further, DeLorean had real bona fides as an actual, accomplished car designer, that certainly knew what he was doing. His innovative risks were real, and while risky, worth trying despite his hubris. The car was a bit of a dud, largely due to financing and constant, related tweaks and yeah...all that other stuff, lol. But I do think he's been somewhat vindicated in recent years as the story around his coke deals, if what I've read and seen is fairly accurate, is that this is more of a case of FBI entrapment, on a one-time deal that he didn't really want to be a part of, but was simply a sting orchestrated around his desperation to keep the company going and his people employed.
He never was a cocaine trafficker--he picked up a briefcase in a hotel, once, after pressure from his (wired) assistant, and that was that.
He wasn't a car designer. He gets overglorified because he pushed back against GM (whole Detroit auto industry really) staid idiocy, and pushed for things that, frankly are pretty obvious (put the biggest/most powerful engine in a car you can and then market it to guy's fragile egos). He wasn't a total sham (he did know how to make better cars - but much of that was simply figuring out how to accomplish pretty obvious stuff, whilst butting up against conservative bean counter auto industry culture). Much the same reason Lee Iocca was glorified. Actually DeLorean is basically a younger more brash - for good and bad, version of Iacocca. Bob Lutz is of that kind as well. Frankly all 3 get lauded way too much, although combined they're all less than what we've seen with Musk
People are so focused on the cocaine and for some reason are giving him a pass on why that entire situation occurred, which was because of his basically outright fraud he perpetrated with the car/company (which he got away with - its more complex as the entire thing was a mis-mash of similar we've seen repeatedly happen with some bser slick talking to get government money and investment from celebrities; but he basically got away with it like Turmp has by setting up a bunch of shell companies and other). That's the real issue, is DMC was pretty much a fraud (he sold investors like he had things in place when he really didn't), leading him to scramble to piece together a car to try and prevent it all from collapsing, which both compromised the car itself (made it all show and no real go - and honestly its not that much of a looker), but made him desperate enough to agree to try to traffic cocaine.
Don't just believe this bizarro white-washing glamorizing that Hollywood started pushing (for some reason Hollywood has some weird obsession with, and glorification of horrible people, be it mobsters or lame fraudsters, or the post 2000 recent trend of just total bsing like the Catch Me If You Can liar, Jordan Balfourt, or the upcoming movie based on that one standup comics bs Russian story). Heck he even became a born again Christian because of it.
That's been one of Tesla's issues in general. Even with multiple color options, there's not much variety. Your 2017 Model 3 looks almost identical to someone's 2023 car. That should change with the Highland refresh and future revisions to the S/X/Y, but it's hard to truly stand out in the Tesla world unless you get a custom paint scheme or wrap.
The thing is though, that's not all bad. As I think the Model 3 and S still look pretty good. I feel like what they've done is compressed things, so they've elevated what the base model is by quite a bit, but somewhat truncated what the most prestigious version is. Which I'm fine with, and I think a lot of people actually like that. Sure the flashy/showoff people will be bothered but they'll always be bothered and will just go with whatever gaudy/flashy thing, and they can always do whatever ridiculous nonsense they'll do.
I think the issue is that the Cybertruck really doesn't look that good (and they compromised it in many ways to enable the look, which for a pickup the function following the form is just a bad idea). Further, that form prevents it from enabling it to be used for other. But then that might be to Tesla's benefit if the chassis has had as much issues as rumored.
There's lots of aspects that I think show a lack of real thought and more just Musk and his dudebro brigade sitting around smoking weed and going "what if we like...". For instance, the LED lightbar placement and being behind the single windshield glass, I really wonder how well it will work and if it'll actually just lightup the windshield instead, inhibiting visibility more than helping it. And it also really makes me think we're gonna have a bunch of dbags driving around with that lit up shining right in rearview mirrors.
Tesla's lucky that the market the Cybertruck is going for is kinda full of poor chassis stuff (Tacoma and Wrangler come to mind), where the Tesla powertrain will easily outclass what is currently offered there, so I honestly don't think the chassis will end up being that much of a detriment. But I think most people are more wanting an electric Ford Maverick (or possibly the GM electric truck where it has lots of flexibility).
I think from the design standpoint, they could have fixed the Cybertruck (both made it look better as well as get rid of, or at least reduce the ways the design compromises functionality/practicality), but Musk's ego has gotten in the way. And sounds like the chassis might be similar. I think it might show a glaring potential issue with Tesla too, and why entrenched companies might have a huge potential legup. Seems like Tesla basically scratched together a chassis and tried to tailor it to fit the design of the truck, whereas other companies are developing platforms that offer better flexibility and economies of scale.