No cash? Need car? Pick out car, pick up next day, no car payment. Seriously

[Red]

Elio Motors is looking to change the auto (arguably, motorcycle by technical definition) industry.

Skip forward to 3 min for the (in my opinion) revolutionary idea on the "no payments" thing.

http://www.eliomotors.com/investor-inquiries/

 

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[Fastek]

Wow talk about thinking outside the box and thinking win win. Love it.

 

[nzerinto]

That's pretty smart. If the cars are quite fuel efficient though, how often will people be refueling? I'm guessing they would've thought of that, and they are banking on the fact that people won't pay off their credit card bill each month, thereby get people on the interest as well....

 

[Red]

@AllenCrawley or @MJ, can you pull this out of the INSIDERS? Not even sure how I did that... thx!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Awesome concept. Watched the entire video.

 

[rexxkai]

Wow, a huge explosion just went off my head when I watched the video. Mind blown.

Win-win situations everywhere. Feels just like something JackEdwards would do.

No car payments, and still get a new car.

No maintenance/service network and solves problem by partnering with declining industry leader.

For every problem you can think of- that stops you from buying the car- he breaks it down and solves it.

If only the car looked better... but for such a low price, can you ask for more??

 

[SEBASTlAN]

If only the car looked better... but for such a low price, can you ask for more??

True lol

 

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[Red]

This reminds me of something I saw solar panel-slash-water-heater companies doing in Phoenix closer to 2000. They would install the solar panels & when you received your savings on your electricity bill, they would split it with you (so, theoretically, if they halved your utility bill, you're paying 75% of your old amount because they were getting 25% as their payment -or half of your saved amount). They boasted numbers of the average savings being just over 60%. Now I don't know how they collected payment (or kept the consumer honest with it) or how the vetted the buyers, but I recall thinking it was a great idea. I wonder if they still do this or if it sunk that particular niche of the solar market?

 

[GuestUser116]

Tight but it looks like a piece of shit

 

[100k]

Who the heck is going to buy a car on 3 wheels? Its not even a real car. You can't use it as a family vehicle.


The idea would be great if the product offered was a real car.

 

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[Diablo360]

Tight but it looks like a piece of shit

What would you call the cars that come off of the Ford, GM and Chrysler assembly lines? "Pieces of shit" would be an understatement. There's still a market for them.....

Who the heck is going to buy a car on 3 wheels? Its not even a real car. You can't use it as a family vehicle.


The idea would be great if the product offered was a real car.

^^^^^ I had the same feelings at first. Watch the video presentation as it addresses your areas of concern. It's quite impressive. Here are a few counter points from the vid:

1. It is a real car. Every single part on the car is sourced from a major automotive component maker; using proven, reliable, and currently available technology. They're also assembling the car in an old GM plant, using all of their equipment and existing technology.

2. The aerodynamic advantages of the 3 wheel design help it achieve 84mpg. Also their skid test results found that the 3 wheel design is no less safe than a 4 wheel automobile (at 50mph).

3. Not everybody needs a "family vehicle" and even those who do have one don't need it 100% of the time. Their target market consists of people who want a second car for their commute, and also people who are on a budget but need new, reliable, and fuel efficient transportation without the need for extra space and luxury features.

What's the definition of a "car" btw? You seem to think that every car needs to have 4 doors, 4 wheels, etc. This one has air conditioning, power everything, airbags, etc. While it might not fit the definition of a "car" in the traditional sense does that really matter?

 

[karakoram]

I don't get it. How can Elio ensure that the buyer will use the credit card they gave them when they got the car? Why wouldn't the customer just take the card (and the Elio) and just buy gas with cash or a normal credit card, thereby bypassing the Elio triple charge?

 

[eqttrdr]

Guy has too much faith in people.

They will abuse the car, charge the limit on the credit card, keep the car, never make a payment to the card and then just pay cash to fill the car up from now on...

company is going to end up having to repossess 80% of the cars they give away.


good concept... too much faith in people adhering to the policy

 

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[RazorCut]

Guy has too much faith in people.

They will abuse the car, charge the limit on the credit card, keep the car, never make a payment to the card and then just pay cash to fill the car up from now on...

company is going to end up having to repossess 80% of the cars they give away.

good concept... too much faith in people adhering to the policy

They know the average mpg the car/trike gets. When it goes in for servicing if the customer is filling up elsewhere it won't tally with their fuel card usage.

I'm sure they have investigated this aspect in depth. The guy does not look like a clutz to me.

 

[RazorCut]

I doubt they will end up prepossessing huge numbers of vehicles. It is still going to be a credit agreement and that means they will do a credit check on the customer in the first place.

 

[Guest3722A]

Some perspective.

Neat toy that requires a cycle license and helmet in helmet states. Looks like fun. Does 100.

 

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[WickedFire]

At first it looks sweet and like a real winner.. but that's because this is a sales presentation pitch for small investors aka reel you in and get a pre-order out of you first and then maybe more.. you know.. so you're pot committed. That's what I got from watching it. Great video presentation. I think he did a marvelous job at it.

But I'm always skeptical. I mean, if it's so amazing, and the hype has turned into nearly 50k pre-orders.. that's pretty awesome but when will they start building and delivering these then?

After some digging, it appears they have both a refundable and non-refundable down payment scheme that just seems a lil MLM'ish for some reason, maybe because it's not as simplified as the rest of everything, for the pre-order.. so if they never build it or move forward, and you pre-ordered.. you're SOL. That's cute. Crappy for you, not bad for corp. Even with the refundable option, I'd be real skeptical on where 'dem funds be goin'.. heh.

Figured out where the pricing options links were hiding at..
Refundable: https://reservations.eliomotors.com/i-want-in.html
Non-Refundable: https://reservations.eliomotors.com/i-m-all-in/i-m-all-in-upgrades.html

I'm going to bring this to the ibank boys since they are awesome when it comes to figuring out what's really going on... but then again, it looks like it could be a great thing, in theory... and of course there's the whole topic that no one has brought up yet which is getting your motorcycle license since you probably can't use your current driver's license for it right away... so you may get the car delivered in 24 hours, but you're going to spend some time getting the permit, the driving course, the clusterfuck that is every single DMV and the test and that will not happen in 24 hours, so perhaps Elio or someone else should solve that one first and then go on a three wheeling changing the world spree-adventure.

Justsayin.

PS- They released their financials.. Not sure if I should link here or not.. Just use Google. It's easy enough.

Update Edit: Looked into this a bit deeper. My advice: Run. Far far far away to somewhere else. Do not pre-order this thing. By all means, if the planets align and miracles occur and everything just comes together and they finally move to production and everything goes surprisingly well etc etc.. then buy one. But I very much doubt that this thing will ever get to that point. And even if it does.. who the hell wants to wear a helmet in a glorified noisy motorcycle that appears to be bumpy as shit anyway? They've been raising preorder funds since 2012-2013.. It's just one fail after another. No refunds issued. Etc. But hey! They do have t-shirts!!

 

[Damage Inc.]

This reminds me of something I saw solar panel-slash-water-heater companies doing in Phoenix closer to 2000. They would install the solar panels & when you received your savings on your electricity bill, they would split it with you (so, theoretically, if they halved your utility bill, you're paying 75% of your old amount because they were getting 25% as their payment -or half of your saved amount). They boasted numbers of the average savings being just over 60%. Now I don't know how they collected payment (or kept the consumer honest with it) or how the vetted the buyers, but I recall thinking it was a great idea. I wonder if they still do this or if it sunk that particular niche of the solar market?

I worked in solar from 2009-2014. People are still doing this but it works better on paper than in actuality. Here's one real example from a company that we did some subcontracting work for.

SolarCompany installs and owns the panels on Customer's house, as part of a PPA (power purchasing agreement) program or a lease type of agreement. Installation is valued at $30k+ (not uncommon for an average residnetial system). Installation work is shoddy, roof is leaking and system isn't hooked up to the meters and or grid properly. Customer is upset that their home is damaged and the system isn't performing as promised. SolarCompany is in it for the money and not as knowledgeable or ethical as they should be. Customer decides to stop paying the monthly bill to SolarCompany because their house is damaged and feel they are getting screwed over. SolarCompany files a lein on Customer's house since they own a $30k+ piece of equipment that is located on Customer's roof. Now Customer is facing losing their house over this supposedly "free" solar system. Owner of SolarCompany is a stereotypical corporate CEO type and thinks the whole thing is funny.

Of course this is one anecdotal piece of evidence, but there are many other major issues that can arise in these agreements and I've seen a few. I'm sure there are many happy customers as well - but there is a lot of risk and very little control involved. Sorry to get off topic.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Could be the automotive world's version of "tiny houses".
http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/elio-achieves-billion-dollar-threshold-in-two-days.html
http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/elio-achieves-billion-dollar-threshold-in-two-days.html

 

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[Red]

We actually tried to stop by their offices here & check out a car -they're headquartered here in Chandler now. Unfortunately, the ONE vehicle prototype they had was at an autoshow (Detroit, maybe?).... so no Elio for us. :/

I still think the concept of purchase is outstanding.