Rolling Chassie Elio?

[Aviator]

So, I have worked in an automotive body shop some 15 years ago. When a vehicle gets into an accident the insurance company takes the cars blue book value figures into the mileage and age and all that. They come up with a figure. If the cost to repair the car is over 80% of the value the insurance company totals the vehicle for fear the "estimate" of damage may turn into exceeding the value during repairs.
In this case lets say a $6800 Elio when new now had a fender bender at 36,000 miles. The blue book car value at the time is reduced at this time to say $4500 just for an example. The damages to be repaired has an estimate of $3800 for most cars on the road this would just cover a parking lot bump.
So My example explains a car with little damage and say a perfect well maintained drive train having a full service history. Would Elio have a fully built car that the old drive train could be dropped into? Even if no interior is included this would be a good idea for so many reasons.
Leave a feedback if you agree.

 

[Lil4X]

That's a great idea, just swap a well-maintained drivetrain into a new body, and you could cut the repair cost pretty dramatically. Meanwhile salvaging good parts from the donor might make a viable business for someone.

Back in the '60's I installed Volvo seats in a couple of my non-Volvo cars (Dodge and Plymouth), thanks to a local wrecking yard that salvaged imports off the dock. Yeah, the crane occasionally dropped one . . and I could get beautiful leather contour seats for $25 - $40 each - still in their factory plastic wrap. The body might have been 2 feet tall, but the seats were fine.

Wonder if they'd fit my Elio . . ?

 

[Danno]

I read on a vintage car forum recently that the money in older cars is not in trying to "flip" them, it was in spare parts and restoration! I'm thinking the same will be true to a large extent for the Elio.
That being said, them using off the shelf parts, the business possibilities for repair, or to be a "certified" dealer, repair shop etc. could be a fun venture.