Greetings from Alamo City, just ordered my $1000 t’shirt and bumper sticker (all-in). I had heard of the Elio a while back, but didn't think it had a chance of making it to the marketplace. After hearing about it again in the mainstream media last week and researching it extensively including reading 100's of threads here and elioclub.org, like most others I feel that Paul has the vision and determination to see this to mass production. I do have a few concerns, but I am getting more confident each day that there is sufficient backing and enthusiasm behind this to overcome those hurdles.
Growing up in a third-world county, I was tinkering on cars before I was 10. My first car was an almost 45+ year old 1949 Fiat Topolino which my parents help me buy in high-school. Spending at least a part of each weekend repairing something on it was the norm (a new head-gasket every 2 months was about right). Fast forward 2 decades, and while I do most of the routine maintenance on my car and my wife’s car, there’s not much else I can do (or have the desire to, really). This forum gives me the sense that there’s a good few us looking to get into this almost as a ‘grassroots’ type of project – just on a larger scale. The Elio is obviously a game-changer and will be considered as a ‘disruptive product’ by big oil and big auto alike if it catches on. But for me personally, the Elio is a game-changer taking motoring back to an era where it was just flat out fun and something to get excited about.
I fully expect the first year (or even first few years) of production to have more than its fair share of issues and at $6,800, it’s a project/hobby/toy to me and a chance to spend some time with my 10 year old son tinkering on it. But my big fear it that there will be a large percentage of those that expect it to be perfect from day one and give it a bad rap that will hinder the low-margin/high-volume model EM is banking on. But with the type of enthusiasm seen on the forums, I hope it’s enough to overcome and pull-through those perceptions should they occur. I really want this to succeed. I want motoring to be FUN again.
Curious who else shares some of the same sentiments?
Growing up in a third-world county, I was tinkering on cars before I was 10. My first car was an almost 45+ year old 1949 Fiat Topolino which my parents help me buy in high-school. Spending at least a part of each weekend repairing something on it was the norm (a new head-gasket every 2 months was about right). Fast forward 2 decades, and while I do most of the routine maintenance on my car and my wife’s car, there’s not much else I can do (or have the desire to, really). This forum gives me the sense that there’s a good few us looking to get into this almost as a ‘grassroots’ type of project – just on a larger scale. The Elio is obviously a game-changer and will be considered as a ‘disruptive product’ by big oil and big auto alike if it catches on. But for me personally, the Elio is a game-changer taking motoring back to an era where it was just flat out fun and something to get excited about.
I fully expect the first year (or even first few years) of production to have more than its fair share of issues and at $6,800, it’s a project/hobby/toy to me and a chance to spend some time with my 10 year old son tinkering on it. But my big fear it that there will be a large percentage of those that expect it to be perfect from day one and give it a bad rap that will hinder the low-margin/high-volume model EM is banking on. But with the type of enthusiasm seen on the forums, I hope it’s enough to overcome and pull-through those perceptions should they occur. I really want this to succeed. I want motoring to be FUN again.
Curious who else shares some of the same sentiments?
