Delorean Project

DeLorean Project

DeLorean was a clever man; he knew that the British government was desperate to attract industry to Northern Ireland, he succeeded to sell himself and the car to the government even thought both had considerable flaws. British government was desperate to attract industry to the province.

DeLorean

• A master salesman with flaws. British government did not think DeLorean’s past was anything to be concerned about; they thought that it was ‘entirely natural for an entrepreneur to have a few companies go bankrupt in his early years’ .

• Even as the government was vast amounts of money in the project, it allowed DeLorean to keep all strings in his hands and control everything. They didn’t care what DeLorean did with the money, as long as the local economy was receiving aid and jobs were being created.

Product Development

DeLorean team had a schedule to meet. It was agreed with British government to an 18 month timescale. This meant the product development had to be made in haste. The engineering was left for Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus.

• Short development time meant putting several technologies on hold for the first model.

• DeLorean and Lotus teams did not have a harmonious relationship. ‘The constant disagreements and alterations conspired to delay production’

• Delays and haste meant that some parts didn’t even have drawings until the very last minute. Lotus team felt that more time needed to be spent on the car before the first vehicle rolled off the production line.

Technical problems

• Doors turned out to have major flaws. On snowy nights when temperature dropped low enough, water would turn in to ice and seal the doors. ‘If driver happened to be inside at that time, that was where they stayed’ .

• Another major flaw was the body work. Body had a stainless steel finish, this was impossible to maintain shiny and spotless. Fingerprints and spots showed clearly on the bodywork. After all, the doors and the look was just to make the car look better, distinguish it from other cars.

• Poor preparation and haste left the first model to have several flaws. Cars had problems such as; Doors fell off, headlights wouldn’t switch off, indicators didn’t work, fuel gauges didn’t work properly…One of the DeLorean chiefs confessed ‘Car companies average three of four claims for each cat produced in the course of a year. But the DeLorean was pulling three pf four claims per car per month’

Production

DeLorean had a clear picture of the car he wanted to make, a car that would stand out above any other car. DeLorean wanted people to know that he’s car would have longer life than any other car in the market, somewhere between 20 to 25 years. DeLorean was talking excitedly about production being less than two years away. The first model did not live up to expectations. DeLorean made a mistake when he had promised that the car:

• Would have airbags and bumpers that would withstand impact of 10mph without any damage. In the first model, neither of these promises was filled.

• Would be prised around $15,000, but in the end it cost $26,000

• Could accelerate from 0 to 60mph in less than eights seconds, but it took 10.5 seconds

• Ten year, 100,000 mile guarantee, but was offered only the standard one-year, 12,000 mile protection.

In the fear of bad reputation, DeLorean demanded instant improvements, he even suggested buying back the first 5000 cars, but it was fast forgotten, as it would have cost around $115 million. Despite the difficult start, the sale started to increase; this encouraged DeLorean, and made him make