Here is the truth. This was a Ed Cole project that he was pushing. He got promoted and Delorean inherited this program not of his own free will. He has documented he wanted nothing to do with this car. It set the stage for his leaving GM as it gave the ammo to his detractors that they needed for his rule breaking. The car its self really was not a bad car but one executed poorly, The styling was good but the cost cutting is what killed it. The engine was to be aluminum block with no iron sleeves. This was to save cost and had b even pioneered in the Can Am program. It did not work here and the engine used oil. As for the engine itself it ran well even burning oil. The car itself lacked the normal rust proofing features that many others used, This saved weight and cost, The car drove handled, stopped well. It was not the second coming of the Camaro but it was not bad. Build quality was no better or worse than most of the era. Just look at any GM X body, F body and A body and all had stacks of washers to try to close major panel gaps and bring body lines close. Even the rust thing was not good on these others as my father’s 72 Chevelle had rust though by 1975 with good often washed care, We has Vegas as winter beaters and you could take one as no matter what it started and ran. We used used motor oil from auto shop since it would burn anyways. One friend saved one from the junk yard drove it several years and returned it to the yard. Someone else rescued it and drove it several more. This was common, Delorean tried to save it by fixing things but he also has his hands full with Coles other mad dash to add a Rotary engine to the Coming Mazda. But seal issues, oil issues, Emissions issues and loud exhaust noise were all too much. John was able to move to a piston engine to try to save the program. The Cosworth was just something John tried to help the image of the better Vega but it was too late. Even then the Cosworth was too expensive and not really understood by Americans at this point. There were much greater failures like the Pinto that suffered nearly all the Vega issues plus safety issues. The Gremlin that rotted out before they left the lots and were so cheap and ugly few people even remember them today. Then you had a whole fleet of Mopars that were forgettable for the era, It got so bad at Chrysler they had to outsource to a even poorer Mitsubishi. It was not a great era for cheap disposable car no matter the brand. even the Toyotas and Hondas have faded from sight.
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