Re: [DML] How many Deloreans?

[William T Wilson <fluffy@xxxx>]

On Sat, 7 Apr 2001, Kevin Abato wrote:

> Ok....Here is the common question(s) that I am asked, and I can not
> answer some of them:
> 
> How many Deloreans were made? (8,400 or something right?)

Nobody really knows. Stainless Steel Illusion says 8587 (IIRC) but this
number is probably wrong. Most likely more than that were made. One of
the people who worked in the factory said that most likely more than
10,000 were produced and statistical analysis of the VIN numbers indicates
that is probably closer than 8587.

> How many are still around?

Nobody really knows. Not all roadworthy DeLoreans are even registered and
there is no way to track them all down. Probably around 2/3 of them are
still serviceable.

> How many are in the US? (Think I heard that about 6,000 were imported
> into the US)

Almost all DeLoreans were sent to North America. Probably only a couple
hundred were originally sent to other parts of the world. I don't know
how many of the North American models went to Canada, but most went to the
US.

> Who owns the first/last one ever made?

The "first" DeLorean depends on what you mean by "first." There are a few
prototypes floating around, they come up for sale or auction at the rate
of about one per year. Most of these are only barely roadworthy, either
due to damage or due to simply being incomplete. A few of the earliest
cars were used for crash testing or demonstration and never sold. One
list member owns VIN #520 which is (again, IIRC) one of the cars that
should have been destroyed. It might be the earliest regular production
car still existing. VIN #502 is the lowest VIN I know about, it is the
special Turbo prototype and (again, IIRC) was located at DMC Houston.

The last "regular" DeLorean is for sale and is located in Chicago. It
just was advertised on the list last week. There are also three (or
possibly four) gold-plated cars which are the absolute last cars produced,
all of which are in museums or collections. One was in a bank in Las
Vegas but I don't know if it's still on display or not, another was in a
car museum in I believe Texas, and the third is/was in a private
collection somewhere on the east coast. I think it might have come up for
sale recently also.

Sorry for vagueness and inaccuracies. All this information has been on
the list over the past couple years and I'm just trying to remember as
much of it as I can.