Frankfurt am Main, 2001
Six years have passed, and Bruno Schultz is not as happy as you might think. His DM 500.000 investment in CargoLifter was blown, the company is bankrupt and his money lost. At the same time, his children David and Anna have another sibling, the boy Timo.
The situation is not totally unsolvable, since Brunos income is still decent and the house has been paid off, finally. But the two older kids frequently have their friends around and a third one does not really work well with his Primus Cogonoscenti 500. The three-year old luxury car would be still worth a lot to change it into a van, the Primus Viator. On the other hand, his Zephorus that brought a lot of fun is collecting dust in the garage - feeding a large family with a newborn causes immense sleep deprivation and does not leave the time for cruising. He makes the painful descision to get rid of both cars.
While looking for a Viator, Bruno found a 1999 Merit 300xDDI wagon with an ugly color, but in perfect, like-new condition with low miles for an acceptable price- perfectly for his daily commute and family tasks. Instead of the Viator, Bruno bought this one.
Now they still need a fullsize van - and have DM 20.000 left. In fact, they have 35.000, but he lost all his savings, so he doesn´t want to spend it all. The Viator he wanted has just been sold to another guy. Can you offer Bruno an alternative?
PRIORITIES
HIGH
- Practicality - obvious
- Design - Bruno may takes this one to work as well, if he is in duty of driving the kids to school, and he does not want to be seen in an ugly car at work
- Reliability - Stranded on the Autobahn with kids? Better don´t get into this situation
- Safety . the most important for Bruno is the life of his family. No compromises.
MEDIUM
- Comfort - vacation won´t be done with the Merit, it´s alright for daily duties, but for the long trips, they will take the van and don´t want to travel third class.
- Drivability - His wife is not a bad driver, but can´t handle a car like Bruno does.
- Utility - he doesn´t want to abuse his Merit and prefers to haul stuff with the van.
- Service cost - that van is a burden to drive for him, don´t make it a burden to own as well.
LOW
- Fuel consumption: Bruno isn´t poor just because his bank account is empty. He earns a lot, the house is paid off. Nevertheless, since the van will be used for long vacations, a car with the thirst of an Irish harbour worker would be off the list.
- Sportiness: If Bruno drives it, it shouldn´t be too bad to go around corners. He sold a f…cking Zephorus for it!
VERY LOW
- Price: The limit is 20k, and since he has more than that left from selling two exclusive machines, he is not afraid of using up these 20k.
- Interiors: Making this a real priority isn´t fair for me. If you have a great car without interior, you will win. If you have a bad car with nice interior design, you will still not win. It´s most likely to be seen as a factor if I can´t decide between two excellent cars and I don´t want to roll a dice to find the winner.
RULES
game version: open beta
model year: 1995-2001
family year: 1990-2001
trim and variant year: 2001
price: 20.000
seats: minimum four full seats, total count must be seven.
techpool: default (this isn´t a CSR where I want you to understand mathematics)
fuel: regular or premium, 91 or 95 ron (that was usual in Germany, 91 was slightly cheaper which will be considered in the judgements, but since fuel economy itself isnt the main priority don´t feel urged to tune down for 91, it´s mainly both allowed to be true to your lore)
safety: minimum standard 90s, Bruno will avoid anything that hasn´t at least dual front airbags
any kind of power steering is required for cars above 1000 kg weight
catalytic converter (three way) required
tire width must end in 5, no cross ply (just avoiding someone pointing out the obvious)
no race parts (as above)
emissions: WES 9
INSPIRATIONS
Toyota Preiva
Chrysler Minivans
Ford Windstar
VW Sharan
Fiat Ulysse and it´s Eurovan twins
Submissions will be open untill November 25, 20:00 GMT+1
