Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the DeLorean is noted for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, as well as its lack of power and performance incongruous with its looks and price. Though its production was short-lived, the DeLorean became widely known after it was featured as the time machine in the Back to the Future films.
Despite the car having a reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfactory driving experience, the DeLorean continues to have a strong following driven in part by the popularity of Back to the Future. 6,500 DeLoreans were estimated to still be on the road as of 2015.
I found a post on Reddit that talks a bit more about it here.So i don't know much about cars, but this description makes it sound like the DeLorean was a crappy overpriced car that got famous only because Back to the Future made fun of how slow the car was, and it's iconic appearance pulled the rest, a car meant to be seen and shown rather than to be driven
DMC entered into a contract with Legend Industries, [...] a firm having previous success with turbocharging Fiat Spiders for Fiat USA. [...] John DeLorean was so impressed with the engine, he committed to ordering 5,000 engines from Legend Industries. [...] Before any of the 5,000 cars could be put into production, DMC had declared bankruptcy, which drove Legend Industries, as well as other suppliers, into bankruptcy.[81]
DMC was aware as early as April 1981 of the need to produce a right-hand-drive (RHD) version to supply to world markets, [...] the company opted to investigate the idea of a post-production conversion using Wooler-Hodec, [...] About 30 early DeLoreans were shipped to Wooler-Hodec and the best 20 were to be converted to RHD. However, only 13 were completed before DMCL went into receivership which subsequently led to the closure of Wooler-Hodec.[86]
It was a engineering mess and crappy in the horsepower and weight department due to the materials it was made with. And tbh it wouldn't be a horrid car if it wasn't in back to the future. Personally the car looks hot and I'd buy one for a decent ish price. U can kinda see what a non movie car delorean could've been by looking at the toyota sera even though it is a slow car a select few people like and buy.So i don't know much about cars, but this description makes it sound like the DeLorean was a crappy overpriced car that got famous only because Back to the Future made fun of how slow the car was, and it's iconic appearance pulled the rest, a car meant to be seen and shown rather than to be driven
Ah I remember the days 80's cars where cheap and plentiful before I-D blew the whole market wide open.I found a post on Reddit that talks a bit more about it here.
I think if the car wasn't so clouded in production and engineering issues and actually delivered what it promised (which is a lot to overcome, but still), then it might've been a car that stood on its own merits, even if it was then featured in a movie. Sort of like the AE86 which was already a proven model before it got even more popular from Initial D. Instead though it's become kind of a collector's item that's only worth anything because of the movies. Nobody will care about its status as a "real" car but only as a movie prop.
Also, from reading through the Wikipedia page, it's a bit of a tragic tale even discounting the shutdown of DMC. It seems that many companies received orders to perform certain modifications on the DeLorean, which obviously fell through when DMC folded, and that led to those companies closing as well.