My Suggestions to increase U.S. atom ownership and to prevent any further "probl

[rijowysock]

there are many threads on the "Atom Forums"... regarding registration and ownership... primarily as with my case when i first had the desire for an atom.. i came on the forum and i asked about registration and tried to find threads with info... it's difficult but some people have posted things you try and work off of.. then you hunt the internet for examples that apply to your state.. and you go from there.. in my case i took what i found about Atom registration on the forums and coupled it with peoples experiences from FFR cars and other "kit" cars...

so we as energetic and excited to be owners take this "half baked" knowledge and try and find the laws and do everything right..... AND... we end up creating a hurdle for ourselves.. a big hurdle

why? because the atom as it currently exists CAN be legal, but at the same time it CANNOT be legal in the US for street use... and if we don't do everything perfectly... we end up only hurting ourselves down the line and others who want to own and enjoy said vehicles...

also.. every time we post about this, it's PUBLIC and people trying to work against us (for no reason besides jealousy or "they love their damn jobs....RAWR"...) see it and hurts the overall community..



MY PROPOSITION:

A: all registration info only be posted on a "private" section, said private section has limitations to enter (time limit and post minimum)... you must contribute to the forum and have a genuine interest to view this section... obviously genuine can mean many things... but this is to prevent "fly by night" people from gaining access...

B: people wishing to help "would be owners" should try and verify who this person is.... very rarely do people new to the internet want to buy an ariel atom.. google their email address, ask them questions, engage them... if they say they have a car on order, talk to T.M.I., this is only helping them in the long run as well... if you feel this person is genuine, then help them the best you can

C: in said "private section"... people can only post first hand experiences.. and leave out "specific" details.. i.e. cities.. their car info... etc... post basically: i am in this state, and this county... this is what i did, and it yeilded in a plate being issued, or vin plate being issued and so forth.... also people can post their trouble and what they did... leaving out city and their personal car info.... hopefully it creates more "i got a plate" versus "i did not get a plate"

****please note, every time a title/registration is denied.. it does go before the DOT/NHTSA and a flag is created****

D: specific details. i.e. city, lawyers to use, loopholes.. can only be talked about in private... (email? phone call? text?)? mainly because you dont want this specific info on the internet.

E: license plates are encouraged to be blurred out or covered on the forums (with a plate number, any DOT/NHTSA/etc can bring up not only the owners info but all the paperwork that was used to register the vehicle... ALL OF THE PAPERWORK!!).. this is how they then send out "revocation of title" paperwork to current owners..





obviously others can help add more suggestions, the purpose of this being to restrict info to people that just "pop up" on the site... we can have something in the normal section saying "we restrict discussion of registration on the forum.. become a valued member of the forum by contributing and surely someone will volunteer to help you out once we see your interest is true".....

another way this problem can be solved is at the creation of the vehicle... right now "Sector111" does it properly.. they install the engine and the car is perfectly legal under SB100 in cali...  this is a great process that is fully legal in the eyes of DOT and NHTSA.. if the factory can have all engines installed by a NHTSA certified engine installer.. the vehicles are 100% legal as "kit cars" and can be registered without all this drama and hassle... (not sure how to implement).


our main focus is to create more owners, obviously create more sales for T.M.I., and to educate owners versus create new problems for existing owners..


hopefully this helps for the greater good, i am no longer an atom owner but have dealt direction with all the qualms.. and would love to help the future owners of atoms.

-riley

[rijowysock]

looking over the forums it is very easy to see the "newly registered" asking this question... it is afterall a very important question before putting cash down on the line... many are just tire kickers otherwise they would have called the factory and discussed with them, but also the factory (to prevent liability) cannot really do all the answering to protect their end of things.


it's important if we create said section, that we also let these people know.."hey it's something we cannot discuss publicly... but we do encourage your enthusiasm for the car... and if you are patient,, it will be told/known...

had i been told this originally.. then it would have been a much easier process..





****Also, we need to know who is in charge/on top of editing/moving/deleting threads.. so when a thread does come up.. or an old thread discussing registration we know who to forward it to to have it either deleted (for non accurate info) or have it moved to said private section.****

[rijowysock]

sorry to beat a dead horse, i encourage any moderator to edit my post to make it more coherant!.


#1 problem i see is non owners making threads or replies "i read this, so this is how you do it"... this is a big problem...

the private section should only have "how to's" from people with atoms that HAVE PLATES AND REGISTERED..

this is to alleviate any hassles and misinformation to new "would be owners"

[benyeats]

In the olden days when American owners were more active on this forum all registration related topics were moved to the club room.  I wonder if this is something we should start policing again.

Anyone serious about buying a car won't mind stumping up the membership fee (cheaper for overseas members anyway)....

Ben

[rijowysock]

[quote="benyeats"]
In the olden days when American owners were more active on this forum all registration related topics were moved to the club room.  I wonder if this is something we should start policing again.

Anyone serious about buying a car won't mind stumping up the membership fee (cheaper for overseas members anyway)....

Ben
[/quote]

my personal opinion and no offense to the moderators are that the rules aren't set and they dont police enough on this end of things.

also... anyone who is serious about ownership shouldn;t have a problem paying.. it's very cheap compared to ownership of the vehicle.. the clubroom i cannot even access so not sure what's going on there.

[Monza]

paid membership = access to the Clubrom 

[rijowysock]

[quote="Monza"]
paid membership = access to the Clubrom 
[/quote]

i swear i paid for membership, i'll have to check that again... alot of sites and alot of memberships , hard to keep track.

[benyeats]

[quote="rijowysock"]
[quote="benyeats"]
In the olden days when American owners were more active on this forum all registration related topics were moved to the club room.  I wonder if this is something we should start policing again.

Anyone serious about buying a car won't mind stumping up the membership fee (cheaper for overseas members anyway)....

Ben
[/quote]

my personal opinion and no offense to the moderators are that the rules aren't set and they dont police enough on this end of things.

also... anyone who is serious about ownership shouldn;t have a problem paying.. it's very cheap compared to ownership of the vehicle.. the clubroom i cannot even access so not sure what's going on there.
[/quote]

The rules are set but I agree we have not been policing them as much as in the past, we don't have any US moderators which perhaps would help.

[rijowysock]

[quote="benyeats"]
[quote="rijowysock"]
[quote="benyeats"]
In the olden days when American owners were more active on this forum all registration related topics were moved to the club room.  I wonder if this is something we should start policing again.

Anyone serious about buying a car won't mind stumping up the membership fee (cheaper for overseas members anyway)....

Ben
[/quote]

my personal opinion and no offense to the moderators are that the rules aren't set and they dont police enough on this end of things.

also... anyone who is serious about ownership shouldn;t have a problem paying.. it's very cheap compared to ownership of the vehicle.. the clubroom i cannot even access so not sure what's going on there.
[/quote]

The rules are set but I agree we have not been policing them as much as in the past, we don't have any US moderators which perhaps would help.
[/quote]

makes sense, wish i could help but i no longer have an atom and not here everyday.. i'm sure someone will step up now that they know their is a void.