"One of the little secrets of automotive journalism is that cars break all the time."
"That's especially true for prototypes. And the Elio that we drove was most assuredly a prototype."
"The Elio spokesperson who briefed me on the car likened it to an air-cooled Volkswagen"
Quote:
It was not my proudest moment on video.
With the fender jammed under the left-front tire, I wasn't able to steer the car to get it over to the curb. So brave cameraman Chris Perkins and I cut the video, hopped out, rolled the car backward to free the fender, and limped our way back to our meeting point.
Building a new car from the ground up is hard. Even huge automakers like Toyota and General Motors frequently run into bugs, problems, engineering shortsights, or unforeseen malfunctions. For a startup like Elio, it's infinitely more challenging—particularly with a design that seeks to revolutionize the automotive landscape by using a completely unconventional three-wheeler design.
|
"this prototype's fenders are removable to allow them to roll the car through narrow doorways for display purposes, and that the production design will use different fender mounts."
Maybe 68 MPG for $8,400, if it ever happens?