this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Their demise was absolutely due to lack of popularity. In December '81 they had produced 7,000 units and sold 3,000. I'd argue that they failed for the same reason Fiero did -- they looked like a sports car but were not. Top speed was 110mph. 0-60 time was 10.5 seconds. It had a V-6 that put out 130hp in a car with a curb wt of 2700 lbs. 0-60 time was measured at 10.5 seconds. To put that in perspective, about the same as a 99 Ford F-350 Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4 Dually or 73 LTD Brougham. There are virtually no modern cars that run 0-60 that slow. A 2024 5.3l Suburban has a time of 7.0
In addition, they had numerous quality control problems. This in a car that retailed for $25k or the rough equivalent of $86,000 in today's dollars. While it's probably true that nobody despised the car, it was not a good car. They were definitely cool sitting in a parking lot but getting spanked by a 1980 Chevy Citation (0-60 10.3) is not a good look
The cybertruck is on a different scale of unpopularity.
Nobody threw Molotov cocktails at Delorians.
Not with that spelling.
How dare you disparage the amazing Fiero!
I'm not saying you are wrong in anything you state, and you make good points.
And yes you are probably right that the shortcomings compared to what was promised is the main reason sales didn't go as expected.
But I think you don't see it the same way as barneypiccolo you responded to.
Wasn't the DeLorean design pretty iconic from the beginning? The fact that there are still more than 2/3rds of the cars built on the road today 44 years later does speak volumes to its favor regarding popularity IMO. Those were not cars that were bought, found insufficient and then scrapped. But instead have been maintained despite DeLorean hasn't been around to supply spare parts.
Also the fact that the car had such a central role in the Movie Back to the Future, because it was simply such a cool car despite it's flaws, what other car could they have used for similar effect?
Imagine trying to do that with the Cybertruck! The Cinema would most like burst out in laughter from claiming doing anything with a Cybertruck would be to do it in "Style" as Emmet Brown expressed it regarding the DeLrean. It would clearly be seen as a fat joke on how stupid the car is and looks.
So no the car wasn't popular enough in sales for the number of cars DeLorean built, but it was never an unpopular atrocity like the Cybertruck is.
Edit PS:
That's not true:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMC_DeLorean
And allegedly they needed to sell about 2000 cars remaining to continue.