Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
This is why Lotus or Ariel can sell a car with a Toyota or Honda engine without the markups.
|
Lotus often operated as a low volume manufacturer in the US, but it's a relatively mainstream one in the UK/Europe - it's the differences in regulation between the US and UK/EU the caused them to go after the various loopholes in the US.
Ariel is actually a very good comparison to what the future might hold with this, and also the reason I'm less optimistic than you about prices going down. If an Atom 4 starts at $80,000 with a crate Honda engine and the barest minimum of amenities/features I don't really see how a replica would be much cheaper.