Elio Price Discussion, $6800?

[Tomg3rd]

I am just pointing out how ambitious this project is.
To your point almost all cars made for a price point use off the shelf parts to lower costs.
Elio has no more buying power (probably less) than any other manufacturer. (note they have not produced any yet)
the cheapest car you can purchase today is a Nissan Versa at $12,800.00 so to meet the economy you would need about 47% less content to hit $6800.00
The engine and transmission have to be at least 40% of the content cost.
Do not misunderstand me, I expect them to meet the goal but the numbers do not make sense to me with the very little knowledge I possess.

OK- but what does a car like this really sell for? Not the MSRP but real life out the door price? I would think under 10K...With the Elio being priced reasonably in the first place I think they will sell at the real MSRP or even a littler more.

 

[electroken]

You cannot buy a new Motorcycle for $6800.

You can't buy a 900-pound, chromed parade bike for $6800. However, there are some pretty useful motorcycles available for less than that:

2014 Honda CB500X: $6300 MSRP
2014 Kawasaki KLR650: $6500 MSRP
and a dozen more...

All this said, I will be surprised if the base price of an Elio is $6800 by the time they are built.

 

[Gas-Powered Awesome]

For as I see it, if the Elio goes to $7300, and I put $1000 in early, I’ve been duped..

Then you didn't read the agreement very carefully before you paid. It says very clearly the final price is not guaranteed. And in-fact delivery is not guaranteed period. You may lose your $1000 and get nothing at all. The $1000 payment is gambling, plain and simple. I still put the odds at 60%/40% in favor of it getting built and I'm still happy I took the gamble.

 

[Jim H]

IMHO, at this point it's like buying a lottery ticket but I believe the odds are much better with the Elio and I expect to be a winner.

 

[goofyone]

New cars today are more expensive than most people realize. The fact of the matter is that the most inexpensive new car available for sale in the USA is the 2014 Nissan Versa Sedan with a manual transmission which has an MSRP of $12,000. This car is rated at 31 city and 40 highway MPG.

Nissan enjoys the marketing benefit to having the lowest priced car in the country however they know that most people will want an automatic for an extra $1K and to control prices they can manipulate the market by limiting the number of these base models they make and make sure to only produce them early in the model year so they do not have to be discounted later. Because of how Nissan controls this model dealers are pretty much assured that they will not have to sell the base model for under $10,000 plus destination, dealer prep, taxes and registration fees.

Even if by the time it enters production the Elio base price has risen to $7500 or even $8000 the nearest lowest priced vehicle, which will also rise in price between now and then, will still be several thousand dollars more expensive while also delivering about half the fuel economy of the Elio.

 

[robert109]

In the latest email I received "This Stop - Los Angeles!" for the first time (that I have seen), the words to describe the Elio say "The Elio’s affordable starting price of $6,800 ".. Fist time I have seen published the term "starting price"...

 

[Jeff Porter]

Hi Robert, I would interpret it to mean that $6800 is the base price, you "start" there and then can add options. What do you think it might indicate?

 

[LockMD]

Pretty sure they've been saying that the whole time

 

[ElioDigger]

I would say that was said from the start but not that bluntly

 

[robert109]

I have tracked every word of this car, it has never been mentioned as a base price or a starting price, always presented as the car's final price and a list of what is included. To me it means the marketing side has communicated with the developing side and more op-tions will be available or they have to alter the price points and NOT include all the options they originally stated. Hope that is not the case.