On 1 Jan 2017 at 12:26, Lee Hart via EV wrote: > And, [the Citicar] was the cheapest car in America!
That may have been true for the very earliest ones, but the Citicar that Consumer Reports tested in 1975 cost them $2946. That included $90 for a heater (!) and $36 for a spare tire (!). MSRP for a basic 1975 Toyota Corolla 2-door was $2711, heater and spare tire standard. Even neglecting the C-car's optional heater and spare tire, there was just no comparison on basic utility, comfort, and safety. The Toyota was even quieter than the Citicar, except maybe when they were standing at a stoplight. You could argue that it's not entirely fair to compare the cars' prices. The Corolla was a mass produced car with most of its design costs amortized and/or shared with other cars in the Toyota range. The Citicar was hand- built in very small numbers. Unfortunately, potential buyers don't care about such details. They see only the prices they pay, and what they get for their money. > The problem is that it was such a tiny company that they couldn't > afford to put the quality into it. Great idea; poor implementation. The "EV Bobs" were great guys, and had a fair bit of practical experience, but they seem to have been out of touch with modern (1970s) vehicle design. Their cars didn't have the basic design principles of even 1940s cars. GM and Chrysler had introduced independent front suspension in 1934; the Citicar and all its descendants had a 1920s-style solid front axle with leaf springs. The earliest Citicars didn't even have shock absorbers! Sebring-Vanguard did fit seat belts, but they ignored most other standard safety factors such as a collapsing steering column (introduced on other cars in 1967), safe interior design, and side intrusion door reinforcement. The bumpers were 2x4s dunked in foam, for goodness sake! The brakes, aircraft disc or later Bendix drum, were barely adequate for the speeds the car could reach. The earliest cars didn't have a dual master cylinder, so a hydraulic leak anywhere would result in a complete loss of braking ability. For all their failings, the EV Bobs had a vision and a real dedication to it. If they could have sold more EVs, ramped up production, and stayed in business for a decade or so longer, I think that eventually economy of scale would have kicked in and made it possible for them to solve at least some of the problems. But they didn't get that kind of time. Fuel prices plummeted in the early 1980s, syphoning off what little demand existed for EVs in the mid to late 1970s. To their credit, Sebring-Vanguard, and later Commuter Vehicles Inc, did start to address some of the problems in the later Comuta-Cars and especially in the Comuta-van / Postal Van But there were just too many problems, and with those falling gasoline prices, they ran out of customers and money. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
