If we’re going down these lines, then a Smart car might be a good choice. They’re widely lampooned in US automotive circles, both because of their looks, and because they get rotten gas mileage for a car that small.
I second the Tesla Model S. It fits all the criteria (well, okay, maybe not affordable per se, but Deloreans weren’t affordable in 1985, either) and it has the same “cool” factor as the Delorean did.
The Nissan Cube would definitely look bizarre in the 1980’s. It still looks bizarre now. There was also a similar-looking car (whose name escapes me right now) which, together with the Cube, prompted jokes that Japanese designers had forgotten how to draw curves.
How about Fisker?
[ul]
[li]Small, one off manufacturer [/li][li]Funky looking, pretend sports car[/li][li]New technology[/li][li]The company is bankrupt[/li][/ul]
Scion xB.
yah but…
The only observable weird things about the Tesla are the iPad for a dashboard, the lack of an exhaust pipe, and how quiet it is. It otherwise looks like a generic sedan (kind of on the large size by today’s standards, but 30 years ago it would look not out of place in a parking lot full of Crown Imperials).
I always thought the world’s biggest lemon is the French car Citroen.
By the way, I think that Citroen means “lemon” in French. Interesting marketing there.
That’s the one !!! Thanks!
Upon further review, I’d forgotten how boxy cars were in the 1980’s. The Cube and the xB might well have fit right in back then :eek:
Fisker is a good choice as a Delorean analog. By most accounts, Fiskers were actually pretty crappy cars. At least a few caught fire just sitting in dealer’s lots or shipping terminals.
Actually, one of the new Mini Coopers would work, since they’re similar to the classic ones but hadn’t been released 30 years ago.
Plus, Justin Bieber had one, so there’s that association… 
The Mini Cooper and Fiat 500 wouldn’t work anymore than a New Beetle would because in 1985 the originals were still on the roads, typically in the hands of cash-strapped high schoolers. They’d simply say “Is that the new model?”, just like the designers intended. They’d work better for a movie like The Kid where a character goes back in time and their vehicle reverts to an older model of their modern car.
Mileage may vary, but I disagree that THE joke of the car in the movie was its reputation. I was an adult when the movie came out, and my take was Marty’s incredulity wasn’t because of the reputation of John DeLorean and his ‘alternative revenue stream’ but that, in contrast to normal boring science, using a Delorean was cool. Although DeLoreans lacked performance to back up the look, they were interesting cars, daresay ‘neat’ if not actually ‘cool’ even without time travel capability.
Marty was impressed with Doc Brown using a DeLorean because, hey, anyone could add time machine capability to a 4 door Nova, or a 4X4 Toyota, but using a Delorean has style. DeLoreans were rare. Seeing one on the street was as uncommon as seeing a Ferrari. Although in fact, Doc would have been better served building the time machine on a car that could go 0-88 in under the two minutes shown in the movie.
Even a diesel Rabbit would outperform the car in the movie!
MAD Magazine even lampooned this in their parody “Bleak For the Future.” They had Doc Brown say “John DeLorean nearly did time, so why not use a DeLorean for a time machine?”
I’d go with the Tesla S. Has way cool factor and having finally seen the real thing on Saturday, I would have been gobsmacked if that appeared in front of me in 1985.
The answer you are looking for is the EV1.
The body has ultra low drag needed to pass through the flux stream.
It is all electric so you don’t have to worry about finding gas if you travel to outside the brief time period where it was used. Just charge it up with plutonium or the Mr. Fusion unit.
The point of using the DeLorean was it was quirky, kind of desirable and such an infamous failure seeing one is a “What the hell! A DeLorean?” moment. The EV1 is all those things plus it is a car only time travelers would have access to.
Except that few people would recognize a Fisker Karma. They never achieved the level of fame that the Delorean did in its day (partly due to the scandal surrounding the founder, but also because start-up car companies were rare at the time).
Meh. Like I said before, it’s not really possible for an average 1985 person to think any 2015 car is a UFO or anything other than a strange, possibly one-off, automobile.
Even the “boxy” cars we have today like the xB or the Cube look like Japanese Kei cars (which they basically are).
ETA: Actually, if I saw a saucer driving along the road in 1985, I’d have been more apt to say, “Huh, I wonder when the Parade is” rather than posit it’s aliens or time travelers or something. That kind of surprise wasn’t really possible then. I’m not sure how possible it actually was in 1955, movie or not.
I’m thinking old school. http://www.imcdb.org/i465637.jpg
Almost no one knew what is was 30 years ago, even fewer today.
I always assumed the reason for using the Delorean (the filmmakers’ reason, I mean, not Doc Brown’s) was the gullwing doors, which made it more plausible as a UFO and more generally “futuristic” as opposed to just a custom hot-rod made by a 50s car guy with a wild imagination.
They’re even cooler when one puts a propeller in the nose!