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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12

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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12 | Top Gear

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Back to the Future day got you pining for a stainless steel supercar? Step this way

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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12

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Back to the Future day got you pining for a stainless steel supercar? Step this way

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Back to the Future day got you pining for a stainless steel supercar? Step this way

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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12

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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12

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Want to go BTTF? Here's how to buy a DeLorean DMC-12

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Back to the Future day got you pining for a stainless steel supercar? Step this way

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Peruse any corner of the internet today and you’ll have been bombarded with hashtag-bandwagoning Back to the Future references. And they don’t stop here. Sorry.

Because, if you’re anything like us, you’ll be embracing a day that celebrates a formative film for car nuts. BTTF was, after all, the trilogy that gave the DeLorean DMC-12 its place in car culture, after all.

So we can’t blame you if days like today have you scavenging down the back of the settee and working out if you can buy Doc's own time-travelling gullwing sports car. Here’s what you need to know…

The good news

We’ll start with the good stuff. The DMC-12 looks every bit as intoxicating now as it did back in the 1980s, stainless steel panels and all. While very much a product of its time, there are few cars – at any price point – that remain quite so iconic and instantly recognisable to all who see it.

There’s a slew of them out there, too. Around 9,000 DMC-12s were built, and plenty of them are knocking around second-hand at any one time. Somewhere between £25,000 and £30,000 is the going rate for a runner, making one the same price as a Toyota GT86, VW Golf GTI or even just a feverishly specced up Mini. None of those cars, you'll notice, possesses gullwing doors.

Because DeLoreans are such an, um, specialist choice, it's pretty easy to find one that’s been well looked after too, and despite all being three decades old, mileages are all low.

Running a Renault-sourced V6 petrol engine and with familiar manual and automatic gearboxes available, it’s all pretty conventional underneath too. No plutonium fuel bills to worry about, whatever BTTF might have you believe…

The bad news

There’s no flux capacitor, the DMC-12 doesn’t come with a helpful white-coated Doc to assist with maintenance and it won’t actually time travel.

Sadly, the woe doesn’t stop there. And that’s without us touching on the less-than-salubrious DeLorean back story.

Because of the numerous stumbling blocks the DMC-12 encountered in its short life, the finished article isn’t quite as fantastical as it surely appeared in John DeLorean’s head.

Power is a meagre 130bhp from that underwhelming V6 engine, the automatic gearbox is a clunky three-speeder and 0-60mph takes around 10 seconds, meaning a traffic light grand prix against most modern diesel hatchbacks is ill-advised, never mind attempting to hit 88mph in a pokey car park.

Being practical for a second, all but 16 were built with left-hand drive, owing to the DMC-12’s target audience: America. And while most of them appear well looked after, build quality issues dogged the DeLorean, and stories of those trick doors getting stuck shut ought to ward off any claustrophobes.

You’d better like grey, too.

So should I buy one?

In all objective measurements, the DMC-12 falls rather short. But then how many other cars so easily drop the jaws of car folk and non-car folk alike? It’s a museum piece as much as it is transport, and its cult following also mean it’s eminently possible to upgrade your DeLorean to the car it perhaps always should have been.

And should inspiration strike you in particularly peculiar ways, you can always turn yours into a monster truck…

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Peruse any corner of the internet today and you’ll have been bombarded with hashtag-bandwagoning Back to the Future references. And they don’t stop here. Sorry.

Because, if you’re anything like us, you’ll be embracing a day that celebrates a formative film for car nuts. BTTF was, after all, the trilogy that gave the DeLorean DMC-12 its place in car culture, after all.

So we can’t blame you if days like today have you scavenging down the back of the settee and working out if you can buy Doc's own time-travelling gullwing sports car. Here’s what you need to know…

The good news

We’ll start with the good stuff. The DMC-12 looks every bit as intoxicating now as it did back in the 1980s, stainless steel panels and all. While very much a product of its time, there are few cars – at any price point – that remain quite so iconic and instantly recognisable to all who see it.

There’s a slew of them out there, too. Around 9,000 DMC-12s were built, and plenty of them are knocking around second-hand at any one time. Somewhere between £25,000 and £30,000 is the going rate for a runner, making one the same price as a Toyota GT86, VW Golf GTI or even just a feverishly specced up Mini. None of those cars, you'll notice, possesses gullwing doors.

Because DeLoreans are such an, um, specialist choice, it's pretty easy to find one that’s been well looked after too, and despite all being three decades old, mileages are all low.

Running a Renault-sourced V6 petrol engine and with familiar manual and automatic gearboxes available, it’s all pretty conventional underneath too. No plutonium fuel bills to worry about, whatever BTTF might have you believe…

The bad news

There’s no flux capacitor, the DMC-12 doesn’t come with a helpful white-coated Doc to assist with maintenance and it won’t actually time travel.

Sadly, the woe doesn’t stop there. And that’s without us touching on the less-than-salubrious DeLorean back story.

Because of the numerous stumbling blocks the DMC-12 encountered in its short life, the finished article isn’t quite as fantastical as it surely appeared in John DeLorean’s head.

Power is a meagre 130bhp from that underwhelming V6 engine, the automatic gearbox is a clunky three-speeder and 0-60mph takes around 10 seconds, meaning a traffic light grand prix against most modern diesel hatchbacks is ill-advised, never mind attempting to hit 88mph in a pokey car park.

Being practical for a second, all but 16 were built with left-hand drive, owing to the DMC-12’s target audience: America. And while most of them appear well looked after, build quality issues dogged the DeLorean, and stories of those trick doors getting stuck shut ought to ward off any claustrophobes.

You’d better like grey, too.

So should I buy one?

In all objective measurements, the DMC-12 falls rather short. But then how many other cars so easily drop the jaws of car folk and non-car folk alike? It’s a museum piece as much as it is transport, and its cult following also mean it’s eminently possible to upgrade your DeLorean to the car it perhaps always should have been.

And should inspiration strike you in particularly peculiar ways, you can always turn yours into a monster truck…

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Back to the Future day got you pining for a stainless steel supercar? Step this way