As someone who has his money down, but who has been only a light participant in the forums, let me say that I'm pretty appalled at the personal attacks toward Debbie. Debbie entered the forum laying out her concerns. She may not have expressed them in a way you enjoyed, and you can certainly take that as negative attitude, but it's not a personal attack. Post after post in reply including terms like "shut your pie hole" certainly doesn't give me a very good view of the folks on the other side of the argument and their ability to discuss the Elio in a reasoned and reasonable manner. Not everyone who disagrees with you is automatically a troll.
Personally, I have my "all in" funds all in, and I still hope to get my Elio (white, with blue trim by the time I'm done with it), but I certainly recognize there are reasons to be concerned. The announced delays, the lack of tangible progress both at the factory and in producing additional prototypes, the continued focus on items such as partnerships and surveys and board members that don't represent a significant (or any) outlay of capital. Much as I want it to happen, I don't see the signs that make me think "Yes, Elio is making the investments that will lead to production." Instead, as I think Paul's letter clearly indicates, they are still in the searching for investment phase of the project. Still hoping that someone will provide the bucks for their Buck Rogers.
Having had a two-digit reservation number for an Aptera, I feel like I've been through this before. In that case, I watched what seemed like a promising vehicle from a "maverick engineer" turn into an ever longer series of delays and false starts as the Aptera morphed from "cheap and quirky statement vehicle for a few early adopters" to a "not-cheap and still quirky vehicle in search of a larger audience." Aptera ran through rather a good pile of development capital in the pursuit of the later, while a lot of us that had signed on in the early days begged from the sidelines "just give us what we signed up for, we don't care if it has power windows and faux-leather seats..." and watched it slip away.
Right now, the most valuable property that Elio has is simply the number of folks that have signed up for a vehicle. I don't think they've gone too far down the Aptera road to recover. However, I think that if they don't soon start showing evidence that production is on the way, their credibility will slip so far down the slope that the Elio will join Aptera (and a dozen other three-wheeled concepts) in the might-have-been dustbin.
And hey Paul! I don't care if it has power windows. I don't care if it has leather seats. It doesn't have to look like it came off the lines at Audi. Just get something on the road. You can make it perfect when you get to the "Model S."
(now I'll step over to the side and wait for my "Troll" forehead stamp)