My new Aixam GTO

heyrick.eu/blo...
Just had a look in the instruction booklet. The reason it looks like the same engine is because it IS the same, a Kubota Z402.
The Euro4 version is fitted into later models. Not that I think it makes much difference, but it does show what better soundproofing can do!

[@BARETA_]

I got the same one today. Can’t wait to ride it. 👌🏼👍🏼

[@anthonymark2013]

Where you live uk do u not need a licence and how much was it please

[@BARETA_]

@@anthonymark2013 I'm from Holland. the car costs 15,000 euros new. In the Netherlands you do need a driver's license, but this is cheap and very easy to obtain.

[@workingclass8777]

Thinking of getting the Aixam 500 here in the UK

[@jacktettero4507]

Best model aixam 500.a

[@mcdonalds_sprite1225]

ayyy, thats a very nice car, bro. i like it.

[@JosepsGSX]

I would recommend trying your short wrench at home, as that small arm might lack the lever to loosen the nuts by hand, especially if they were tightened with a pneumatic tool. On the bright side if feels more substantial than the stock one, so you might be able to apply weight stepping on it, kicking it or carrying something to extend the arm. The thin stock ones tend to bend badly doing those things.

[@poppetrurazvan3900]

Wonderfull car! Congratulations.

[@heyrickblog]

Thank you.

[@chrisblyth6716]

Before the car appears it sounds like a petrol driven lawnmower. That said it makes a good little first car for those on a budget and only need it for pottering around town.

[@heyrickblog]

On a budget?! These things are, as I understand, hand built for a captive market. Which translates to frightfully expensive. This car cost me €6,800 and when it was new it would have cost the original owner (or their parents?) a little under twice that. 😱 A cute little car for pottering around? Certainly. I use it for my work commute, about 8 or 9 miles there and the same back. It is fairly inexpensive to run, ~170 miles (about two and a half weeks of going to work and back) costs about €16 or so (prices vary a lot right now), though it does need a service every 5,000km (~3,100 miles). However, they're shockingly expensive to buy. But, since it's the sort of car an old git like me can drive without actually needing to have a clue how to drive (🤔), there aren't many other options... there's these in diesel and electric versions, primarily by Aixam and/or Microcar, and there's the infamous Citroën Ami that's quite a bit cheaper (especially given as it is electric) but it's cheap because it's a Tupperware box with wheels and a depressingly short battery life meaning it's only really going to be of use to people in large towns. From where I am, getting to Big Town and back would be about all it could manage in ideal conditions with a new battery. Which means it's not terribly useful unless I don't plan to go anywhere other than work and back... And, yeah, it totally sounds like a mower, doesn't it? 😂

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

@@heyrickblog Aixam Crossover cost me ~€15.700 three years ago (brand new). Specced with options it had, it would now be almost 20.000. Plus another €700 if you want Apple Car Play/Android Auto with a descent screen. And I thought I bought mine with ABS. But now I'm not so sure anymore. If it had it, it didn't quite do anything. Had a few emergency stops because of cars cutting me of or still trying to get in front of me at traffic lights. Pedal burried in the carpet, screaching tires, questionable stops. My new Ligier JS50 Sport was €17.000. Ligier is honest about no longer offering ABS, as they couldn't get it to work properly at the low speeds. Instead they now do disc brakes all round as standard on all models. Had one incident already that in the Aixam would have been a close call, if not an accident. Someone ran out towards the street, distracting me for a moment, while the car in front of me was stopping. The Ligier stopped 1-1.5 full car lengths behind the car in front of me... with no dramas. Didn't even push the pedal as far as it would go yet. (pedal box is deeper on this one, pedal travel is limited by something other than the floor.) So I'd say there is something to be said for disc brakes.

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

Seen one of these today. it needs some work, but it's at a dealer. And I'm ok with the price they recon it will be once it's finished, so I'm thinking of buying it. I currently have a bigger Crossover. Running gear and mechanically, it's fine. But the trim around the wheelarches is falling off. Dealer says it's held on with clips. That might go up for the main body panels. But the trim is only glued on. And someone's not done it right. And I'm not for taking it all of, as they used pins as placeholders while the glue dried, leaving holes in the panels. Besides, the bumpers are made to match the trim. So thinking of getting something that doesn't have all that unnecessary crap. And yes, the dealer's GTO also seems to have an "ancient" radio-cd. But if it works, I think I'd keep it.

[@heyrickblog]

I swapped my radio for something I got cheap from Amazon that A, does Bluetooth and B, has a little IR dongle that clips to the steering wheel, so I can control what I'm listening to (from phone via BT or an SD card) without looking. Very useful for those of us with short attention spans that are easily distracted... You don't say where you are, so I'll just add, be careful if you are in France. These little cars must now pass a Contrôle Technique (MOT in English) sometime between now and the end of the year. Mine is a work in progress, it failed because the ABS unit is possibly duff, so that'll need to be sorted and then put in to be retested (within 2 months). Yeah, it's a pain in the arse and more expense, but then I've seen some appallingly unroadworthy things trundling around. If you are getting it from a dealer (and you're in France), insist upon having a CT sticker.

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

@@heyrickblog here in Belgium, they're classed as a moped, so there is no mandatory inspection for private users (yet). But I think when you sell it, unlike a regular moped, it has to be inspected before the new owner can put it back on the road. At least, that's what the dealer does. Mine was brand new when I bought it, and he still took it to MOT. I don't mind the old radio in the one I'm looking at, as long as it works. I listen to music on long trips, and often retreat to my car during break at work. And currently I use the Bluetooth to play music from my phone, as my current car doesn't take cd, and the local radio stations are filled with nagging presenters. I rarely take in car phone calls though, as even hands free, I find them too distracting. I prefer to pull over if I have to make a call. But controls on the steering wheel from factory would indeed have been nice. I would have preferred that over the infotainment system with reverse camera, parking sensors and possibility to get gps my current one has. Anything you want to change, you have to go look for in those menus. And noone even makes a gps that includes those vehicles, accounting for roads they're not allowed on.

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

@@heyrickblog In the end, I ended up not buying the Aixam, as the dealer never got back to me about the vehicle certificate of conformity, which was missing.. Just got home about three hours ago with the car I did buy: a brand new Ligier JS50 Sport, straight off the showroom floor. First impression: I'm glad the Aixam guy didn't get back to me. Previous car was poor fit 'n' finish compared to what I got now. In terms of optional extras, it's the same as my Aixam, minus reverse parking sensors. Will have to see how that plays out, but might not miss them, as it still has a camera, and the sensors on the Aixam were unreliable, one moment beeping when there was no reason, yet recently rear tire touched the kerb before the sensors reacted, meaning if there had been something taller there, there would have been damage. And road manners on the Ligier are much better too, giving potentially a more pleasant long term daily driver. (Due to being visually impaired, I can't get a licence for a proper car, so it's not like this is just a secondary vehicle for me to quickly run to the shop if someone else has the car. I have to go to work, appointments, ... in it.

[@heyrickblog]

Yes, I can't help but wonder if Aixam doesn't quite have its act together. Still waiting for my new car, still waiting for the carte gris. I'm not sure if it's the dealer or the prefecture holding things up. Probably both. 🥴

[@heyrickblog]

Here in France, if you tell Google Navigation to avoid motorways, it will also avoid the 110kph not-quite-motorways that these cars aren't permitted to use. Of course, the time estimate is way off, and it can offer some weird routes because it tries to aim for "most efficient driving" rather than "shortest route", so it helps to review the route and know if there are any ways you can do it better - there often are. I usually (the rare times I use it) put navigation on as background noise and it can take over and guide me if anything unexpected crops up, like an unexpected detour.

[@david_pilling]

Very good. I would not relish putting the spare wheel back. Sometimes the car jack is contained in or around the spare wheel. A real spare wheel like that is something many expensive cars don't have now - all you get is a "get you home" wheel. So is this your last internal combustion engine car.

[@heyrickblog]

I think my next car will have a combustion engine. People are going to reject electric cars until a, battery technology matures to the point where you can do a couple of hundred miles and b, charging points cost about the same as plugging the car in at home. What turned me off the Ami (other than the utterly weird design) was that the range of the car is barely more than Châteaubriant and back; and a friend in the UK tells me that using charging points is horrifically expensive. Fuel is expensive too, but around €16 should get me a few hundred miles, and putting more in is like an instant recharge. I could drive to the south of France if I wanted. Not in an electric, I couldn't...

[@david_pilling]

@@heyrickblog ...people are not going to have a choice because car makers and laws are setting dates. But will take years for most of the cars on the road to change. The dates can always slide. Perhaps ic cars will rise in value as they become rarer. Large cars may have greater range because there is more space for batteries.

[@heyrickblog]

I took out the spare wheel, best to check I could do it before I needed to. Didn't try undoing wheel bolts, I'll leave them alone until I need to do it for real. You're right. Getting the tyre back was an absolute bugger. In the end, I used the jack from mom's car and an old hardback to push the thing into place so I could get the thing bolted up. Changing the tyre will be a doodle compared to that. So, accordingly, I carry the second jack with the warning triangle. Though, to be honest, if it's a rainy day, I might just chuck the flat tyre into the boot (I have a bin bag I can open up) and not attempt to shove it up the back passage... 😉

[@david_pilling]

@@heyrickblog Never carry an inflated tyre in the crew compartment - or do the Paris Dakar thing and bolt the spare to the outside.

[@heyrickblog]

@@david_pilling If it's in the boot, it'd be deflated. And there's a net back there to help prevent bulky stuff flying in the event of an accident.

[@dadsmidnightcreation6794]

Ive got 2 of these 1 for me and the Mrs because we cnt afford our driving licence so we blip about in these bad boys

[@anthonymark2013]

Do u live in uk and how do u go about getting let me know m8 thank you

[@heyrickblog]

No, I live in France...

[@heyrickblog]

"It's pronounced tweever"...no it isn't! Auto captioning fails on Irish names (is "tweever" even a word?). It's pronounced "kwee-va". Oh, and the advert, if you saw one, is KZbin milking us all for this delusion of throwing advertising at everybody. My channel is *not* monetised, I don't get paid anything. I make videos because I feel like it, not because I think it's some way of making an income.

[@theburpman8006]

A car to hold a license to legally drive at 14 years old in France, 15 years old in Denmark and 16 years old in England

[@libborr]

Top speed of this car is 45Km/h. Same like my electric onewheel 😃

[@JoseGarcia-bo4vh]

..guepides por el coche..mellamo toni.en cantado.

[@codykamminga9667]

There is supposed to be rubber on the gas pedal

[@heyrickblog]

Yeah, I did think that was probably the case...

[@codykamminga9667]

@@heyrickblog I know, as I also have one with less milage ( even though it’s a normal ‘Premium’ spec, and not a GTO)

[@codykamminga9667]

@@musiclover8516 from the Netherlands, so wouldn’t know the UK rules. But here, these can be driven on a scooter/moped license

[@heyrickblog]

Hmm, Lizzie's message isn't showing up in the KZbin app. How bizarre. Here in France, if you were born after 198...7? I think? then you need to have some sort of road awareness course. That's probably because you can drive these cars from the age of 14. Because I was born way before the cutoff date, the salesman handed me the keys and I drove myself home. On the public road. With other people. _Having_ _never_ _driven_ _before_ _in_ _my_ _life_ ! 😱 The reason this insanity flies in France is because out here in the sticks there isn't a lot of public transport. There are bus routes between larger towns, but in a place like this where I live where the cows and pigs outnumber the humans by an order of magnitude, the only regular bus is the schoolbus and that's not for general use. Taxis are a non-starter, it's about €40 to get to the town I work in, 12km away. So these little cars are quite popular as practically anybody can drive them. They're also great for trolling French drivers. The number of times people have done stupid things because they can't handle being behind a slowpoke... and _I'm_ the one without the licence... they're supposed to know better! 😂

[@vandalvandal2994]

Good choice

[@petogerat9400]

How can u say this should be indicator, yep 🤦‍♂️ 2:14

[@heyrickblog]

It's not always standardised which side the indicator/headlights and wipers are on. I didn't examine everything before making the video, else I'd have known. 😉

[@mdrakibhossain6248]

Hi, does this car required any driving license to drive in Portugal?

[@Non_Active_Fl]

Sim, precisas ter a licença de 50cc no mínimo. Idade de 16 anos. Porém, se nasceste antes de 1987, não precisas de carta nenhuma. Outra excepção consiste no facto de que, se o teu papa reformas for de um ano anterior a 2003 tbm não terás de ter habilitações nenhumas, apenas no mínimo 16 anos.

[@claudiuiordan1358]

I saw it on olx

[@weallfallsomeday]

Can I get one deliverd to the united states

[@heyrickblog]

You'd need to contact Aixam directly for that (www.aixam.com/en/) but I can't imagine it'll be cheap to ship a car. Don't be fooled by the site asking for a zip code. I tried 21212 (Baltimore) and it said it was invalid. So I tried 21000 and it listed dealers in Côte-d'Or (department 21!), so it's expecting a French postal code.

[@weallfallsomeday]

@@heyrickblog ok thanks

[@joffreyverbeeck1640]

There is a good chance you won't be able to register it though. I've seen a few videos about vehicles that can be considered microcars, that are legal elsewhere, but not in the US. Same story with some Japanese kei cars. Or even more ridiculous for kei cars: same vehicle model, in van form it is perfectly legal. But in tray truck form, no way. "It's not safe" blah blah blah.

[@weallfallsomeday]

@@joffreyverbeeck1640 eh id just keep it on the rez cause they dont care if its registered. most their roads are dirt anyway

[@mattiagaudiano4459]

Mio nonno aveva il motozzappa, bella la scatola

[@heyrickblog]

Google tells me this means: _my_ _grandfather_ _had_ _the_ _tiller_ , _the_ _box_ _was_ _beautiful_ . Can't help but think something is lost in translation...

[@esanpan2476]

Bref Aixam toute pourri

[@MKA874]

why dont you get a real car?

[@heyrickblog]

Real cars require a driving licence. I don't have one....yet.

[@bobwallett]

You can drive these on a bike license