Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
That sounds nice and all, but almost nothing meets your criteria, certainly not automotive safety requirements.
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What criteria? All I care about is that a car has seatbelts, a reasonably efficient engine and good chassis rigidity. A safety cell doesn't just make crashes more survivable... it makes a car much more fun to drive, since it allows the suspension to work properly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
Look up lists of most important issues and many of the things I listed come up on there but automotive safety doesn't even meet the threshold to make a list of 50.
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Why would it?
What kind of survey was it? Was it a survey about important
automotive issues? Was it even a survey about
transportation in general?
No.
This is like saying: "We don't need antibiotics because people don't think it's the most important issue facing us, right now."
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I've been writing in this industry for a long while. One of my first editors in the biz was in market research, and we've had many long talks over lunch. And I can
guarantee you that
safety is one of the biggest concerns of people who
actually buy cars.
As in here, for example:
2014 Car Brand Perception Survey | Best Car Brands - Consumer Reports
Quote:
Important factors in buying a new car
This list ranks the seven key factors by how important they are to consumers when buying a new car. The percentage is based on the number of respondents who said the factor was among their top three priorities. For comparison, we’ve included last year’s figures.
Factor
2014 (%) 2013 (%)
Quality
90 90
Safety
88 88
Performance
83 83
Value
82 83
Fuel economy
81 81
Design/style
70 65
Technology/innovation
68 65
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I've talked to hundreds of customers looking for cars, and believe me, safety gets brought up
a lot.
Also, as RedDevil notes: our secondhand "safe" cars are actually a big headache for your $5k car. The reason cars like the Tata Nano and the cheaper Chinese aren't selling is because most people would rather buy a "safe" decade old Toyota Corolla than an "unsafe" tin can.
Guess what it took for Chinese cars to finally start selling outside of China? They paid attention to factors 1 and 2 on the CR list. And since they've done that, they've started selling in earnest.
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Of course, nothing they sell nowadays is near as cheap as you're asking for. Quality and Safety come at a price.
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And people in China? They still won't buy Chinese cars. Because, frankly, they're scared to death of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
Eliminate the requirements to meet US standards and they would import them in a heartbeat, and they would sell. Maybe not 100,000s but they would sell. People would have choices, it is just not an option now but not because of no demand but because of outlawed supply.
Elio is getting around everything by being a motorcycle. Maybe move production to Korea, India, or China and it might get done and be no doubt less then $7500.
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I doubt people would buy them. At least not in big enough numbers to make it worth anyone's while to import them.
Try looking up how well the Zap Xebra did.
There's also a micro-Jeep with a Chery 1.0 imported and sold under an American brand. As a UTV, it easily bypasses most road-legality requirements. UTV enthusiasts, however, have panned it due to poor quality and durability. Even people buying sub-$10k vehicles have standards.
