PCTC #1: Packbat's Car Tycoon Challege, 1955 [RESULTS]

[oppositelock]

Woot! Thanks a bunch, great competition.

[thecarlover]

Good to see the Jetstream Deluxe was a sales success, that's what I optimised for, even if it wasn't first choice.

Congrats to the winners!

[koolkei]

boy oh boy.

1. so the number of consumers were multiplied by the number of entrants? this, i didn't knew, or i misinterpreted this. i thought that the total of 200k customer were the total of potential customer we were sharing. which was why i picked the smaller factory.
2. so my 'city' car seems to be doing okay in offroad? and my 'family' car in utility? O_o u w0t m8?
3. so i lost purely due to the pure production capacity? which was why the cricket almost dominates every major market?
4. so why are only zabhawkin's and my cars are the only one highlighted? is this supposed to represent something?

that said, this is more interesting than it was entertaining for me.
the amount of work you put into this is really mind blowing. i can't even understand most of the sheets. huge huuuge thanks to you packbat.

so now we have an example of what people did wrong, i really hope that we can get more participant next round

[thecarlover]

I don't understand the "theoretical first choice" aspect of the cars, since it doesn't correlate with actual sales numbers. Is it that some cars that were better for certain demographics were not produced enough, so a less desirable car with higher production numbers got the most sales?

Edit: Nevermind, I looked more closely into the data and it answered my question.

[Packbat]

boy oh boy.

1. so the number of consumers were multiplied by the number of entrants? this, i didn't knew, or i misinterpreted this. i thought that the total of 200k customer were the total of potential customer we were sharing. which was why i picked the smaller factory.

Better spreadsheets. Definitely better spreadsheets.

2. so my 'city' car seems to be doing okay in offroad? and my 'family' car in utility? O_o u w0t m8?

Yep. Ladder chassis and solid rear axle = lots of utility and decent offroad capability.

3. so i lost purely due to the pure production capacity? which was why the cricket almost dominates every major market?

I wouldn't say you lost. Honestly, every company in this competition had strongly positive ROI (return on investment), and I suspect you'd still be in the black even if ABR had had as much Cricket production as they had potential customers.

Honestly, the Crickets dominated because they just had better desirability numbers than almost everyone else. That's why they could sell out that honking big factory.

4. so why are only zabhawkin's and my cars are the only one highlighted? is this supposed to represent something?

Those are the only ones that are built in shared factories. Every other trim has its own factory.

that said, this is more interesting than it was entertaining for me.
the amount of work you put into this is really mind blowing. i can't even understand most of the sheets. huge huuuge thanks to you packbat.

so now we have an example of what people did wrong, i really hope that we can get more participant next round

That's fair enough. Thank you, and I hope I'll get more entries next time as well.

[Puffster]

Holy crap, this really drives home the point that I'm glad I don't have to do the calculations on this one, excellent work on the spreadsheets!
Seeing this makes me wish I went for the huge factory instead of Large2 (spent about 30 mins arguing with myself about this, hindsight 20/20 and so on), but loved the concept and challenge none the less.

And even with some minor bumps along the way I truly appreciate the effort you put into this, as the tycoon part of the game is what I'm missing from it atm.

Hope you have the energy left to run another one some day where there hopefully are more entrants that can enjoy this.

[Madrias]

So, by the look of things, my decision to make a cheap, small car kinda paid off in the end.

[07CobaltGirl]

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.

So, I'm confused. The CPI conversion is reflected in the sticker prices? Because in 1955, those were the prices of housing in the US.

[Packbat]

...huh. I mean, the prices are reasonable - the 1953 Buick Roadmaster Skylark had a list price over US$5,000, so US$4,900 for a high-end luxury vehicle isn't unheard of. And the 1955 Fiat 600 cost the equivalent of US$7300 then, which is only a little cheaper than the cheapest cars entered. If $1000 would get you a house in 1955, then houses were cheap in 1955.

[07CobaltGirl]

...huh. I mean, the prices are reasonable - the 1953 Buick Roadmaster Skylark had a list price over US$5,000, so US$4,900 for a high-end luxury vehicle isn't unheard of. And the 1955 Fiat 600 cost the equivalent of US$7300 then, which is only a little cheaper than the cheapest cars entered. If $1000 would get you a house in 1955, then houses were cheap in 1955.

As a not-competitor in the competition, my questions are more of curiosity than anything. Do not take it as criticism, but just trying to understand the concept better. (we both know the problems I had with my submissions...hahaha) Of course, this isn't expected to be exactly 100% realism, but it just still seems quite exaggerated to me. The Roadmaster Skylark was the top-of-the-line luxury car from Buick in 1955, based on a much lower priced Roadmaster Convertible, which was also a luxury car, BTW.

The Year 1955 From The People History

I'm guessing you missed a "0" in the cost of a cheap house in 1955, as they definitely were not $1,000. The cost of a new house, however, in 1955 was about $11,000. The cost of a new car was right around $2,000. In 1968, my father bought a brand new Mustang 289 Coupe for just over $2,500. The lowest "Sticker Price" on your list is $8140, which was extremely expensive in 1955, and using your website would equate it to almost $72,000 in 2015.

To use the "over-engineered" car I submitted, which was priced at $29,555($11,630 per unit), the 1955 price equivalent from the website you were using would have retailed for $3341.84(1,315 per unit). I'm really just wondering if I have completely misunderstood the spreadsheets.

[Puffster]

I'm guessing you missed a "0" in the cost of a cheap house in 1955, as they definitely were not $1,000. The cost of a new house, however, in 1955 was about $11,000. The cost of a new car was right around $2,000. In 1968, my father bought a brand new Mustang 289 Coupe for just over $2,500. The lowest "Sticker Price" on your list is $8140, which was extremely expensive in 1955, and using your website would equate it to almost $72,000 in 2015.

To use the "over-engineered" car I submitted, which was priced at $29,555($11,630 per unit), the 1955 price equivalent from the website you were using would have retailed for $3341.84(1,315 per unit). I'm really just wondering if I have completely misunderstood the spreadsheets.

Sticker prices on the sales summary and results tab are sticker prices in 2010 dollars still. So if you take the most expensive car, the Žnoprešk Z5755-V12 with a sticker price of 39.975$, and multiply that with .12 (12%) you get 4800$ which is reasonable for a high end luxury car in 1955, right? And the GSI Pigeon with 8140$ sticker price 2010, would cost 977$ which is dirt cheap

[Packbat]

Sorry, yes, Puffster is correct. In the text of my results post, I converted the prices to 1955 dollars, but I left the spreadsheet in 2010 dollars. I missed that confusion.

[07CobaltGirl]

OK, that is where I was confused. Thanks for the clarification!