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State Fair Of Texas

Ronney Nanney

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Can anyone give a good reason why Elio has decided for the second year in a row not to attend the auto show at the State Fair of Texas. It makes no since to me. It is the most attended auto show in the world. The fair itself is expected to reach an attendance of over 2 million according to the Dallas Morning news. Why would you not want to showcase Elio at an event of such magnitude.
 

Trusting

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I posted this a while back but so far no reaction. I agree that not going to our state fair is missing a golden opportunity.

No, haven't seen one. Come on people, do a tour of Texas! Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Waco, Austin and San Antonio. All 3 hours or less from each other and you can make a nice loop and expose it to 20,000,000 people!

texas_map.jpg


statefair.jpg
 
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lnwlf40

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How about....... Texas = big oil industry.............. EM = less dependence on gasoline from the (intended) highest mpg ratings ever from a vehicle with an IC engine only. Doesn't look like a happy marriage to me.:fear:
 

Coss

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Can anyone give a good reason why Elio has decided for the second year in a row not to attend the auto show at the State Fair of Texas. It makes no since to me. It is the most attended auto show in the world. The fair itself is expected to reach an attendance of over 2 million according to the Dallas Morning news. Why would you not want to showcase Elio at an event of such magnitude.
This is a question best sent to Elio Motors; any answers you receive here are just speculation (guesses).
You can contact them here: Elio Motors Information Request Form <---link
 

Trusting

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How about....... Texas = big oil industry.............. EM = less dependence on gasoline from the (intended) highest mpg ratings ever from a vehicle with an IC engine only. Doesn't look like a happy marriage to me.:fear:

Thank you for clarifying it. I didn't realize how petty we Texans were til you told me....
 

Rickb

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Why would EM show in a State that has banned direct to consumer vehicle sales? Perhaps Texas has banned EM from showing the Elio because of their planned direct to consumer sales model.

EM didn't show there last year because of it's high cost to vendors.
 

Jambe

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Why would EM show in a State that has banned direct to consumer vehicle sales? Perhaps Texas has banned EM from showing the Elio because of their planned direct to consumer sales model.

EM didn't show there last year because of it's high cost to vendors.

High cost to vendors was a secondary problem, true. But the real problem was the restrictions on what they could say, as I stated in my initial post.

Just for the record, here is what Joel Sheltrown had to say:


The Elio Motors VP of Government Affairs, Joel Sheltrown, posted this more detailed explanation of the Texas State Fair situation on Facebook today:

"Just to set the record straight, Elio Motors was forced to cancel because of the completely detailed agreement TX wanted before they would allow us to display at the fair. Among the restrictions were: "If anyone asks you what the retail price is on the Elio, you will respond: ""It is against the law for me to discuss the price" If anyone ask about reserving we were only to say: "It is against the law for me to discuss reserving the Elio and what amount might be required to reserve." If anyone asks about our website. .or if we have one. "Can't tell you that either" Soooooooo, about the only thing that our product specialist can do is stand there and look dumb. We have the VP of Governmental Affairs doing that already. Bottom line, you know where to squarely place the blame and it isn't with Elio. We spend a lot of money on lodging, travel, many times airfare, and event costs of course. I suspect most of you would agree, these regulations are certainly over reaching and you should know what to do about them.

We COULD tell you what the MPG is... though. We COULD tell you that TX doesn't have a helmet or endorsement requirement(while we were at it) but you can already get that information from me at no cost. Being Elio Future Owners, I would imagine you to be quite frugal with your funds."

He then followed up with post:

"Any event .. any place we show the Elio, even in a parking lot, requires a number of things to work out... insurance for that location (each seems to have their own requirements) and a loss payable clause added to the contract to the owner of the premises.. sent to the right people for approval. I'm sure we will circle back again. I hope we do.. I want you and other Texans to be able to see the Elio upfront and personal. Events also have to .. or should be held where we get the most exposure. Not my area of expertise.. we have a VP and a tour crew that handle that quite nicely without me being involved, (Thank God) but I have set up two events now myself. It requires planning and a little time to get the approvals. Just can't pop in and set up. We had other locations that did not have the restrictions the fair did. We didn't know until late about these restrictions... and we suspected the State of TX may not get this worked out nearly in time. So the tour with all its expense would have set idle if the fair wasn't approved. I don't want to get into too much detail on this right now. Just wanted to comment that it is completely unfair that some are casting the blame on Elio for the cancellation. The original paperwork (got it very late ..too late to comply) contain NUMEROUS requirements that were impossible, completely impossible for us to meet.. especially in that short of time frame. That paperwork, even if we had sent it in, would have been denied. Period; In addition, there was a $2,000.00 application fee which is non refundable ... even if you can't address every requirement and your app is denied. The state did react rather quickly (surprise) to come up with another doc that they wanted us to agree to... some of the terms in that doc I explained already above. It's my job to get these things done... It's my job to provide guidance in what I think may or may not happen. I didn't think we could count at all on getting this resolved in time for the fair. Based on that information, the tour team had to rebook immediately. We are all disappointed in the cancellation."
 

Gizmo

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Think I would've done the same as Elio did. Thanks but no thanks. Why do a showing if you can't answer the most basic of questions?
 
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