Meet the DeLorean Owners Who Hate ‘Back to the Future’

“Tell me about the time you first got your DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour.” 

This was the original query I posted on a handful of DeLorean Facebook groups a few weeks ago, hoping to get some fun stories in time for the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future on July 3rd. (For those who need a refresher on the iconic film: 88 mph is the speed necessary to activate the Flux Capacitor in the DeLorean time machine.) 

But I quickly realized I made two big mistakes: 1) My central idea was really dull. “I went fast” was how most answered the question. One conversation went verbatim like this:

DeLorean Owner: I got pulled over.
Me: Did you get a ticket?
DeLorean Owner: No.

And 2) I didn’t read all the terms on the DeLorean owners Facebook group, which clearly stated: “No BTTF or Time Machine Posts.” Because I violated that rule, I was quickly met with scorn. “You’re in the wrong group,” scolded one DeLorean owner, along with a screenshot of the “No BTTF” rule. “That movie is a blight on DeLorean owners and is no longer relevant. Less than 3 minutes of DeLorean on screen. It features more incest than car,” wrote another.

That’s when it became crystal clear to me that many DeLorean owners hate Back to the Future.

Okay, obviously, not all DeLorean owners hate Back to the Future, but DeLorean Fanatics group member Vincent, who has owned DeLoreans since 2006, says there are essentially two types of DeLorean owners. “There are those who enjoy the car, drive it and use it,” explains Vincent. He puts himself in this category, along with others who appreciate the DeLorean as a unique classic car. 

“Then there are the people who like the movie,” continues Vincent. “The movie people are the most vocal online, and maybe they’ve owned the car for three or four years and they take it out for ice cream once in a while.” 

Vincent notes that these movie-obsessed DeLorean owners are also the first people to get rid of their DeLorean, oftentimes after they’ve spent thousands on renovations to make it look like the movie — sometimes even drilling holes in the steel. “The longer you own the car, the more you hate the movies,” Vincent gripes.

His fellow group member Angela backs him up, saying, “Honestly, I didn’t mind it when I started out with my car in 2017. I used to have a Back to the Future personalized plate and played along with it for a while. It’s the fandom and their cult following of the movie I grew to hate.”

The biggest problem Back to the Future-hating DeLorean owners have is the constant barrage of comments in the form of movie quotes and lame, repetitive jokes. “Most interactions are people telling one of the same three jokes over and over while laughing to themselves,” Angela says. “It’s either ‘Where’s the flux capacitor?’, ‘Can you take me back 20 years?’ or ‘Where’s Doc?’” 

“I get asked about the stupid flux capacitor so many times, and what really irks me is everyone that asks thinks they’re being original,” says Michael, who has owned his DeLorean for 16 years. 

“I don’t like when I’m asked where the flux capacitor is 43 times a day — and this number is a real number from a car show,” Viktor, another owner and group member, tells me.

The comments from movie fans often come at the least appropriate times, too. “When I got my first one, I was on the side of the road trying to put out an engine fire, and some guy slows down, screams out the window, ‘Check the flux capacitor!’ and then drives off,” recalls Vincent. “Having owned a lot of classic cars, I know that, normally, if somebody catches a photo of it being damaged in an accident, you’ll get sympathy and condolences. But if a DeLorean gets wrecked, it’s just: ‘Go back in time before the accident!’”

But it’s not just the comments from Back to the Future fans that Vincent and Angela take issue with. “There’s this incredibly weird thing that — because it’s mostly known for a movie — people feel that at car shows they have a right to go up, sit in it, touch it and take photos sitting on it,” Vincent says. “I’ve owned classic cars my entire life. I’ve had probably a thousand of them, and no other vehicle have people felt so entitled to touch and sit in.”

“Back to the Future fans are one of the most obnoxious crowds I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with,” adds Angela. “They feel entitled to sit in and on your car for photos. If your doors are closed at a show, they will try to open them. I even had one weirdo I’d never met before say we were dating — creepy. The movie draws in nerdy geeks who don’t take women who like the car seriously.”

Both Angela and Vincent are convinced that the creepiness of the fandom stems straight from the movie itself. “There’s about seven minutes of screen time dedicated to the weird incest relationship between mom and son and about three minutes of the car. That’s literally one of my favorite facts,” says Vincent. Similarly, Angela takes issue with how the movie glosses over sexual assault, referring to the car scene with Biff and Lorraine. 

But if owning a DeLorean makes you a magnet for creepy, relentless movie quoters and amateur comedians, why hold onto the car at all? 

Vincent has an easy answer to this question. “DeLoreans aren’t without charm,” he explains. “You sit in them, and they feel well put together and well composed. There’s no other car like it, which is why, despite the fact that many of us hate the movies, we stick around and stay with the cars.”