You can now order a E-Mehari

"Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction" (rustholes-are-weight-reduction)
07/22/2016 at 04:57 • Filed to: None

I hadn’t realized it’s on sale yet, but you can order it and it’s delivered within 20 days. I guess it helps that the only option you can choose is the exterior color. Some colors grant you a second option: the choice of interior color. Now I want to test drive it badly.

DISCUSSION (15)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 05:03

Kinja'd!!!

This is what we need instead of that. It’s not that I have a problem with the e-Mehari being electric, more with the fact the specs are a bit saddening.

kanadanmajava1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 05:36

I doubt that E-Mehari will be in the assortment offered by Finnish Citroën dealerships. The summer is too short here for that kind of cars.

It looks quite silly but at least it’s a lot more fun than the average cars that people buy here.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
07/22/2016 at 06:23

i think the target group for the E-Mehari won’t mind that it only has 68 hp and a top speed of 110 km/h. The original Mehari was never a drivers car.

I think it’s for the same target group than the Renault Wind. Unfortunately, the Renault Wind was a total failure, since the sold about 1/10th of what they meant to. We’ll see if the Citroën does better.

Also it’s based on an existing electric car. My guess is that it’s sort of a “halo car”. It only exists to get attention to the brand.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > kanadanmajava1
07/22/2016 at 06:27

And the winter is too cold.

It may be interesting, but I doubt it will get a lot of success, it’s really impractical, and in France, the “second, cool car” culture is not really wide spread.

From what I remember from my last visit to Tampere, there were a lot of cool cars though, Imprezas, Lancers and a lot of vintage Americans.

Leon711 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 06:37

When I was driving back from Silverstone after the GP I saw one being towed on a trailer, it was red.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 06:45

If you look at it like that it indeed makes some sense. However still a Cactus based halocar would have been cooler.

Cé hé sin > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 07:00

You can. Doesn’t mean you should, but you can.

At least it’s a tiny bit more practical than a Twizy!

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Cé hé sin
07/22/2016 at 07:04

Well the Twizy has optional windows at least.
I wouldn’t consider buying either. Especially since you have to rent the batteries for electric cars in France, and I don’t see myself making monthly payments for a car.

kanadanmajava1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 08:20

Cold wouldn’t be the problem but the constant rain. The winter is really messy here. Everything is covered by horrible grey mess.

I have no idea how much are they planning to sell those. They are not going to make any profit whatever that value is. This is like a serial production concept car to attract some positive attention towards the brand.

We have a lot of nice cars here but they are taken out quite rarely. I just took my €200 Laguna to the inspection. During the trip I saw one late 90's Lotus Esprit, ‘68/’69 Plymouth Satellite/GTX, JDM Nissan Cube and the guys how operate the inspection station were just preparing their C4 timeattack Corvette for tomorrow’s race.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > kanadanmajava1
07/22/2016 at 08:44

I liked the winter in Finland, then again, I don’t have to live here. I guess it’s easy to spot tourists, since they are the only ones enjoying the snow :)

hey sell them for 25.000€, which is pretty hefty for such a basic car.

I think the most exciting cars I get to see on the road here is the occasional Mégane RS, France is really boring car culture wise.

kanadanmajava1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 08:59

The proper winter is nice here. If the temperature stays below -10 °C the roads stay in good condition and the salt truck stay away.

I have heard that the insurances and taxation aren’t punishing old car badly in France. So people just like to buy new and boring cars?

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > kanadanmajava1
07/22/2016 at 09:19

We don’t even have taxation on cars here :)

Kinja'd!!!

And yes, people keep buying the latest Renaults, Peugeots and Citroëns while lusting after German makes.

kanadanmajava1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 09:31

So you only have to pay insurance and visit the mandatory inspection yearly (or between two years)? The yearly taxes aren’t very expensive here (roughly 100-300 €/year) unless you have a diesel car.

I want to retire, move to southern France and start my own winery. I’m going to hoard all running near free BXs and other fun cars to make my winery to look like a junkyard awesome. Can I please retire when I’m 40?

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > kanadanmajava1
07/22/2016 at 10:01

There used to be a tax until 1999, you had to buy a vignette to paste to your windscreen each year. The price depended on the “tax horsepower” (I’m not making this up) of the car you drive. This number depends on the engine power and CO2 emissions. typically, the bigger the car, the higher the number. That’s also where the 2CV got it’s name from, it has 2 THP (the Bel Air has 27, in comparison).
Nowadays, we don’t have taxes anymore, but we pay once when we register the car, the price depends on the region and the age of the car. In Alsace, you pay 36.5€ per THP, or half if the car is older than 10 years.
We have to go to inspection every 2 years, or 5 if the car is registered as an oldtimer.

I plan to retire at 30, so feel free to do so :)

kanadanmajava1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
07/22/2016 at 10:34

I know the tax horsepower term but I didn’t know that it is used during registering. Does this also apply if the new owner is from the area or do you always need to re-register the car if owner changes?

We used to have mandatory re-registration if the new owner lived in other region. The first letter told where the car was from. But this thing was forgotten in 70's. Now we can go freely keep the old plates or apply for new plates (or some plates that have been in the same before) by paying ~€20.

We used to have only the import car tax. This a hefty sum and it didn’t get much smaller with an older vehicles. So 1984-2003 we only imported cars that were over 25 years old. This is reason why we have hoarded so much old American cars. Before 1984 only sensible way was to bring a car as “moving goods” when people were moving to Finland from abroad.

The import taxation was reformed and now the import taxation is sensible for newish used cars too. It gets very low if the cars is old. A new reference vehicle is chosen and taxes are counted by taking a fixed percentage away for each year. The customs officials just decide what is the most similar new car and used tha import tax for that as the reference.

The yearly taxes for (non diesel passenger cars) were introduced in 1993. The diesels were taxed before too. They were supposed to be temporary (like the import tax did in 60's) but they stayed and raised a bit. But they are still quite low.