Ekh
Elio Addict
I "sold" another Elio today. Stopped into a small shop dealing in overstocks, outdated small appliances (new old stock), etc. The woman behind the counter was saying she had 120 hours coming on her next paycheck. I said, "you must be beat." She said, "yeah, and I got to drive in from Adams County." She was driving 65 miles one way per day -- 130 miles per day, you do the math. Even with cheap gas, she's going broke just getting to her job.
"What would you say to a new kind of car that gets a little over 80 mpg, costs $6,800, and comes with A/C, radio, power brakes, power windows?" I asked.
"Get out of here! That's sick! OMG, where can I get one?" I explained that the car would be out in about a year, and might cost $7,600 when actually produced. "That's still dirt cheap," she said. Then I said it came with a 3-year warranty. "Where can I check this out? I gotta have one!"
The point of this story is that this not-so-young woman is the ideal consumer from Elio's point of view.
We didn't have time to go into it (and I'll stop back today and ask some questions), but assume she's getting 24 miles per gallon. Her commute is 780 miles per week, and is using 32 gallons per week -- if she's lucky. She's spending $75 a week in gas, on a salary that is NOT princely. Plus her operating expenses are really high, because she's driving a clunker.
AT 81 mpg, a new Elio would be costing her 9.6 gallons, or about $22 per week in fuel. One a tight budget, that's huge. Plus, very little maintenance to worry about.
No wonder she lit up like a Christmas tree when I told her about the Elio. She's the person Paul Elio had in mind when he started all this.
"What would you say to a new kind of car that gets a little over 80 mpg, costs $6,800, and comes with A/C, radio, power brakes, power windows?" I asked.
"Get out of here! That's sick! OMG, where can I get one?" I explained that the car would be out in about a year, and might cost $7,600 when actually produced. "That's still dirt cheap," she said. Then I said it came with a 3-year warranty. "Where can I check this out? I gotta have one!"
The point of this story is that this not-so-young woman is the ideal consumer from Elio's point of view.
We didn't have time to go into it (and I'll stop back today and ask some questions), but assume she's getting 24 miles per gallon. Her commute is 780 miles per week, and is using 32 gallons per week -- if she's lucky. She's spending $75 a week in gas, on a salary that is NOT princely. Plus her operating expenses are really high, because she's driving a clunker.
AT 81 mpg, a new Elio would be costing her 9.6 gallons, or about $22 per week in fuel. One a tight budget, that's huge. Plus, very little maintenance to worry about.
No wonder she lit up like a Christmas tree when I told her about the Elio. She's the person Paul Elio had in mind when he started all this.
