Elio Motors

[Mynock]

A coworker put down a deposit on one of these today. Little underpowered but damn......84mpg, basic power amenities, stereo, heat/ac, and.......drumroll please......a price tag of $6800. If I were Ford, Chevy or Dodge I'd be paying attention right now.
http://www.eliomotors.com/

[Duncan Edwards]

Interesting concept but it might be a little snug for the family. Or even just me and the dog.

[schlamm]

a little ironic that it resembles a coffin in shape....probably rather appropriate if one gets T-boned

[Mynock]

The first thing that came to my mind was a side impact, but if you think about it you're not any further away from the door when you sit in a regular car, so if they built it right you're probably no less safe then you'd be in any small car.
The price point is what keeps drawing me back. A functional set of wheels with an enclosed cab for $6800 is really impressive. I was reading up on this and apparently they kept the price down by using off the shelf, already produced parts instead of custom designing everything.

[kham]

It's probably perfectly safe, it would have to pass all the crash and impact tests every vehicle does.

Looks interesting, might be a little snug for long trips though. Looks fairly well made

[Mynock]

Actually it's considered a motorcycle because it has less than 4 wheels, so it HAS to pass few if any safety tests. They're engineering it for car crash-worthiness because they know the first thing people are going to ask is "Is it safe?" Can't be any less dangerous than my Wrangler lol.....the doors on that thing are make of Little Tykes plastic covered in tin foil.

[nachtjaeger]

I hope they do well. If I wanted to replace our 99 Honda Civic or our 07 Subaru Forester with a new model, we're talking $20,000 for a new Civic and $24,000 for a new Forester. Add in a few options (nothing fancy) and pretty soon you're at $21,600 for the Civic and $26,000 for the Forester.

For comparison, in my hometown right now there is a decent house for sale (structurally sound, needs work) for $25,000, and a really nice house (move-in condition) for $60,000.

The Elio is tempting. $216 per month for 36 months with tax & tags sounds pretty good to me.

[Mynock]

^^And you'll have to special order those models because the ones on the lot are inevitably filled with another 10 grand worth of crap.
I'm done buying new myself (unless it's one of these), one was enough. Current plan was to buy a used Mustang for something sporty and a Deuce and a Half for when I needed a truck or wanted to go mudding. Might have to add an Elio in there but I'm not putting money on one till I see it on the lot. The NTSB loves to let new car manufacturers get almost to the point of production and then sink them by refusing to certify their vehicles.

[nachtjaeger]

Agreed. There has been more than one scam like this- and then there was Preston Tucker. The Government literally ran his company out of business. He was acquitted of all charges at his stock fraud trial- but by then it was too late to save the company. Strange- John DeLorean was also arrested, tried, and acquitted without the defense even calling a witness. Again, too late to save the company. Strange coincidence.

And I almost forgot- Buckminster Fuller designed a 3 wheeled car once. Looked like a cross between a minivan and a ski gondola. Up to 11 passengers, 30 mpg, 90mph on 85 horsepower. And that was in 1933. Brilliant as it was, rear-wheel steer was nice for parking and being able to do a U-turn in the vehicle's length- but it can get pretty squirrely pretty quick at speed. Prototype #1 crashed during the 1933 World's Fair, killing the driver (in spite of a seatbelt) and seriously injuring two passengers. That was pretty much the end for the Dymaxion car. And yeah, there are conspiracy theories that the car was deliberately run off the road, and that Chrysler's bankers wanted the project to go away.

^^And you'll have to special order those models because the ones on the lot are inevitably filled with another 10 grand worth of crap.
I'm done buying new myself (unless it's one of these), one was enough. Current plan was to buy a used Mustang for something sporty and a Deuce and a Half for when I needed a truck or wanted to go mudding. Might have to add an Elio in there but I'm not putting money on one till I see it on the lot. The NTSB loves to let new car manufacturers get almost to the point of production and then sink them by refusing to certify their vehicles.

[Nessie]

I am a cheapskate, and I find that little car highly appealing but during the two summers I shot quicksand video, it would not have exactly worked out.

It would make a pretty decent second vehicle. One could maintain a full-size vehicle to tote around one's spouse, children, relatives and friends but then scoot to work and back five days a week in that little fella, saving tons of gas money. And when nervy people want free rides, they won't even be asking you once they see that.

Nessie