$600 car that gets 258 mpg

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http://www.notoriouslyconservative.com/2009/07/600-car-that-gets-258-mpg.html

Too good for Americans to have...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XU9x8G7khv0/SlIcb7hXUmI/AAAAAAAAG00/Fr6edTHRREY/s400/imagescar1_small1.jpg

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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 22,978 • Replies: 46

[+3] - maporsche - 07/06/2009It can't be less than 20g's, we're talking ultra light materials, that stuff doesn't come cheap.

Differences of opinions on what the thing will cost, some saying under a grand, others more like 30G. There doesn't seem to be enough to the thing to just a price over a few grand.

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It can't be less than 20g's, we're talking ultra light materials, that stuff doesn't come cheap.

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@maporsche,

he tried to cover his ass by claiming that the variation in price is just "different opinions". I believe that gunga read this with the same attention he reads his science books.

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It's no more dangerous than a motorcycle but gets much better mileage. I would imagine we have to do away with such things as radio, cruise control, heat, AC, electric door locks and everything else we've grown accustomed to in a car. I suspect that 65MPH doesn't count going uphill either.

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@NickFun,

I could give up everything you mentioned except the climate control stuff.

I wouldn't think a heater would be a problem...I mean it still has an engine that would provide the heat.

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@gungasnake,

Quoted from Gunga's source.

Quote:

Chinese Car that Gets 258 MPG
Posted by Notoriously Conservative . 7/06/2009
Labels: economy
VW is introducing a car in China that gets 258 mpg. It was rumored that it only cost $600, but digging deeper, I found it actually will cost anywhere from $31,400 to $47,100. Seems pricey to me, but at 258 mpg, perhaps it wouldn't take too long to make up the cost.

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I mean, I DEFINITELY don't see 30G worth of anything here especially if it's made in China. Possible the original version of the thing I read lost track of a zero and meant 6G...

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@gungasnake,

The $600.00 was less than the cost of my least expensive bicycle, which is why I was doubtful. That price was part of the article's title, though.

$31,000.oo seems a bit steep for a single seater. Probably a great design from VW, but I couldn't make it work except as a second car, and second cars are not part of my budget.

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@roger,

If you figure the thing is produced and sold in China, nothing remotely resembling our crash or emission standards, a simple engine no more than around 200cc and probably supplying electricity to a single electric motor connected to one axle, then I could picture it selling for under 1000 USD but just barely.

1 Reply

@gungasnake,

Unless VW is marketing it at a loss, it will be much more than $1000 retail.

A turbo for a passat is twice that...

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Farmer really nailed you, snake. It's not 200cc. It's .99 liter, which is, obviously, 990cc, about 60c.i. Which is a large enough engine to make 258mpg sound highly unlikely, no matter how aerodynamic and lightweight it is, unless maybe it's 0-60 time is measured in hours rather than seconds, in a dead calm, no wind, downhill.

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I'd like to throw a related car question into the mix please....

The Smart car.

What is supposed to be so smart about them?

According to their website it gets 33 city 41 highway, costs 11 to 20K and has obvious storage issues if you plan to bring home more than 3 or 4 bags of groceries.

My corolla gets 35mpg with my combo of city and highway driving, it cost 16 to 17K and has enough storage capacity for most needs.

Plus, it's not butt ugly.

Can anyone tell me what the advantages are?

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@chai2,

You're 100% right; the ordinary Civic or Corolla makes hundreds of times more sense than the 'smart car'.

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@Rockhead,

Sounds to me like VW is simply licensing the technology to China and the Chinese are making the thing for themselves. That's the ONLY way they get the price near a grand.

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@gungasnake,

That was already published/presented by Volkswagen in 2007 ...

Quote:

At the 42nd Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Volkswagen AG in Hamburg, the most economical car in the world is presented: the 1-litre car. The prototype, which until now has been kept closely under wraps, and which many people never believed could be built, was driven under its own power from Wolfsburg to the Annual Meeting in Hamburg. Before the Annual Meeting, the current Chairman of the Board of Management, Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, drove this research vehicle to Hamburg from the company's headquarters at an average fuel consumption of 0.89 litres per 100 kilometres. This has once against impressively demonstrated Volkswagen's position at the cutting edge of modern technology.

[...]

The 1-litre car is powered by a one-cylinder diesel engine, centrally positioned in front of the rear axle and combined with an automated direct shift gearbox. The crankcase and cylinder head of the 0.3-litre engine are of an aluminium monobloc construction. The naturally aspirated, direct-injection diesel engine employs advanced high-pressure unit injection technology to generate 6.3 kW (8.5 bhp) at 4,000 rpm. This gives the vehicle, which weights just 290 kg, an astonishingly lively temperament.

Fuel consumption is a mere 0.99 litre per 100 kilometres. With a 6.5-litre tank, this gives a range of some 650 kilometres without refuelling.

Source

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Just to correct some more faults in gunga's link:

- the car originally was devopped in 2001/2, then stopped, then re-developed
- first time the car presented in September 2007,
- built (not in Hamburg but) in VW's experimental factory close to test track facility in Ehra-Lessien (Lower Saxony)
- the price of 35,000 Euros (if/when production starts in 2010*) is thought possible to be reduced to 5,000 Euros from 2012 onwards.

* There's no other serious news known then what was published in 2007.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Any more info on the transmission system??

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@gungasnake,

The one-cylinder diesel engine, centrally positioned in front of the rear axle and combined with an automated direct shift gearbox. The crankcase and cylinder head of the 0.3-litre engine are of an aluminium monobloc construction. The naturally aspirated, direct-injection diesel engine employs advanced high-pressure unit injection technology to generate 6.3 kW (8.5 bhp) at 4,000 rpm.

More >here< (NB: translated from the September 2002 Volkswagen press release)

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@Walter Hinteler,

I just found an article in a local paper from a neighbour town - the head of the Volkswagen projects, professor Gämsicke, was born there.
In a discussion in April 2009 he showed a 'historic" video of the here mentioned car (the drive from Wolfsburg to Hamburg in 2002) and another from the Eco Racer.

That newspaper report gives no hints that he talked about a production of the car. For Germany/Europe, he said quite the opposite: "everyone likes such a garage .... standing in front of neighbour's home". (Source: 'Die Glocke', Gütersloh edition, 27.04.2009)

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$600 car that gets 258 mpg

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