Chapter 209 Please call me BMW!
Regarding the interior, Hongqi is not a good reference and SH760 is too backward.
Fang Xiang really had no idea what the current international car models were like.
In desperation, I had to call Professor Xu.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
But I know that there are many imported cars in China now.
If you want to see it, I can coordinate a few Mercedes Benzes to be shipped to you."
When Professor Xu was on the phone, his first reaction was to think of Bens.
"Professor, Mercedes Benz is a mid-size car, and the one I designed is a small car.
They are not in the same class. I can’t copy the design of a mid-sized car on a small car, right?”
Fang Xiang immediately expressed his different opinion.
“Well, I’ll ask the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade; maybe they have it.
But I can't coordinate their car, so I can only ask them to take some photos for you and send them over."
Professor Xu thought about it and proposed a solution.
"Okay, then I'll wait for your news."
Fang Xiang hung up the phone. It seemed that the interior decoration would have to be put aside for the time being.
Before I knew it, a month had passed.
When the whole vehicle design was completed, photos of the interiors of more than a dozen different models were also sent to Luoqi.
Looking at these photos, Fang Xiang couldn't help but sigh, it was worthy of the 60s.
The interiors of these cars are simple, and still simple.
Not even as good as the Red Flag.
Thinking of Hongqi, Fang Xiang suddenly wondered if he could communicate with the interior manufacturers that supply Hongqi.
Maybe some of their products can be used directly.
If you think of it, do it.
While placing an order for new car parts, Fang Xiang also made a phone call to the Northeast.
Hope to obtain a batch of Hongqi's interior data and samples.
Before long, various orders began to be completed and sent to Luoqi one by one.
“Isn’t this car so beautiful?”
Cao Tianwei stood in front of the new car that was almost finished and expressed his heartfelt admiration.
“The cost is also high…”
Along with the order, the cost is also sent.
Others may not be clear about it, but Fang Xiang is very clear about it.
"How tall is it?"
Cao Tianwei asked while smoking a cigarette.
"It's almost as big as our two jeeps."
Fang Xiang also took out a cigarette, lit it, and said with a frown.
"So expensive!"
Cao Tianwei was immediately shocked and looked at Fang Xiang in disbelief.
"Can't they be custom-made and not expensive?"
Fang Xiang nodded.
“How much room is there for cost?”
Cao Tianwei didn't finish his words, but Fang understood what he meant.
“It’s hard to say, but we can only say that the higher the output, the lower the cost.
Just like a Jeep. ”
Fang Xiang pointed to the jeep parked nearby.
"I didn't expect that such a small car could cost so much."
Cao Tianwei immediately began to doubt the other party's plan.
If the cost is too high, the selling price will inevitably increase accordingly.
Without cost advantages, exporting would be extremely difficult.
“Don’t worry, when Jeep was first built, the cost was horribly high.
Now if you look at it again, isn't it acceptable?"
Fang wanted to look at the jeep.
The cost of a 212 jeep is basically around 213 yuan, and the cost of a is yuan higher.
Nowadays, the price of customized new cars has reached as high as 8,000 yuan.
The initial cost of the Jeep was roughly the same.
So, maybe it means that the cost of this new car in the future can be as low as around 5,000 yuan?
"Have you chosen a name?"
Cao Tianwei opened the car door and looked at the unfinished interior. He originally wanted to sit in it to try it out.
Seeing that there were no seats, I simply gave up the idea.
"Not yet, what do you think?"
Fang Xiang shook his head. He didn't care about the naming.
"How about the Red Star sedan?"
A smile appeared on Cao Tianwei's face again.
“Can you be a little bit innovative? We already have the Red Star sedan.
Although they didn’t produce many of them.”
Fang Xiang shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"So what do you say?!"
Cao Tianwei also seemed to realize that he had no talent for naming.
He turned and looked at Fang Xiang.
“Let’s call it BMW.”
Fang Xiang was too lazy to think about it and simply plagiarized the name of the Bavarian Machinery Manufacturing Plant.
Anyway, there is no such name these days.
"Blood Horse, what a good name!"
Cao Tianwei's eyes lit up and he nodded in agreement.
"Should we paint it red?"
Looking at the metallic-colored, unpainted sample car, Cao Tianwei continued.
"It's all fine, black, white, brown, silver, red, blue, whatever you like.
Whatever color looks good, use whatever paint you want. "
The number of paint colors for cars of this era is relatively small.
But the color scheme is much richer and bolder than the monotonous black, white and silver of later generations.
"Okay, I'll ask the paint room to try a few colors later."
A total of five prototypes were built this time.
Cao Tianwei has already planned five colors.
"Well, I leave it to you. As for the interior decoration, see if there is anything that can be used.
I still have to hurry up and work on the specific design so that it can be finished."
Fang Xiang nodded, threw away the cigarette butt, said something, and went back to the office.
The next step for this car is to conduct road testing.
Then comes the collection of various data, especially engine data.
This will be a very time-consuming task.
But Fang Xiang did not stop his design work because of this.
First, I referred to the interior in the photos and made some minor improvements.
The design of inertia reel automatic seat belt has been added.
This thing was invented in the late 50s and was not widely used at that time.
After all, these days, except for the United States, other countries still have very few vehicles.
Naturally, the number of traffic accidents is very small, and there is not much safety awareness.
However, Fang Xiang still added this design.
One, it can increase selling points and safety, and the other is that this thing really doesn’t cost that much.
Then the number of car radios, speakers and interior lights was increased.
There is also some storage space and ergonomic seats.
Although it brings some complicated processes, the cost increase is very limited before mass production.
Soon, all the accessories were installed.
The First Ministry of Machine Building also calculated the cost of the car.
If it is just a small-scale prototype trial like the current one, then the cost would be around 8,000 yuan.
This is already the price of an imported Chrysler.
You know, the price of a luxury mid-size car nowadays is mostly between three to five thousand US dollars.
Similar small cars are mostly priced between two thousand and three thousand US dollars.
The current exchange rate of the US dollar is about 2.5:1.
If the production volume can reach 10,000 vehicles, the cost will drop sharply to less than 7,000 yuan.
When the production volume can reach 30,000 to 50,000 vehicles, the cost can be as low as 5,000 yuan, the same as that of a jeep.
If the output can reach 100,000, the cost will be as low as 4,000 yuan.
Therefore, the First Ministry of Machine Building even began to study this car and what would be the appropriate pricing.
He also specifically asked for Fang Xiang's opinion in the document.
Fang Xiang had no objection to this and told them to decide however they wanted.
His appeal is that the factory and project can be built quickly, employment opportunities can be expanded, and exports can be carried out as soon as possible.
Just when these five vehicles were driven out of the factory for long-distance road testing.
Fang Xiang started designing the second car.
This time, he plans to design a mid-size car.
