Ha.. no I mean an official non-profit automaker. Subaru won't build such a
thing, but you're right about the brand image. This really wouldn't work
with a for-profit model at all, since it would be far too expensive to build
these for a reasonable purchase price without subsidizing in other ways,
which is where being a non-profit is crucial. People will actually give you
money to see a good idea come to light, especially if they believe in it and
can right it off their taxes. Most people would rather see the money go to a
small effort they jive with than to the tax man.  This is good because you
would need others to donate resources and money as a small manufacturer
wouldn't be able to produce it for anything that anyone could afford, and I
believe that the for-profit manufacturers won't touch it because the market
is too small for real utilitarian buyers.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Geza Polony [mailto:gezapolony@SBCGLOBAL.NET]
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 11:35 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...

Seems to me Subaru would be the company to build these, at this point,
because they've got the right brand-image. If Subaru could produce a 4WD
Westy for under $60K, they'd sell a ton of them.

Non-profit automaker? Isn't that GM you're talking about?