New Aptera

[trikkonceptz]

Originally Posted by captainslug

Vehicle straw purchase?

Not really because a straw purchase is when 1 party buys the product and a second party uses it ...

Or if I had family in Cali, I could go through the trouble of changing my address then bringing the car back to my original state and "move" thereby changing the registration information.

[basjoos]

Their Cd now isn't much below that of my car. Actually it might be fairly close now as I've made a few aero improvements to my car since I did the coast down tests that netted the 0.17 Cd figure.

I wonder if those front wheel driveshafts are rotating on the outside or if they are a non-rotating tube with a rotating shaft inside. If the latter, then you could mount fairings on the round tube to get some additional drag reduction. If the former, I wonder if it would be prone to catching and winding grass around it you drove across a field of tall grass.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

There are a few people who are using proxy buyers. Aptera is doing this so they can support/service their vehicle. Eventually (hopefully) they will have a dealer network, that will let them sell and support it all over the country.

I think the front drive shafts you see are rotating. The rubber CV boots are visible in several of the images. In the image looking down on the vehicle, you can see that the lower suspension arm is forward of the drive shaft, so it might deflect said tall grass, and prevent it from entangling on the drive shaft?

[basslover911]

Originally Posted by basjoos

I wonder if it would be prone to catching and winding grass around it you drove across a field of tall grass.

OKAY!

No why would you drive through tall grass with this car?!?

THAT IS SO RANDOM! HAHAHAHA

I bet the aptera engineers NEVER thought about that! lol

[gascort]

My criticism is the risk of severe body damage from very minor bumps i.e. on the rear corners of the taillights. If some moron hits and runs from parallel parking, I don't want over $500 in body repairs from what would be typically just a tiny scuff on the bumper. Hopefully the corners are tough and not really part of the taillight like it appears.

[jjackstone]

Sorry to bring bad news. Aptera is pushed back to October. Check the link over to ABG.
Aptera pushes back retail deliveries to October 2009, looks for cash - AutoblogGreen

[roflwaffle]

The "looks for cash" part doesn't seem to be true since the deposits are still being held in escrow, but $1.50/gallon gas definitely has them reassessing their production estimates, and probably their contracts w/ suppliers.

[cfg83]

jjackstone -

Originally Posted by jjackstone

Sorry to bring bad news. Aptera is pushed back to October. Check the link over to ABG.
Aptera pushes back retail deliveries to October 2009, looks for cash - AutoblogGreen

Sad news indeed, . The design is such a rule-breaker that it had the chance to redefine the meaning of a "car". Switching from RWD to FWD must have led to a ma$$ive uff-da inside Aptera.

CarloSW2

[roflwaffle]

I was thinking they're taking another look at their business plan w/ $1.50/gallon gas instead of $3.50/gallon gas. Given the commodities crash I think they could get much better deals renegotiating w/ their suppliers and w/ the deposits they can get a much better idea of who really wants a car and who is just testing the water so they don't make too many and get hosed. There's no point rushing a car to market prematurely and going bankrupt when they can take it slow and cautious, hopefully building a successful business down the road.

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by basslover911

OKAY!

No why would you drive through tall grass with this car?!?

THAT IS SO RANDOM! HAHAHAHA

I bet the aptera engineers NEVER thought about that! lol

I can see you've never had to attend a public event where unexpectantly high attendance rates filled up the paved lots and you were redirected to overflow parking in a nearby field where you were driving across a bumpy field to get to the parking.