RE: [DML] Re: Downfall of the DMC?

["Chris Parnham" <cp@xxxx>]

Its very refreshing for me to read such considered and thoughtful replies to
this often referred to subject. Living in the UK I get very sensitive to all
the " conspiracy theories" often put about on this subject.

Yes, the British Government did eventually say "enough is enough" and
stopped bailing the factory out. I honestly think they would have
preferred that it had succeeded. No government wants to see 3000 odd workers
out of such good jobs, particularly in an area like Belfast.

All the senior employee's I've spoken to, were in absolutely no doubt that
JZD's attempt at producing his own car was very serious and intended to
succeed. He surrounded himself with some of the best brains in the industry,
he nearly succeeded. "Politics" doubtless did became involved.
But JZD new things were very tight, but gambled that increasing production
and employing yet more workers would make it impossible for the British
Government to refuse more money. Unfortunately he had underestimated "The
Iron Lady" , Mrs. Thatcher, she went on to make loads more decisions of a
similar nature, which with the benefit of hindsight, were probably correct.

The problem is that "Hindsight" is easy....later! All any-one can do is
what seems best at that time. Hindsight makes it easy for us all to point
fingers and say if only they had done this instead......

I am still very proud to drive and be involved with the DeLorean Motor Car.

Chris Parnham DOC UK


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian McCool [mailto:bjmccool@xxxx]
Sent: 26 September 2002 23:56
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [DML] Re: Downfall of the DMC?


If I had to narrow it down to one specific event that brought the company
down, I would say it was the decision in November of 1981 to double
production of cars from 40 a day to 80 a day. The country went into a
recession and had a very bad winter about a month after this, which affected
every car manufacturer negatively, especially DMC. JZD did this partly to
make the company look more impressive right before a planned public offering
of the company's stock that ended up being canceled. By doubling production
right before a market downturn, working capital was effectively used up, and
the market was flooded with Deloreans that were just sitting at the Quality
Assurance Centers in the US. This started a downward spiral that the company
wasn't able to recover from. A major gamble in the auto industry is to build
cars without adhering to dealer orders. Chrysler got itself into trouble in
the late seventies by doing this. In retrospect, if JZD would have cut
production in half, DMC may have lasted much longer than it did. It's likely
that DMC would have merged with or been bought by another auto company, by
this point. Global mergers have drastically reduced the amount of
independent auto companies. Smaller auto companies face a major problem in
that it takes very large sums of cash to function in the automotive
manufacturing industry, and the little guys don't have very deep pockets.
This was especially true for DMC. Whereas every penny they spent had to be
asked for, the big boys were functioning off of their own cash flow.
-----Original Message-----
From: therealdmcvegas [mailto:DMCVegas@xxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 2:27 AM
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [DML] Re: Downfall of the DMC?


I will have to agree with Andy on this one. The best thing to do is to read
the
books available. Specificly, I would stick with "De Lorean", "Hard driving",
"Dream Maker", and "Stainless Steel Illusion".. These are the best books,
and
to get the full effect, I would reccomend reading them in that order. Once
you're done, read "De Lorean" over again, and alot of bits and pieces from
all
of the books will click together.

Was there any one thing that took DMC down? No. It was unfortunetly a
combination of a number of things that caused the demise. When you start
reading up on the subject, you begin to wonder just how it could have ended.
While there were a some mistakes made here and there in the form of things
that either should, or should not have been done, there wasn't a single
action
that caused any sort of a domino effect.

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"



--- In dmcnews@xxxx, Vin 5386 <delorean_stainless@xxxx> wrote:
> Does anyone know the actuall reasons that DMC ended up
> in bankrupcy? When all is said it seems to me that the
> company did quite well in its short time. Was it just
> that the DeLorean as an automoblibe didn't "fit the
> nitch" at that time in history? sorta to much to soon?
> or was it more related to competeing with the larger
> companys? Would be amazing to suspend reality for one
> instance and imagine where the DeLorean would be today
> given it had continuted production.
>
> Todd
> Vin5386
>
> =====