DMC Northwest?

[Trstno1]

Does anyone know why DMC Northwest is no longer displayed in the 'Contact US' section of delorean.com? They are still in business right?

[sdg3205]

Toby is still operating under DeLorean Parts Northwest. He is no longer affiliated with DMCH.

[Alex Brooks]

Toby is still operating under DeLorean Parts Northwest. He is no longer affiliated with DMCH.

And DeLorean Services Northwest. I don’t know the story of why he left the Houston network but I wish the best for him.

[Shep]

They're the third franchise to abandon ship.

Rumor mill ahead

UK left knowing US trademark law doesn't apply in the UK, so they're free to call the shop a "DeLorean" shop and quit paying franchising dues. I'm sure the vast selection of parts UK has come out with that DMCH was squashing sales of with a website that would simply not show them didn't help matters any. Midwest and California are still affected by this, but I would be shocked if they defected given Cameron's heading California and Midwest seems perfectly content as a franchise and doesn't have many of their own parts. (Side note: it would still be nice to know the complete list and see them. DMCH could learn a thing or two and carry the parts their franchises make. There's money in that market, and I'm hoping they're in the process of fixing it.)

Florida left after DMCH wanted them to abandon their (lucrative) business repairing more expensive cars and go strictly DeLorean. When you're repairing and dealing Maseratis and BMW's quite nicely, you're just begging for a mass exodus of the mechanics you hire if you comply. If the rumor mill is correct, DMCH shot themselves in the foot there, there was no way Florida was going to agree to that.

Northwest I have no insight on at all, this is news to me. I can speculate as much as the rest of you, but I certainly hope DMCH wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake twice and try to stifle the parts DMCNW makes.

Again, rumor mill. Emphasis on the "this could be complete crap" part.

End rumor mill

With the number of DMC locations being halved, I can't help but wonder how this is affecting DMCH's bottom dollar. I mean, I know we all get annoyed when they constantly proclaim the vaporware of a "new car" they're building, but the exodus of franchises is the sign of an internal crisis behind closed doors. Whatever it is, they're keeping a tight lid on it, the rumor mill is murky at best anyhow. But the writing is on the walls, extremely legible and quite detailed. I don't know what's going on, but I don't like the looks of this. I'm at the point as a business where partnerships are important. I'm building my R&D around future needs rather than looking at the "now", a large part of figuring out what will be needed down the road is working with those that know what supplies will run dry and the difficulty of sustaining the need. If DMCH is stumbling all over themselves and struggling to keep their balance, I'm more inclined to exercise caution than to blindly ignore signs of a deeper turmoil. I for one am hoping they can get a grip on this. This just doesn't look good at all and it needs to start looking halfway decent at least. Just please DMCH, all I want for Christmas is to never mention the "new car" again...

On the other hand, each new franchise that defects is another potential business partnership, but Florida at least doesn't seem interested.

[Dangermouse]

What UK franchise ?

[DeLoreanGo Arran]

What UK franchise ?
Quite.... there has never been a UK franchise.... I think I would know :)

There was a "DMC Europe" franchise in The Netherlands, but that's not the UK :) Now known as "DeLorean Europe", they have always had their own website, which has always been called DeLorean Europe. I'm no expert on trademarking laws and/or what trademarks DMCH claim to, or do, own, but I don't think it's relevant in any of these cases anyway. There are various people who own various DeLorean trademarks in Europe in a variety of categories. UK trademark law is different, and largely separate to, European trademark law. For example to own a UK trademark in a particular category you'd have to actually be "doing" that thing in the UK. Anyway - not relevant to this thread.

[Shep]

Quite.... there has never been a UK franchise.... I think I would know :)

There was a "DMC Europe" franchise in The Netherlands, but that's not the UK :) Now known as "DeLorean Europe", they have always had their own website, which has always been called DeLorean Europe. I'm no expert on trademarking laws and/or what trademarks DMCH claim to, or do, own, but I don't think it's relevant in any of these cases anyway. There are various people who own various DeLorean trademarks in Europe in a variety of categories. UK trademark law is different, and largely separate to, European trademark law. For example to own a UK trademark in a particular category you'd have to actually be "doing" that thing in the UK. Anyway - not relevant to this thread.Okay, wow, rumor mill + misinformation there, my apologies!! (Insert the "that was complete crap" bit here on DMC having a UK franchise)

So the guys in the Netherlands are still a franchise to DMCH then? Or am I reading too much into that?

I do know Poland's trademarking laws are entirely distinct from the US ones due to a EU ruling stating sovereignty of its protection status (this is why Tom of DeLoreanA.com can put DMC logos on everything -- he can explain better than on that one). A few kickstarter campaigns I've backed from France had issues when US-based companies would infringe on their trademarks with no recourse, ditto for US kickstarter campaigns with UK infringements. They do have international trademarks, but to the best of my knowledge DMCH does not use them as it is exorbitantly expensive to do so. I believe last I checked it was ten grand or more, compared to a few hundred for a US-only trademark. Picking target markets to trademark is the way to go. "Raccin Industries" is trademarked both in text and in image formats, this was a looooong discussion after the lawyer who filed it and I had found out someone had parked a relevant website URL to try and get cash from me and I wanted to boot them out on the basis of I owned the rights to the name, and figuring out who parked it and where they were based. Turns out, getting clever works better. ".com" is antiquated now.

[DMC-81]

They're the third franchise to abandon ship.

Rumor mill ahead


Florida left after DMCH wanted them to abandon their (lucrative) business repairing more expensive cars and go strictly DeLorean. When you're repairing and dealing Maseratis and BMW's quite nicely, you're just begging for a mass exodus of the mechanics you hire if you comply. If the rumor mill is correct, DMCH shot themselves in the foot there, there was no way Florida was going to agree to that.

Again, rumor mill. Emphasis on the "this could be complete crap" part.

End rumor mill



Shep, a correction...Florida never left... DMCFL moved to a more ideal central location... Orlando. The last time I picked up parts ( i.e. last week), there were tons of cars in for service and a few very nice examples for sale.

You should visit sometime. :)

[Shep]

I'm going to smack the idiot that told me all of this, I think he may have been yanking my chain (can you smack people through phones yet?)

[DeLoreanGo Arran]

So the guys in the Netherlands are still a franchise to DMCH then?
No - they are each completely separate companies and businesses.



trademarking.............I believe last I checked it was ten grand or more...................
Certainly as far as trademarking in the UK is concerned it's just a case of filling in a form and registering a trademark, and then dealing with anyone who challenges that. The "dealing with" is dealt with by a human, and common sense applies. It needn't cost 10 grand, I suppose it depends who you're up against and how frivolous the case is. If I wanted to trademark a housebuilding company called "DeLorean Houses", I could do that, as long as I built a house, I could probably represent myself and win any case. It might get a little more complicated and costly if I was doing it with a car though ;)
Unless you're looking to exploit it by - say - licensing it to a toy manufacturer - I don't see the relevance of it though, certainly in the category of car servicing anyway.



.......".com" is antiquated now.
I fully agree with this and tell people this every day. Doesn't matter if you are anything.com - very few new customers type "something.com" into an address bar these days - it's all done on Google, a domain name is near-irrelevant.

[David T]

I see something alot less sinister. Some of the franchises see that they can stop being franchises and can stop paying tribute to DMCH. Doesn't mean they will (or can) stop doing business with them. They all need each other to some extent and will figure out a new way to get along. Because they are no longer "partners" they may lose some of the discounts they had so parts prices to them may increase which they will just pass along to their customers. In a perverse way this may actually be good for individual owners of "good" cars. If the parts prices increase, so shall the value of a good car, since it will just cost more to make a bad car a good one because of the higher price of parts. Each shop has it's local geographic market so they don't compete directly against each other except for mail order parts. They can overcome that by increasing their service prices. If they have a backlog of work that is easy. Some shops may also take in other exotic cars to balance out the workload. As usual things change and life goes on. Adapt or die. DMCH's failure to come out with a "new" car must be a contributing factor to this.

[Shep]

On the ten grand figure, that's for registering it in every country in the world that has a trademark system in place. Also could be lower, but it is in the thousands, that much I do know. Some places with zero market value are enormously expensive. UK and US you can file for nothing, or next to it. I used a lawyer because, well, I didn't know about self-filing, and the guys I made my business through had a $100 gift card for this lawyer site, so that's what I used it on. Definitely didn't save time, took 6-9 months each, but was easy and hey legal advice thrown in for free too.

As far as ".com" goes, I actually meant that instead of RaccinIndustries.com, my site is Raccin.Industries -- so "industries" is the part after the dot, not "com". This works well because my entire business name IS the URL.

".com" is still fairly standard, no one's going to knock someone for using it yet, but using a different suffix beyond the typical ones is seen as more modern and innovative by prospective website viewers, and gives users a more positive first impression all other things equal. Paraphrasing a few SEO gurus there -- note that this doesn't impact perceptions of the products offered and is probably a millennial thing. But being a web developer for six years, "com" is here to stay, anything new is trendy or trending depending on how it fares.


I'm going to smack the idiot that told me all of this, I think he may have been yanking my chain (can you smack people through phones yet?)Said idiot and I are now even. Yep, he was messing with me. Guess he's just as gullible as I am!

I think David T's on the money, franchising fees gone, if the others are faring well, why not? But I do stand by my commentary on the franchise parts. Midwest's door sills and DMC Cal's leather binnacles are just two examples off the top of my head that really ought to make their way onto the pages of the main Store.DeLorean.com site somewhere. Midwest used to have a couple pages on their stuff, California never bothered to from what I know, but now all three are the same store site, and it only shows DMCH products. For the first couple months, they actually did show some Midwest products, but not since then. This doesn't help when you need a picture of things to browse through however.

[Riley88]

I was told by Toby he had to move his shop because the guy who actually owned the spot and garage they rented from raised the rent ALOT, so rather than give in and pay he basically said no and relocated. Source: car is being worked on by Toby at dmcnw, but dont quote me eh

[sdg3205]

I had heard that as well; that the rent had gone up substantially. Been there, also moved.

[Lwanmtr]

Yerp, Toby moved shop..sadly mean I'll need to drive another 20 minutes further when I get parts I have to pick up. As for anything regarding partnerships with DMCH, I have no clue.

[mluder]

The OP was correct though... DMCNW are no longer listed under the See Our Locations drop down on Delorean.com.
That would seem to indicate the affiliation is dissolved.

I hope to continue to do business with Toby as much as possible. He's not only my mechanic of choice but I also consider him a friend. Hopefully the lack of franchising fees and increased business from potentially being able to work on other cras will allow him to still source priced from Houston and sell them on without too much of a mark-up.

Cheers
Steve

[Lwanmtr]

Yeah I do all mine through Toby as well...cept the one time i had a gift card and had to go through dmch.

[Dangermouse]

I fully agree with this and tell people this every day. Doesn't matter if you are anything.com - very few new customers type "something.com" into an address bar these days - it's all done on Google, a domain name is near-irrelevant.

Going OT here.

Yes and no. IMHO ".com" (or .co.uk or .uk) is still the gold standard for websites in certain conditions

If I am going to a common easy to remember site, like the BBC.com, I don't google "BBC" and pick the appropriate link; I type "BBC" in the address bar and hit CTRL-Enter.

For DeLoreanGo, I don't know if it's .com or .uk or .industries, so I will Google

However, at the other end, if I get an email from someone with an email address of @deloreango.website I will treat that with a lot more suspicion than @deloreango.uk

[Shep]

Most older email servers automatically flag ".industries" for example as spam because they don't think it's a valid domain extension. That's why all the email links on my site forward to a single Gmail account with those clever little extension bits for easy sorting. Replying then becomes not an issue as pretty much everyone works with Gmail.

If you get an email out of the blue, I think anyone in their right mind would have raised suspicions, that doesn't necessarily apply to .com and .industries distinctly. Most people are going to go by email title and the name associated with the email address rather than the email address itself though, given this is how emails are displayed in Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, Hotmail, pretty much any email system nowadays. The dead giveaway becomes when they send an email from dhflemvu.com.gz and it's a long-lost relative. They generally don't email from a legitimate-looking domain name that doesn't offer a free email service from my (admittedly limited) experience.

Summary: it's all about perceptions. :)

On the Northwest location being removed from the DMCH site, doesn't it list their address and contact info? Standard practice is to remove this when a shop migrates to help mitigate customer contact while the employees work on the moving process. I know at least when you click on some of them it provides their address and phone number, but their address is now outdated and the phone really shouldn't be called with new inquiries that they cannot tackle until the move is complete.

First job I sat within clear earshot of the CEO for years and when we moved early on he got a few laughs at how many people assumed we all got fired when we were removed from the main site, despite the mass emails sent out to the whole corporate structure explaining we were moving. It was an interesting job for sure.

[SKnight]

I was told by Toby he had to move his shop because the guy who actually owned the spot and garage they rented from raised the rent ALOT, so rather than give in and pay he basically said no and relocated. Source: car is being worked on by Toby at dmcnw, but dont quote me eh

This is what I heard as well. The owner of the complex he was in jacked up the rates substantially and Toby decided it wasn't worth it so he moved out towards Redmond. I noticed a few of the other businesses that were next to him also left, this price increase may end up backfiring on the owner.

[Shep]

I noticed a few of the other businesses that were next to him also left, this price increase may end up backfiring on the owner.Or the remaining ones will make up the gap. Guy might have multiple buildings keep in mind, I had an old co-worker landlord with buildings in at least three parts of the city of Alliance, OH (a mostly-landlord town), when he raised rates he always said some leave, but the ones that stay make up the gap until new ones come in. He was, of course, renting to people rather than companies, but I'd imagine it applies here too.

But at least in DPI's case, it fully backfired on the owner. Almost all of the units vacated, DPI as well, but the owner lowered his prices again, so the space DPI rented out off-site became mostly excess storage. The right-most unit is still vacant, and I think the tire guys just left their sign up, I've not seen any activity there when I visit. Two units filled and active out of at least five or six is quite the backfire.

(You learn a lot when a the local fire marshal takes notes on the "new tenant" in an oddly-timed meeting where I was there for 30 minutes tops and he was scheduled "some time this week")

[Trstno1]

So then what is the new business address?

[SKnight]

So then what is the new business address?

DeLorean Service Northwest, LLC
13652 Redmond-Woodinville RD NE
Redmond, WA 98052

Phone# is 425-451-7000

[DMCSuperFan]

They're the third franchise to abandon ship.

thank god toby is out of DMCT (if that is the case?)

DMCT clearly doesn't care about the community. they do everything they can to control franchisees and stop them from making money. toby always did me right, and I feel like he actually CARED about me and my car. DMCT's other corporate shop in california overcharged me twice when I first bought my car before it was shipped to tacoma. i'm sure DMCT will file a frivilous lawsuit against toby for leaving them.

[Trstno1]

DeLorean Service Northwest, LLC
13652 Redmond-Woodinville RD NE
Redmond, WA 98052

Phone# is 425-451-7000

Sweet, thanks for the info. Does he have a new website by chance?

[Lwanmtr]

As far as I know, its still https://www.delorean-parts.com/

[Shep]

thank god toby is out of DMCT (if that is the case?)

DMCT clearly doesn't care about the community. they do everything they can to control franchisees and stop them from making money. toby always did me right, and I feel like he actually CARED about me and my car. DMCT's other corporate shop in california overcharged me twice when I first bought my car before it was shipped to tacoma. i'm sure DMCT will file a frivilous lawsuit against toby for leaving them.Now hang on, don't take the first bit you like and quote me on it, we've established I spoke in complete error by now. DMCNW is still a DMCH franchise, they are simply moving due to their landlord jacking up rent.

DMCH doesn't even file lawsuits against business enemy DPI, don't get cocky there and make an unwarranted demonization of DMCH. Have you seen the interaction between those two? Last time they clashed, the phrase "fight club mathematics" was thrown out rather readily, so you tell me what it takes to piss DMCH off enough to file a lawsuit. Certainly going solo isn't enough.

I don't know what happened with your case, you've made allegations that provide no context nor insight, but it's ill-advised to say they're the worst vendor on a site where they're pretty well favored. I'd want to hear DMCH's version of events (and DMC California's for that matter) before drawing any conclusions myself. Whatever tensions you have towards DMCH have nothing to with an unrelated third party i.e. the landlord jacking up rates and forcing a move.

While DMCH has threatened many a lawsuit, they are purely trademark-related "cease and desists" and to the best of my knowledge have never wound up in court. This is actually standard practice for trademark ownership and everyone does it, even Nintendo, Disney, Valve, Sony... It has to do with the way the law is written. Basically if you know someone is using your trademark and don't do anything about it, you're saying you're okay with anyone using it. Threatening a lawsuit retains your right to that trademark. I've never seen a cease and desist nor lawsuit for anything else by DMCH.

[sdg3205]

Now hang on, don't take the first bit you like and quote me on it, we've established I spoke in complete error by now. DMCNW is still a DMCH franchise, they are simply moving due to their landlord jacking up rent.



Toby is no longer affiliated with DMCH. I sent him an email to let him know this discussion was happening.

[Alex Brooks]

Toby is no longer affiliated with DMCH. I sent him an email to let him know this discussion was happening.

I think his parting ways with them is a good thing. He can now have his shop wherever he pleases, work on Deloreans Lotus cars and any other exotic without Offending a franchisor overlord.

I have been a Franchisee before with serval concepts and all it is a form of legalized blackmail.

[David T]

I think his parting ways with them is a good thing. He can now have his shop wherever he pleases, work on Deloreans Lotus cars and any other exotic without Offending a franchisor overlord.

I have been a Franchisee before with serval concepts and all it is a form of legalized blackmail.

The franchise type of business model has it's good points and it's bad points. It works both ways for the parties. They both need each other. When they don't they split up. In this particular case even if they no longer maintain the franchise relationship they will still need each other so they will find a way to work things out amicably. As much as DMCH may want to control all things Delorean, it may not turn out that way. D1 tried to do it too and failed.

[Lwanmtr]

The restrictions on what vehicles they can work on wouldnt be so bad if the Delorean had more vehicles on the road...but with such a limited number it would be nigh impossible for a shop to stay open working just on them. The other cars they work on bring in much needed income...No idea why DMCH would want to tie the hands of the shops that help keep our cars alive.

[Shep]

Toby is no longer affiliated with DMCH. I sent him an email to let him know this discussion was happening.The point of that specific bit was that I was wrong and had said as much, and this schmuck comes along and uses my redacted words as a basis to go off on a rampage about lawsuits and shit. Sorry, but that's just not cool no matter how you look at it. I do not support his words or viewpoint at all and I was making that abundantly clear before it got even more perverted.

DMCNW moved because of rent, that much we do know. If I'm now hearing that he's no longer with DMCH, then okay fine, but jesus christ talking about waging an all out war on the parties involved is just madness that I do not support one bit and was at no point stating nor implying was going to nor should occur.

(Nothing against you Dave, just clarifying for anyone else -- I have a feeling my words are going to be twisted some more if I don't)

- - -

Come to think of it, PJ Grady and DPI are probably laughing to themselves at all of this. Somehow they've made businesses out of working solely on DeLoreans while multiple DMC franchises simply can't.

[David T]

A big reason PJ Grady can live "only" working on Deloreans is that he has a low operating cost. He has been in it since the beginning and most of his original costs (tools, shop equipment, lifts, etc) have been paid off long ago. Any new shop has to bear all of those costs at today's prices, a BIG hurdle to overcome. PJ Grady also has built up a large, loyal following and has a good reputation. Another big thing working against any new shop and it takes years to develop that. He also doesn't have a fancy, expensive shop so his overhead is low. Rob also bought up all of the dealer inventories he could so he has a large inventory. On top of all of that he has developed many new and improved parts for the Delorean which he sells to other Delorean shops and owners. By not being part of the DMC family he can buy the best parts at the best prices and pass that savings on to the owners. This is the best part for all Delorean owners. By having other sources of parts it provides competition which keeps everyone competitive with pricing. Without competition DMC could charge almost whatever they wanted. The downside is while parts prices may stay low that causes the value of the Delorean to also remain low. If parts prices got high and it would cost a LOT to fix up a Delorean, any good, running Delorean would be worth more because it doesn't require a lot of expensive parts to fix it up. Can't have it both ways, cheap parts and high values. Look at a brand like Porsche. Parts prices are ridiculous making those cars expensive even though they made tons of them.

[Lwanmtr]

Speaking for myself, I'd much prefer reasonable parts costs to my car being worth more, just cause the parts cost more. I didnt really buy the car for it's resale value...hehe.

[Alex Brooks]

Speaking for myself, I'd much prefer reasonable parts costs to my car being worth more, just cause the parts cost more. I didnt really buy the car for it's resale value...hehe.

Same here and I know of a lot of Land Rover AN Mercedes Models that are not worth anything but the parts are not cheap, so the expensive parts = car's value is not always true. Another example is Porsche 928 cars are Cheap But parts are un believably expensive. (I know some 928s and GT trade in high 20's and mid 30's but most are less than 8K around here.)

[SamHill]

Was recently thinking that one of the biggest factors in value is not parts, relatively small production numbers or even pop culture visibility. The key is that when an overwhelming number of owners love the car so much that they won't sell, that scarcity of available cars necessarily forces appreciation. Love for the marque itself drives value.

[DSNW Toby]

Hi Gang - I thought that I should take a moment and chime in here just to keep things on track.

The move - Yes, I moved the shop location from Bellevue to Redmond because of a rent hike that was going to take effect immediately if I signed a lease extension with the old landlord. The landlord approached me in mid-November and said that I needed to either commit to a lease or move out. The new lease featured a 60% rate hike. The new figure would be north of $10,000 a month. I told him that I couldn't do that. He said that I would need to vacate by the end of the year in that case. So, I had about 5 weeks to find a new spot, and move everything.

The new space is well suited for the task of restoring cars after completing some minor remodeling. However, it doesn't meet any of the standards that DMC-Texas would have for a franchise facility, because it doesn't really have a formal showroom with a proper retail area and all of that. It is a very practical place, but not necessarily fashionable.

The franchise - Without getting into a bunch of mundane details ... I am no longer a franchised affiliate of DMC-Texas. There will be some activities over the next few weeks to establish myself in the "new world order". My intention is to continue to provide excellent services and products to customers, and make every attempt to extend the range of upgraded parts and accessories. I will also be actively working on other marques - primarily classic exotics such as Lotus, Ferrari, and Porsche. That was definitely discouraged by Houston.

My technician decided to move on to work at a different shop that specializes in Land Rovers, so I am operating solo for a while until I get myself reestablished. That naturally has pro's and con's. It has admittedly been a bit of a challenge to balance working on cars, working on the building, taking care of the business side, having a life, etc. I hope that people continue to have patience with me until I can catch my stride. There are many people who I need to thank for their support and encouragement through all of these changes ... you know who you are!

Toby Peterson
DeLorean Service Northwest, LLC
13652 Redmond Woodinville RD NE
Redmond, WA 98052

425-451-7000

If you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached through my email address toby(at)DeLorean-parts.com. I will eventually have an email address specific to the shop operation, but the parts address works for now. I will also be changing my user name for this forum ... for obvious reasons. I apologize for not getting that done before making this post.

[Lwanmtr]

Thanks for clearing it all up, Toby.

Hadnt realized you were left all alone up there...would offer my services to help, if I were more competent at mechanic stuffs..but I can clean things like nothin else...hehe.

[Michael]

I will also be actively working on other marques - primarily classic exotics such as Lotus, Ferrari, and Porsche. That was definitely discouraged by Houston.


Yeah that wouldn't set well with me either. Maybe in the thick soup of owners in Texas and tons of publicity, making a nice living off of servicing only DeLoreans is as easy as snapping your fingers, but try doing it in a mostly cold and rainy climate in a small corner of the country and see how long that "DeLoreans Only" conviction stands when you have the bank chomping at the bit to take your entire life from you.

[Shep]

The temptation in California must be like a married man in the exotic parts of Vegas too, they could easily rake in way more than they're making now by working on any number of other high-end cars where the local market is booming. (At least, if Vehicle Virgins is any indication.)


make every attempt to extend the range of upgraded parts and accessoriesOooooo, I hear more swanky things in the works methinks? Smart key system would be right up your alley with the door poppers if you need an idea. :)

Take your time and adjust man, stress is your body's way of telling you to slow down a bit. Sucks to have lost your main mechanic, but I think it's fair to say your customers are as loyal as they've ever been. Hope the adjustment goes well.

[PJ Grady Inc.]

A big reason PJ Grady can live "only" working on Deloreans is that he has a low operating cost. He has been in it since the beginning and most of his original costs (tools, shop equipment, lifts, etc) have been paid off long ago. Any new shop has to bear all of those costs at today's prices, a BIG hurdle to overcome. PJ Grady also has built up a large, loyal following and has a good reputation. Another big thing working against any new shop and it takes years to develop that. He also doesn't have a fancy, expensive shop so his overhead is low. Rob also bought up all of the dealer inventories he could so he has a large inventory. On top of all of that he has developed many new and improved parts for the Delorean which he sells to other Delorean shops and owners. By not being part of the DMC family he can buy the best parts at the best prices and pass that savings on to the owners. This is the best part for all Delorean owners. By having other sources of parts it provides competition which keeps everyone competitive with pricing. Without competition DMC could charge almost whatever they wanted. The downside is while parts prices may stay low that causes the value of the Delorean to also remain low. If parts prices got high and it would cost a LOT to fix up a Delorean, any good, running Delorean would be worth more because it doesn't require a lot of expensive parts to fix it up. Can't have it both ways, cheap parts and high values. Look at a brand like Porsche. Parts prices are ridiculous making those cars expensive even though they made tons of them.

I'm not going to hijack this thread to make it about P.J.Grady but please don't assume my operating cost is low as we are still in New York. Taxs, permits, fees, more taxs. That's why I'm considering relocating dispite 104 years as a family business on Long Island. Lots of history here but lots of fixed costs too. The only reason we can survive here is that we are totally established. That part you got right David!
Rob Grady
P.J.Grady Inc.
Established 1914

[Michael]

I'm not going to hijack this thread to make it about P.J.Grady but please don't assume my operating cost is low as we are still in New York. Taxs, permits, fees, more taxs. That's why I'm considering relocating dispite 104 years as a family business on Long Island. Lots of history here but lots of fixed costs too. The only reason we can survive here is that we are totally established. That part you got right David!
Rob Grady
P.J.Grady Inc.
Established 1914

But you're wrong Rob! DT's information came from the workshop manual.

[Shep]

Maybe in the thick soup of owners in Texas and tons of publicity, making a nice living off of servicing only DeLoreans is as easy as snapping your fingers, but try doing it in a mostly cold and rainy climate in a small corner of the country and see how long that "DeLoreans Only" conviction stands when you have the bank chomping at the bit to take your entire life from you.I've been thinking more about this one, having just moved a the end of February. I used to live in northern Akron, OH, and yeah if their parades are anything to judge by, DeLoreans are not at all uncommon in the area, a fact I'm sure helped by DPI being right next door and literally one turn away from Summit Racing (a route I have travelled on occasion). But now I live in Cleveland, OH outskirts and it dawned on me: where the hell did all the Audis go?

Yeah I know, you mentioned DeLoreans, but they were absolutely rampant in Akron, and I would travel through the midst of Akron frequently to get to doctors and such. My parents-in-law live in Cleveland, and the Cadillacs, BMW's, even the occasional Mercedes made regular appearances there, but same in Akron. Audis just dropped off the face of the earth. Here's a brand of car they've made hundreds of thousands of, available quite readily in both areas, and they seemingly only exist in Akron, OH. So all it takes for a car to go from common to extinct is 45 minutes? Gee, no wonder franchises six hours apart can't seem to find the "sweet spot" yet!

(Also, Akron's weather is not terribly worse than Cleveland's, it's just that Akron has quicker snow plow response time, so the difference appears larger than it actually is. Cleveland is just shittier in general and my suburb is happy to distance themselves whenever possible)

[PJ Grady Inc.]

But you're wrong Rob! DT's information came from the workshop manual.

Well if that's true that would be dated information? I'll just call David and twist his ear a bit. We get along rather well and I would love to tell him his info is stale!
Rob Grady