During the time I was learning about the cars, I Googled to see if there were any for sale in the state of Utah that I would be able to go test drive. The only one that I had seen in person up to this point in my life was back in the late 90s when I went to Universal Studios Hollywood and saw the time machine DeLorean that was on display outside of the Back to the Future ride.
As luck would have it, I found one online that was for sale in Salt Lake City at Steve Harris Imports, a Ferrari, Maserati, & Lotus dealer. Someone must have used it in a trade. It was a gray interior automatic with less than 5,000 miles on it, and those are all the details that I remember since that was back in 2002. I remember being so excited just to drive down there to see the car. I drove there late in the day in September, but the dealership was already closed and the lot was fenced off. Luckily the car was parked next to the fence and I was able to take a picture of the car:
I remember the asking price back then was $14,700 and I remember thinking about how I might actually be able to own one of these some day if I worked hard and made it a priority. I don't recall what happened, but three months passed before I called the dealership and asked if I could come down and take it for a test drive. I remember that the dealer acted a little hesitant because the car had so few miles on it, but he agreed to let me drive it, if only for a short drive. December 7, 2002 I went to the dealership and drove my first DeLorean. I remember that they had to jump-start the car because it had been sitting for so long. First the dealer sat in the driver's seat and I sat in the passenger seat. I don't recall if he drove me around or not, but I do remember having my sister take my picture as I was in the passenger seat and as I was getting out as seen below:
I then got in the driver's seat, my sister in the passenger seat, and we took the car for a quick spin, probably less than 2 miles. It was awesome. I remember being able to fit fairly easy, even though I was 6'6", and I remember feeling like we were sitting on the ground. Being so low was definitely something that stood out to me. The car was in great shape except a part of the driver's seat was tearing. The car was likely a bit overpriced because of who was selling the car. Unfortunately I didn't have the means to buy it, but it definitely caused my desire to want one to grow even more.
I then lived in Long Beach, CA for two years right after I drove the DeLorean and I randomly saw a DeLorean pull into a gas station to fill up one morning, but I didn't have the opportunity to stop or to take a picture, unfortunately. For those keeping track, that was only sighting number 3 for me. That happened in 2003.
Life went on as usual the next few years. I went to college, dated, etc. Then in 2008, when I was dating my soon-to-be wife, I was driving up to Idaho to spend the weekend with her and her family at Bear Lake and I was driving through the canyon on the curvy road when I saw a DeLorean pass me going the other way. It happened so fast that I didn't get a chance to look much at it. I noticed the distinct grill and by the time I realized what it was, it was past me and around one of the many curves, out of sight. I was so happy that I got to see another one on the road. I texted my soon-to-be-wife and told her all about it. It was great.
Another year or so passed and I had gotten married, and we went on a vacation trip to Orlando, FL with my family in June of 2009. While there I saw another DeLorean on display at Universal Studios, even though the Back to the Future ride had been replaced by The Simpsons Ride. I believe this is still on display, as well as the train used in the third film. Here's my wife and I posing in front of the car:
This DeLorean was car #5 that I had seen in person. Over the next year or so, I periodically searched for DeLoreans for sale on ebay and other web sites just to see how much they were going for. To my surprise, the prices had not risen much since I found the car for sale in SLC in 2002. I started to realize that it was no longer a question of "if" I was going to own a DeLorean, but "when." I graduated from college and got promoted at the place I had been working for over five years. I then got laid off due to a company bankruptcy and merger, but was given a hefty severance package... just about enough to buy a nice DeLorean. I had a part-time job still, so my wife and I were able to get by without having to use any of the severance money while I looked for a full-time job.
The entire time that I was looking for a job, I was also looking for a DeLorean. I joined a DeLorean web forum DMC Talk, and I started reading about what it was really like to own and drive a DeLorean on a regular basis. I learned so much from the forum and began to feel very comfortable with the idea of owning my own.
There was one big item of business that I needed to tackle first: convince my wife that we should buy one. A couple of months earlier, I had placed a bid on a DeLorean in Phoenix, AZ that was in really great shape. I bid somewhere around $14,000, confident that I was going to be outbid. I informed my wife of my actions, and she was shocked. She knew that I had wanted one for a very long time, but she thought that we would be getting one when we were much older, like 60. When she realized that I was wanting one now, I think it knocked the wind out of her.
Once I explained to her that if we didn't get one now, then we probably never would, she started to accept the fact that we were going to get one. I wasn't going to go and buy the first one that we found either. I was very particular about the ones that I would consider. First, it had to be a manual transmission. Second, the stainless steel panels had to be in perfect, or near perfect condition with no dings or dents. Third, the car would need to have some work done in order to make it perfect. I wanted to be able to experience the joy of working on and restoring a DeLorean.
So it just so happened that I got hired for a great job at the end of February 2011, and I found a DeLorean on ebay that had supposedly been sitting in someone's driveway in Louisiana for about 20 or so years without moving. The bidding price was around $5,000 and it had my name all over it. I was so excited to get a non-running car so I could start from square one. I was watching the bidding so closely and was prepared to pay a couple thousand more than that to secure the winning bid. To my dismay, the day that the bidding was supposed to end, the listing disappeared. The seller apparently thought it was worth much more than that, got scared, and claimed that he sold the car locally. I haven't seen it reappear on ebay, so hopefully that was the case.
Not more than a week later, I was searching on DMC Talk for another car, and I came across a car that had been for sale since 2009, but the seller didn't seem in any hurry to get rid of it because the pictures were really small and you couldn't see the details of the car very well. Well he just so happened to finally get his hands on a high quality digital camera and posted up some great pictures of the car on the forum. I had just barely started my new job, so I knew I was financially stable enough to drop that much cash on a car. As soon as I had seen the new pictures of the car and I saw what unbelievably good shape it was in, I sent him an email and offered him $14,500 on the spot. To my surprise, he accepted the offer! Below are just a few of the pictures I saw of the car that made me fall in love with it:
It was beautiful. Just what I was looking for. It was a 1981, manual transmission, pefect, or near perfect panels, and it needed a little work, mostly on the interior. As a plus, the hood had a gas flap and grooves, which I think look great, the seat covers had just been replaced, and in all, the previous owner had put about $9,000 worth of work into the car since he had owned it. It only had 49,800 miles on it too. In the next post, I'll talk about what happened after the offer was accepted.
