All I’m saying is that I’ve definitely been building a wild-card entry. It’s actually rather fun to do things I don’t usually do. My design is somewhat expensive, but I think it’s decently well-featured.
Somewhat expensive? Within 11k budget?! I struggled to build anything usable for a family in this…
Five seats, standard interior, CD player. 50 MPG. Still slightly-less than $11k at 20%. And it’s not a hatchback.
I’m using every trick I learned from being the host of the Hybrid Beaters League, plus a few I’ve been learning from trying to build cheaper cars.
Introducing Conan C25-LE. Starting from 479,000 Baht.
Written by Yingsak Jeamkittikul.
First published on Great Cars Website (.th), 30th November 2011
A lot of younger readers may not know that Conan Cars PLC of England used to have a factory in Thailand. Making iconic cars such as the S44 “Euro”, and C23 “Forward”. But due to many reasons, they closed the factory in 1992.
It’s no wonder then that when Conan first announced their plan to return to manufacturing car in Thailand after absent of 20 years. Much speculation abound on what Conan would bring. It was said that Conan would bring a car that’s made according to the new “Eco Car” regulation. A car that has to do more than 20km/l, produce emission less than 120g/km, pass the regulation for the UNECE94 and 95, and has engine displacement of less than 1300cc. That seems to be most likely, and it’s been prove that this was indeed correct.
We’ve seen the spyshots before, and the car look very promising. Today, Conan finally revealed their first return to manufacturing in Thailand. The 2012 Conan C25-LE.
A surprise is that this car is not the C25 many people thought Conan would bring. This is a different car made specifically for developing market. It does share it’s chassis and engine with the European C25. But the body and interior is completely different. But for a car that is made specifically for developing market, the headlines are quite astonishing.
The car is a small 5 doors hatchback designed to directly compete with existing eco car such as Ossan Dwarf, and Kowai Joyice. But when you read the specification, there’s something that does not compute.
Only one engine option is available. 1.2-litre, as per the regulation.
Engine code “Luton 5V” I312Di LCC-E, 3 Cylinder, DOHC 15 Valves, 1193cc.
Bore x Stroke 75.0 x 90.0 mm, Compression 10.2:1
70hp at 5800rpm, 100Nm at 3800rpm
Matched with either 6 Speed Manual Transmission or 6 Speed Automatic. The car is also capable of running with E85.
The engine is entirely new, straight from the European C25 “Rainbow” Earthline. We thought they would bring only the normal C25 1500cc 4 Cylinder engine, but perhaps they don’t want to destroke that engine to 1200cc. So instead of cheap crappy engine, we got this instead. the Luton 5V. The first of the new “ConanTech Earthline” series. The engine incorporates many sophisticated technology such as direct injection, 5 valves per cylinder, and tubular exhaust manifold. All to achieve the best fuel economy. Hugely expensive technology that seems rather excessive for cheap ass car.
Other features such as projector headlamps and daytime running lights are available. As are many other thing it’s rival has. Split folding rear seats and many other practical things. It also has separated rear headrest unlike the Ossan Dwarf, and rear wiper unlike the Kowai Joyice. But it doesn’t stop there. 2 airbags somehow are all came as standard on every single model. As is the CD player. This all seems very excessive for a very cheap car. And then I saw the price tag.
Official price.
1200 L 479,000 Baht
1200 L Automatic 529,000 Baht
1200 GL Automatic 559,000 Baht
1200 GXL Automatic 679,000 Baht
There’s no other way of saying it. This car is really freaking expensive for an eco car. What with Ossan Dwarf starting at 370,000 with cheapest CVT going for 457,000. Even the unreasonably price Joyice starts at 400,900 and that thing is expensive already. The much bigger Ossan Vista Sedan starts at 420,000. And then you realised that Mitsushita Jesta starts at only 559,000. The same as the mid level Conan C25-LE. The Jesta is much bigger and it has 1.5-litre engine.
6 colours option are available.
Pearl White
Obsidian Black
Silver Metallic
Sunrise Yellow
Red Hot
British Racing Green
Yes. The quality seems to be amazing, and the specification is very good indeed. But for the price? It better be a really good car… Or they’ll have to go back to rainy England again.
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Negative sliders, comrade 
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Well, that just made my car cheaper to buy and to keep running… Now to consider decisions related to this engine…
bonus points if you used a CONANTECH badge on it.
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Negative quality sliders? You’ll only need that if your car is too… large.
I think I’m going to go cheaper, then. Cheaper and reliable. And using engine combinations I haven’t touched for a while, indeed. Push the envelope a bit.
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Only thing I’d need Quality sliders on for my car is if I want to have the CD player. Hence the furious mental debate with myself about whether a few points of comfort is worth the price.
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Meanwhile I’m trying to figure out whether a city car with alu panels will sell. Well, considering the projected price is 9720 versus 9600 for all steel which ruins the fuel economy, the next question is what kind of company would even bother putting alu panels on a city car, but hey, better mileage!
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I just learned something, and I’m gonna use it.
Aluminum panels are cheaper than Corrosion Resistant Steel. I honestly didn’t know that.
scary thing is when I declared that I had just learnt this a few rounds ago, it was like all the stat maxxers on the forum were staring at me for being mentally handicapped 
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Well, I don’t stat-max. I usually build by lore, and suddenly finding out through a casual click that aluminum improves my gas mileage and also improves my cost… Yeah, I think my car’s going to be aluminum skinned. 60 MPG is kinda hard to pass up.
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he said nothing about catalytic converters
Here it is - the Griffa Aurion 1.2 ES 
- Inline 6
- Infotainment system
- ABS
- Panoramic sunroof
- 4.5 l/100km
- 88hp
- 11 000$
Don’t choose 3. Choose all - in the new Aurion.
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Erm?
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well yeah "third world green car " 
i mean in the rules he didn’t specify if it was mandatory to have one. i always use catalytic converters tho
lordvader is technically correct in that cats weren’t specifically mentioned. However, EURO2 was…
…I’m not entirely sure of how to convert Automation figures here, but let’s just say if you use the right fuel injection, you could very well get away with no cat
(or not. You do tend to get 90s tech level emissions, which might be more EURO1…)
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thank you very much. those emissions are getting to tight it will kill all diesels in few years
how come putting a high top speed gives me good fuel economy. that is kinda funny. the car can go 140. top speed 400, improves fuel economy