The Tata Nano arrives

An interesting sales process - first you have to buy, yes buy, an application form to be added to the waiting list.

Don't think that I would be getting one though - the fuel economy is only equal to the Prius - just goes to show how efficient the hybrid technology really is - better than a little two-stroke

 

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I doubt that it's a two-stroke, too hard to control emissions. It is a two cylinder engine though.

 

Ratan N Tata.....is that what the engine will sound like?

 

They don't come only in pairs?

 

While the TATA NANO may get 55 mpg, I bet a empty can of Bud offers better front end crash protection!

And I thought the Yaris was scary when I drove one as a loaner!

 

We really need to remember the market that this car is intended for and put away our cultural bias. The Nano is marketed toward Indians that currently use scooters and motorcycles as their primary transportation. It is not uncommon to see a family of 3 to 6 people riding a motorcycle in India. While the Nano may not meet safety standards in developed countries it is much safer than piling the whole family onto a motorcycle.


This is a common site in developing countries:

 

You meet the nicest people on a stretched out Honda!!!

 

I agree 100%

We tend to act all smug and superior in the West, not realizing the majority of the global population is *lucky* to be able to motor around the entire family on a moped

Tata Group is a large and powerful company. Wonder if The Big Three are sweating bullets yet? Make that micro a bit bigger, and you have serious competition to the Aveo, Focus, and whatever small car Chrysler has

 

Well that's because we are!!!

Highly doubtful, that death trap would never get approval to travel U.S. highways due to the SERIOUS risk involved in putting that thing on the road!!! By the time you made it highway safe, you would end up with a "SmartCar"

 

Don't bet against them. Tata is a large and well respected company with decades of vehicle experience. They just bought Jaguar and Land Rover so they have access to any technology then need to help in the transition from the requirements of the developing to the developed world.

Tata has already announced they are working on a version for sale in Europe that we be released in 2 years to be followed by a US version in 3 years.

 

very illustrative point you have there

 

It wasn't so long ago that Detroit laughed at Japan's cars.

 

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No, we are not. We even have to depend on China to finance our bottomless pit of spending

 

You now, at this particular point in the history of man, seeing as we have let ourselves be driven into the ground. I should have said "were" With all the industrial bastards outsourcing the work to China, etc. we really don't make a damn thing ourselves. But they still make their uber profit, and rather than give some of it to American, or Canadian folk, they just keep screwing the system into the ground, while keeping the profits for their own little greedy pockets. ! Then we have folks like Walmart shoveling all that China made crap down our throats, it kills our pets, contains lead, it's just generally CRAP. Try to find something that is "Really made in America". I buy it when I can, well except for the Prius. Detroit should have seen this coming, They did see it coming, and blew it off!!! Then they wonder why we buy a car that's easy on gas. If Ford, etc had a true Hybrid that does 45-50mpg, I probably would be driving it. BUT, NOOOOOOOO they have to keep sucking that gas teat, and look where we are now!

But hey you have a point, also screw ALL these Wall Street bastards who have just stolen BILLIONS. There should have not even have been a question of bail for Madoff...Make him clean highways for the rest of his life, and the wife doesn't get to keep a dime. All the greedy bastards should be cleaning the highways, and ALL their assets, what's left, go to the people who were taken!!!

Anyway this thread is getting off topic, to that end, I still think the tutu/toto, whatever the hell that thing is called, is still a piece of CRAP!!!! Until they add thousands of dollars of add ons to make it highway safe, it aint gonna drive the 405!!!

 

"Breaking conventional barriers" means coming to grips with the
realization that *nobody* needs the kind of speed/power/acceleration
that the western world has come to believe is necessary simply
due to force of marketing. People who get the same sort of
power-to-weight ratio but now in a four-wheel platform instead
of two that can carry much more stuff will be delighted. That's
totally the right approach, and it's this country's stupidity
about such things that's at fault, not the manufacturer of smaller,
lighter cars.
.
_H*

 

I actually agree 100% with everything you said, except this part

Safety is all relative. If all vehicles were the same size as this micro Tata car, a collision wouldn't be a big deal. Put a Prius up against a full size Suburban, or a pick em up truck with a 6 inch lift kit and monster tires, who usually wins in that crash scenario?

Mass alone works against you in the real world. No doubt the illiterate hillbilly meth mouth crowd laugh whenever they think of their pick em up truck mowing down a mom in a tiny car, but in the real world they're a lot more likely to croak in a rollover or a single vehicle crash

 

Yeah, the advertising seemed to imply that if you didn't get the big pick em up truck that Captain Winky would fall off