My quest for the Aptera automobile

I just finished my last post and took one more look at the Aptera web site where I found some major changes for the better! Go check it out now! That I where I am at!

Vertigo. It is a word you do not appreciate the meaning of until you have actually experienced it. The spinning of your head is such that you feel as though you are five hundred feet off the ground and trying to stand on a one square foot square without falling off. Dealing with it on a daily basis is difficult if all you have to do is stay home. Unfortunately, I have to work. I am fighting the Vertigo everyday so I can get a paycheck. I had three head spinning episodes before sitting down to write this. I just wanted all of you to know that I am still committed to the process of finding out how difficult it is to get a car like the Aptera and I will report on my findings as I get them. Two weeks of Vertigo has had one advantage though. I got to sit down to watch a movie this last weekend. The movie is titled, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” It is the story of the General Motors experimental electric car that many regular people like us loved, and how everyone in business and government that stood to loose money if it succeeded hated it. The car was very far ahead of its time and threatened the wallets of too many fat cats. This film is a must see, but be warned, it is not a happy film by any means. To me it shows how a lot of people like us fell in love with a vehicle that was so right and then had it ripped out of their hands. It was very depressing for me because I could easily relate to those people. Right now in this time frame we are all waiting for the Aptera to become reality. I believe in the car and I hope you all do too. But what I am afraid of with what little information I have got already about how my insurance company doesn’t recognize it because it doesn’t fall within their criteria of any sort of vehicle on the road that there will be many other road blocks (no pun intended). I feel too few people know about the Aptera right now so I am asking all of you to do something simple; e-mail your friends and family with the link to the Aptera web site. Help stir interest and also suggest that they watch the movie Who Killed the Electric Car?. If enough word about this car gets out, we may just save it from the fate the Tucker suffered.

Sorry for so many delays. I Haven’t been feeling well for over a week now because I have been suffering from vertigo due to a middle ear infection. I stood up last night to get the telephone and ended up on the floor on my back with the world spinning around my head. The same thing happened today when I went to work. I was walking and lightly tripped over the toe of a coworker and landed hard. As a result, I haven’t had the opportunity to make my lunch hour research calls on insurance and bank loans because I have just been eating and trying to keep my head from flying off my shoulders. Opening my e-mail I received a notice that there was a comment waiting for moderation. Upon reading it I realized that it was some of the most fantastic news on the Aptera yet… The news? It’s in the news! Not just some fan boy site like this one, but on the television for less informed people to see! All thanks to DAK! I don’t know you but right now you are my hero for bring attention to this video. I will be adding it to the top of the list of URLs on the right side of the page all of you can find it more easily. I hope to get back to researching this more soon so stay tuned.

Well folks, I got the word from my insurance agent today who said that they would NOT at this time insure an Aptura for me if I were to purchase one. The reason? According to their current standards, it is neither a car nor a motorcycle. This standard states, if I understand correctly, that a car has four wheels and a motorcycle is not enclosed by an outer shell. My agent was very apologetic and said that they ARE looking into the possibility of covering such vehicles in the future, just not now. It may be too early in the game for many insurance companies to consider coverage of any hybrid vehicle that is as exotic as the Aptera, but at least they are not saying no either. One thing my agent said was that it is possible that the people at Aptera have already looked into this problem and may offer their own insurance. Or, they are working on a deal with some smaller insurance company to offer coverage on the Aptera. Granted this is all hopeful thinking on the part of this fan boy, but surely Mr. Fambro has already thought this through and has some sort of plan. Do you Mr. Fambro? In the event that there is no plan in place, I need your help finding insurance agencies that will cover this vehicle. I live in Ohio and my goal is for this blog to be an information gathering site for all 50 states for how the Aptera is classified by both the insurance companies and the state governments. Any of you who wish to help may do so by contacting your insurance agencies in your home state and asking if they would insure a 3 wheeled vehicle and how they classify it; car or motorcycle? Do the same with your Department of Motor Vehicles and see what their answer is. I will post the results here as they come in.  I will help by saying that any of you out there that have Allstate insurance, don’t bother calling. They are the company I have been speaking of. I hope Allstate doesn’t think I have been unkind in any way. They are my company of choice for standard home and auto; I just wish they were on board for the Aptera.Please post your answers on this issue as soon as possible so we can help get the Aptera on the road. 

Ok, here is a new feature on this site.  Starting today, I will be placing links to articles I find on the web pertaining to the Aptera.  Anytime I find new news about our obsession, I will post the link in the Links box on the right side of my page.  I will also make an announcement when I have added the link so you won’t miss it.  You may notice that the oldest links start at the top of the list. I did this on purpose to give you a chronological progression of the stories as they came out so you can see the car in all of its phases.  You can see that the earliest prototypes were very rough in design in contrast to the car that captured my (our) imagination about a week ago. The final design we see today has come about very quickly since the first showing in March 2007 at the TED conference which speaks to the genius of Mr. Fambro.  You can see that the head lamps were still very small and the wheel suspension was thicker.  Although the car at TED would have been very desirable, the choices made in the redesign were brilliant and makes it even harder to resist.  Although I will be looking for new articles constantly, please send me information of any new links any of you find and I will post them on this blog.  Thank you all! 

Great news! I just spoke to someone at the Ohio BMV and they said that the Aptera in Ohio would be considered a Motorcycle! This is great news for me because I really did not want to put a plate on the front of this car if I can get it.

More news later.

Today was a bad day for me because I didn’t get to do the research on what it is going to take the average man to get an Aptera. However, I have some very exciting new! There is an article that you will find on AutoblogGreen that has great photos and some more information about the Aptera. Autobloggreen.com is new to me but has turned out to be a great resource of information for myself. I would suggest that you check them out often because they will have much better information on the car itself than I will.

Although today was a bust for me, I will try tomorrow to reach the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to see what they have to say. Also, I am compiling a list of questions for Mr. Fambro from myself and from the poor souls who have been brainwashed by Detroit into thinking that cars need to be square and ugly to be safe. Here is a sample question from the nabobs Steve: How will the Aptera do in snow and rain with only 3 wheels?

That is not my personal question, Mr. Fambro because my Uncle Bill once owned an Isetta found here. It had three wheels and it could go through any snow storm Michigan could throw at him. I will try to get some better questions but feel free to answer that one here if you wish.

Bye for now.

I LOVE being proved wrong when things start looking right! I received an e-mail request for my e-mail address from the team at Aptera©. I won’t give out their e-mail address just yet because I don’t want to be disrespectful and open them up to spam. I just sent my e-mail address to them and I am now waiting for a response. I will report on that response when I receive it. Thank you Aptera team.

Now for a little moaning… I called my bank today and exposed myself for the kook I am to the loan officer. I don’t have an exact transcript of the conversation, but I think it went something like this: RING RING. Hello this is (name withheld) how may I help you?

Me: Um, hi. I am interested in getting a loan, may I speak with with a loan specialist?

Bank guy: I can help you with that.

Me: Oh! great. I am interested in getting a loan for a non-standard vehicle that doesn’t really fall into either the category of a car or motorcycle.

Bank guy: What do you mean by non-standard?

Me: Well, I am currently looking at purchasing a car that has 3 wheels and gets 300 miles to the gallon.

Bank guy: Uhmm, yeah…

Me: Seriously, there is a company in Carlsbad California called Aptera and they have built this prototype car that has a high probability of going into production and it is going to cost around $29,900. They say that production will start on the cars in about a year from now and I am investigating what needs to be done financially and legally on my part so that I will be ready when the car is available. I need to know if my bank will give me a loan for this vehicle and if so, will it be an auto loan, a motorcycle loan, or whatever other type of loan they would consider.

Bank guy: I don’t have an answer for that right now but I can look into it for you, can I get your phone number? I will have to call you back.

The request for a call back could be real or it could have been his way of blowing me off. I don’t know yet, but I will wait patiently for his call for a couple of weeks and I will call him back then. He will either have a positive response ready for me or he will keep me on the line just long enough for Homeland Security to find my location through a phone trace.

My next task is to contact the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and see what they think. I will need to make a list of questions to ask prior to calling anymore people so I don’t sound so much like a crank caller. I never realized how out of step my thinking is with the rest of society until I started calling respectable institutions and asking the people that work there how they feel about three wheeled cars that look like spaceships. I guess it must have been the same feeling Henry Ford must have had when he was looking for backers for his ‘horseless carriage‘. Or how 14 year old farm boy Philo T. Farnsworth must have felt when he described his idea for a device that would allow you to transmit pictures through your home radio and that he got the idea from plowing a field (cue laugh track).

I am strengthened in the knowledge of the fact that nothing worth anything was ever created by doing the same things in the same way. Innovation comes from the bleeding edge. It happens when common people keep doing what they know is right amidst the laughter and scorn of those less adventurous. Although there is nothing heroic about purchasing a car, I am finding that I need to stir up my courage to face the conventional wisdom of my family and friends. I spoke with my brother about the Aptera this last weekend. Of all people, I thought he would be the most open minded being as he is employed for one of the Big Three and is a car nut who is also member of the National Hot Rod Association. I should have known better. He laughed at me and rolled his eyes so hard I could hear them rolling over the telephone. Most hot rod guys don’t like automotive innovation because they think the auto industry stopped making real cars around 1949 and he is no exception. His jibes rolled off me though when I remembered of the words of our dear departed mother who would often say of such nattering nabobs of negativism, “Consider the source.” She would have also said to the perpetrator of such unkindness, “You will receive your reward in Heaven… A BALE OF HAY YOU HORSE’S ASS!”

I have to admit, I agree with the car nuts that the cars that came out of the Energy Crisis of the late 1970’s and there after were junk. And I believe that the gigantic SUV of the 90’s and 2000’s is a waste of metal and fuel. However I have never been a hot rod person because my inspiration comes from the Salt Flats at Bonneville. The idea of taking a car to the absolute limit sends chills up my spine. If I were given the opportunity to jump into a rocket car and ramp it up as fast as it could go, I would do it without a second thought. Aptera is doing something similar with their car. They are not going for speed; they are going for distance. This idea excites me even more than Bonneville because speed records are a very personal experience that will always be exclusive to the men and women in the fireproof suits. In the near future, we can perhaps all participate in distance records on a daily basis by just driving to work for weeks on end without a fill-up. Or by driving cross country to see this land the way it should be seen on just a couple of tanks of fuel. Maybe even the Sunday drive through the country will be popular again when we free our selves from our addiction to gas. Imagine how much stress you would loose if you could get rid of the weekly fuel bill. Personally, I work to earn money, to pay for gas, so I can go to work, to get more money, to pay for more gas, so I can go to work… This is depressing to me because at my age I should have more disposable income but I have become a slave to the commuter lifestyle.

My journey truly started today when I called my auto insurance agent to find out how my insurance company would view the idea of insuring a vehicle like the Aptera©. My conversation started out something like, “I have a really strange question for you.” My insurance agent thought he had heard it all until I started talking to about three wheeled vehicles that look like airplanes and get 230 to 300 miles per gallon. Being that I am a paying customer, he listened. And after I had my say, it became obvious that he was very open to the idea of a three wheeled car because this seemed to be kind of a fantasy for him too.”I have been waiting for this call” he said. “With gas prices going up, I knew someone was going to come out with a car like this.” He went on to say that the question had never been brought up to him before about any vehicle like this, but he was going to contact people higher up to see what they had to say. He figured it may take about 2 weeks. I need to point out that he works for one of the largest in the nation so a positive response from him will be most welcome. He spoke somewhat of what his idea of how an ultra high mileage vehicle may be constructed. I could tell that at least on this subject, we were kindred spirits. It seemed obvious that he had given this subject as much thought as I have. I will let all of you know what he finds out as soon as I hear from him. My next step is to contact someone in Ohio State Government to see how such a vehicle is viewed by the authorities. I think this is going to be a little tougher. I am also going to contact my bank to see how they would feel about giving me a loan on such a vehicle. I will tell you of those adventures as well. The people at Aptera have entered a competition with the X PRIZE Foundation©. The Automotive X PRIZE winner will receive a $10.000.000 prize for building a car that can get 100 miles to the gallon. I am leaving a lot out here on purpose because I would like you to visit their site at http://auto.xprize.org/. This is the same organization that gave $10 Million to the builders of Space Ship 1 a couple of years ago. They want to drive the independent spirt of bright people to inspire them accomplish those things that our current industries can’t or won’t that would benefit the entire human race. The fact that the Aptera people are so far along gives them a good shot at winning this prize. Now the sour to go with the sweet. I signed up for their news letter and received an automated e-mail in return thanking me for my interest. The body of the e-mail did not contain an address to e-mail them back, but when I clicked on reply, I discovered that it was going to an address of info@aptera.com. I sent an e-mail expressing my displeasure at their lack of disclosure of their company’s information. I did not receive an automated rejection. However, I didn’t receive a reply either. I will keep you posted of the progress of this as well. I know they are a small company, but they are asking an awful lot of people to send them money without even giving us proper identification. I am very sure that when the time comes that their cars are available they will be asking us for every conceivable form of identification there is; so come on Mr. Fambro, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.