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Can I start my own car company?

E

eflat

Platinum Member
OK here is a the question: Say I was a good enough car engineer to design a car from scratch.

I know you can a car and have the government check if it is safe.

But let us say it is such a unique car that I want to start making it in larger quantities and sell it to the public.

Do you think you would have to pass those safety tests where the government slams your car into a wall to see how it crumples. IE it would want to ruin a few cars using them in live safety tests.

edit: changed the whole topic
 
edit: this was moved to the first topic too.

OK here is a follow up question: If I was a good enough engineer to design a car from scratch that I know for a fact is as structurally secure and safe as any Toyota car. could I start up a car business selling these unique cars?

Essentially I want to be able to create a new car company just like Toyota is a car company and have all the rights to make and sell unique cars to the public.



And now that I think about it, it becomes more plausable since cars like the Bugatti Veyron where they make just a few. I cannot imagine the government would make them one to slam into a wall just to prove it crumples like it should...

And then there was the time the President or someone made a law as a favor so he could drive this incredible rare porche legally.


Any thought? I might edit the first thread since this is going in a different direction.
 
Originally posted by: eflat
edit: this was moved to the first topic too.

OK here is a follow up question: If I was a good enough engineer to design a car from scratch that I know for a fact is as structurally secure and safe as any Toyota car. could I start up a car business selling these unique cars?

Essentially I want to be able to create a new car company just like Toyota is a car company and have all the rights to make and sell unique cars to the public.



And now that I think about it, it becomes more plausable since cars like the Bugatti Veyron where they make just a few. I cannot imagine the government would make them one to slam into a wall just to prove it crumples like it should...

And then there was the time the President or someone made a law as a favor so he could drive this incredible rare porche legally.


Any thought? I might edit the first thread since this is going in a different direction.
Click to expand...

Assuming you got the billions of dollars, yes. And yes, all cars get slammed into a wall. Unless you are talking about restored classics.
 
There are only two types of car companies.

The little bitty ones who basically have to use off-the-shelf components to sell kit/specialty vehicles.

The giant ones that are allowed to survive.

If you made any move towards success beyond the niche market (less than 100 cars yearly or so), you would get crushed like a bug under the wheels of the giants.
 
Originally posted by: Arkaign
There are only two types of car companies.

The little bitty ones who basically have to use off-the-shelf components to sell kit/specialty vehicles.

The giant ones that are allowed to survive.

If you made any move towards success beyond the niche market (less than 100 cars yearly or so), you would get crushed like a bug under the wheels of the giants.
Click to expand...

in general yeah...but mosler, saleen, and vector do ok.
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: Arkaign
There are only two types of car companies.

The little bitty ones who basically have to use off-the-shelf components to sell kit/specialty vehicles.

The giant ones that are allowed to survive.

If you made any move towards success beyond the niche market (less than 100 cars yearly or so), you would get crushed like a bug under the wheels of the giants.
Click to expand...

in general yeah...but mosler, saleen, and vector do ok.
Click to expand...

Put together they probably don't pass 1000 vehicles.
 
Take a walk around a manufacturing plant and see what you're up against and what you'd have to accomplish. Do you know anything about the industry? Have you ever owned your own business? I'm not discouraging you, it's just important that you think realistically.
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst
QFT...

Plus I believe almost all the niche market car companies are vested in other projects too.
Click to expand...

I think that if he wanted to do a true kit car there is still room in the market. There are a lot of kits out there that are absolute garbage.
 
If you produce under a certain amount of vehicles you can avoid some certifications. Fisker was originally planning on doing that. However, they still were originally planning on basing their vehicles on production cars that they would buy and convert.

They've changed gears since then, and are now looking at making their own hybrids.

Also, just to throw this fact out there, one single amazing engineer cannot make a vehicle that can compete with even the worst car company right now in any reasonable amount of time. It takes a huge amount of people to design even the cheapest econobox.
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: alkemyst
QFT...

Plus I believe almost all the niche market car companies are vested in other projects too.
Click to expand...

I think that if he wanted to do a true kit car there is still room in the market. There are a lot of kits out there that are absolute garbage.
Click to expand...

if he has the tooling costs covered, yeah. It cost me about $2000 just to punch out flat metal plates about 4x6". I made about 4000 at $20 a pop though.
 
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