was in that have both towns involved, but didn't see him :( I often wonder what he would think if he saw how beautifully Egull came out -- would he be happy to see her enjoyed and still on the road, or would he be mad that I've customized her as much as I have? Wish I knew. Good news is that I do have his name, and it's rather unique, so I might be able to find him on Facebook or something :)

As far as what he does, he's a big rig semi-truck driver with two kids that wanted to get rid of Egull once his son turned old enough to start learning to drive. Didn't want to take the chance. He also turned down many offers from DMC FL (a.k.a. "Gulf Coast Motor Works", which they still use occasionally) to buy the car because he knew the historic documentation he had would be meaningless to them. That's why he gave it all to me, and I've digitized some of it, but at some point I've got to digitize the rest. Minus the E-Check and licensing documents, of course :wink:

So I've actually met him in person, even though I had the car shipped from halfway across the country. Great guy, and I would totally love to chat with him sometime if I ever got the chance.

[Dangermouse]

detailed ownership history

fascinating story Mike.

[louielouie2000]

DeLorean #1: (VIN 10115) I don't know much of it's history. I bought the car from a fellow DML member in 2001, Ben Boatright. He'd only owned the car 2-3 years before selling it. He was in the Atlanta area at the time, and I was in college in Charlotte.

I only had the car a couple of years before I was hit by a drunk driver, So I didn't have a whole lot of time to research it's history. Plus, this was long before the DMC Museum & other such tools were available to owners & enthusiasts. I do know it had the extra tag below the VIN plate in the door jamb that stated: "In compliance with radio interference," which probably narrows down where the car was sold new.

Last I heard, the car was in China Grove, NC and was being used as a parts vehicle for a fellow owner.

DeLorean #2: (VIN 5252) I actually know a LOT about this one. The car was bought new at Menlo Park Lincoln-Mercury, and spent nearly 2 decades registered on Castro Street in San Francisco. During it's time in California, I know it went down to DeLorean Motor Center (now DMC-California) at least once... I think it actually went twice. It's first owner was meticulous with records, and he used the car as a daily driver.

The car was then bought by a college student in Tennessee in the late '90s, and was driven from California to Tennessee & was used as his only car.

The car was sold within a year or two to Rob Starling of Winston-Salem, who used to be very active in the community. He really took the car to the next level during his ownership, and made it a rolling daily driver showpiece. I actually rode with Rob to events in the car when he owned it, and even rode around the Road Atlanta racetrack in the car with Rob during the 2001 SEDOC meet (I really miss those!).

Rob decided he wanted a Porsche, so he sold the DeLorean to a guy in Charlotte named Bob (I forget his last name... too many years of killing brain cells). He also used the car as his daily driver. He lived about a mile down the road from me, though I never knew him until he put the car up for sale. After hearing I had just lost my first DeLorean to a drunk driver, Bob insisted on lending me the car to go to the 2003 SEDOC meet I had been planning to take my first DeLorean to... this is without Bob knowing me at all. Pretty cool guy. I ended up buying the car from him a few weeks later when the insurance money came through.

I had 5252 for a few years, but ended up selling it because I just got burned out. I dedicated all my extra money & time from the age of 11 years old to saving for, then maintaining a DeLorean. By the time I'd owned & maintained 2 DeLoreans at the ripe old age of 23, I just needed a break.

Anyway, I sold 5252 to Pat Molamphy in Pinehurst, and he kept the car for 8 years. Pat insisted I come visit the car from time to time, and he let me take it on extended drives. When he was ready to sell the car last year, he offered to let me purchase the car at the same price I sold it to him. Classy guy.

I believe fellow DMC Talk member Uhair now owns 5252. Hopefully he's enjoying it- I know I miss the car every day, and I sold it 9 years ago! :) An interesting factoid about 5252: it was driven daily for the first 25 years of it's existence. 3, possibly 4, owners used it as their only car.

[leroylem]

I found 2126 from an ebay ad in 2011---car was in Georgia, and had 15K miles---only problem, had not ran since 1990----21 years!The car was purchased new from Bill Hanna Ford in Shrevport, La,----only about 70 miles from where I live. I understand the original owner drove the car often, then died suddenly in 1990. The car still has the Louisiana inspection sticker on the windshield. The car sat in family storage till finally sold in an estate sale sometime later. The second owner, from Shrevport, soon moved to Georgia, and again stored the car. I bought the car sight unseen, and took several months to make it roadworthy---has been very dependable since----4000 miles since purchased. Perhaps I should not mention this here, but due to a recent sudden distributor problem, I had to remove intake, and while it was off, decided to build an intake /carb setup. Just completed last week---running very well now----I have temporarily boxed up all the K-Jet components----it will be no problem to return to original at some later time. I am a "Purist" for the most part on all my antiques/classics through the years, but just wanted to see how this car would perform with a carb setup.