Chrysler will be showing a prototype third-world car at the Frankfurt
Auto Show opening Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The car resembles the Citreon CV [the open-topped, slab-sided Bug-like
thing that Bond raced through the forest many films back.] The car
is powered by an 800cc two cylinder, weighs about 1200 lbs, and gets
about 50 mpg. It does not meet US or European safety standards.
The body consists of only four injection-molded pieces of plastic,
bolted (with four bolts) to a steel chassis. A factory to build the
car is expected to require only a third the space of a Neon factory.
Chrysler expects they could sell the car for about $6000, or half what
a comparable Neon subcompact costs. A fleet of the cars will be built
for evaluation, but no plans for production before 2000.
Jim
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:52 EDT