the museum's vin research program
Many DeLorean owners take great interest in knowing the production history of their DeLorean car, and the Museum has a fairly extensive record for thousands of the DeLorean cars produced. Using the "Lookup" below, you can enter the last five digits of your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and see what items are currently available for your car. For a small fee, the Museum will provide you with certified documents containing this information for your records, while the originals remain safe in the DeLorean Museum archives for future owners.
Updated as of NOVember 13, 2025
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Check DeLorean VIN Records
Enter the last five digits of your VIN (include any leading zeros).
Tip: Only the last five digits are needed. If you don’t see results, double-check your digits and leading zeros.
nothing available for your vin? read this...
One of the most frequently asked questions is a variation of “why isn’t there anything available for my VIN” or “why isn’t a (insert VIN-related item here) available for my VIN”?
Production and sales data for DeLoreans exists in multiple different forms, with varying bits of information listed in each one. Over the years as new data sources have been located or acquired, the data from them is entered into the Museum’s primary database.
Up to now, there have been three different items related to production DeLoreans:
In November of 2025, the Museum began to offer these new items:
Creating any of these documents requires different pieces of information to generate the final product. For example, the Museum can’t make a window sticker without knowing the engine serial number, but the engine serial is optional on an Original Owner Certificate.
If one or more pieces of the required data for an item is not available, it can’t be made. It’s been a longstanding policy of the Museum NOT to create an incomplete document or to make up data to “fill a hole”. Furthermore, the Museum never accepts owner/user submitted data for inclusion into the master database unless it is genuine factory, distributor or dealer documentation.
In some cases where none of the products currently on offer are available for a particular VIN, that just means that at least one piece of key data required to make a product is missing for this car. There is possibly some info in the database, at least for 1981/1982 cars, just not in a format that is currently offered. As yet, there is no mechanism in place to make these bits of data available.
The most data exists for 1981 cars when DeLorean in the US and Northern Ireland were fully staffed and the data on their computers was kept current and secured. The bg big drop off in data comes with the 1982 models as most of the 1982 models were sold after Consolidated acquired all the remaining cars, and DMC was closed. Multiple attempts to acquire any DeLorean records from Consolidated have been responded to with the answer that their records were destroyed/discarded in the 1990s. Finally, as the 1983 models were created and distributed solely by Consolidated after the DeLorean Motor Company ceased operations, there is virtually nothing for those cars, unless data has been submitted by owners - like a window sticker or dealer sales documentation.
Another reason why the data available is so "hit or miss" is simply due to the fact that a lot of the original factory (DMCL) and US-based distribution/parts network (DMC) records were either discarded or seized by the bankruptcy trustees in the UK and US. The latter, after the bankruptcy was closed in the early 2000s, were then sold off piecemeal via Ebay for many years. One of our donors likened it to having your family records or photo albums sold off to multiple buyers and scattered around the globe. If you or someone you know bought some of these, we'd like to know - we're not interested in the original documents, just copies or quality scans so the data can be preserved in a central location.
Production and sales data for DeLoreans exists in multiple different forms, with varying bits of information listed in each one. Over the years as new data sources have been located or acquired, the data from them is entered into the Museum’s primary database.
Up to now, there have been three different items related to production DeLoreans:
- Original Owner Certificates
- Warranty Card reproductions
- Window Sticker reproductions
In November of 2025, the Museum began to offer these new items:
- Original Dealer Invoice reproductions
- Certificate of Origin (aka MSO) reproductions
- Engine Serial Tag reproductions
- DeLorean Production Data Sheets
Creating any of these documents requires different pieces of information to generate the final product. For example, the Museum can’t make a window sticker without knowing the engine serial number, but the engine serial is optional on an Original Owner Certificate.
If one or more pieces of the required data for an item is not available, it can’t be made. It’s been a longstanding policy of the Museum NOT to create an incomplete document or to make up data to “fill a hole”. Furthermore, the Museum never accepts owner/user submitted data for inclusion into the master database unless it is genuine factory, distributor or dealer documentation.
In some cases where none of the products currently on offer are available for a particular VIN, that just means that at least one piece of key data required to make a product is missing for this car. There is possibly some info in the database, at least for 1981/1982 cars, just not in a format that is currently offered. As yet, there is no mechanism in place to make these bits of data available.
The most data exists for 1981 cars when DeLorean in the US and Northern Ireland were fully staffed and the data on their computers was kept current and secured. The bg big drop off in data comes with the 1982 models as most of the 1982 models were sold after Consolidated acquired all the remaining cars, and DMC was closed. Multiple attempts to acquire any DeLorean records from Consolidated have been responded to with the answer that their records were destroyed/discarded in the 1990s. Finally, as the 1983 models were created and distributed solely by Consolidated after the DeLorean Motor Company ceased operations, there is virtually nothing for those cars, unless data has been submitted by owners - like a window sticker or dealer sales documentation.
Another reason why the data available is so "hit or miss" is simply due to the fact that a lot of the original factory (DMCL) and US-based distribution/parts network (DMC) records were either discarded or seized by the bankruptcy trustees in the UK and US. The latter, after the bankruptcy was closed in the early 2000s, were then sold off piecemeal via Ebay for many years. One of our donors likened it to having your family records or photo albums sold off to multiple buyers and scattered around the globe. If you or someone you know bought some of these, we'd like to know - we're not interested in the original documents, just copies or quality scans so the data can be preserved in a central location.
ORIGINAL OWNER CERTIFICATE
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The Museum has these Original Owner Certificates available for thousands of 1981 models, and a handful of 1982 models. The data available for each car varies; generally speaking, the earlier production cars have more details as once the factory went into receivership and the US-based company began layoffs, data processing was less of a priority.
As the 1983 models, with VINs in the range of 15xxx, 16xxx, 17xxx and 20xxx, were brought to the States and sold after DMC was in bankruptcy, few official records of these cars have surfaced or are known to exist. |
warranty card
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When DeLorean cars were sold by dealers, these Warranty Cards were supposed to be completed and returned to the US-offices of DeLorean Motor Company to activate warranty coverage and provide a record of ownership for recall and other notifications from DMC. About 1,850 of these survive, the vast majority for 1981 models. As with the Original Owner Certificates, the earlier production cars are the most represented. Full-color, 11x14 inches and suitable for framing.
As the 1983 models, with VINs in the range of 15xxx, 16xxx, 17xxx and 20xxx, were brought to the States and sold after DMC was in bankruptcy, few official records of these cars have surfaced or are known to exist. |
reproduction window sticker
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The Museum is also able to make reproductions of the original window stickers for thousands of cars, again, mostly 1981 models but a fair number of 1982 models, as well.
As the 1983 models, with VINs in the range of 15xxx, 16xxx, 17xxx and 20xxx, were brought to the States and sold after DMC was in bankruptcy, few official records of these cars have surfaced or are known to exist. |
replacement keys for your delorean
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We are often asked if we can help provide replacements for lost or otherwise missing DeLorean keys. DeLorean Motor Company (Texas) has retained all of the data on keys for security purposes. They are able, in many cases, to make keys based on just a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) for a small fee. Read this PDF to learn more, or contact DeLorean Motor Company (Texas) directly.
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