Could the latest delay have anything to do with the automatic transmission not being available until after production has started?
When Jeff Johnson was on the Autoline program, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l3V877kfA
He said the automatic transmission would not be available until later during the first year of production, meaning people wanting manual transmissions would get theirs first, and people with automatic transmissions would have to wait. This would be very upsetting to many people, making them angry. The good will of the reservationists driving their Elios around and showing them to the public would be very important advertising to EM. Suppose someone is All-In for $1000, has a low SIL,and ordered an automatic transmission. Now suppose they see someone who is $100 Want-In with a manual transmission, getting theirs first. That would be very upsetting to the All-In person who has waiting a long time and taken greater risk. They would probably say very negative things about EM instead of good. EM does not want that.
A way of solving this is to delay all production until the automatic transmission can be delivered from the beginning, just like the manual transmission.
Perhaps this is the reason of the latest delay. After Jeff Johnson told of the automatic transmission delay, EM said he (Jeff Johnson) was unaware of other important information. Certainly delays are something important and only Paul Elio would know about them.
All this seems to fit together, however that does not mean it is true.
Perhaps this should be spun into an explanation saving face for EM, and thus not driving off investors. Having a delay due to one specific item, like transmission availability, gives a better impression than due to overall and repetitive problems of the program.
When Jeff Johnson was on the Autoline program, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l3V877kfA
He said the automatic transmission would not be available until later during the first year of production, meaning people wanting manual transmissions would get theirs first, and people with automatic transmissions would have to wait. This would be very upsetting to many people, making them angry. The good will of the reservationists driving their Elios around and showing them to the public would be very important advertising to EM. Suppose someone is All-In for $1000, has a low SIL,and ordered an automatic transmission. Now suppose they see someone who is $100 Want-In with a manual transmission, getting theirs first. That would be very upsetting to the All-In person who has waiting a long time and taken greater risk. They would probably say very negative things about EM instead of good. EM does not want that.
A way of solving this is to delay all production until the automatic transmission can be delivered from the beginning, just like the manual transmission.
Perhaps this is the reason of the latest delay. After Jeff Johnson told of the automatic transmission delay, EM said he (Jeff Johnson) was unaware of other important information. Certainly delays are something important and only Paul Elio would know about them.
All this seems to fit together, however that does not mean it is true.
Perhaps this should be spun into an explanation saving face for EM, and thus not driving off investors. Having a delay due to one specific item, like transmission availability, gives a better impression than due to overall and repetitive problems of the program.
