Note: all prices have been converted from 2010 dollars to 1955 dollars using the Consumer Price Index. Works out to about 12% of the Automation in-game prices.1955 is shaping up to be a year of tremendous international growth for the automobile industry, with customers flocking to showrooms around the world looking for new cars and light trucks. Many manufacturers are looking for any way they can to increase production to meet demand; let's look at three of them that we see as having especial upside potential.
- Znopresk Z5755-V12 small.png (78.25 KiB) Viewed 5022 times
The company we see as having the greatest upward potential is, of course, Žnoprešk Avtotehnika, based in Trieste, Italy. The Žnoprešk Z5755-V12, pictured above, is the luxury car
par excellence, with a well-cushioned leather interior (including an optional phonograph!), well-cushioned double-wishbone suspension, and a V12 that delivers power more smoothly than you can imagine.
And you'll probably
have to imagine, at least for the forseeable future; the Z5755-V12 is
the sought-after car of the year. The $4,900 price tag is no deterrent to sales; customers have already queued up well into next year for their vehicles, and rumor has it that speculators have sold Žnoprešks to impatient buyers for prices in excess of $10,000.
- ABR Cricket Sport small.png (40.8 KiB) Viewed 5022 times
While the Norwegian company ABR Designs does not have any car with the same appeal as the Žnoprešk, there is no-one in the world who has sold more cars than ABR, and no ABR that has sold better than the Cricket Econo.
Built in Oslo, Norway, the outstanding characteristic of the Econo - and, indeed, of all Crickets (more on that anon) - is its exceptional nimbleness. It is tiny, it is lightweight, and it is responsive. Those in need of passenger space or luggage capacity will have to look elsewhere, but for everyone else (and at a sales price barely over $1,000 for a car with better than 30 mpg, I mean
everyone else), the Cricket Econo is simply too good a deal to pass up.
Unless, of course, you want something a bit more ...
exciting. In that case, you'll have to go west to ABR's smaller factory in Drammen, where you'll find for $1,720 the Cricket Sport. The same 1.2L block that produced 40 hp in the Econo is spitting out 69 hp here, and in a car that weighs barely 1,420 lbs, that'll go from 0 to 60 in just eleven seconds - and even on standard tyres, take the corners like a thoroughbred racecar.
- GSI Nightingale small.png (49.12 KiB) Viewed 5022 times
The third company we advise you to keep an eye on is right here in the United States - Grey Skies Industries, in Los Angeles, California - who build two cars with a little bit of an avian theme: the $1,000 GSI Pigeon and $1,650 GSI Nightingale. The Pigeon is a perfectly acceptable little city car - and with a galvanized steel chassis and all-around solid construction, a sturdy one at that - but of the two, it's the Nightingale that really caught our eye.
The great thing about the GSI Nightingale is that it does basically everything. (Well, except off-roading.) It has five seats and adequate cargo space, good fuel economy and decent safety, and sporty performance from a miniature 2.4L twin-carb V8. (Its cornering is nowhere near as sharp as the Cricket Sport, but it'll do 0 to 60 in
under ten seconds - 128 hp making itself fully known!)
The car doesn't have as much unmet demand as the ABRs or the Žnoprešk - it is less chic than the Z5755-V12, less fun than the Cricket Sport, and less cheap than the Cricket Economy - but if you're looking for the most impractical practical sedan out there, you need look no farther.
Thank you all for your patience, and congratulations to NormanVauxhall, Puffster, and oppositelock! Spreadsheets and futher commentary to come.
Thu Jan 28, 2016 9:45 am 
