But physics would argue vehemently on the unsafe part..... You can't underestimate how much mass and crumple room effect a wreck. Preparation for many demolition derbies back in the day taught me that. The more mass a vehicle has, the less it will absorb energy. This is a huge factor in dynamic energy. And one of the most beneficial aspects of common car safety is crumple energy capacity. How the metal reacts to a crash, being compressed and squished. A huge amount of engineering goes into how that metal is squished and compressed in a wreck, and how it can benefit and protect the driver. And very little of that is possible with little light weight vehicles like this, which offer very little space for crumple compression in the case of a wreck.

They rate the crash ratings of vehicles like this as compared to other vehicles of the same class. So small lightweight vehicles like this and the "Smart" car get much better ratings than what are actually comparable against cars of greater mass. When compared to greater mass cars though, you see how terrible the safety aspect is...

too bad you can't drive, yah know, another person around in it. You can put 2 people on a crotch rocket, but not the Elio. No one rides shotgun in the Elio. Then again, no one wants to ride with you in the Elio.

There's a passenger seat.

People ride motorcycles. I would this would be safer than that and it does have airbags.

There's no way I'm taking this on a highway near a major city.

It'd be good for driving in a small town that doesn't have a lot of traffic.

That's it.

I'm not risking it anywhere else.

Oh yah, behind the driver. My bad. Never mind, it's fabulous.

Meanwhile over on the 49ers board they're all putting in per-orders and comparing fabulous colors the Elio comes in...everything's relative. The reason CP hates the Elio is because we're all so big and strong our predisposed conservative beliefs won't allow for this Eco friendly odd looking bugger to excite our wallets or our imaginations.

ROFL

wonder what its top speed is

holy shit! **** that! -->> Fast Facts
Top speed is in excess of 100 MPH, and the 0-60 speed is under 9.6 seconds. So it’s not exotic sports car fast, but it’s not slow, either. And while a gas-guzzling muscle car might pass you, no one will pass gas stations like you.

I'm sure it's well over 200mph....if you drive it off the right cliff.