DeLoreans Coming Back to Production

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/27/luxury/delorean-coming-back-to-the-future/

by chewymouse • 10 years ago

41 25 10 years ago

money.cnn.com

JoeAltmaier• 10 years ago

...but it was a terrible car! Just stylish; and now that style is dated.

SwellJoe2• 10 years ago

Still stylish.

But, I wouldn't buy one, because I like living, and I don't really want a car that "luckily" doesn't have to meet safety standards. Also, $100k will buy a lot of modern sports car, including a Tesla or a Nissan GT-R (depending on the kind of supercar you like), which also happen to meet modern safety standards. DeLorean's are beautiful, but not $100,000 worth of beautiful, to me, when they also suffer from most of the usual failings of cars designed 40 years ago.

mikeash5• 10 years ago

I'm sure they're aiming for the nostalgia factor. Their target market is probably people who grew up with Back to the Future and always wanted one of these cars but don't want to deal with finding and maintaining an old, old used one with no manufacturer support. That demographic is getting to an age and point in life where a decent number of them (small, but perhaps enough) can afford this sort of price. "Dated" is exactly what you want, here. Just the right kind of "dated."

I wouldn't buy one either. I'm in the right demographic, and nostalgic for them, but not that nostalgic. But I think enough of my fellows are that this will enjoy some success. It won't be a mass market item, but that's OK.

rodgerd2• 10 years ago

and I don't really want a car that "luckily" doesn't have to meet safety standards.

Especially with the purported engine upgrade. A 400 HP modern engine in something that might have struggled to meet early eighties standards of braking, handling, and so on is a shiny coffin.

rodgerd2• 10 years ago

They did have one great point (other than the styling, which is very much a matter of taste), which is that they defied the trend for sports cars to require the driver to be tremendously uncomfortable to drive them. They're very comfortable for me (185cm) and even taller drivers find them quite roomy.

dogma1138• 10 years ago

Tesla should've fund a way to license the design people would've paid much more than 100k for that one.

jaytaylor• 10 years ago

I was so excited!!! Then I was left sad after reading they're only going to produce 300 of them at a rate of 1 per week out of old spare parts, except for an updated engine.

Gustomaximus• 10 years ago

new regulations are going into effect later this year that will allow the production of replica cars without requiring them to meet safety guidelines involving air bags and crash tests.

This regulation may need some tweaking to stop abuse.

mikeash5• 10 years ago

According to this, the new regulations limit such replicas to 325 cars per year per company:

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/12/08/new-law-vintage-cars/

Doesn't sound like much room for abuse.

Avshalom2• 10 years ago

So you set up a factory that "leases" it's manufacturing capacity to any paying company then start 10-100 corps that are all just coincidently making replicas of the same car and all "leasing" the factory in sequence.

I mean I don't know why you'd do that but it is the obvious work around

TazeTSchnitzel• 10 years ago

I feel sorry for the person who will inevitably be killed.

bsder• 10 years ago

Not really.

This is already in effect in a de facto way. The specialty builders tend to grab cars from pre-1973(I think) since they are grandfathered in and don't have to pass safety, emission, crash, etc.

I suspect that many builders might be able to pass some of these regulations, but the need to be "grandfathered" stops a lot of the possibilities.

It will be interesting to see if some form of "standard" chassis emerges that actually can pass the regulations.

ams6110• 10 years ago

In the context of the number of new cars manufactured and sold every year, the amount of kit or specialty customs is not worth worrying about.

nereus• 10 years ago

This same type of article about the DeLoreans comes up at least once a year. Vaporware.

the_unknown• 10 years ago

One of my neighbours a few doors down actually has an original DeLorean. He only gets it out on the road 3 or 4 times a summer and is constantly working on it although fixing it up is more of a hobby for him than anything else so I don't think he considers that to be a negative.

It is quite exciting to see it go.

Unfortunately the doors locked in the open position last summer which took him quite a bit of fiddling to get fixed. I suppose that was better than having it locked with users inside though.

addled• 10 years ago

"The price is about $100,000, and unfortunately hover conversions and flux capacitors aren't included."

Sad that the original manufacturer options are somewhat lacking, but luckily there are always after market add-ons: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/EB00/121G.oap

gbin• 10 years ago

So you can take an old car design, you make new ones but triple the power of the engine and... You don't need to recertify it ?

FussyZeus• 10 years ago

$100k for one? Holy cow. If I'm spending that I'll get a Tesla. I get the novelty and I'm genuinely happy to see them doing it but that seems sky high for a V6 coupe.

DeLoreans Coming Back to Production

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