Wanted: Citicar/Comutacar

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Hogwit

"My Commuti-car cost me $3,500 and 5 years later I have over $6,000 in it..." what do you mean? Are you saying that your labor would be worth $2,500?
That is out of my price range, but the $700 would've been fine, I would even be willing/able to go upwards of $1,200 for a much better one...

No, I paid $3,500 for mine that I drive every day, it drove when I bought it and had a 10 mile range with the batteries that were in it, I've spent over $2,500 on it replacing tires, wheels, batteries, speed controller, battery cables, battery charger, adding a DC to DC converter and installing LED marker lights, but those are all things that make it more user friendly and help with range and extend battery life, altho I did have to install the solid state speed controller and the battery charger because the stock parts wore out, right, I also had to replace leaf springs, wheel bearing and brake shoes because the parking brake was left on and wore the brake shoes out and the stock contractor speed controls are like dropping the clutch with your gas engine reved up to 3,000 rpm so that lead to a snapped leaf spring, the wheel bearing was annoying but a quick fix once I bought the parts but it wasn't cheap, so I'm closer to $3,500 in repairs/upgrades, not bad for a 31 year old car over the course of 5 years that doesn't use a drop of gasoline and is driven every day.
I ended up selling the Citi-car I had to HondaGuy72 (sorry I didn't get back to you about wiring! I was out of town for a week) and he's finishing the project that I started.
If you really want a C-Car, start telling everyone you know (that is how I bought the Citi-Car) then start posting Want Ads (With a photo of one) on Craigslist and any where there is a free bulletin board to place ads, when I posted on Craigslist I got 6 Emails back telling me about 4 of them that were around and I keep finding out about more of them! after all, there were nearly 7,000 of them built, for all you know there is one parked in the garage next door.

[Hogwit]

I found one less than an hour away. I believe it's stock, but functional. He I come.
Out of curiosity, what is the youngest C-car owner? I might have to be taking that.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Hogwit

I found one less than an hour away. I believe it's stock, but functional. He I come.
Out of curiosity, what is the youngest C-car owner? I might have to be taking that.

I was 25 when I bought my first c-car and judging from the rest of the owners I've met I think I'm one of the younger ones by 10 to 20 years, I know that in our EV club I'm one of the youngest members.

People ask me from time to time about owning another one "for parts" but the nice thing about these cars is that they are so simple and used so many off the shelf parts that you don't really need used parts! the C-car list is also a great resource for getting help, along with EV Performance

[Hogwit]

So...15 is the youngest known? Sweet I hope it's really in the condition I believe it is. Oh please be good please be good please be good!!!!

[Hogwit]

Not happy at all
He emailed me today and said:
Hi. Austin
Since this car is an antique and has many things that could prevent it fron being safe on the road, I have decided not to sell it. I'm sorry.

I know it would need a looking over, but it's not like he would be liable for anything that might happen...I am not sure, but I feel that there is some other reason...

[Ryland]

You could say that about any used car! and of course you, as the owner are responsible for making sure that your car complies with all safety regulations and inspections and that it is being driven in a safe manner.
He might not be interested in selling a somewhat rare car to a 15 year old, when I was trying to sell my Citi-car I told a handful of people that it was not the car for them.

[Hogwit]

Exactly what I was thinking...but he was fine with the idea of selling it to a 15 year old for over a day...
I have spent my whole life around motorized vehicles from boats to planes to go kart to cars to motorcycles, and I have never crashed. It would be just as likely for me to have an accident as anyone else on this forum being that I have enough experience to be comparable (once you hit a certain point, you don't really get too much better until you take it to another level). I really wish he would just sell it to me...he is soooo close and seems like a really nice guy.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Hogwit

Exactly what I was thinking...but he was fine with the idea of selling it to a 15 year old for over a day...
I have spent my whole life around motorized vehicles from boats to planes to go kart to cars to motorcycles, and I have never crashed.

I know a guy who had a handful of c-cars and one of them that he sold ended up with a gas engine being put in it, after that he decided not to sell any more of them to regular gear heads but only to other EV nuts.
You might try talking to him more about your ideas and goals with EV ownership, see if he can be convinced that you would be a good owner of such a rare vehicle, you might also see if there is an EV club in your area.

[Hogwit]

Well I've been putting a lot into a Razor Scooter... 3kw motor, 200amp esc (purposely did overkill just so it doesn't burn up), 9s (33.3 volt nominal) 12ah of lipos, and playing with gearing I've gotten to just over 65 mph, but it heats up a lot doing that, so it's geared for around 30+mph. I treat everything I have quite well, and I wouldn't convert the car to had. I may make a trailer that would carry a dc generator so I could run the car longer distances, but it would always be an electric car, and driven almost entirely off of electricity rather than gas.

[Hogwit]

So my father called him yesterday, and got a call back today.
His concern was about my/our knowledge with electronics. Well my father talked with him a while, and now he is going to sell it to me! This is my father's knowledge about electronics, "I plug this in the wall and it works." I however know quite a lot, especially considering my age.