First contact! and bank loan inquiry

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.

 

The Journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.

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.

 

Where is Aptera Motors?

Dreams are hard to kill. I grew up in a time when my dreams of the future were filled with jet packs, flying cars, moving sidewalks, and undersea bullet trains that would get you from New York to Paris in just a few hours. Space travel to orbital vacation spots were soon to be reality and your dog would be an electric creature that would never die. So far, only the electric dog was reality for a short time and Sony© killed it last I heard. Too many promises with too little return seems to be the rule when looking for the Jetson like utopia of my childhood dreams.Virgin Galactic© is soon to fulfill the promise of private space get-a-ways… for $200,000.00 a ticket. I am SO there as soon as I hit the lottery and loose a couple of hundred pounds. The Apple© iPhone© is everything I ever wanted in a hand held electronic appliance ever since I saw my first Tri-Corder on Star Trek in the hands of that pointy eared green-blooded devil Mr. Spock. However, I am cheap and I don’t want to pay a high monthly fee for cellphone service with any carrier just so can fool myself into thinking that I’m cool, so I am iPhoneless. I may buy an iPod Touch© once they get the display up to the quality of the iPhone but it will only be from their refurbished site for a reduced price in about another 6 to 12 months. I do own 3 Apple© computers that are really cool, but I can’t show any of them off in public because none of them are a laptop. I am so behind the curve of my dreams right now I may as well throw in the towel and become a Luddite. One of my dreams came to life two days ago, however, when I saw the Aptera© automobile found at www.aptera.com. A beautiful driving machine that is part car, part airplane, part spaceship. It is a 3 wheeled vehicle that has a 12 HP motor that powers an electric motor that can do zero to 60 in 10 or 11 seconds and (depending on who is telling the tale) gets super high mileage rating of around 230 to 300 MPG. It has a dashboard full of electronics and it is made safe by modern composite materials. The beauty of this car takes my breath away. What is the price currently listed at? About $25,000 to $29,000! According to earlier stories, the people at Aptera hoped that it would be only $20,000, but I don’t care about the price increase if it delivers that sort of mileage. I was so excited to see this thing my head almost exploded when I heard that they were taking fully refundable $500.00 deposits to reserve your place in line to get one of these dream machines in about a year! I was about to get my credit card out when I saw something that didn’t settle well with me. I saw that there was no telephone number on their website. They do not list an address where they may be found. The only company specific information I can find of any value to me is that they are located in Carlsbad California and the Founder of the company is someone named Steve Fambro. They also have a site on My Space which has some videos of the car in action which shows me that they at least have a working prototype, but that is not enough for me to invest my hard earned money. But what does this really mean? Is this whole thing a scam? I don’t think so. What I have gleaned from all of the press coverage on this car is that this seems to be a very serious effort on the part of Mr. Fambro. In fact, I would have to say that Mr. Fambro has created a modern practical version of what could have been an Ed “Big Daddy” Roth custom bubble car. (See Ed Roth’s work in the following You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbL5etd18E ) Even if this car is to be a one-off, the fact that he built it makes me not be worthy to stand in Mr. Fambro’s presence because he has created a master peace of automotive art. Unfortunately, I feel that all of his efforts, IN MY OPINION, seem to be undermined by what I think is a badly designed website that is too hard to navigate and doesn’t have enough information about the car, the company, and the people behind it. In MY OPINION they may not get the response they are hoping for until they fix these problems with their website and tell us who and where they are. Pretty concept drawings of dealerships and and cool You Tube videos do not make a company reality. Please, Mr. Fambro, fix these problems. I want to see this car succeed!