The DeLorean is one of those cars that is much cooler in the mind's eye than it is in real life.
Build quality was godawful, as cars from boutique manufacturers usually are. Owners of everything from Lambos to Lotuses put up with fit and finish issues that would outrage the buyers of a Camry or Taurus.
It was notoriously underpowered, with a 130bhp SOHC Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V-6 struggling to move roughly 2,800 pounds of car with anything approaching verve. (That's about the same weight as my Z3 with less than seventy percent of the power.) Acceleration was tepid, with Road & Track unable to crack the ten second barrier in 0-60 acceleration, well short of the manufacturer's claimed 8.8 seconds.
Among a host of build quality problems was one unique to long commutes in cold winter climates. Condensation would form on the underside of the engine compartment lid, drip onto the throttle cable, and then freeze. The driver would discover this when they tried to exit the freeway and lifted their foot off the throttle to no noticeable effect on the rate of speed...
You'll note that Indiana's seven-digit license plate left this DeLorean pilot unable to squeeze the entirety of OUTATIME on his vanity plate.
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