It would cost you more than £5million a year to drive Doc Brown’s iconic DeLorean from “Back to the Future”, according to experts. Stuart Masson, editor of car advice website The Car Expert, has investigated the real-world costs, admin and paperwork needed to get the top 10 best-loved on-screen cars road-ready.
Having crunched the numbers, he revealed the flying, time-travelling DeLorean would be “challenging” – because the Plutonium required for the Flux Capacitor costs nearly £5million alone. You would also need a pilot’s licence, costing £15,000 – and the insurance would set you back £50,000.
But it’s not just a high financial cost, as it also emerged it will need 45 days spent on road-related admin – from signing contracts and NDAs, and filling in government paperwork at MI6, to contracting lawyers. Meanwhile, James Bond’s Lotus Esprit, which featured in “The Spy Who Loved Me”, would have running costs of £370,000 a year – including recruiting specialist engineers from MI6 to maintain the vehicle – as well as 30 days of mundane admin to make it operate underwater.
It comes after research, into 2,000 motorists, found almost a third (30 per cent) have pondered the delights of owning one of these fantasy cars.
A spokesman for SIXT+, which carried out the research and partnered with Stuart Masson, said: “It may be fun to daydream about owning one of these amazing vehicles, but the real-world strain would probably see the novelty wear off quite quickly. Who’s got the time to hire nuclear scientists or MI6 mechanics to make sure you don’t blow up?”
The study also found over a quarter of drivers (27 per cent) would love to own KITT, the indestructible supercar from the “Knight Rider” series – despite the 60 days a year needed to run, maintain, and insure it, with an annual running cost of more than £600,000. And many admit they would struggle to deal with the upkeep required for these famous cars, as the average adult already carries out 10 life admin tasks a month, and puts off two each day – such as paying bills, or filing important documents.
The top admin tasks sitting on drivers’ “to-do” lists include arranging their car’s MOT or service, renewing its insurance, or arranging a visit to the car workshop. And among their excuses for procrastination include finding these chores boring to complete, struggling to find the time – and simply not being able to face dealing with it.
The research, carried out via OnePoll, found 32 per cent struggle to keep up with all the life admin they have – and 21 per cent would like to do as little of it as possible in their day-to-day lives.
The spokesman for car subscription service, SIXT+, which offers drivers cars with no up-front costs and minimal paperwork, added: “Any car owner knows that there is a certain amount of upkeep, cost, and admin that comes along with owning your own ride. But all too often, life admin can get in the way of the things we’d rather be doing.”
TOP 10 MOVIE OR TV FANTASY CARS, AND STUART MASSON'S ESTIMATED ANNUAL RUNNING COSTS:
1. Knight Rider: KITT (1982 Pontiac Trans-Am)
“Apparently, KITT was quite an efficient machine to run, making the running costs reasonably low. However, insurance is very high, with David Hasselhoff largely to blame, since he seemed to cause most of the carnage. KITT had a mobile support team in a custom lorry to look after his every need, so maintenance is taken care of. Operating outside the law all the time requires some good lawyers to keep you out of jail.”
- Running: Low – £5,000
- Insurance: Very high – £100,000
- Maintenance: High – £500,000
- Admin time: Very high – 60 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £605,000
2. Back To The Future: Time Machine (1982 DeLorean)
“Plutonium is hard to come by, pushing up the running costs of the DeLorean – and separate policies for every year you travel to in your flying time machine means high insurance costs. The admin time would be high, too, because doing all the work yourself takes a lot of time. However, on the plus side, maintenance would be low, as Doc Brown seems to handle most of the work himself.”
- Running: Enormous – £5,000,000
- Insurance: High – £50,000
- Maintenance: Low – £5,000
- Admin time: High – 45 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £5,055,000
3. 007: Submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me (1976 Lotus Esprit)
“Unsurprisingly, rockets and missiles don’t come cheap – and given 007’s penchant for causing destruction, insurers will be wary of covering you. The Lotus Esprit wasn’t reliable to begin with, let alone one modified to become a submarine, so maintenance would be a headache. Admin would be up there, too – there’s presumably a whole division of MI6 assigned to filling in government paperwork.”
- Running: High – £20,000
- Insurance: Very high – £250,000
- Maintenance: Very high – £100,000
- Admin time: High – 30 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £370,000
4. Batman Begins: Batmobile (Tumbler)
“There is no sugar-coating it – rocket fuel is expensive. And you’d need specialist technicians to maintain the rocket boosters, and update the guidance software. When every trip is a destruction-fest, you can expect insurance to be sky-high. You’d need a lot of time for all those painful confidentially contracts and NDAs.”
- Running: Very high – £50,000
- Insurance: Very high – £100,000
- Maintenance: High – £50,000
- Admin time: High – 30 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £200,000
5. The Dukes of Hazzard: General Lee (1969 Dodge Charger)
“That 6.3-litre, V8 engine is thirsty, and it will only run on premium unleaded petrol. More than 300 Chargers were destroyed making the TV series and movie, so you know insurance will bump up the cost. It must be a full-time business repairing the General Lee after every adventure, but you can rest assured that you’ll save time, because an illegal moonshine operation is unlikely to worry too much about compliance issues.”
- Running: High – £10,000
- Insurance: Very high – £100,000
- Maintenance: High – £50,000
- Admin time: Low – three days a year
- Total annual running cost: £160,000
6. Transformers: Bumblebee (2008 Chevrolet Camaro/Volkswagen Beetle)
“What fuel do these robots even run on – unobtanium? Huge insurance costs are a given, because no public landmark is safe when there’s a Transformers battle going on. Specialist technicians, and classified military technology in secret labs, result in extremely high maintenance. And the admin? Congressional oversight hearings are time-consuming.”
- Running: Very high – £100,000
- Insurance: Enormous – £1,000,000
- Maintenance: Very high – £250,000
- Admin time: High – 45 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £1,350,000
7. Fast & Furious: Dom's Charger (1970 Dodge Charger)
“For you and me, running costs would be high – although Dom probably gets a bulk-buy discount on nitrous oxide. Because the car gets written off in almost every movie, insurance and maintenance are going to be high. However, admin is almost non-existent – as no-one watches Fast & Furious movies for the paperwork.”
- Running: Very high – £50,000
- Insurance: Very high – £150,000
- Maintenance: High – £100,000
- Admin time: Low – three days a year
- Total annual running cost: £300,000
8. Thunderbirds: FAB1 (Rolls-Royce)
“Fuel and ammunition costs, plus a chauffeur, plus the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ charges, make running this car a fortune. And a bespoke Rolls-Royce worth millions of pounds is going to be pricey to insure. There’s a good reason most cars don’t have six wheels, as it makes them complex and expensive to maintain. A secret rescue organisation is going to require logistics and NDAs to run its operations and vehicles, so there’s no cutting down on admin time.”
- Running: Very high – £100,000
- Insurance: High – £50,000
- Maintenance: High – £50,000
- Admin time: High – 30 days a year
- Total annual running cost: £200,000
9. Ghostbusters: Ecto-1 (1959 Cadillac)
“A V8 ambulance weighed down by all that gear isn’t going to be fuel-efficient. That proton cannon can do a lot of damage, so your third-party premium is going to be extreme. Most of the ghostbusting mods are homemade, and not well-maintained. Also, the guys aren’t too hot on doing their paperwork, especially when it comes to EPA compliance.”
- Running: Medium – £10,000
- Insurance: Very high – £100,000
- Maintenance: Low – £5,000
- Admin time: Low – three days a year
- Total annual running cost: £115,000
10. Rain Man: 1949 Buick Roadster
“When you have one owner, driving very sensibly most of the time, you have low running costs. And classic car insurance means this cost is relatively low, compared to the rest of the list. A mechanically simple car that’s easy to maintain is another positive. And while sourcing replacement parts on a 75-year-old car takes a bit of time, you shouldn’t need many hours.”
- Running: Very low – £2,000
- Insurance: Very low – £1,000
- Maintenance: Low – £1,000
- Admin time: Low – five days a year
- Total annual running cost: £4,000
