--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ryan Wright" <ryanpwright@...> wrote: > Such is the nature of the beast. It's not the DeLorean that's the > problem. The cars are well built and reliable. The problem is the >age and type - it's a 26 year old exotic sports car. Unfortunately, >this is pretty well how most of them are. Especially if you want to >drive it regularly. I tend to disagree with parts of the above. Build quality was highly erratic on DeLoreans, hence the inception of the Quality Assurance Centers. The cars were so bad out of the factory that many had to be completely torn down and rebuilt in America at the QACs. I've probably seen hundreds of cars over my years in the community, and no two are really exactly the same. Some cars they seemed to get everything just right... everything is tight and aligned well... other cars are just another story. They had reliability problems right out of the box too. Johnny Carson's car dying on him on his way home is a perfect example. People were getting locked in/out of their cars with dead batteries, windows wouldn't work, trim pieces would fall off, all from day one. There was a reason they portrayed the DeLorean as a lemon in Back To The Future in 1985... because the cars were known to have problems. Even in Stainless Steel Illusion published in 1983, they make notes of all of this. They predicted problems with the cooling and electrical systems... those of us who are owners know all to well. What comment you SHOULD have said is it's amazing the cars are as good as they are. In truth they really aren't so exotic... they use mainly very mundane off the shelf parts. They do use some very good components... the PRV, while an funky little engine, will last hundreds of thousands of miles with little maintanence. It's the combination of all these off the shelf parts, and mainly the DeLorean specific engineered pieces, that give us trouble. What's amazing is the DeLorean that we know essentially was designed and rolled out into production in less than 3 years. Show me any car company today that can do that. ESPECIALLY a brand new car company, with a brand new line. It's unheard of. And the cars were not glorified kit cars like the Bricklin... they were very nice automobiles. So the fact that they were able to pull this off at all, combined with the fact the cars aren't nearly as terrible as they could have been, is quite an accomplishment. Now back to the topic at hand. If you're going to continue ownership and not get completely burned out, you've gotta make some friends in the community who are close by. They can help you repair your car when it breaks, saving you thousands. You'll eventually pick up on how to diagnose and repair your own car some. Even someone as completely mechanically incompetent as I was able to eventually do some work to my car alone. Plus it always helped me when I'd get stressed out to get together with my buddies and vent. They can help you through it because they've been there themselves! Plus getting DeLoreans together is a ton of fun... and it reminds you of what drew you to the car in the first place. So my biggest piece of advice to new/or soon to be owners is this: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Read as much about the cars from any source you can. Hang out with owners, go to meets. I became very involved in the DeLorean community about 2 years before I bought my first car. Knowledge (and lots of cash!)is your best weapon to combat these cars. You have to keep in mind too that these cars are 26 year old cars which had questionable build quality and reliability from the start. Expect the worst... and you'll only be disappointed or surprised part of the time LOL ;-). Louie Golden Charlotte, NC To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:dmcnews-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:dmcnews-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/