I have only ever purchased one car in my life that was new and it was close to $20,000 and that was many years ago. The fact that there is a brand new car that a person can purchase today for $10,000 is pretty remarkable and I don't think that people can be too fussy about the quality of it at that price point.
These little cars are yet to see the long-term and in all honesty, they can't really be that durable or long-lasting but you never know! I suppose a miracle could happen.
In the meantime these silly little cars have become kind of a designer things for the middle-class because especially since it is a Vietnamese brand, it is really easy to get financing for them. In the meantime, customizing your VF3 has become quite popular and no other car seems to have this sort of tradition going on with it.
I’ve seen a number of variations of this sort of accessories and I always find them amusing. We have a roof rack that is quite sporty and also has a ladder leading up to it as if this was some sort of massive SUV. If you are over 5 feet tall, you can probably reach halfway across the roof of this vehicle without a ladder and I really wouldn’t want to test the load-bearing capabilities of the ladder anyway. I think it is probably more likely to crumple the windows or collapse the roof if anything larger than a child was actually trying to use the ladder.
This one might not seem that special on first glance, but the owner had the roof removed and painted a different color so that his (or her) car is slightly different than all of the other yellow ones. I got up close to check to see if the white was a decal and it is not. Whoever had this done had a custom paint job done on it and it is CLEAN. There are no wayward marks that would suggest this was anything other than a very professional paint job.
Lastly, we have this blue one with custom decals. This is the first one of these cars that I have seen that is also an advertisement for some company but I am quite sure it will not be the last. If you were going to put your logo onto something it may as well be the cheapest car on the market.
These vehicles are turning heads a lot more than vehicles that are considerably more prestigious and the main reason is because they are a new thing and they are within the grasp of most anyone’s budget. As of yet they are not available as taxis and I don’t think we will come to that point either since the back seat is remarkably small.
But for a single person or even someone with small a small child this could actually be a pretty good car. I wouldn’t want to be in an accident in it though, that is for sure.
It will likely be many years before we know or not if this has all been a colossal mistake. It could be that the car is so cheap because that lithium battery is built to fail and while I haven’t heard of this happening yet, it really wouldn’t surprise me if in a few years there are a lot of really pissed off middle class people that have to pay $5000 for a replacement battery.
I have no desire to own a car with streets as chaotic as Vietnam’s, but for the time being I am really enjoying seeing new and different versions of this car. Apparently they are available in some markets in Europe and USA as well. I can’t imagine they are very popular there though.