[Longsnowsm]

I can't believe I read through this thread to come away feeling frustrated and wondering how Elio even got this far!

I will say if they were building this car/trike I would certainly be interested in owning one. The story started off pretty good. No new technology, reuse existing parts, keep costs down. Sounded like they were positioning themselves really well with a production facility and possibly the ability to stamp these things out at a reasonable cost... Then THE TRAIN LEAVES THE RAILS with this engine thing... I mean what are these clowns thinking?

They should have snagged up the entire production of Jasper engines Geo Metro remans and worked out the kinks with the car. Get something shipping. Move the prototypes along and get it sorted out. Start to make some money, and then if you have the demand start looking at the improvements. Repurpose a motorcycle engine. The Honda NC700X is a 2 cylinder refit from the Honda Fit that would have gotten them probably 100 mpg. I mean there have to be other options to get something existing that wouldn't break the bank and would get a product out the door.

So frankly I am with everyone else in the skeptics corner. I see they are trying to publicly fund this company now. After watching such huge mis-steps out of the gate I cannot see how I would possibly fund/invest money with this management team after watching them lose site of the message of no new tech, repurpose everything, and make something affordable and get it out the door to the people.

I don't see any way they can make that price point of $6800 or $7400 or whatever... If they can keep it below $10k they will have people interested. How much interest? Well frankly I don't know in the US market. When I bought my Insight I thought like most Americans that I needed more car, had to haul people, stuff, blah blah blah... The Insight has been great and I was wrong about most of the stuff that I thought I needed. I can now easily see how I could scale right into an Elio and it would be a fantastic fit. So I would be very interested if they can ever get it out the door. But what a train wreck watching this MESS! I don't know if Americans will ever wake up to how practical a small car like the Insight is for day to day commute and errands or the Elio which is even more "odd". I call it practical, but then again I am ODD! LOL

It is sad we see so many great concepts and ideas and they die before they even get realized. I am starting to think Tesla still being is business is a miracle!

Longsnowsm