Australian Atom - are we getting close?

[Driver]

Rain dance at their factory so it'll get buried in a mudslide like we see on the news from time to time... oh, and then firebomb the site just to be sure.

[CapsicumDreams]

Hey Todd,

How is IMG going? They must be just about done, now. They said they'd only take a few months.
Perhaps the problem wasn't external to OWI after all, and you made the right call to instigate the change of distributors.
Hopefully we'll see some Aus atoms soon.

[wisp]

Regardless of how Australian compliance is going we've not noticed any promo work this side of the Tasman. Sad really, after all they are road legal here. At least Andrew had a shot at selling the cars this side of the ditch.

[Todka]

Hello Angus,

Since I have waited over 5 years for an Atom, I think I might have a little more patience than just a few months with the new distributor.
I suggest if you are interested in how the project is going you call IMG or Simon and ask. They seems to be moving along quite well.

Are you still down for a car?

I'm still dead keen for a 300 version and plan to drive the wheels off it 

In the mean time I have been riding my Ducati and flying aerobatics, so the wait is not too painful.

Cheers,

[Alec]

Has the Atom in Australia died a death?

This thread just popped up again so I visited the IMG site and their last news item was the one dated 15th March 2009 saying that they'd taken over as the official appointed distributor. The rest of their site doesn't seem to have altered either as they're still offering the 'New' 2008 models on the other cars they claim to import. 

[aatom83]

i called andrew from img yesterday and spoke to him about the progress on the atom. from what i gather they are not far off from getting it complicanced (3-6 months). they have made some modifications to pass emissions which is the biggest hurdle.
i wanted to give him a deposit but he suggested i just wait until everything is confirmed. he has taken 14 deposits.
i am in no real rush seeing as though i first drive the atom about 5 years ago and have waited all this time, what is another year imo.
but lets just hope img continue to do their work and it all comes good.

[Alec]

Good news if they pull it off as previous attempts seem to have struggled to get over the hurdles so they gave up.

I suppose it has only been 9 months since they took over so another 3-6 months doesn't sound too bad.

Good luck for the future and hopefully Atom ownership, and welcome to the forum.

[aatom83]

yes as i understand it, previous attempts to get the car road legal were made by people who really had no knowledge of the compliancing business.
img's core business is getting cars into australia and getting them road legal so i believe they know what they are doing.
just curious as to what you guys think is a fair price to pay for the atom?
they are aiming at getting a 245 on road for 90k aud.

[Alec]

90,000 AUD converts to £51,793 on the site I've just used.

From the latest price list I have for the UK, the very basic 245 on the road (ie. no extras ticked at all) comes in at just under £30,000

When you tick a lot of the boxes (but no Carbon Fiber bits), this can go up to around £40,000 and then all the Carbon Fiber bits can add a further £7,500 taking it up to around £47,500 so I assume the shipping is adding quite a bit on.

I suppose it should be a similar cost to getting one sent over to New Zealand so Jared may be able to give a bit of info on that as he's the last person to get one there.

[Trigger]

Bearing mind the work they are doing, and the import costs etc 90k doesnt look stupid but not cheap. Thats about £51k sterling, so maybe £16k more than middle spec Uk price.

[apollyon25]

When I ordered mine, and it only had a few options (no CF bling) it came to just under GBP30k.
The exchange rate was between 0.36 and 0.38 pence per NZD and from memory worked out to be 70~80k NZD depending on when I worked it out.

On top of that:
NZD3k for shipping,
NZD1k for freight insurance,
NZD10k for tax and customs brokerage fees,
NZD3k for compliance work and testing costs,

Then just warrant of fitness (NZD40) and registration (NZD250pa) to get it on the road.
I then splashed out for a personalised plate and that was ~NZD600

But given I did all the arrangement of freight, insurance, compliance and customs... and that OWI had sent me the dealer pricelist to spec against and that later caused Ariel to hold shipping until the proper amount was paid, OWI waived their fee (5k from memory).

None of any of the above matters now as I have the car...

[aatom83]

thanks for that info apollyon25. very interesting.
how does NZ get around road legal issues btw?

in terms of paying 90k aud, i think while it might be on the high side, we need to take into consideration the amount of work etc they have put in to get the car road worthy. either way im happy to pay it as i have no other choice really and in terms of a car there is nothing that is comparable in the 100k range imo.

[apollyon25]

I don't think we 'get around them' insofar as they have just never been the nightmare they have become for Oz.
In NZ the car is road legal pretty much straight out of the container.

We have the LVVTA (low volume vehicle testing authority or something like that), to check the safety of non-standard and kitset vehicles.
I simply spec'd the NZ road pack from Ariel (UK road pack but with extended mudguards).
Once here compliance wanted to crack test the welds (Xray them) on the steering column (even though its a segmented one anyway) where Ariel had welded the QR spline on.
The headlight locations fail in standard location (an original compliance person flagged it ages ago, so now it comes up for each Atom) so I had brackets made up...

Jared

[wisp]

[quote="aatom83"]
yes as i understand it, previous attempts to get the car road legal were made by people who really had no knowledge of the compliancing business.
img's core business is getting cars into australia and getting them road legal so i believe they know what they are doing.
just curious as to what you guys think is a fair price to pay for the atom?
they are aiming at getting a 245 on road for 90k aud.
[/quote]

Hi,
That first comment is not altogether true. What's more both previous dealers managed to successfully comply cars in NZ but both failed in Oz. So it has more to do with the country than the dealers capabilities. BTW NZ has no car building industry that it's government is trying to protect. Cater.hams are available in Oz for road use but are assembled there.
IMG import second hand cars into Oz that already have gained compliance by their respective manufacturers and major importers (eg Mitsubishi, Nissan, etc). The Atom is a whole different kettle of fish.
IMHO a new standard spec Atom 3 should cost no more than AUD70,000 or NZD85,000 at the current exchange rates.

[xr_ated]

Anyone heard any news on when the Atom will be road legal in OZ?

IMG haven't updated their web site for a while.  Does that mean things have stalled again for an Australian Atom?