Any interest in a GasSavers loaner/try-out SGII?

[Rick Rae]

My SG II has the older firmware and of course I'm interested in getting an upgrade so I can add XGauge capability... but also of course, I'm loathe to be without my SG while it's on holiday at Linear Logic.

Then I thought: I bet there are a lot of other people in that same situation.

And then I thought about all the newcomers who aren't sure if they should buy one at all... and how quickly they'd know the answer if they could just exprience one for a while.

So here's what I found myself thinking: What if GasSavers as a group had a "loaner" ScanGauge? You put in a request for it, pay for the shipping plus a little extra, and it shows up on your doorstep. You plug it in, set it up, and either try it out (if you're new to the wonders of ScanGauge) or send yours in for an upgrade. When your time is up/yours comes back, you either ship the loaner back to its waiting spot, or on to the next person waiting for it.

I'd be willing to spring for the loaner to get things rolling. The question is: How many think it would be worth shipping plus, say, five or ten bucks to not be without a ScanGauge while yours is being upgraded (or repaired, if ever)?

This isn't intended as a money-making scheme. If the "overage" is ten bucks, at $170ish shipped it would need to be loaned out seventeen times before it even paid for itself. So I'm expecting this to be my contribution to the GasSavers community rather than money in my pocket. But if by some miracle it does pay for itself, extra funds could then go towards the site's hosting fees or something, or we could just drop them and from then on out you just pay for the shipping if you need a loaner.

Thoughts?

Rick

Full-disclosure disclaimer: In case it's not obvious, there's an ulterior motive: I'm first in line for the loaner.

[SVOboy]

I think it would be a neat idea. People could borrow it to check out new cars, see if they want to buy one, blah blah blah.

[Matt Timion]

Didn't this idea come up a year or so ago? it seems familiar.

[SVOboy]

It did indeed, but we had much less SG users at that point.

[McPatrick]

Now that we are talking about ideas where members would donate some money. I still like the idea of donating say a $2000 VX to a University and collaberate with them on a study of how to aeromod this model best and in such a fashion that it will result in a step by step DIY of how to aeromod any Civic Hatchback. So the result will be some kind of kit that hatchback owners could even have 'mass produced' somewhere.
The results would obviously also help owners of other cars.

I've been looking at aeromods here for quite a while and always thought that if these would look more professional there would actually be a market for them if the gas prices move up a bit more (which you know they will) and if the prices were low enough like i the form of DIY kits. Maybe it's just the business man in me

Apart from that i'd really like to see all the tech output we'd get if a team of engineers would lay their hands on VX's with a larger budget than any of us have (or are willing to spend).

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by McPatrick

Now that we are talking about ideas where members would donate some money. I still like the idea of donating say a $2000 VX to a University and collaberate with them on a study of how to aeromod this model best and in such a fashion that it will result in a step by step DIY of how to aeromod any Civic Hatchback. So the result will be some kind of kit that hatchback owners could even have 'mass produced' somewhere.
The results would obviously also help owners of other cars.

I've been looking at aeromods here for quite a while and always thought that if these would look more professional there would actually be a market for them if the gas prices move up a bit more (which you know they will) and if the prices were low enough like i the form of DIY kits. Maybe it's just the business man in me

Apart from that i'd really like to see all the tech output we'd get if a team of engineers would lay their hands on VX's with a larger budget than any of us have (or are willing to spend).

Interesting idea. More likely to get something done donating it to a company and getting them to produce the kits, though, I should think.

[McPatrick]

Well, I was thinking if a University could use it to show how much more current cars could do mpg wise with some addaptions, which should become a pretty hot item soon; with the results of their findings it would then be possible to find a company to make the kits.
A University would do this for free out of academic reasons (and some have windtunnels as well) and that way a company wouldn't have to invest in research anymore and have a much better idea of what the costs and possible profist would be.

[SVOboy]

Did you have a university in mind? Perhaps start a new thread to brainstorm the idea?

[Rick Rae]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

People could borrow it to check out new cars...

Hah, that's a great idea! Take a car for a test drive and see how it responds to P&G and so on right from the get-go!

As long as the salesperson doesn't freak out when you start plugging stuff into the OBD II port of that shiny new car. ("Wait, what are you doing, stop, you'll blow something up!")

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

Didn't this idea come up a year or so ago? it seems familiar.

It didn't even occur me to do a search on this; my bad. I'll have to dig around for it and see if particulars were worked out the first time it came up... I haven't really thought it out to any great depth yet.

Rick

[Rick Rae]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Did you have a university in mind?

How about Dartmouth?

Rick