Sethodine
Elio Addict
Because of the dramatic shortage of cats and dogs at the time?
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Full Catalog 3 Wheelers Thread
- Thread starter AriLea
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Because of the dramatic shortage of cats and dogs at the time?
NSTG8R
Elio Addict
Nah...Stoners are easily amused.
[get it! Stoners, rocks...Okay sounded funny at the time.]
bowers baldwin
Elio Addict
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WilliamH
Elio Addict
And as Jay said at the end, "That's why gauges are always better than idiot lights!"
There definitely is a series of conditions that left the 3 wheeler out of the mix. In the early days of the automobile, it was about the cost as much as anything. And the power and speed was not as important. As we can see by the postings, small cars and three wheelers were widespread. Just about any garage jockey thought he could start a company. And many could and did.
By the 60's power and speed got bigger, companies got bigger, expectations got bigger, and at the same time the perception of a do-it-all vehicle became common place. The post WWII had the ideal of a 4 person family at minimum. Open top vehicles, exposed to the elements were out. And in America the highway system seemed to encourage a land-yacht mentality.
The OPEC ordeal of the 70's only put a slight bend in it for smaller cars. Technical innovation enabled the re-invention of the economy 4 seat automobile. But 3 wheelers were not revisited. (except for the DIY/Kit world, there was motion there) Moving past into the 90's, America went super-sized into SUV territory.
In some ways the pre-50 and pre-40 autocycles were too successful. The public was a bit tired of that being 'my only car' and up scaled their desires. And as a manufacturer, why would you sell less of a car, when you can sell more? At the same time government regulation, insurance, corporate marketing etc, pushed the autocycle to the fringe. And cars have become more expensive and more complex.
Many people with a hankering for a retro vehicle had moved to motorcycles, even if this is not a cheap vehicle, with the latest exception of Chinese scooters.
So now, at this point in time a hole has been left open. So long as one realizes, it's OK to buy a car that isn't for all-in-one use. But today in America, the old autocycles with only urban speed capability won't do it. You need safe freeway capability, AC and enough power. And it needed to be cost effective, for it to make sense. Large investment only big companies could make was required to start such a product, and there is no viable motivator to do so.
You can see how this works when looking at the adoption of the Smart Car sized platform. No American distributor would sell that, until they felt they need to. Smart car even trying was very much the exception. Once SC did it for a number of years, that got the others interested.
So only after Elio is successful, will there be any motivation for a larger manufacturer to attempt an Elio layout and pricing structure. As long as Elio is able to keep the price low, others will be very reluctant to even try. On the other hand if EM gets very profitable, even if only though options and add-ons, others will get very interested indeed. But by then EM will have a 3-5year head start.
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Ty
Elio Addict
I thought the Trivette was a delta shaped 4 wheeler...
Ty
Elio Addict
I think you nailed it. Why hasn't Ford made a cheap, affordable car like the Elio? quick example, numbers not real: IF Ford saw a total market for small cars of which they thought they would capture 1,000 sales of which they would net 10%, would they rather have 1,000 sales of a $7,000 car or a $14,000 car? How about if the fact that the Elio would NET twice as much... Would they rather make 20% of 1,000 sales @ $7,000 or 10% or 1,000 sales @ $14,000? The money is the same but the liability is cut in half and paperwork is cut in half and .... it goes on and on.
The other kind of manufacturer that could consider a freeway commuter autocycle would be something like BRD or Honda, or those making the Slingshot. But these guys are also used to having big profits from each unit, the Elio would compete with that, so heck no they won't likely create a low-cost commuter AutoCycle, until they must.
I can bet you Elio foreshadowing enabled the Slingshot as much as anything did. But also they knew they MUST make initial sales well before Elio came out, as they did. But also TRex and Morgan clones (even the CanAm Spyder) and the related profit markups, this encouraged the Slingshot too.
All these sports products consider the Elio as competition, while the Elio can justifiably consider those others as not significant.
Even so, the likely hood is Elio's on the road will open people to reconsider trikes, and so the sports products will still likely benefit.
