Sunday, March 2, 2008

Should I purchase a DeLorean as a daily driver?


Do you want a DeLorean for use as daily driver, or a weekend cruiser?

If you're going to consider a DeLorean as a daily driver, consider that you will be running a 26 year old car. The Second law of Thermodynamics crudely stated says: "Everything gets older with time".  And in the automotive world, older and more reliable are not often used together. The point being is that you should be ready to expect the unexpected if you plan to use a DeLorean as a daily driver.

It's not to say these cars aren't hardy, when taken care of. In fact there is a local owner down here in Florida who his only car is a DeLorean for the past 17 years, and the car has over 200,000 miles.  He may be the exception, but it does demonstrate the capability and potential robustness of these cars.  

The other potential pitfall with purchasing a DeLorean for a daily driver, is that unless you have a very good (good as in documented and performed correctly) maintenance history that came with the car, chances are very high that you will need to do some reliability upgrades and possible system maintenance.

My purchase was intended for weekend use and very little to no use during the week.  Honestly though, even if I had the most reliable DeLorean ever made, I would still be apprehensive (not to mention over protective) about driving it daily in S. Florida traffic.

>>> If you have a few minutes, be sure to check out the "Best of" postings. Thanks.<<<

2 comments:

John Arley Burns said...

I've had my Delorean (DMCH Refurbished) as a daily driver for about a year now and have had less problems than my late-model Hyundai and Mazda. That, and I've learned a lot more about the car, since the Delorean is so "perfectly described" by the workshop manual, online parts guides, etc. compared to almost any other car out there. This has helped in diagnosing problems with my other "more reliable" cars as well.

Wilson Hitchings said...

I'm purchasing the last DMCH remanufactured car there is and hope to use it as a daily driver like John Burns. I do, however, think I'll be fairly protective of my D in traffic...