Why Did Back to the Future’s DeLorean Only Build One Car?

in 1975 John DeLorean car manufacturer founded by DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), Return to the future for use in the movie DeLorean DMC-12 He produced his car. opening up DeLorean, which winked at the future in those years with its eye-catching design with a stainless steel body that resembled a gull wing and airplane doors with its doors, was one of the most popular cars of its era.

Last year “How much more modern can it get?” renewed in response to the question Alpha5 Introducing its model, the car manufacturer tried to win the hearts of the fans again. However, there is only one question in mind: Why did DeLorean stop producing cars?

First, let’s take the DMC Alpha5 model, which was first introduced last year.

DeLorean, which is now engraved in everyone’s memory, was unveiled again in a renewed form under the name Alpha5. electric motor, Its thin-strip LED headlights and DeLorean’s signature wing-shaped doors are truly eye-catching.

Alpha5, which has more modern lines in design, naturally follows in the footsteps of the DMC-12. You can access our content in which we examine Alpha5, which fascinates everyone with every detail, in more detail here.

Yes, Alpha5 is an admirable car and one that many of us dream of. But whatever happened to DMC stopped producing cars and only in mind “From where?” The question remained.

Let’s take a brief look at the history of DMC to make it more understandable.

In 1973, John DeLorean set out to stand out from everyone in the automobile market. striking He wanted to produce a car. The car he would produce had to be equipped with long-lasting, useful and sustainable materials.

at General Motors John DeLorean was of the opinion that automobile engines in the future would be small but of high quality. However, with company employees in disagreement he left from there.

2 years after leaving, he rolled up his sleeves to produce his own car. Working as an engineer at Pontiac bill collins and designed the DeLorean using some old sketches prepared for the Porsche 928. Of course, they only had one prototype.

The biggest problem with this prototype is It was the engine. When you continue our content, you may say, “I wish the only problem was just the engine.” you can say. Completed in six months They initially used Ford’s 3.0-liter V6 engine for this prototype, but it didn’t work very well. Later of Citroen They decided to use the 102 hp 4-cylinder engine, but this option was not very powerful either.

Can’t get along with Citroen John DeLorean and Bill Collins They worked on a new prototype in 1977, and at the time the only company they could make an agreement with was Lotus They worked together with. They agreed on a 2.85-liter V6 PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) engine, and production of the car eventually began in Dunmurry, Ireland, in 1981.

That year $150 million The duo of John DeLorean and Bill Collins, who spent three years in Dunmurry, built the factory exactly 9,000 cars they produced. But this did not provide enough income to cover the money they spent.

However, things started to go well and they became known with the movie Back to the Future.

DeLorean, beyond time It had a design. Although the idea of ​​making the car from stainless steel is original, it A car that everyone can drive It made more sense to make it . So the duo used the marketing strategy to buy the car. “Return to the future” They wanted to use it in the movie.

The film was released between 1985 and 1990 and at that time Grossed $381.1 million It broke box office records and became the highest-grossing film of 1985. The film was watched with admiration all over the world. Because the theme of back to the future attracted a lot of attention.

This would be an extraordinary development for DMC. We say it would happen because the moves to use the DeLorean in the movie bad timing It was wasted because of it. Because although the movie Back to the Future was released in 1985, the company had already it had sunk. We continue with the details.

Although the design of the DeLorean was admirable, it was not a very practical car.

Italdesign Giorgetto Giugiaro Adopting the design language, DeLorean has an upward-opening doors like wings It wasn’t very useful with . Since they were made of stainless steel, the doors were very heavy and it required a lot of strength to open the doors upwards. It did not have many notable features in terms of performance and handling.

Someone who drives such a futuristic car, of course, also cares about speed, but the 2.85-liter V6 PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) The engine had 130 horsepower and did not promise high speed. This engine, which could reach 80 km/h in just 6.6 seconds, was not very powerful.

DeLorean’s failure was not only due to its design, John DeLorean was the biggest factor here.

Many other automakers were collaborating with other manufacturers during production. However, John DeLorean completed all production stages to keep in DMC decided.

This meant that DMC’s revenues could not cover its expenses. So John DeLorean, other manufacturers not to submit We can say that he acted a little arrogantly.

Not paying enough to the designers of the car, rival companies Producing better engines than the existing ones and not changing DeLorean’s pricing policy was like the company going downhill on a car with burst brakes.

John DeLorean at the time he was in trouble and before I go bankrupt FBI and SEC was sued by. Because he had borrowed a large amount of money and he insisted on not paying this debt. And this naturally made production very difficult.

The economic recession in America in 1981-82 also hit the company.

John DeLorean was in America when he founded the company economic crisis It was happening. Economic stagnation, rising inflation and skyrocketing unemployment rates are affecting many sectors, including the automobile industry. a devastating effect left. DeLorean also took its share in this economic crisis. In the Iraq-Iran war It suffered another blow due to rising oil prices.

Unemployed people are trying to buy this car due to increasing oil prices. He didn’t really agree. Because the last sector that the public would want to focus on in the economic crisis would be automotive. In those already turbulent years, the automotive industry was also quite shaky.

John DeLorean was not a very good manager and played an unsuccessful role in crisis management.

While turning the crisis into opportunity John Delorean, who turned opportunity into crisis, He was never a good manager. His disregard for customers’ demands and his employees was dragging him further and further down.

Made by company employees hunger strike, It caused supply problems and disruptions in shipments occurred. Therefore, the factory suffered permanent damage and could not produce any more cars.

John DeLorean, who did not even know how to spend the money he had, continued his entire production process at DMC. into debt started. Naturally, it came to the brink of bankruptcy because it did not allocate enough budget for design and engineering.

Scandals continued in the company and John DeLorean tried to make money illegally but failed.

John was trying to save his company by contacting investors from Colombia and Mexico, but they lost their cars. There was no one who wanted to invest. So instead of finding investors, he decided to make quick money by selling drugs.

To save the company and make quick money started drug trafficking John DeLoreon was under investigation in the early 1980s. FBI, DeLorean Motor Company money laundering and learned that he was involved in drug trafficking and immediately launched an investigation. He was arrested in 1982 but 11 months After serving time in prison, he was acquitted of all charges.

The DeLorean, which had the potential to survive to the present day, remained a short-lived car due to neglect and economic recession.

DeLorean DMC-12, one of the most iconic cars He was one and had the potential to be long-lived. DeLorean, which intimidated its competitors with its design but failed, became very visible due to John’s drug smuggling and its story ended within a few years.

A car that has deficiencies compared to other cars and has the possibility of completing these deficiencies, He was left to his fate. Nowadays only Alpha5 Many of us would have liked DeLorean to continue its production, but unfortunately that did not happen. What do you think about these scandals?

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