Staying The Course

[JEBar]

I have brought the Elio up with both of my helpers and a couple of the other guys that are doing long distance hauls, and they're very intrigued with the idea of something that would cut the cost of their drive to and from the office, and would be so inexpensive to buy. I can see the idea of this catching on with at least some of us once the car is in production, and one or two start showing up in the company parking lot.

I purely hate spending more on gasoline than I absolutely have to. Being able to cut way back on what I spend on gas and still being able to get where I need and want to be appeals to me immensely,

agree .... Elio Motors is fortunate to have found so many folks who listened to their story and have been willing write checks without any firm assurance that the vehicle will ever be built .... I have no clue just how large the pool of such folks is but it does have its limits .... if/as the company continues to show finite progress, the pool should expand .... once folks see them out on the roads, in parking lots and driveways, interest has to increase .... I think that is one reason it is so important for EM to get it right from the start .... positive or negative reports from earlier users can play a big part in making or breaking the company

Jim

 

[Lil4X]

"Gee, I wish I'd spent more money on gasoline last month."

. . . said nobody ever!

 

[ross]

I completely agree. I think another thing to consider is that compared to a normal car forum there isn't a ton to talk about as we don't have actual cars to discuss. I think a lot of those people are just on the side lines until the time is closer.

I agree, I have about a dozen of my circle of friends who ask me on a regular basis when I'm getting my 'three wheeler'.

 

[HHH]

Snip:
I do agree with you on the gas door conversation. I've never in my life thought about it when buying a vehicle. I will say having it in the center like some of the old GM cars (behind the license plate) would be handy, however on the center and on the top like my Triumph Spitfire... not handy. Other than that, put it on the left or right, doesn't matter. end of quote

I drove a car with the gas cap behind the license plate and it was a total pain. I was constantly getting my hand cut or bruised because of the spring on the license plate frame slamming shut on my hand. The car was my mothers and a Cadillac. I swore I would never ever own a Cadillac after that experience. LOL Not that I ever made enough money to own a Cadillac but even if I had I would have bought anything but that. Z

OK that is my rant for this month. It is a good thing the month is almost over just in case I want to have another one sometime soon.

I forgot about those scrapes from the license plate gas caps. The one that I really liked was on the family 1965 Buick LeSabre. The circular medallion in the middle of the rear had a double hinge that dropped down. Always thought it was elegant.

 

[RUCRAYZE]

'56 impala gas cap- behind the rear fin light --had to turn a small piece of chrome to hinge it down

 

[Jeff Porter]

I forgot about those scrapes from the license plate gas caps. The one that I really liked was on the family 1965 Buick LeSabre. The circular medallion in the middle of the rear had a double hinge that dropped down. Always thought it was elegant.

*whining* Aaaawwww! I want finned brake drums...

 

[ross]

'56 impala gas cap- behind the rear fin light --had to turn a small piece of chrome to hinge it down

Impala didn't come out until '58 I have a '56 210 2 door sedan (they also made a 150 model and a Bel-Air) I love to drive it down to Oregon where by law a gas station attendant has to pump the gas for you (no self service unless card lock) typically a 20 something kid comes up to the drivers window and I ask him to fill 'er up with regular, then I watch with amusement as he walks around the back and looks around for a while, looking for a gas door, looks behind the license plate, I'll usually get out and go back and he'll ask. Want to give me a hint? So I'll turn the latch and pivot the tail light down and take the gas cap off. And he'll look at it in amazement and ask. 'Wow did you do that?' No, it came out of Detroit like that.
When my wife and I were first dating, yes it was my only 'real' car, I showed her where the gas cap was, I took her home one day and her dad came out to check out the car and she says 'I bet you can't find the gas cap. He does the typical search, comes up empty, and my dear sweet girlfriend says 'I'll show you where it is', walks up, grabs the left tail light lens and pulls it off the car. Nope nothing under there but a light bulb! One went off over head about the same time. To her credit, for Christmas that year I got a pair of brand new 1956 Chevrolet tail light lenses.
'55's have a door in the left quarter panel. '57's have a chrome or stainless piece of the left tail fin that pivots out to reveal the gas cap.

 

[ross]

Well said. I know damn well that I'm the only one in the car the vast majority of the time. Running errands around town, out to lunch with friends on days off, rail photography expeditions, etc. are the type of things my wife has no interest in going along on. I also make the occasional run from home to the company offices (I sorta work "remotely") for training and such, and that's a 410 mile trip one way. I would sure like the option of doing that round trip for approximately ten gallons of gas instead of the twenty six or so my Honda Fit currently requires. (I recently had to drive my relief's Chevy Z71 pickup to the office over a distance of about 350 miles, and I ended up putting over $100 of gas into it! Yikes!)

In this job, very few of us live near the office; almost everyone is driving anywhere from an hour to as much as ten hours or more to get to the office, and then we board crew vans that take us to where we need to go. ALL of us are doing this with just ourselves in the car or pickup. I have brought the Elio up with both of my helpers and a couple of the other guys that are doing long distance hauls, and they're very intrigued with the idea of something that would cut the cost of their drive to and from the office, and would be so inexpensive to buy. I can see the idea of this catching on with at least some of us once the car is in production, and one or two start showing up in the company parking lot.

I purely hate spending more on gasoline than I absolutely have to. Being able to cut way back on what I spend on gas and still being able to get where I need and want to be appeals to me immensely, and to be able to do it at that price is just the icing on the cake. I can guarantee that when any of us gets our credit card statement, we will never say, "Gee, I wish I'd spent more money on gasoline last month."

My biggest single bill every month is my gas bill, the farm, the house and all cars are paid for. The only gas station between home and work is a card lock station where they don't even post the price of gas because they don't have to, it makes no difference what the price is, you are going to buy it anyway. The wife and I are empty nesters with no grand kids, so this autocycle makes perfect sense to us. The only thing that would more sense would be 2 of them, which we've discussed. To park a vehicle (or 2) that gets 24 mpg, for one (or 2) that get 84 mpg, big change!
Ironically, less than 6 months before discovering the Elio I broached the subject of a motorcycle for our commute, and she said 'only if it has a side car, and only in good weather (she had a bad experience on a bike once and won't get on one again) so this is really an answer to a prayer for us and can't come soon enough!