Ben's Citicar

[bennelson]

I just put a down-payment on a 1977 Citicar!!!

Must be insane! This will be my third EV! (The first one I didn't just build from junk though!)

The good news is that it's cheap! The bad news is that it's 2000 miles away!
Yeah, I know, insane. My brother lives 20 minutes from where this was for sale. He took a look at it and is taking care of the deal for me.

Seriously though, how do I get it home?
Will it fit in a PODS? PODS - Reinventing Moving and Storage > Home I mean, it IS a small car!

[greenitup]

damn ev hoarder.
how much did it cost?

[bennelson]

My brother went to go see the seller of the car last night.

He put down a down payment, and will pay the rest when he picks it up on Saturday.

The car costs $800.
It does NOT include batteries. It does have a PWM controller in it, and aftermarket radial (not trailer!) tires. The battery charger doesn't work, although that MIGHT be some sort of simple problem. The car did work last time it was used, but has been sitting for a few years.

Looks pretty good overall, but has a few cracks in the body and a little work to do on the interior, all to be expected on any 1977 model car. It does need the brakes worked on as well.

Now the fun part - getting it from Los Angeles to Wisconsin....

Here's some photos:









See more photos of the car here:
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy#100336

PS: I will try not to corner the market on EV's. I still need an EV-1 and a Tesla Roadster for my collection. Seriously though, I don't know exactly how I will use the electric cars since the Geo isn't finished yet. We could have his and hers electric cars, or I might just fix the Citicar up and sell to some other EV enthusiast.

[Daox]

Haha, the fun never stops for you. Nice purchase.

[TomEV]

Looks like you got a deal there! If you want to sell 'the lost cord' I'd like to have it...

Most of the fixes that need to be done are relatively simple, even the crack in the plastic body. Get some PlastiFix - works wonders.

[bennelson]

Well, I just got a quote from PODS, and quickly ruled out shoving the CititCar in a PODS box and having it shipped cross country.

Over $3000 for one of their containers and shipping!

[Johnny Mullet]

Wow Ben! Nice find!

[Ryland]

The ad for that car has been floating around for almost a week, I'm glad that the guy still decided to sell it instead of junking it at that low price seeing as it is worth almost that much just in the aluminum that it's made out of...
so this is a prime example of why people shouldn't be wining about not being able to find an electric car, they are out there, and the people who are buying them are people who are wondering where they are going to put it.
another option for Ben would be to re-list it on Ebay and just dubble your money, selling it om where it is.

[SuperTrooper]

Google professional car haulers. Since your car is very small and is being transported between major metropolitan areas it might be cheaper than you think. Even better that you have no time constraints and could ship on a "space available" basis.

My F-I-l used to ship classic cars he bought in Florida to Maine for about a grand.

[Ryland]

if you do go out there to pick it up, I've hauled mine on a trailer for hauling ATV's, very light weight and easy to tow, also if yu toss a pair of 12v ca batteries in under the seat you should be able to test drive it, did that with my citi car and was able to hit 20mph on the road.