What made you want a Delorean?

[88Ngone]

Hi all!

Jared here with VIN #10541. Maybe I'm doing a repetitive discussion, maybe not, but I thought it would be fun to see what led each of you to buy your Delorean. There's so many cool stories involved with this car and I guess I just enjoy hearing them. So with that said, why did you buy a Delorean? What made you want the car?

For me, growing up I always wanted that amazing car. At first, I wanted a 1997 Dodge Viper, blue with white stripes. But when I got my first couple of jobs I knew there was no way I could afford that $75,000 car. I remember walking by the T.V. one day and back to the future was on. I always loved that movie and of course it was the mall chase scene. It was that moment where I said, that's it, that's the car I want, a Delorean.

It took roughly a decade, but fast forward in time and I had a great career and loving wife and child. I brought up my dream car to my wife, and over the next various months was able to convince her to pursue it. This was done by having my 2 year old daughter walking through the house and lifting her arms up like the Deloreans doors, and making a hissing sound to imitate the doors opening from the movie. My wife let me begin my search with 1 rule, you cannot spend more than $15000 loan wise. After that I began my hunt and found an awesome owner by the name of Ed Garbade. He talked to me for hours about the car and was as genuine as you can be, even offering to warranty the car for 1,500 miles. In May 2007, I came home in my very own time machine!!!

So how about you?

Respectfully,
Jared

[Col Bennett]

To be perfectly honest - "Back To The Future".

I went to see the movie as a kid with my Mum and Dad and as soon as the DeLorean rolled out of Doc Brown's van I was mesmerized. Like many of you, it's been my childhood dream to own one and after looking on and off for over 10 years (without really having the funds), I finally had enough savings to buy a lovely example in 2016, which I've been perfecting ever since.

[jackb]

BTTF is what made me *aware* of the Deloreans existence.
If the movie never existed and I just happened to see one out of the blue, I’d have the same reaction.
What made me want a Delorean? Just look at it. That’s your answer.

[opethmike]

I'm deeply afraid of attractive women, so I figured what better way to keep them at bay?

[AdmiralSenn]

I tripped over an old man at the market and roundly cursed him for being such a layabout in the middle of a public space.

Alas, the man was a sarcastic wizard of considerable power. My punishment is to bear this vehicle around with me for the rest of my days. Always garaged, never running, mocking me endlessly.

Also he burned down my house and murdered my wife and three children, but in the grand scheme of things the car is the far worse punishment.

[Spittybug]

Some harsh replies above!!!

I was a college kid '80 to '84 and therefore remember the "Living the dream" marketing..... Cool car. At the time I was driving my dad's '71 straight six Camaro when I needed it. I didn't have my own car until after graduation. The movie certainly didn't hurt, but the first attraction was being the right age at the right time.

Fast forward to 2006 and going to a big Houston car show with my young daughter and noticing the absence of any Delorean when usually we'd seen them. I came home and checked on Ebay to see if they were super scarce or anything and found an auction ending in half an hour. I joked with my wife, "can I buy a Delorean?" thinking the $14,000 price wouldn't last.... she said I had to sell my '79 Spitfire and I agree. Well, although the bid went up a couple thousand more, I won, much to my surprise...... "Honey, I just bought a Delorean...."

The last 13 years were the longest that I had owned any car. I did so much to it, especially after retiring in 2011. It was sufficiently easy to work on like other 70's or 80's cars, but had enough substance to it, modern features and value to not be something I would lose money on. Modernizing it to EFI, performing the necessary maintenance for a nearly 40 year old car and using it as a reliable 2nd car in the household was the agenda for years. Only the life change of building a new home in Hill country and the desire for a fun little convertible to enjoy in that environment was enough to get me to sell it on. My wife won't miss is though; she never liked sitting so low and getting in and out was tough for her.

All in all it was an enjoyable chapter in my automotive life, but time to move on. As I think back, I've had quite a few cars! In rough chronological order of owning....



Hand me down '71 Camaro (GREAT car. Brother inherited after me and ended up abandoning it for back parking tickets...ugh.)
Used Honda 175cc motorcycle that I wrapped around a tree, rupturing spleen and fracturing back... no more bikes.....
Used '79 Dodge Challenger (Misubishi by then.... troublesome)
Crown Victoria LTD (company car, ugliest thing you've ever seen with blue Brougham top)
Chrysler LeBaron GTS turbo (company car, quite nice)
A couple of Tauruses (company cars, boring but hey, free)
New Ford Festiva (wife's)
Pontiac Grand Prix (company car, but I bought it)
New Isuzu Trooper (wife's - love the old boxy style)
Used '79 Triumph Spitfire (too many parts missing, sold it to get the '79)
New Nissan Quest (wife's)
Used Acura TL - 5 cylinder (short lived, got pickup)
Used Nissan Frontier pickup
Used '77 Triumph Spitfire (frame off restoration - beautiful)
New Honda Odyssey (wife's)
Used '79 Super beetle convertible (frame off restoration - labor of absolute love - for wife who didn't drive it much....sold to Alaska customer)
Used '81 Delorean (just sold to Canadian customer)
New '08 Infiniti G35 Sport (WOW)
New '15 Ford F-150 (turned in right away after discovering stuff about towing...)
New leftover '14 Ford F-350 Superduty (WOW, power for towing RV)
Used '16 BMW 228i convertible (new toy!)
Next toy car for life in Hill Country????????

[Bitsyncmaster]

When I saw the ads for the DeLorean in car magazines in the late 70s I said right there I would own one someday. Thirty five years later it was possible for me to buy one since my kids were out of collage. The BTTF had nothing to do with my need to own one.

[Quinn]

I was actually shopping for a used Lotus Esprit, but when I learned of the great support network and parts availability for Deloreans, I decided it was a safer bet.

[bfloyd]

I'm 52 years old now and grew up in they heyday of the 80's. When I was a kid or early teen, my dad would take us to look at cars after church on Sunday's. We never bought anything... just looked. One Sunday afternoon we stopped by Capitol Chevrolet in Nashville and they were the Nashville Delorean dealer. They had a Delorean set up in the showroom with the doors up and I was just mesmerized. My dad kept walking, but I was just stopped in my tracks. Several years later BTTF came out and that was the first time I had seen the car since that day at the showroom. It made an impression on me.

Fast forward 30+ years, I still liked the car, and with the invention of the internet, finding pictures and wallpapers of them was much easier. Still infatuated with the car, I had all but given up on ever owning one now that I was married, a dad to 3 boys, a house with a mortgage, and just general life gets in the way type of things. I still talked about Deloreans, but that was about it.

One afternoon I was having lunch with the mayor of a small town here in middle Tennessee when he asked me, "Did you ever get that silver car you've always wanted?" I said no, and he replied, "You know Homer's boy has one for sale right down the street sitting in his front yard don't you?" After lunch I took off down the street to go look at this car. It was a Delorean all right, but not in the best condition. Fascias were ragged out, intake manifold sitting in the front seat, a real fixer upper. They guy wanted $8,000.00 for it. I called my wife when I got back to the office and told her. Much to my surprise she said, "You've been talking about those cars ever since I've known you.... just go get it!" After work that night I drive 30+ miles back to this small town to buy this car. Knock on the guys door and say I want to buy the car. He says, " I've changed my mind, I don't think I'm gonna sell it." Leaving dissapointed, I had back to the office to wrap up some paperwork. Once I got to the office I was still operating in the mode of "My wife gave me permission to go buy a Delorean" . I began doing a nationwide Craigslist search to see if anything popped up. First result was Vin #3294 which had been listed 4 hours earlier in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Called the guy and bought it on the spot. Paid $9k for it. Fantastic shape, original everything (belts, hoses, tires,fuel lines, etc.) with only 8,637 miles on the odometer, but it hadn't run in 20 years. Rented a trailer and drove up on Friday to get it. Took two years to get it roadworthy again.

[eight8toy]

The movie definitely. Seeing other people get excited when I drive mine is what really makes me want to keep it and deal with all of its nuances. Otherwise it isn't that great to drive in my opinion, my old M5 on the other hand...

[Jonathan]

I didn't want a Corvette.
I wasn't interested in getting a Harley.
I couldn't find a Millennium Falcon for sale.

(Oh, and I'm too tall to fit into an Esprit, which is what I did want ever since I was a kid.)

Probably back around 2005, Internet 2.0 comes along and I somehow got searching for something DeLorean related. I think I just went 'huh, I could do this' and I did. Bought mine in 2007. I like the movies a lot, but have no story about seeing them when I was a kid and just having to have the car when I got older. It just didn't happen for me like that. When I go to shows, I mostly just put out car stuff on display and not the movie stuff. My flux capacitor generally stays in the frunk.

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[Hill Valley PD]

It could have something to do with the yellow Lotus Esprit that was part of my bedroom wallpaper as a small child (see attached). I also remember picking out Back to the Future on VHS in the Sears Electronics Section at our local mall after my parents told me I could buy a movie. This had to be around 1989-90, and I immediately went home and watched it. Over the years, it became one of my favorite films. Fast forward to 2002 looking for my first car, I recall looking at DeLoreans for sale in classic car paper ads and noticing them hovering in the mid-teens, which was way too expensive for me at the time. I ended up with 5K dollar 1985.5 Porsche 944 instead, which was really cool in and of itself at the time. I found this forum in college shortly thereafter and messaged Tamir. He responded and offered to show me his car the next time he was home, which happened to be in the same town I was going to college. I never followed up. Fast forward again. Many cars since and now a career and wife with a career, we purchased a classic Mustang Mach 1 in 2015. My wife loves 69-70 fastbacks. Fast forward to 2017, I visited Mike at DMC MW, looked at some cars, and immediately started researching by reading as many DeLorean related books as I could. I found the history of the car, company, and founder more interesting than the time machine connection. Fast forward to 2018, a couple of my co-workers get shot on the job. I work for a fed three letter agency. My wife and I talked, decided life is too short, so we messaged Mike at MW with some parameters (condition, price range, interior color, hood style, etc.). We purchased VIN 2282 from him in June of 2018 and have enjoyed it ever since.

[Michael]

There were waaayyyy to many attractive women throwing themselves at me and not nearly enough overweight sweaty bald men with a comic book fetish and cheeto dust on their sleeves. The DeLorean has righted this wrong that the universe dealt me.

[ritztoys]

Well we all know back in the day we played with our small 'Match Box Cars' and could do that for hours on end, big imagination here!
Then saw an ad for the Delorean in the 70's, my thought was "how beautiful this car was & designed by a famous Italian car designer"!
I saw it would be built in Ireland, "well now I'll never get one of those cars from over there" So the thought faded......
Many, many years later in my work career I was working for the State of Hawaii on the big Island, then one day saw an ad in the Honolulu Advertiser "81 Delorean, sacrifice call ***-****" I went nuts and flew to Honolulu on Friday afternoon to see this car, well I was so nervous the PO drove me around for the test drive.
I was sold, but now it was 8:00pm, banks were closed. Needless to say I didn't sleep all weekend until I could get to the bank and transfer $$ first thing on Monday to the PO.
Drove around on Oahu on Monday and then dropped my dream car off at the harbor to be shipped to the Big Island.
Enjoyed my car there in Kona for many years fixing all the issues that plague this car so it can be dependable and drive anywhere.
The worst memory was shipping my car from Hawaii to the Midwest. This whole shipping thing was back before cell phones, internet, or truck drivers checking in at home office! this shipping procedure took FIVE WEEKS, I was a mess but did finally arrive in fine shape.
Now 26 years later, still enjoying my dream car!

[dodint]

The movie came out when I was 3. It's the first live action movie I remember seeing, but I didn't know the car was a real thing until much later. I assumed it was made for the movie. Then in 1996 or so, when I was 15, I found out the car was a real thing. I was heavy into old Mopars and Mustangs but the DMC blew me away. I did some searching and found Knut Grimsrut's FAQ about the car and learned a ton; then joined the DML and kept soaking up information. Fast forward to 2017 and I finally bought one and it has lived up to my lofty expectations.

One thing that I really marvel at is the availability of information. I remember being a teen and constantly being starved for information. I would collect pictures from the internet. There was no video then; no youtube, no documentaries. I had tried to get my hands on various movies and shows where the car made a cameo so I could see one in motion. Now I can learn about any particular square inch of the car in full HD after a quick google search. It's crazy.

[mr_maxime]

I was about 8 when I saw the wedding singer. There's a scene where Glenn pulls up in a delorean blasting the Miami vice theme song. That's what made me want one. My dad only got the BTTF movies after that cause he knew I liked that car, but I'm not of fan of all of the extra stuff on it.

It wasn't til after college though where I saw the video for Miami nights 1984's accelerated on the new retro wave channel on YouTube that I realized how badly I really wanted one.

[Mark D]

Because they're frickin awesome. And by awesome, I mean totally sweet.

The first time I think I saw a DeLorean was when I picked up one of these promotional postcards at a car show/swap meet. I was like 6 or 7 maybe? Not too long afterwards I saw BTTF for the first time and realized it was the same car. Well, sort of, since the postcard is Proto 1 and the production cars obviously ended up looking different. I think I still have the actual postcard somewhere. This is a photo of what it looks like (random photo from the internet)

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=60906&d=1565634319

[JBaker4981]

I'm 52 years old now and grew up in they heyday of the 80's. When I was a kid or early teen, my dad would take us to look at cars after church on Sunday's. We never bought anything... just looked. One Sunday afternoon we stopped by Capitol Chevrolet in Nashville and they were the Nashville Delorean dealer. They had a Delorean set up in the showroom with the doors up and I was just mesmerized. My dad kept walking, but I was just stopped in my tracks. Several years later BTTF came out and that was the first time I had seen the car since that day at the showroom. It made an impression on me.

Fast forward 30+ years, I still liked the car, and with the invention of the internet, finding pictures and wallpapers of them was much easier. Still infatuated with the car, I had all but given up on ever owning one now that I was married, a dad to 3 boys, a house with a mortgage, and just general life gets in the way type of things. I still talked about Deloreans, but that was about it.

One afternoon I was having lunch with the mayor of a small town here in middle Tennessee when he asked me, "Did you ever get that silver car you've always wanted?" I said no, and he replied, "You know Homer's boy has one for sale right down the street sitting in his front yard don't you?" After lunch I took off down the street to go look at this car. It was a Delorean all right, but not in the best condition. Fascias were ragged out, intake manifold sitting in the front seat, a real fixer upper. They guy wanted $8,000.00 for it. I called my wife when I got back to the office and told her. Much to my surprise she said, "You've been talking about those cars ever since I've known you.... just go get it!" After work that night I drive 30+ miles back to this small town to buy this car. Knock on the guys door and say I want to buy the car. He says, " I've changed my mind, I don't think I'm gonna sell it." Leaving dissapointed, I had back to the office to wrap up some paperwork. Once I got to the office I was still operating in the mode of "My wife gave me permission to go buy a Delorean" . I began doing a nationwide Craigslist search to see if anything popped up. First result was Vin #3294 which had been listed 4 hours earlier in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Called the guy and bought it on the spot. Paid $9k for it. Fantastic shape, original everything (belts, hoses, tires,fuel lines, etc.) with only 8,637 miles on the odometer, but it hadn't run in 20 years. Rented a trailer and drove up on Friday to get it. Took two years to get it roadworthy again.

That's Awesome! By any chance, was that car that was sitting in the front yard over in Gordansville?

[JBaker4981]

For me, it all started with BTTF Part 3 and I became infatuated with the movie right there. I soon came to own the trilogy on VHS when I was around 5 or 6 years old. A few years later, my grandpa took me to a car museum in Nashville around 1994, maybe 1995 and there sat a 1981 DeLorean with a Black Interior and Manual transmission. From that moment, I was absolutely addicted since I had just learned that it was real. Several more trips to that museum over the years fueled that addiction until it was closed down.

Ever since I started High School in 2002, I had joined the DML and DMCTalk (at the time called 'entermyworld' then the name changed). Going forward, I learned a lot about the cars, the history of the company, and the man himself. Back then, the community on here was maybe 300 people strong (regular posters) so we all knew everyone. Back then I had somewhere between 3-4,000 posts before the great crash of 2011 but had not really made much of an effort to get back in the saddle here (until i purchased one). Been on the Facebook groups and lurking for years but I finally decided to pull the trigger.

Back in June of this year, I was lurking on the forums here and drilled into the for sale section just to casually look. I noticed Tom Neiland's post for an "Early 81' Automatic, Black Interior - Completely Refurbished" which caught my eye. My preferred was an Auto with a Grey Interior for many years. I read his original post and was astounded by everything listed that had been done to it and then I saw the pictures along with an album of the car - it spoke to me. Seeing his price, I figured it up in my head and realized that I could do it if I financed. I then put it to bed... yet that thought of owning that car had already planted a seed in the back of my mind.

Days later, I kept thinking that I could actually do it. I could actually live the dream. I contacted him just to talk about the car, not really set on purchasing and we discussed for a while. I decided to go to my preferred lender later that week and then the rest is history. I'm still in shock that I bought it and still cant believe it every time I physically look at it.

[Dangermouse]

In West Belfast born and raised;
in Dunmurry where I spent most of my days;
chilling out, maxing and relaxing all cool;
and all kicking some football outside of school;
when a couple of guys they were up to some good;
started making DeLoreans in our neighborhood;
I saw one drive by when on my way to school;
and I knew I gotta have one cos they were way cool :)

[MML]

In West Belfast born and raised;
in Dunmurry where I spent most of my days;
chilling out, maxing and relaxing all cool;
and all kicking some football outside of school;
when a couple of guys they were up to some good;
started making DeLoreans in our neighborhood;
I saw one drive by when on my way to school;
and I knew I gotta have one cos they were way cool :)


Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this thread. The rest of you can all go home now.

[mark w]

This article did.

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[opethmike]

There were waaayyyy to many attractive women throwing themselves at me and not nearly enough overweight sweaty bald men with a comic book fetish and cheeto dust on their sleeves. The DeLorean has righted this wrong that the universe dealt me.



...I love you.

[Michael]

...I love you.

I smell Rogaine and Cheetos.

[opethmike]

I smell Rogaine and Cheetos.

Nah; I am classy, that would be Doritos.

[lazabby]

Saw one at a car show on the college campus. This was before BTTF. Then about 2003 I was out with the wife on 4th of July looking for a good fireworks display. We pulled into a church parking lot where we heard there might be a fireworks display. Nothing was going on so we got ready to leave and there was a Delorean in the parking lot. I found the owner and I talked to him about it. When I left I told my wife I wanted a Delorean so she encouraged me to get one. I started doing the Internet search to find out what was going on in the Delorean world. The 2004 Delorean Car Show at Pigeon Forge came up and there was a raffle Delorean. I bought tickets but didn't win. I told a friend about the raffle and he bought a couple of tickets. He really didn't want a Delorean but he won the car. I bought the car a short time later from him.

[About time]

I was 19 or so when driving past a local Ford dealership in town (city), I spotted a Delorean in the showroom window and made the first U turn I could. I was never a car nut, it's always been 4 doors and reliable transportation for me, but when I saw that D I had to circle back for a closer look.

@19 there was no way I was going to afford it but I had to see, feel, smell it. I walked in, the drivers door was up (of course) and I took the seat, it was a WOW from the first second, when I closed that door I felt like I was in a coffin but loved it none the less.

Once the movie came out it just solidified my desire.

[Andrew]

Even before seeing BTTF, I had a little generic Matchbox sized DeLorean made by Zylmex. While I don't remember how old I was when I got the Zylmex DeLorean or who gave it to me, I do remember my disappointment when the doors broke off! I still have the doorless DeLorean in the lock box with the bill of sale for 4194, which I purchased the summer of my 18th birthday :-)

Can anyone confirm the general timeframe that the Zylmex car was available at retailers?

Thus, while I enjoyed BTTF, I always appreciated the car itself and the story behind it.

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[Ron]

Can anyone confirm the general timeframe that the Zylmex car was available at retailers?
https://www.planetdiecast.com/index2.php?&option=com_content&task=view&id=85118&pop=1&page=0&itemid=947

[SS Spoiler]

First DeLorean I ever saw was at Park Jeep
Burnsville, MN. It was parked next to a jacked
up Jeep Cherokee looking like it could have
driven right under it. That really accented the
lowness of the car. {good sales idea}. Of course
not knowing a thing about the car, I bought it. 32
tears [years]! later I still have it.....

[88Ngone]

Yall rock. I absolutely love the stories.....the awesome rhymes....and even wizardry tales!

There truly is nothing like the Delorean community!

[Rich_NYS]

I saw the car commercial and the magazines when I was a young teen....back then it was like a spaceship was landing, and it was completely awesome. Several years later I saw BTTF and was reminded of how cool it is.

Several years after that I saw one for the first time in person; it was around 2001, parked along a main road, and for sale (7500.) I wanted to buy it but we were renting an apartment at the time. My wife encouraged me to buy it anyway, but without a garage or a place to put it, I moved on but didn't forget about it.

After my kids were born I was in a conversation about how not many people know how to drive a manual transmission. I proclaimed that my kids will learn how to drive a stick in a DeLorean. A few years later I bought a 3-speed auto, then a 5-speed.

I started teaching them the shift pattern last week, and my 11 year-old started shifting 2nd-3rd-4th this past weekend....

[DMCMW Dave]

I was into the car from the first magazine articles in the late 70s. Fascinated by the rear engine/gullwing doors/stainless thing. I was able to see a car in person for the first time at the 1982 Chicago Auto Show. I'd been married a few years at this point, 2 kids, station wagon etc. = no disposable toy income.

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Then, a couple of houses, kids etc. later, finally decided that I "needed" a father/son project car (son was by now 14 or so). Found one locally and the rest is history. It's either a hobby gone wrong (or second career, depending on how you look at it), leading to DMC Midwest.

My DeLorean is by far my longest-owned car (22 years, next closest is maybe 8 ).

BTW the father/son project car idea worked out too, he's currently an engineer in the automotive (tire) industry. We'll see if I can hold onto the DMC until his son is 14, only 9 years to go! So feel free to use that line of logic if you need to.

[BladeBronson]

I saw Back to the Future in ‘85 when I was 6 years old. That movie taught me that skateboarding, electric guitars, DeLoreans, and not really caring what the principal said was cool. I told my Dad that “they should really make a car like that.” He told me that “they” did. I was hooked.

Maybe 3 years later, I heard a rumor from a kid on the bus that the Cadillac dealership in town had a DeLorean. My mom took me there and that was the first time I laid eyes on one. She wrote the dealership a letter, thanking them for letting me see the car and asked them to call if they were ever going to move it around the lot. They called and asked her to bring me over for a ride.

In 1999, I was 20 years old and living in Chicago. Now a very tall adult, I wasn’t sure if I’d fit in a DeLorean. Through DMC News, I got in touch with DMCMW Dave (yeah, 20 years ago!). He was going to be showing his car at a car show and offered to let me sit in it. He was also very helpful in helping me find my first DeLorean, and with fixing a bunch of its issues.

So yeah, a combination of the movie, going for a ride at a young age, and a community of folks like Dave convinced me that this was for me.

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