[champ]

Picture this for motorbikes....

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/13/314942.aspx

JS

Edited by - champ on Aug 18 2007 5:44:10 PM

 

[Chikor]

i feeling a little vertigo....

Ride Fast and Take Chances

 

[dch]

you have too much free time on your hands.

 

[JackC]

This reminds me of the "center column" display at the Barber Museum

 

[LiLBull]

exactly barber museum looks just like that and my BATCAVE when I hit the lottery ...so dont be jealous!

Or if you champ, sell alot of clipons...damn ..you ...CLUBMANssssss!!!

Im so far behind ,that I think Im in first.

 

[Geeto67]

That is cool but a bit too "mister roboto", 1984, logan's run for me.

The smart cars in europe are dispensed via vending machine:



http://gadgetopia.com/post/3140

love the headline of that article: "But How Do You Shake The Machine If It Gets Stuck?"

speaking of the smart car, anybody seen the hayabusa powered ones they have doing massive burnouts and donuts on youtube?


Rant = on

everytime I see one of these vending machine style things I am enamored for about a second and then I realize that in doing this several things have happened to hurt the consumer and the public at large. First dispensing a car via vending machine will eventually eliminate two things: 1) the job of car salesman; and 2) negotiating the price of a new car. I realize now that the system still requires a sales person to process the paperwork and it is just a big gimmick; but sooner or later someone is going to find a way to do all the paperwork by touch screen and then goodbye sales person (one less job in america due to automation). Once they have you dealing with a machine exclusivley then you won't have the ability to negotiate price because you can't negotiate with a machine.

Rant = off


Edited by - geeto67 on Aug 20 2007 10:27:19 AM

 

[lefty337]

I remember seeing something about this a while ago somewhere online. I may be mistaken but I don't think that this contraption is for selling cars, but rather a space saving parking garage. They essentially can build it very high and don't need the ramps and/or horizontal space to move the cars around. This makes for a much smaller foot print for the building.

****************************************
The best kind of justice is angry mob justice.

 

[Geeto67]

quote:
I remember seeing something about this a while ago somewhere online. I may be mistaken but I don't think that this contraption is for selling cars, but rather a space saving parking garage. They essentially can build it very high and don't need the ramps and/or horizontal space to move the cars around. This makes for a much smaller foot print for the building.

****************************************
The best kind of justice is angry mob justice.

The VW one (in the original post) is for parking. The Smart car one is the dealership so it is actually for selling cars.

 

[Pete Casper]

quote:
Picture this for motorbikes....

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/13/314942.aspx

JS

Edited by - champ on Aug 18 2007 5:44:10 PM

I'd be worried that the contraption would drop the "wankermobile" and mess it up.... lol!

I like lower Manhattan's versions better.

Yeller'
---
Ask not what the wanker can do for you, but what you can do for your wanker!

Edited by - Pete Casper on Aug 20 2007 2:48:35 PM

 

[JB]

nope, smarts are sold in dealerships like every other car in europe. in fact there are very strict rules for selling cars there. this is more likely an advert gimmick. the VW one really is a parking lot. it's not that they don't have the space in wolsfburg but they're just trying to compete with the BMW glass factory (google aint fo' dogs yo).

CB650, FauxCatiFT500

 

[Geeto67]

quote:
nope, smarts are sold in dealerships like every other car in europe. in fact there are very strict rules for selling cars there. this is more likely an advert gimmick. the VW one really is a parking lot. it's not that they don't have the space in wolsfburg but they're just trying to compete with the BMW glass factory (google aint fo' dogs yo).

CB650, FauxCatiFT500

Accoriding to Wired there is at least one operational smart car vending machine in Europe where you buy the car online:

quote:
Over the past decade, the Mercedes spinoff called Smart has emerged as Europe's most daring car company. It has rolled out a four-wheeled motorcycle. It has introduced a novel interlocking design that allows owners to change the car's color panels as often as they change cell phone faceplates. It has opened the world's first online dealership and sells cars out of towering glass vending machines across Europe. And it has experimented with Bluetooth, offering smartphone and iPod integration before any other carmaker.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/microcar_pr.html

 

[jbranson]

I need a silo to store my giant manly sausage.
JohnnyB

 

[joe c]

branson....im staying way away from that one.

my girlfriend bought her car, new, via email, sight unseen. i would have thought it was going to go that way even more. back when still buying a saturn was different from every other dealer. they used to be great to deal with. at least around here, they are as shitty as any other dealer. but people, consumers, they need to have personal interactions for certain things. it will always be like that i think. i used to have discussions with my old boss about wood working and how its a dying art and whether it is a feasible way to make money. he would say he didnt like teaching people how to do it. but people still need to have things made with personal touches. like hand made exhausts, and furniture. it just might be that things like that will cater to a more upper class client. hey, you cant drive a maybach before you buy it!

people owned those car lifts in back bay when i lived in boston, 6 years ago.

a very cool idea.

jc