VW 1l engine car for real

[Mike Arman]

The car is real.

The fuel mileage is real.

It is a "proof of concept", so it isn't going to be for sale.

HOWEVER: There is NO WAY IN HELL it could be sold for $800 or $1,000 unless the assembly line 
workers were paying VW to build it. Paying them a LOT, too.

C'mon guys, have we priced any VW-Audi parts lately? You couldn't buy the steering wheel for that.

This thing has been roaming around the internet for a couple of months now allegedly priced at 
either $800 or $1,000, made in China, etc. BS detector reading is off scale - kapow!

At that price there's nothing there for dealer markup, nothing there for freight from beyond the 
factory parking lot, oh, you want paint, wheels, windows and an engine? That's all extra . . .

The cheapest new car on the planet is the Tata Nano, and that costs twice that. The Nano was 
mercilessly designed to be as inexpensive as possible (it shows, read the technical specs), and 
that's the BEST they could do. Estimates of the price of a Nano in the UK are running about $5 to $6 
K, for US consumption, probably closer to $8K, need air bags, door bars, safety glass, seat belts, 
crush zones and more - and all that costs money.

While it may be *just* possible for a competent hobbyist to more or less copy the VW car for a grand 
(start with a dead moped or something), why would you want to? If you hit a candy bar wrapper in the 
  parking lot, you'd die.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8Q - at the FAR other end of the automotive spectrum from this 1L/100Km "car".