Friday Blog Is Out

[Watashiwah]

From Elio’s latest Installment:

many on the Elio team have children that are in their teens

.



How many are on the “Elio team” ? Many of them have teenagers? If putting out these ‘facts’ doesn’t worry you, why should anything? Go Elio!!

Edit: ignore their typo, repeating ‘for teenagers’; attention to detail is unimportant and probably missed by ‘many on the Elio team’ as proofreading and fact checking take the crowded backseat, anyhow.

 

[Samalross]

Cant see too many teenagers wanting an Elio. Lots of cooler used cars for the same price. I know my son would not want to drive one, has anyone here asked their children or grandchildren if they would ? Going on a date you would want the date to be beside you, or holding on to you on a motorcycle. Going out with friends usually means more than one friend.The target market is older motorcycle riders and people with long commutes. There are probably only about three or four people left on the Elio team, doubt that there are many teenage children. Would like to see a study of potential Elio buyer demographics.

 

[Watashiwah]

I do see many teenagers; my completely unscientific survey shows that the teenagers and young ‘adults’ initially think the Elio is very cool and they want one. I ask them if given a choice do they want just one person as a passenger and that person behind them? Universally that turns them off, after they give it some thought. A few have jokingly said that they don’t trust even their ‘best friends’ to sit behind them and think it will be lead to accidents, distraction, and be generally dangerous.

I find it an affront that Elio is vaguely pushing yet another marketing ‘spin’ that has no basis in fact. Add this to the 65,000 threshold, Dexter Hamilton interest, ‘partners’ non existent and/or out of business, the ATVM carrot-on-stick, and unbuilt but funded test fleet.

 

[Samalross]

I do see many teenagers; my completely unscientific survey shows that the teenagers and young ‘adults’ initially think the Elio is very cool and they want one. I ask them if given a choice do they want just one person as a passenger and that person behind them? Universally that turns them off, after they give it some thought. A few have jokingly said that they don’t trust even their ‘best friends’ to sit behind them and think it will be lead to accidents, distraction, and be generally dangerous.

I find it an affront that Elio is vaguely pushing yet another marketing ‘spin’ that has no basis in fact. Add this to the 65,000 threshold, Dexter Hamilton interest, ‘partners’ non existent and/or out of business, the ATVM carrot-on-stick, and unbuilt but funded test fleet.

I think that if Paul is still in charge at the time of the SEC report and no funding announcement, the project is dead.

 

[RSchneider]

I read this and last night the group of us got together to play poker. This consists of 8 guys. All have kids that have been through the teenager thing and cars. Out of the 18 combined kids from the 8 guys I asked them if they would buy an Elio for their kids instead. Leaving me out of the mix, that means 7 guys and 16 kids. None would buy an Elio based upon this. 1. Doesn't look safe. 2. Looks like it'll roll over easy. 3. New car company thus it needs to prove itself for reliability.

Out of this group (18 kids) there were 8 hand me down cars that were around 7-10 years old. The other 10 were used cars ranging from $4K to $7K with an age of 6-10 years old. 2 were VW, 2 Subaru, 6 Honda, 8 Toyota. For Toyota it was 2 Rav4's, 1 Camry and 5 Corollas. For Honda it was 1 CRV, 2 Accords and 3 Civics. Subaru was 2 Outbacks. VW was 2 Jettas.

The most recent is a guy that one son is 18 and he got the family Corolla. 2010 with 90K on it. The other got a 2010 Corolla with 68K on it for $7K. Dad bought a new Corolla 2 years ago because of the older son. He likes Toyotas because they are reliable and safe (that's his words). Every person was really after the reliability, able to get it fixed and safety (airbags, ABS whatever else is federally mandated for cars).

This is what Elio is up against. Perception of what people have about the product. Until it gets into the hands of people to prove reliability and safety we will never know if it's successful at proving those two points. Elio needs to get that real world crash testing out there along with their long term reliability tests. Doing that will help convince parents that the Elio is right for them.

 

[Samalross]

I read this and last night the group of us got together to play poker. This consists of 8 guys. All have kids that have been through the teenager thing and cars. Out of the 18 combined kids from the 8 guys I asked them if they would buy an Elio for their kids instead. Leaving me out of the mix, that means 7 guys and 16 kids. None would buy an Elio based upon this. 1. Doesn't look safe. 2. Looks like it'll roll over easy. 3. New car company thus it needs to prove itself for reliability.

Out of this group (18 kids) there were 8 hand me down cars that were around 7-10 years old. The other 10 were used cars ranging from $4K to $7K with an age of 6-10 years old. 2 were VW, 2 Subaru, 6 Honda, 8 Toyota. For Toyota it was 2 Rav4's, 1 Camry and 5 Corollas. For Honda it was 1 CRV, 2 Accords and 3 Civics. Subaru was 2 Outbacks. VW was 2 Jettas.

The most recent is a guy that one son is 18 and he got the family Corolla. 2010 with 90K on it. The other got a 2010 Corolla with 68K on it for $7K. Dad bought a new Corolla 2 years ago because of the older son. He likes Toyotas because they are reliable and safe (that's his words). Every person was really after the reliability, able to get it fixed and safety (airbags, ABS whatever else is federally mandated for cars).

This is what Elio is up against. Perception of what people have about the product. Until it gets into the hands of people to prove reliability and safety we will never know if it's successful at proving those two points. Elio needs to get that real world crash testing out there along with their long term reliability tests. Doing that will help convince parents that the Elio is right for them.

Thanks for your research. When I bought my first car it was $300 which was about three weeks pay on my summer job. I guess equivalent price would be about $1500 in todays dollars. I would have never been able to buy a new car or motorcycle

 

[Jeff Miller]

Don't any of you remember when Honda civics came out and parents bought them up as cheap cars for their kids? These were from a proven company but they were a new design and certainly not by any means engineered to be the safest vehicle on the road. The same issues of size of vehicle were common concerns yet parents lapped them up.

I also understand that in MN that driving privileges are scaled. At first the new driver has to drive only with parents, and then for awhile with no other no related people in the vehicle. It seems that if you want to get your kid a vehicle that keeps them from disobeying the rules of driving with friends then an Elio would be a great low cost entry vehicle.

So once the new driver makes it past the point that they can drive with other passengers the new driver may want to have the ability to bring their friends but do you as a parent want them to? It seems that the riders would likely create more issues and potential for problems. If I were a parent that was providing a vehicle for my kid I'd think that the Elio would be perfect. Low cost, limited amount of kids so it won't become the car for everybody to hop into, great on gas mileage, and hopefully low cost to insure.

Sure, it may not be the kids first choice but if the parent is buying it, wouldn't it be their first choice?

 

[Samalross]

Don't any of you remember when Honda civics came out and parents bought them up as cheap cars for their kids? These were from a proven company but they were a new design and certainly not by any means engineered to be the safest vehicle on the road. The same issues of size of vehicle were common concerns yet parents lapped them up.

I also understand that in MN that driving privileges are scaled. At first the new driver has to drive only with parents, and then for awhile with no other no related people in the vehicle. It seems that if you want to get your kid a vehicle that keeps them from disobeying the rules of driving with friends then an Elio would be a great low cost entry vehicle.

So once the new driver makes it past the point that they can drive with other passengers the new driver may want to have the ability to bring their friends but do you as a parent want them to? It seems that the riders would likely create more issues and potential for problems. If I were a parent that was providing a vehicle for my kid I'd think that the Elio would be perfect. Low cost, limited amount of kids so it won't become the car for everybody to hop into, great on gas mileage, and hopefully low cost to insure.

Sure, it may not be the kids first choice but if the parent is buying it, wouldn't it be their first choice?

Do you think many parents would be buying a new car for their kids? I won't buy one for myself and certainly wouldn't buy for my son, and I am in an upper income bracket.

 

[Elio Amazed]

Don't any of you remember when Honda civics came out and parents bought them up as cheap cars for their kids? These were from a proven company but they were a new design and certainly not by any means engineered to be the safest vehicle on the road. The same issues of size of vehicle were common concerns yet parents lapped them up.

I also understand that in MN that driving privileges are scaled. At first the new driver has to drive only with parents, and then for awhile with no other no related people in the vehicle. It seems that if you want to get your kid a vehicle that keeps them from disobeying the rules of driving with friends then an Elio would be a great low cost entry vehicle.

So once the new driver makes it past the point that they can drive with other passengers the new driver may want to have the ability to bring their friends but do you as a parent want them to? It seems that the riders would likely create more issues and potential for problems. If I were a parent that was providing a vehicle for my kid I'd think that the Elio would be perfect. Low cost, limited amount of kids so it won't become the car for everybody to hop into, great on gas mileage, and hopefully low cost to insure.

Sure, it may not be the kids first choice but if the parent is buying it, wouldn't it be their first choice?

No.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Do you think many parents would be buying a new car for their kids? I won't buy one for myself and certainly wouldn't buy for my son, and I am in an upper income bracket.

If I had kids, I certainly wouldn't buy them a car. My dad didn't buy me a car and all my money that I earned went to the one big check I wrote for my first year in college . I do think if a kid wants a car that they should have a lot of skin in the game for that car but frankly that is not what I see parents doing.

I remain amazed at the amount of money parents spend on kids. Back in the day, I had a number of friends whose parents did buy them new Honda Civics because they were essentially the "AND" vehicle of the day. Today, I see many parents easily blow through the cost of an Elio on all kinds of expenditures for their kids so I don't see the cost of an Elio being a significant issue for those parents. I also know quite a few parents that wouldn't hesitate to spend 2 to 3 times the cost of an Elio on a vehicle for their kids so having an option like the Elio might be a good way for them to save a bit.