I can certainly understand anyone who wants to get more fuel economy from a car. However, for that to mean anything the car actually has to work. Not long ago I recall a couple of commentators discussing, with some remorse, the Chinese scooters they had owned. It was then that I remembered this three-wheeled contraption.
I am pretty sure that this car has been parked in the same place since before 2000. If you look closely at the ground under it there isn’t a blade of grass to be seen. I submit that as proof that this car never moves. I doubt that this model is still in existence, and I really don’t care what it is.
About all I’m certain of is that this old heap is powered by an internal combustion engine and we’ll probably be able to see it from the street in a few years. The paint peelers have started, and the tin worms won’t be far behind. Once this cheap steel (assuming it’s not really plastic) starts to rust, it won’t take long.
Forget the color of the paint. All that glitters is not gold.
I don’t know, I think it would be kind of funny to own one of these contraptions. Find a wrecked motorcycle for drivetrain parts and the rest can’t be too hard to fabricate if needed.
Are we sure it’s a gas engine vehicle? Most of the Chinese clone-cars I can find are electric.
Either way…those 6×9 speaker grilles glued to the hatch are bitchin’.
It bears some resemblance to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6FNw_UeJJQ (6:08 mark)
Those speaker grilles are what caught my eye as well. A stereo that won’t play in (on) a car that won’t drive somehow seems fitting…
In the country, park an old tractor like that and it’s a “Yard Guard”. Interesting car, though. Makes a Robin look sophisticated in comparison.
for sure, it’s ‘lectric. i think it’s the cousin of this one that i posted to the cohort:
http://flic.kr/p/bwiPZS
It’s another one of those damned Xebras (CC here).
It’s a shame that the guy doesn’t have a wife who will decorate it with the season. It would make a great pumpkin or easter egg.
That’s the best idea. Donate it to a local school and let the kids have at it.
Seriously Lee, get the guy to donate it to your school for the tax deduction, give the body to the art students, and use the frame in another CC Classroom Project.
Too late Mike. My handle should properly read something like Txretteacher. I know the guy who is going to start teaching in the autoshop next year though. Never know. Might do something.
I bet its real cheap to run you dont even need to mow under it.
It looks like the model sold by Wildfire.
http://www.wildfiremotors.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=3960&category_id=26&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=75
It’s not an old wreck. If anything, it’s a NEW wreck.
And the REAL wreck, in the end, will be the wreck of the hopes of the Chinese to become serious players. Those things, scooters and three-wheelers…make Renaults look like precision engineering.
Like the scooters and three-wheelers the Japanese and Koreans once built? Here’s a 1954 Honda.
The Japanese started out pretty crude and clumsy – but they knew it and sought to improve. They brought in statistical-control expert W. Edwards Deming to train managers and planners in Continuous Quality Improvement – through statistical analysis.
The Chinese have shown no such interest yet. They seem content to put the garnish on crappy copies of Japanese and other products; it probably fits with the Party Line that the free market is one giant ripoff.
And Chinese products, at least Chinese motor products, will be quickly rejected from the market. It’s one thing to have a cheap DVD player die after a few weeks. It’s another to unload $8000 for a three-wheel car and have it croak with 4000 miles on it.
You’re right about Deming and all that. Japan has had a culture of quality for centuries. I’m sure the ’54 Honda was a jewel with many satisfied customers.
As for China, by the time they reach high quality standards we may very well have cheap robots that make their low-cost labor moot. We’ll see.
Those doors are bothering me – deja vu! Definitely off something else, note the way the rear cutout doesn’t match the wheel arch. probably the only well-engineered thing on this contraption. Any guesses? 1980s Daihatsu Charade is speaking to me.
+1 and haha, I immediately thought Charade too, was scrolling down to post my thoughts, then saw your comment. Glad I wasn’t the only one!
That front crush zone is to die for!!!!
Can you say Isetta? Thought you could. 🙂
I’m just fascinated this thing has a roof rack.
How many people and how much cargo did the original designers think this car-thing would accommodate?
How much, or for how long?
That’s really the wrong question. It wasn’t designed to carry cargo, or haul people. It was designed, if that is the word, to SELL to people – who HOPED to move people and/or cargo.
If a roof rack would let them think they could use it for that purpose, well, we can put one on. And charge for it, too.
Three wheelers with one in front only make sense as low-speed mini trucks. Need two wheels in back to bear the load. All these rotten little Chinese tricycles including the Xebra are based on little pickup chassis. Looks like it will roll over on a turn because it will.
Proper three wheeled cars, from Morgan to Arcimoto, all have two wheels in front. Not only does it handle far better, they get rear drive with no differential.
You’d think if they were going to fit a roofrack they could have installed a towbar too for the ultimate in convenience…
Late to the game. Been away from internet all day.
This wreck has nothing on it that gives a clue to it’s source. I did find something that might translate as GS with looks that relate much like an american car with the same model 10 years older. It was a Jiang Sandi. I do think it’s gas because the back looks like it’s cut for an exhaust pipe.
The truth is I don’t know what it is and stopped caring after wasting a batch of time on alibaba and google. Glad you enjoyed it.
A little late to the game: these three wheelers are made by a number of very small makers in China. They often buy the bodies (or key parts) from one of a few sources, and weld up a frame from square-section steel stock (un-galvanized), and usually have gas engines, although some were electric too.
The Zap Xebra was just a crude EV conversion of one of these cars. They’re an entry-level car (or truck), most common in rural areas. And they are built very cheaply indeed. Dangerously so.
They don’t really have much correlation to the larger car manufacturers in China, even the domestic ones, which have mostly achieved global standards. These cottage-industry three-wheelers are a reflection of the rapidly state of China’s evolution, and quite likely in a few more years, they will largely disappear, or be pushed into the most rural hinterlands. As buyers learn how much more reliability, safety and comfort they can get for a modest difference in price, they will never look back.
Here in anything-goes New Zealand, we get the Zap Xebra pickup too. The government laughs at them and says “no way in hell are you registering that thing for on road use!!!”. See, elected authorities CAN make sense! Every time I see Xebras on trademe I throw up a little in my mouth. Here’s the pickup for everyones’ regurgitational delight:
Even worse, this one appears to have flames painted on it:
No that’s from the fire started by overloaded batteries.
The best factoid about one of these little horrors is the TTAC review where the tester had to turn off the radio to get up a hill. Fortunately the advent of proper electric cars like the Leaf and the Think has driven them off the streets