Average values across all entries
Production cost (dollars) 5549,3
Reliability 71,7
Environmental Resistance 86,9
Fuel Economy (US MPG) 27,1
Maintenance cost (dollars) 964,3
Practicality 77,2
Off-road 49,1
Drivability 45,6
Utility 75,0
Comfort 19,5
Safety 22,6
Sportiness 5,2
Prestige 7,3
So, as you can see in the above stats, which were taken from all the cars and averaged, the average cost of the entries was just under 5550 dollars. Most entries had a pretty reliable car, though some were really on the edge resulting in that average score being in the low 70s range. Environmental resistance was good overall, though most manufacturers choose to go with polymer bodies, there were some that used steel. It’s all a matter of choice, but I think polymer was the cheapest environmentally most resistant option to go here. The fuel economy fluctuated quite a bit across all entries. Some were really doing for that extra mile, while others hardly bothered. I have seen entries from around 10 US MPG and up to about 45 US MPG. Maintenance cost was pretty stable across the field, some performed exceptionally well with costs as low as around 750 dollars/year. Practicality varied heavily, as did off-road. Most people used the terrain type bodies and AWD, which offered good values for both, but that doesn’t mean they were the no-brainer option. I have also seen entries outside the jeep bodies which were competitive. Drivability was decent overall, one entry hardly bothered while others obtained up to 60. Utility varied also quite heavily, which I believe is most due to the engine. In this challenge I have seen a car almost up to 300 HP, whereas most were into the 50-60s HP range. Comfort was overall pretty low, but that can be expected from this challenge. Some went for sub-basic (basic with negative quality) and some had no entertainment. Safety was in the majority of cases either nothing or basic or sub-basic. Sportiness and Prestige didn’t matter all that much and were overall quite to very low. Prestige usually revolved around 7 and for many entries sportiness was even below 1. That said, these stats are included, but generally do not weigh all that much in the overall score of the cars.
I have seen many good entries and many mediocre ones. A majority of people tried to squeeze every last bid out of the 6000 dollar limit. In general I can state that in this challenge, as described in the OP, cheaper was really better. As the weight of the score is heavily in favor of those trying to restrain the cost of producing the car, going significantly lower than the limit really helped. A lot of good names will surely not make it due to this tendency. That said the costs were factored together into a single value with environmental resistance and reliability, which means that if you had a more expensive car you could still do well for the value for money score if those two were particularly high. I have also seen people going for race cam profiles to get every last ounce of HP out of their engine (which revs to 6000 RPM), not really good economically speaking.
In general I’m confident that with the approach of making a normal distribution of all the values and factoring in the weight for each parameter and adding them together we will get 3 clear winners. Later I will post the results of the Out of Africa Challenge, excluding the top 3 candidates, which will be named in alphabetical order. I will likely write one-line remarks for every entry. The top 3 will get full blown reviews and the winner will ultimately get all the glory! Doing these might require some time, but hopefully after this weekend we will have everything.
) contests are not over until the final entry has been approved and the creator of the challenge has officially closed it.
. Yesterday my car was half done and then, I saw the last entry available, what?!, hence I only had time to meet the requirements and send it without setting up properly…, some values might be better, like off-road (below 50).
