2012 US DeLorean density summary from the DOD

[Jonathan]

I pulled some data from the most recent DOD (October 2012). I grabbed the number of cars in each state and added it up. I had this data from 2011 as well, so compared the differences too.

From the DOD, there are 879 cars in the US. This was 929 one year earlier. The delta for the country is -50. This means they either took themselves off the directory, sold their car out of country, or wrecked it perhaps. Not sure really, those are just guesses.

Here is an image of the state names sorted by: highest number of cars per population of that state; highest total number of cars in the state; greatest difference in cars from 2011 to 2012 (sorted positives at the top, negatives at the bottom).

For the multiple DeLorean owners poll thread, there are quite a few of these types of owners out there. One fellow has 15 cars to my surprise.

Even though the DOD shows 879 cars, we still know there are more than that. But how many? The Canadian data is a little harder to look at as there isn't provincial data for all of them. The Ontario total is 20 for 2012 (and was 21 for 2011). I know this number is closer to 50 or maybe 60 in terms of the Ontario club in reality, and this doesn't account for some cars not yet found or confirmed. So is the DOD showing 40% of all cars? More? Less? This would mean there are 2,200 cars in the US. This still seems low compared to the 9,000 or so we believe were ever made and the 6,500-7,000 that many quote as still existing.

Just another thing to add to the discussion I suppose...

18526

[eldusto84]

Wow, 879 seems very low. I wonder what the spread is around the rest of the world? Most likely UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands have the most Deloreans outside of the US.

I hear the 6000-7000 number thrown around a lot, but I also wonder how many of that number are actually road-worthy. Some people out there keep one or more vehicles laying around as parts donors for their main Delorean. I would say that 3000 seems like a safe total for the amount of Deloreans remaining in the US, although the road-worthy number might in fact be closer to that 879 figure...

[Dangermouse]

There aren't that many in Australia. In the 100+ club, I think you find

GB
Germany
Netherlands (but only because the last know location of so many cars is DMCEU)
France
Canada
Ireland (island)

[Jonathan]

Wow, 879 seems very low. I wonder what the spread is around the rest of the world? Most likely UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands have the most Deloreans outside of the US.

I hear the 6000-7000 number thrown around a lot, but I also wonder how many of that number are actually road-worthy. Some people out there keep one or more vehicles laying around as parts donors for their main Delorean. I would say that 3000 seems like a safe total for the amount of Deloreans remaining in the US, although the road-worthy number might in fact be closer to that 879 figure...

A quick count of the number of Ds not listed as being in the US is 224. This includes all countries that you listed above as well as anywhere else on the planet.

So if the total global Ds is 1,103 according to the DOD, yes, it would seem low. The Texas guys show 302 as being inactive (as well as 10 more cars on top of my 1,103... it shows 1,113). I do not know what gets a car on the inactive list, however.

If I go back to this 20 we show for Ontario, I think using this and comparing it to what a given owners knows there to be in their respective state, it might give us an approximate number to multiply by.

I believe the last official count at ODOC was 59. We also added 2 or so from elsewhere recently that may or may not be part of that 59. We also have a half dozen or so rumored cars that have not had VINs verified. These aren't so much the "my neighbor's uncle's friend knows a guy with two of these stored in his barn" cars, but they are cars almost assured to exist, but the owners don't want to get involved or play nice. So maybe it is 65 in Ontario with still the potential for lost cars to be hiding out in far away fields somewhere.

This is x3.25 the DOD number. This still only gets us less than 2,900 in the US. Hard to believe perhaps based on what we all think? I like to let the math tell me what the story is though and this could be used as part of the calculation.

[Jeff K]

What is the DOD .. other then Department of Defense?

Thanks

[DMCH James]

What is the DOD .. other then Department of Defense?

Thanks

DeLorean Owners Directory... see www.txdmc.org

[DMCH James]

(snip)

This is x3.25 the DOD number. This still only gets us less than 2,900 in the US. Hard to believe perhaps based on what we all think? I like to let the math tell me what the story is though and this could be used as part of the calculation.

I believe that out of 600-7000 left in existence there may be only 3000 or so on that are roadworthy/licensed. I can think of a dozen or more here in Houston alone that are "sitting"...

[ccurzio]

Shouldn't this be "destiny summary"?

On topic though, there are clearly a great many more cars than people familiar with the directory. I honestly don't even know if I'm in there.

[thirdmanj]

Shouldn't this be "destiny summary"?

I see what you did there....

[Michael]

Shouldn't this be "destiny.

Beat me to it.

I have maintained for a long time that the number of roadworthy cars is probably between 1,500 and 2,500 worldwide. No stats, facts, figures, or evidence...just my dead reckoning and logical Vulcan thinking.

[Jonathan]

On topic though, there are clearly a great many more cars than people familiar with the directory. I honestly don't even know if I'm in there.

Definitely. We all agree the DOD (or other possible lists out there) are never going to reach every last owner. Not everyone is online, or using the forum, or even email or snail mail, or going to club events, or even buying parts if their car just sits. I was thinking that if we came up with a number of fairly accurate assessments on how many you felt were in your state, we could put together a multiplication factor that would give us a fairly good estimate of the ones we don't know about or that aren't officially on the list.

Like this idea that Ontario has about 65 that we know of, but only 20 in the DOD. Not saying there aren't others hiding out there in the province, but over the last 5 or so years, we've really been doing a province wide track down of cars. The internet helps of course and I think our number is fairly close. This gives something along the lines of x3.25 to the DOD number.

I also think Michael's idea of there being 2,000-ish cars out there worldwide that are still in good working order is pretty close. I didn't lean too heavily on the stats either, more just a revelation, a vision maybe?

[AugustneverEnds]

Wow this data suggests we should all start searching old barns and garages and rescuing some orphans. Or, at least not let some parts go to waste 8)

[ccurzio]

Wow this data suggests we should all start searching old barns and garages and rescuing some orphans. Or, at least not let some parts go to waste 8)

Seriously. I would kill for a good late '81 manual parts car.

[lazabby]

The latest VIN chronology has been posted here:
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?1594-VIN-Chronology/page15

CitizenKidd has done an excellent job analyzing the wherabouts of all Deloreans at this site:
www.txdmc.org. Click on "Registry" and then "VIN Stats". Lots of information there.

I've been collecting the stats on Deloreans for years. The location of them is always a moving target as they get sold or barn finds come to light. The database gets it information from numerous sources - original sales or warranty lists, sales on the Internet such as Ebay, various forums, DOD, club sites, etc. It's not perfect and never will be but it's the best available.

[Morpheus]

Wow this data suggests we should all start searching old barns and garages and rescuing some orphans. Or, at least not let some parts go to waste 8)

Not to mention prevent more cars from being turned into Time Machine replicas....;)