DRIVING : Hopelessly Devoted to DeLoreans

John DeLorean didn’t go to jail, millions in government and personal loans were never recovered, and the talk show coke jokes have died. But what happened to the 8,000 stainless steel sports cars that DeLorean produced?

Unlike their builder, they remain highly visible and remarkably popular.

A used, well-running, 1981 DeLorean sells for $26,000, which is what they cost new. Pampered show cars are worth $40,000, and auto collectors predict that the gull-winged marque will top $100,000 in 10 or 15 years.

There are more than 2,000 members of the Tujunga-based DeLorean Owners Assn., representing at least that many cars driven in a half-dozen countries. The group has helped create more than 200 service facilities for greasing and fixing DeLoreans in the United States and Canada.

Owners say their DeLoreans continue to motor as regularly as the heartbeat of America.

“I bought mine 11 years ago and it has 100,000 miles on it,” says Dave Knudson, who traded a Mercedes 450SL for his DeLorean and who serves as president of the owners’ association. “There haven’t been any major problems with the car, just typical work on tuneups, brake replacement and transmission adjustments.

“It has been a fabulous car.”

That sentiment certainly would find favor with one member of the association: John DeLorean.

“He has contributed very little to the association,” Knudson notes. “But he has paid annual dues of $39 for the past five years.”