Elio Kit, Would You Still Buy?

[pj rogers]

Since we have some time to wait, a lot of time to wait. I do have an idea for a kit car!
go to you tube..
evaro highlighted on driving television 2009 my favorite and I bet massed produced on an assembly line under $20k with a gas motor.
.
and then go to ZAP alias....also massed produced with front wheel drive and the front end the elio should have had. (small rear wheel)

tri magnum excitement on 3 wheels..made by a couple of old farts, Paul Elio should hire these guys to show him the ropes.

Oh, what we could be driving right now or this fall!

 

[Lil4X]

I'm no lawyer, but I can see huge liabilities in store unless a builder signs his life away. The company can't be held responsible for poor assembly. Aircraft kitbuilders have a number of progress inspections a kit builder has to pass, thus the feds are responsible for the safety of the aircraft. Good luck getting NHTSA to sign off on your kit car! 'Fraid you're gonna be on the hook for any mishaps.

 

[Snick]

I'm no lawyer, but I can see huge liabilities in store unless a builder signs his life away. The company can't be held responsible for poor assembly. Aircraft kitbuilders have a number of progress inspections a kit builder has to pass, thus the feds are responsible for the safety of the aircraft. Good luck getting NHTSA to sign off on your kit car! 'Fraid you're gonna be on the hook for any mishaps.

Made up. Not required. All you need is state registration. Laws vary, but many kit cars on the road today. I see one or two a day on average.

 

[Kent]

Made up. Not required. All you need is state registration. Laws vary, but many kit cars on the road today. I see one or two a day on average.

The challenge with a kit car is finding insurance. There are companies that will insure, but most of than have sever limits on the number of miles you can drive per year. Some of the policies start at a limit of 500 miles per year (the expectation there is that the car would only be driven to car shows), others ranged up to 3000 miles. Insuring a daily driver kit car would be tough.

 

[carzes]

I would LOVE to build my own! But the drivetrain is the heart of the concept. A kit at any price would have to include all the parts to make it a car, er...motorcycle...ah..autocycle....whatever. It has to include the engine that gives it the 84mpg efficiency or it's pointless. What would we do with it? Stick some random engine in it and pray that the mileage gods smile upon us?

 

[Snick]

Th engine isn't the key to good fuel economy here, it's the body shape and wheels. You could stick an air-cooled VW beetle motor in it and easily crack 65-70mpg. More modern engines, such as Smart CDI could break the 84 with room to spare.

 

[Lambkey Motorghini]

It appears as though one of the bottlenecks to production is the development of the scratch-built engine. That's ambitious, admirable, and probably necessary to meet the mileage goals, but for nutjobs like me who want to either boost or swap the motor of their Elio before the new car smell has even worn off, how about offering an Elio kit before production release? There's pretty much NO regulation on kit cars, and you can start selling product that much sooner, and generating some profitable revenue THIS YEAR. Getting the cars in the hands of kit builders may have a 'halo' effect for the production car as well, since while some builders will fit theirs with a Metro motor ala the prototype, undoubtedly some will fit it with a Vtec Honda, or a Hayabusa or something really radical to make it an Atom/Caterham eating track monster with working rain gear.

As a hardcore gearhead (note the profile pic is my home-built, not hardly bought, 12-cylinder AWD Ford Escort) I'd like to have my Elio on the cover of Grassroots Motorsports drifting past a supercar even before the very first one rolls of a proper assembly line. With press like that the petrol heads would love you as much (or more) than the tree huggers. (No disrespect meant to either group)

I'm not 'all in' only because I am skeptical that feature creep, funding, and a whole host of unknowns may push the actual production date into the infinite future. But offering gearheads like me a kit sans engine and sans certain refinements and shipping it THIS YEAR at an appropriate discount seems totally doable. AmIright?


Moderator Comment: Merged into existing thread

 

[Rickb]

There are no bottlenecks to production.

 

[JF]

It appears as though one of the bottlenecks to production is the development of the scratch-built engine. That's ambitious, admirable, and probably necessary to meet the mileage goals, but for nutjobs like me who want to either boost or swap the motor of their Elio before the new car smell has even worn off, how about offering an Elio kit before production release? There's pretty much NO regulation on kit cars, and you can start selling product that much sooner, and generating some profitable revenue THIS YEAR. Getting the cars in the hands of kit builders may have a 'halo' effect for the production car as well, since while some builders will fit theirs with a Metro motor ala the prototype, undoubtedly some will fit it with a Vtec Honda, or a Hayabusa or something really radical to make it an Atom/Caterham eating track monster with working rain gear.

As a hardcore gearhead (note the profile pic is my home-built, not hardly bought, 12-cylinder AWD Ford Escort) I'd like to have my Elio on the cover of Grassroots Motorsports drifting past a supercar even before the very first one rolls of a proper assembly line. With press like that the petrol heads would love you as much (or more) than the tree huggers. (No disrespect meant to either group)

I'm not 'all in' only because I am skeptical that feature creep, funding, and a whole host of unknowns may push the actual production date into the infinite future. But offering gearheads like me a kit sans engine and sans certain refinements and shipping it THIS YEAR at an appropriate discount seems totally doable. AmIright?

I have been thinking the same way every since I put my $1,000 down. I even have an old Swift/Metro engine that would probable drop right in.

 

[OCS12]

I'm the same way. I'd actually prefer to get one minus the engine. A repower with one of our engines from work will happen shortly after I get my Elio.

Sadly, I'm also WELL aware of the endless madness and delays involved in getting a new engine into full scale production. I'm expecting more delays from Elio.

(And no, I'm not grumpy at all. In fact, I just put my deposit in today!)