I Miss My Smart Car

[Maurtis]

“Americans have no appetite for small cars.”

I cannot agree with that. Well, okay, we have to define what you mean by "small cars". If you look at "compact" cars like the Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Corolla, they are selling hundreds of thousands per year. I think part of the issue with the Smart was that it did not buy you a whole lot over other compact and subcompact offerings other than just being physically smaller.

Compacts like the Hyundai Elantra or subcompacts like the Hyundai Accent or Kia Rio (I owned one) were the same price or cheaper than the Smart, offered similar or better gas mileage, and offered a lot more utility. Not as fun or quirky, though.

While large trucks and SUVs are indeed being sold like crazy, there is still a sizeable market for smaller cars. Last year my wife traded in her SUV for a sedan (yay!), and my Miata and Mazda3 are both small-ish.

 

[RSchneider]

Americans have no appetite for small cars.

I'm going to fix that for you. Americans and Europeans have no appetite for small cars. I suggest going to Europe a few times and you'll see that the crossovers along with small SUV's are taking off like crazy. The micro and small cars that we remember them driving all over the place 20 years ago, is gone. The small car king over there is the VW Golf and all of the similar versions that everyone else offers. Just to make matters worse, Pickup trucks are gaining traction there too. Ford has been selling the Ranger there for at least two years and 90% of them are crew cab. Ford hit something with the Europeans because seeing a pickup there was an oddity due to them being all into vans.

What really blows my mind is that in Iceland (typically the most expensive gas on the planet for gas as last year I paid $8.40/gal) they love American full sized pickups). This is a place that makes 100% of their electric from geothermal and they have an excess of it (they got mini powerplants all over the country). You'd think they would be all into Teslas yet you rarely ever see one.

As for the geothermal, they even found a way to make money off of tourists with their powerplants. The Blue Lagoon is a spa that is a hit with tourists. Many don't realize, it's runoff from the geothermal powerplant and they charge you to go in it. After that the water goes in the ocean.

 

[Johnny Acree]

Sale figures of other small cars are hurting Elios efforts at fund raising
I found this site that lets you plugin what ever make and model you want and it will compair sales figures.
http://carsalesbase.com/car-sales-comparison/#

I tried to copy and paste, but it would not let me post the graft I made here.
I compared Nissan Versa to the smart from 08 to 18.
smart started at 25000 units and slowly went down to almost nothing.
Versa was a bell curve started at 80k went up to about 150k then back down to 80k

So, at least these two small cheap cars are not selling.

 

[Rickb]

Perhaps it’s not a compact or small car issue, but rather a sub-compact car issue. The motorcycle classed three wheelers with the State’s varied autocycle definitions designed to waive MC endorsement and helmet requirements, certainly is a subcompact vehicle. The SOLO, single seater, is about as sub compact as you can get. Elio may be subcompact width wise, has length issues. 3 FUVs fit into one traditional parking space or is small enough to park in smaller and or odd shaped spaces, a big advantage for urban dwellers where parking space is at a premium. If we all went smaller, perhaps we could turn asphalt into green space or at least minimize future expansion/need of asphalt parking lots.

 

[RSchneider]

Sale figures of other small cars are hurting Elios efforts at fund raising
I found this site that lets you plugin what ever make and model you want and it will compair sales figures.
http://carsalesbase.com/car-sales-comparison/#

I tried to copy and paste, but it would not let me post the graft I made here.
I compared Nissan Versa to the smart from 08 to 18.
smart started at 25000 units and slowly went down to almost nothing.
Versa was a bell curve started at 80k went up to about 150k then back down to 80k

So, at least these two small cheap cars are not selling.

You bring up an excellent point. Elio has the Elio my way. So you can pick whatever you want on the car. If you want to buy the base model, it's no problem. As for other car companies, you have packages and the base model ends up being the hardest one to get because they make a handful of them. Elio makes them to order and the less you put on it, the less they make.

As I see here, many are going to buy the Plane Jane model and then customize it. This means, Elio makes the smallest profit as the rest of those mods goes into someone else's pocket. Paul is planning on you spending an average of $10,700, not the $7K, $7.3K or $7,450 that most plan on. That becomes a problem. If people here do not do what Paul plans on, that becomes another issue for Elio Motors and their investors. If it was, "I can't wait to get that fully loaded Elio" then it might change some peoples minds.

Conclusion, not just being a cheap small car but giving the customer the ability to determine the profit margin is not a good sell. It would be like when at Burger King and you get it your way, that they make a Whopper cheaper because you only want the patty and bun. They will make it for you that way but it comes at the same price as the loaded version. They knew this from the get go.

 

[TexasTesla]

Perhaps it’s not a compact or small car issue, but rather a sub-compact car issue. The motorcycle classed three wheelers with the State’s varied autocycle definitions designed to waive MC endorsement and helmet requirements, certainly is a subcompact vehicle. The SOLO, single seater, is about as sub compact as you can get. Elio may be subcompact width wise, has length issues. 3 FUVs fit into one traditional parking space or is small enough to park in smaller and or odd shaped spaces, a big advantage for urban dwellers where parking space is at a premium. If we all went smaller, perhaps we could turn asphalt into green space or at least minimize future expansion/need of asphalt parking lots.

Let me apologize for my terminology.

I meant to say, Americans have no appetite for sub-compact vehicles.

Obviously, compact cars are still being purchased.

But, compact SUVs are stealing sales volume from all categories of passenger cars.

 

[RSchneider]

3 FUVs fit into one traditional parking space or is small enough to park in smaller and or odd shaped spaces, a big advantage for urban dwellers where parking space is at a premium. If we all went smaller, perhaps we could turn asphalt into green space or at least minimize future expansion/need of asphalt parking lots.

The FUV is 113" long and 65" wide. Smart car is 106.1" long and 65.5" wide. It looks like the Smart Car is smaller and thus should be the car of choice then and since 2008. So, I'm wondering how the FUV will change the current attitude that we have in America for Smart Car.

 

[TexasTesla]

The FUV is 113" long and 65" wide. Smart car is 106.1" long and 65.5" wide. It looks like the Smart Car is smaller and thus should be the car of choice then and since 2008. So, I'm wondering how the FUV will change the current attitude that we have in America for Smart Car.

There’s no realistic comparison between the FUV and a Smart Car, except both are small two seater urban transportation solutions.

The Smart and the FUV are completely different types of vehicles, and have their own niche.

The Smart Car was engineered by Mercedes with a high degree of occupant safety in the event of a collusion.

The FUV is deficient in that area when compared to a Smart Car.

The Smart Car was a huge failure in the United States, just not enough Smart Car buyers.

 

[Rickb]

The FUV is 113" long and 65" wide. Smart car is 106.1" long and 65.5" wide. It looks like the Smart Car is smaller and thus should be the car of choice then and since 2008. So, I'm wondering how the FUV will change the current attitude that we have in America for Smart Car.

I wasn’t comparing the safety rated smart car to the FUV motorcycle, only referencing size in that sub-compacts like the Smart and FUV would be good choices for urban dwellers based on limited parking space. Unsure if one coud park 3 Smarts in typical parallel parking space. I doubt urban dwellers are buying pickups as their primary vehicle. They obviously don’t care for the Smart’s styling, mpg rating, and pricepoint of the Smart, but that same demographic might appreciate the FUN Utility Vehicle, Solo, or the Elio. Time will tell.

 

[RSchneider]

You can't realistically park 3 FUV's in a regular parking space. I know the PR shots show you can buy in the real world, it's two. Just like with the Smart, two in a spot is a great PR shot but not a reality shot. You might be able to pull it off in Paris but there's no way it would ever happen in the US.