PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - How would YOU design an extremely low-cost car?

LUVMBDiesels · #18 01-09-2008, 02:19 PM

Think Corsley and Metropolitan, Trabrant and Lada for examples.

At leat the Crosely and Metro were decent cars - lots of which survive today

The big problem with making a cheap car, especially for the USA will be crash protection.

Nothing made cheaply will contain the crumple zones, air bags, reinforcements, etc needed to pass the Gov't tests.

Even if you could get the production costs down (slave labor in China?) you could not get the engineering costs to where you could sell the car as cheaply as the ones for the Indian or Chinese markets

Look at the new Maxi ,er, Mini... In it's first 35 years it was a very cheap and cute car. When BMW redesigned it for the US market it had to grow in weight and price.