So why do you think there are no cheap basic cars being sold new?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

MISSING a bit of data here: miraculous recovery or some sort of external process like knee replacement?

Not exactly miraculous, but I almost had to go under the knife. Maybe as I was eating more fish than I usually eat in my hometown Porto Alegre, because Florianópolis is a coastal city so it'soften easier to find fresh fish, was also good for my knees. And after coming back home, no longer having to deal with my mother who is a Karen, or some of her friends who are a bunch of potheads acting 99.9% of the time as retards, saved me from a lot of stress. My mother still acts pretty much like a spoiled 16.y.o. who believes the world revolves around her...

Originally Posted by JSH

There is also the question of why someone old enough to have a beard like that needs permission from a mother or grandmother to ride motorcycles.

LOL that's not me in that picture. Also not a matter of permission, I just didn't want to cause much of a concern to my grandmother. She went through hell after some of my father's motorcycle crashes.

[Piotrsko]

Ah, so then more of like an arthritic based knee issue. I grok. Prehaps we should thank Vanessa's penchant for having her picture taken in front of interesting vehicles as part of the recovery?

Thanks for the clarification.

I always believed your picture was one of those insufferable random inmans caught off guard preaching garbage.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Ah, so then more of like an arthritic based knee issue.

Not arthritic. Bad ligaments caused cartilage damage to my knees, but it's a genetic condition I inherited from my mother-side grandfather.

Prehaps we should thank Vanessa's penchant for having her picture taken in front of interesting vehicles as part of the recovery?

Maybe?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I noticed some compact cars in Brazil which were supposed to be slotted slightly above what would be considered a "popular" (in the sense of "people's car" analogue to what the VW Beetle used to be) were rendered more competitive once a naturally-aspirated 1.0L engine (backed by a 5-speed manual transmission) became available. Sure they're not exactly cheap for Brazilian standards, but it seems like many folks here are still OK with a more austere powerplant, as long as it's not attached to a povertry label. Well, maybe the fact that some models now offer turbocharged 1.0L engines as a fancier option, and naturally-aspirated 1.6L engines here going the way of the Dodo, has led the "inferiority" stigma attached to 1.0L engines in Brazil Which had been favored by a lower taxation within the last 30 years is no longer a matter of concern...

[Piotrsko]

A huffed 1liter long stroke is quite capable of making 100hp reliably with an appropriate torque level. Double what a brand new 1600 aircooled VW made. Add to that the ability to rotate fast enough to float the VW valves into the piston tops........

Kinda makes the 1.6 an equivalent to a big block American car.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

A huffed 1liter long stroke is quite capable of making 100hp reliably with an appropriate torque level.

Sure, but it may not be as easy for a shadetree mechanic to work on, as most of those downsized engines resort to direct injection.

Double what a brand new 1600 aircooled VW made.

Naturally a more accurate comparison would be some contemporary 1.6L naturally-aspirated engine. And even though a turbocharged 1.0L may even outperform it, a more conservative part of the public may still prefer a seemingly "outdated" engine.

[Piotrsko]

The comment was hp per liter of displacement, not reliability/ease of repair by a shade tree. A 72 aircooled 1.6 was officially rated at 50 hp at 3600 rpm. My 2 liter turbo, intercooled injected makes officially as much hp as my 7.3 liter diesel. 200 hp. Torque, not so much by a lot but it wont drag 10tons either.

[freebeard]

How about a $11K price point?

Swedish microcar maker Luvly wants to be the IKEA of tiny electric cars

Luvly, a Swedish microcar company, is gearing up to produce a tiny, ultraefficient electric car for urban living – and distribute it around the world using a flat-pack shipping method, much like another famous Swedish brand.

Luvly derives its name from LUV, or “Light Urban Vehicle,” which really sets the tone for what they’re going after – small cars designed for city use.

Luvly’s first vehicle, the Luvly O, has specs intended to work perfectly for an urban dweller. Which is to say, those specs are not any more than what you need (or more than what European quadricycle regulations limit them to), combined into a cute, affordable, and convenient package.



The IKEA comparison is not just about the shared country of origin but rather about Luvly’s planned production and shipping methods. Rather than assembling cars in one central factory and shipping them around the world fully assembled, Luvly has pioneered a process that allows for flat-pack shipping of vehicle parts.

Unlike IKEA, these won’t be assembled by the end user, but flat-pack shipping will allow a single shipping container to hold the parts required for 20 total cars, rather than needing a pure car carrying ship or loading one to four fully-assembled standard-sized cars in a container.

Antecedents would include Local Motors [RIP] microfactories and Gordon Murray's flat pack car

https://www.cnet.com › roadshow › news › gordon-murray-ox-flat-pack-truck
Gordon Murray designed the OX flat-pack truck for the developing world ...
Gordon Murray designed the OX flat-pack truck for the developing world The legendary car designer has teamed up with the Global Vehicle Trust to design the ideal cheap, simple and rugged...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

The comment was hp per liter of displacement, not reliability/ease of repair by a shade tree.

Of course. But I guess you know what I mean. Put a very sophisticated engine in a random small econobox, and its price will also increase accordingly, so the average Joe would eventually consider it disproportionately more expensive in a comparison to a slightly larger car or even a small crossover SUV.

My 2 liter turbo, intercooled injected makes officially as much hp as my 7.3 liter diesel. 200 hp. Torque, not so much by a lot but it wont drag 10tons either.

Not exactly to that extent, but a few years ago I was quite impressed to see trucks and vans with engines around 2.0 to 3.0L performing as well as what I would expect anything with a 4-liter engine at least to perform 20 years ago.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

This is the smallest Peugeot currently available in Brazil. Not exactly a bare-bones model and noticeably wider than what a model of its class would be around less than 20 years ago. At a first moment it had been featured as if it was more upscale than other small cars, having been introduced in 2020 only with the 1.6L EC5 engine and an automatic transmission, yet I only started to see a fairly large amount of those on the wild after a Fiat-sourced 3-cyl 1.0L engine (due to the lower taxation here, it was more favored than Peugeot's own 1.2L EB2 available elsewhere) backed by a 5-speed manual was fitted to an entry-level and an intermediate trim.