hour rule

"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69) 10/01/2020 at 04:36 • Filed to: hour rule, ZOE

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facw > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/01/2020 at 06:32

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$6000 MSRP sounds pretty unimpressive when the Yugo started at $4000. Zoe apparently did sell a ~$4000 car, the Zoe Zipper:

I’ll take the Yugo, thanks.

I don’t see anything to say that the car in the ad (which I’m pretty sure is just a Reliant Rialto with some wheel flares) was ever sold in the US by Zoe .

pip bip - choose Corrour > facw 10/01/2020 at 06:43

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makes me wonder what happened to that one then?

i see Robert (@agingwheels) has bought a 3w Relian Robin too.

pip bip - choose Corrour > facw 10/01/2020 at 06:50

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just stumbled upon this

https://jalopnik.com/there-was-once-a-bonkers-widebody-version-of-the-relian-1781758193

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > facw 10/01/2020 at 07:28

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Yeah I couldn’t find this car from Zoe either. Perhaps this was just a dealership solicitation before they actually started production? Then they changed plans and had Mitsuoka make the Zipper instead of importing Reliants.

I found that Zoe offered a pickup truck based on the Zipper called the Little Giant. Can’t find any photos of it, I’d be amused to see what that would be like.

Edit, read the Jalopnik article. Zoe Z/5000. Cool!

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/01/2020 at 07:31

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I really don’t mind the convertible Zoe Zipper, joke of a roll bar and all:

ranwhenparked > facw 10/01/2020 at 09:06

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Reliants weren’t exactly cheap cars to begin with. Low volume, largely h andbuilt - they usually were a bit more than an equivalent 4-wheeler, which is why their 4 wheeled city cars (Rebel and Kitten) were such big flops on the market, they couldn't compete on price. 3 wheelers were kind of a protected niche, and they had it all to themselves after buying out Bond. By the 1980s, they were claiming a 30 year expected service life on their cars though, with the galvanized chassis and fiberglass body, so I guess if you kept one long enough, you'd save money long term.

ranwhenparked > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/01/2020 at 09:11

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If you watch Zoe Industries’ prospectus video on YouTube, the whole company really seems like it might have been a fraud from the start, they never imported more than a handful of Rialto prototypes, and I don’t think they ever intended to ship any to dealers.

A small startup company with a limited budget with bigger and fancier offices than well established multibillion dollar companies I’ve worked for, loads of well paid s enior management, but apparently not many other employees under them, and lots of focus on making expensive advertising materials, but really not much on the product. Seemed like a raise money, pay ourselves salaries until it runs out, then liquidate in bankruptcy type of thing.

They did have a hybrid conversion of the Rialto that Reliant built for them, using the technology Reliant developed in partnership with Lucas and National Grid earlier in the decade. If that had hit market, it would have beaten the Insight and Prius by about 15-16 years as the first modern hybrid on the US market. Owens Magnetic was the actual first, but they were barely out of the Brass Era.