Patent ID: 7568753

Claim:
A children's ride-on vehicle, comprising: a reduced-scale, molded plastic body defining a passenger region sized for a child, the body including a bottom wall and left and right side portions that generally flank the bottom wall, each side portion including an inner side panel and an outer side panel that generally face each other, the body being disposed in a flexed configuration in which a lower region of the inner side panel and a lower region of the outer side panel are retained proximate to one another in each side portion against a bias that urges such lower regions apart from one another; a plurality of wheels coupled rotatably to the body and including at least one steerable wheel; a steering mechanism operatively coupled to the at least one steerable wheel and configured to steer the at least one steerable wheel responsive to steering inputs received from a child sitting in the passenger region; and a drive assembly operatively coupled to one or more of the plurality of wheels and configured to drive the rotation thereof; wherein the body has an exterior shape that is changed substantially by the flexed configuration relative to an unflexed configuration of the body, such that the ride-on vehicle corresponds more closely in appearance to a selected full-size vehicle with the body in the flexed configuration.