Yup, that's the the Elio. I sense that we are gonna have to go waay off topic...oh well. I have been watching these for a couple of years. It may be a good solution for my retirement needs. 84mpg is pretty handy for living in the country. At $4 per gallon it would have been like a car that didn't use gas over ten years, but now with the fracking and drill baby drill, we're currently driving at $2 per gallon. The alternative, the cheapest common econ car runs $15K at 30-40mpg. Driving 15k per year average over ten years, do the math. It pays for itself. None the less...
Travel would be so fun cheap, even if aftermarket saddle bags dropped mileage to 70mpg. The aerodynamic of the body is the best fuel saver in the design. The trunk space is about the size of a two ultra light backpacks very crammed. There is little room for conventional clothing, unless you stay in rooms and restaurants, then it is enough. There is room for an overhead flight bag and then some extra in a triangulated space above it. As a free range naturist I have no problem with minimal clothing. I do have concerns about carnuding in one. They sit low, although with the tall sides close on each side, one would be more covered than in DF's Civic looking across the two seats, that helps. It is the attention that one would have. People constantly wanting to get a look and ask questions for the first year or two. I'd have to constantly have a kilt or something to wrap around every-time I stopped. In some instances, I suppose that people would be distracted looking at the car than the driver. There, I've put it into a free range naturists perspective, which was part of the reason for our trip. I wanted to check it out.
Yea, over 100mph, and it feels fun sitting in the middle of the wheels. It is a tad claustrophobic in the back seat. It would be better without a head rest to look at, although the side windows are pretty good. Kind of like a small airplane back there. Nobody gets out until they are let out. The back seat will be lowered two inches and two gallons of the 8 gallon gas tank will be removed to accommodate that. My head was up too close to the roofs headliner in back sitting in this prototype. There is a lot of leg room, especially up front and plenty of storage space along the door, maybe even under the legs for a few items. I get the around town functionality, but I'd still like to use it on road trips across the country, free range wise.
They have been working on a new motor. They have modified an existing motor (in something like 15 design functions), it is now in testing mode. The dates have been pushed back as I expected, now fourth quarter 2016. There is much more info at their blog:
http://www.eliomotors.com/tech-talk-v51-elio-engine-is-released/ At $6800 the motor replacement costs couldn't be that bad, even if it was unreliable. It shouldn't be anymore doggy than my 4everrunner and sitting as it does between the wheels, that should work out in fun. They know what they have to do for their American market as far as power. They are a basic gasoline motor vehicle and not a particularly new technology. One just trades some convenience for cheap and green.
It sits just a 1/4 inches lower than DF's Civic (6 inches), so it can handle most dirt roads, so wheeling on forest service roads all over the the west and hiking on in should work out fine. I'll be keeping the old Toy for sport and that has at least a couple of hundred thousand more miles on'er.
So, I've been considering one after the original 30,000 or so, to work out the kinks and we wanted to get a feel for it, so we went up and stood in line to sit in it. People are getting a real kick out of the concept. They have had 47,000 people put money down to hold one so far and counting.
Jbee
