Two Quick Questions about service and care....

[aptera1213]

Ok....I know why Aptera is keeping sales to Cali for now...but

1) I plan to take a trip across country sometime in the first year of owning my Aptera...If I need service half way across Texas, vs someone from Texas owing an Aptera and needing service...well I see little difference...either way somebody needs some help and isn't in Cali to get it....Will Aptera try and keep people from taking long trips??

2) If you live in Cali, buy an Aptera and then move in a year...does that void the agreement? How about if you move in a month after getting one??

Again, I know and understand why they are keeping the sales to Cali for the time-being (fine with me as I live here...but i kinda feel sorry for all the others out of state) ....but I'm not sure there is anything Aptera can do to keep the cars in state after they are sold...

which brings us to the just now thought of third question....

3) is anybody buying an Aptera just to re-sell it out of state (ebay or something of that sort)??

not me....gaaaa, i just want my Aptera NOW.....but I can see some people ordering one just to get a good re-sell price for some out of state buyers

[KarenRei]

I'm out of state and am buying mine through a proxy (who shall, of course, go unnamed, as will my purchase number -- don't want them cancelling my order on me :) ).

Maintenance: Not particularly concerned. Come on -- in the whole drivetrain, the only moving parts are three wheels, one belt, and one motor driveshaft. I don't find much to be concerned about there ;) The tires are from an Insight, the batteries are lithium phosphate (which should outlive the vehicle), etc. The only problems I could picture would be manufacturing defects, and since I won't be picking mine up right away, if they're obvious, they'll show, and if not, then I don't really care that much. If something *were* to suddenly go bad on me, I have a friend who's a mechanic who would probably love to have a go at fixing it. And, worse case, I haul it back down to California, forcing me to take a vacation for a cross-country trip to the land of sunshine and beaches. If I was lucky, it'd break in the middle of winter, giving me the perfect excuse ;)

[aptera1213]

ha...ok...that could be a new poll...

how many people are from out of state and are working around the "only in Cali" thing???

i'm getting the hybrid...i assume it has a few more parts than the electric only...still it shouldn't be too hard to work on...

for my cross country trip i'm going from so cal to florida (the in laws)...mostly for fun and i want to see if, with the Aptera, the trip costs less than flying (it will gas wise, but probably not with a couple of nights staying in hotels...but it seems like a fun test of the car...and it will be cheaper than two tickets...but i haven't sold my wife on going by car with me...she plans to fly and get a couple of more days visiting with her parents)


g

[LQUAN]

Aptera is only taking pre-order sales from SoCal folks. I suspect that as soon as production begins, they will let folks outside of California buy the car without objection.

I am not really concern about repair issues with this car. Like KarenRei stated, mechanical wise, it should be easy to deal with. It has no transmission! Electric motor is CVT by definition. Electrical wise, I am a little concern (despite the fact that I make a living designing electronics and coding computer programs). I don't know the reliability the StreetDeck system. Does anyone know if any other automobile manufacturer is using StreetDeck? I presume Aptera electronics are pretty much governed by software. If the software has bug, there is nothing the end user can do about it - except for reseting the power to its CPU and pray that it will boot up properly!

Aptera should consider allowing people to do their own software/firmware upgrade in case there are bugs that hadn't been caught yet. Software/firmware can be download from Aptera website. It already has a USB port. All you need is a laptop and diagnostic software utility. How cool would that be if Aptera let us do that ;) .

[KarenRei]

If they did it open source, they could get a lot of free development work. Open source coders, after all, made an entire freaking operating system (Linux) ;)

for my cross country trip i'm going from so cal to florida (the in laws)

I'm actually thinking about trying a cross-country trip in my Typ-1e, although it'll take a lot more planning! :) It's also contingent on Aptera providing charger options or me finding a way to give it more charger options aftermarket. The idea is to call ahead to RV parks and find ones that would let me charge in a space for 30-60 minutes, which -- with the sort of current they can feed to RVs -- should be enough to bring it to full. There's hardly a place in the US where you can't go from one RV park to the next in less than 120 miles; most are a lot closer together than that.

[aptera1213]

LQuan...not to burst any bubbles, but Aptera has stated they won't be taking out of state orders until they have expanded their production center and have a larger distribution network...so they need to make dealerships or make agreements for floorspace with other dealerships (a good choice might be smart cars...they are opening up dealerships all over and they are both quirky designs that will draw lots of visiters...they both also have limited number of vehicles to sell)...

[Brian]

"Aptera is only taking pre-order sales from SoCal folks."

Thats not true

[MegaAutoBit]

Does anyone know if any other automobile manufacturer is using StreetDeck?


Volkswagen has been playing with the StreetDeck software for some time now, but I don’t believe it is in any of their production cars. There is a rumor that StreetDeck software was used for the Cadillac CTS multimedia system.