What do you feel a brand new customer would want, from any company or brand, would justify them placing their hard earned money?
Or put in another way, what should a brand new vehicle company strive for to earn customers trust?
Make sure the product you're building doesn't include planned obsolescence & make it so the customer (or mechanic) can repair it without tearing half of the vehicle apart. This is in regards to any general repair, it brings down the cost of ownership.
Go by the John Browning method of over-engineering everything (for strength) then up that number by another 20%. He did that with every firearm he designed, this is why they were so successful.
In essense do the exact opposite that every vehicle manufacturer has done for the past 30 years.
IMO, I would feel bad that they would take most of their hard- earned money into something that might not be good. For your second question, I would encourage them to lease the vehicle and ask them for feedback to see what improvements that could be beneficial in the long term in terms of reliability.
If this is more of a one on one Scotty's question in general, I'll give the moderators my consent to delete it.
thanks for the permission