OT: TATA's Nano Unveiled

It's no uglier than a Prius.

It's a lot more functional than what many people use to carry around their families of 4 or 5: A motorcycle, with kids sitting on the handle bars or hanging off the sides (I am not joking).

For people who can't afford a $5000 car, it is very good looking.

It also gets good mileage (around 50 mpg).

But it's definitely not made for highway speeds (the wheel bearings are not built for speeds).

I also wonder how long lasting it will be or how much it will cost when it meets the new emmissions standards in a few years.

And if you want airconditioning, it is extra.

Jeff

Now that we've seen TATA's Nano, does anyone have a photo of Nan O.'s tatas?

Shoot...he beat me to it... ;)

Some woman named Saran Narayan was on the BBC early this morning and on NBC just now, railing against the car. For environmental reasons, of course.

NBC was smart and shut her off after a 10 second sound bite. The BBC wasn't quite so smart.

During her tirade on the BBC, she started with the Evil Corporation rant against Tata, looking to make obscene profits off the backs of the working poor. She then went on to the environment; according to her the Nano is going to cause trees to be chopped down and we're all going to burn from Climate Change. She then moved to the government of India for allowing such a car to be built, and accused it of subsidising the Nano with Tata Motors.

She finally ended her ravings with a finger point at "the West" because we want everyone to be like us.

Gee, lady, I don't care if you drive a car, a motorbike, or ride a freakin' llama! Who cares?! Talk to the people who will be buying the Nano; the working poor, as you say, who load themselves, the wife and two kids onto a two wheeled scooter with an oil-burning 2 stroke engine and then go riding off into some of the most dangerous traffic in the world.

Guess she must be for population control, too...

Ah...the vehicular equivalant of my webtv...

Like the bic lighter these cars will fill up landfills and junk yards far and wide. I don't see how 50 mpg is good for a car that weighs 1k pounds...

Some of the comments were interesting. One guy in defense of GM said he 'buys a new one every 2 years and has yet to get a bad one'... If he hangs on to a GM longer than 2 years, he'll know what many of us know..

CP

Too bad her parents were not.

I'm looking very hard at the new Camaro. The first American car that's captured my fancy for quite some time.

If he gets a new one every two years, maybe he hasn't gotten a GOOD one yet.

According to the LATimes today, the Nano gets up to 60 mph.....still not a barn burner, but able to get out of its own way, anyway.

Where did you get the 43 mph figure?

The LA Times is less correct twice a day than a stopped clock.

Considering the two numbers, I'll bet they got the figure derived incorrectly from "kilometers per hour".

I cribbed the following from the AP story..... "The little car, with its snub nose, sloping roof, and slightly bulbous rear, makes it look like another Indian icon -- the mango.

The Nano's appeal, though, is not its pedigree but its price -- targeting people moving up from the lower ends of India's transportation spectrum, where two-wheeled scooters selling for as little as $900 are often crammed with entire families.

The Nano's closest competitor is the Maruti 800, a four-door selling for nearly twice as much.

In terms of performance it doesn't offer much more than the Model T. The Nano has a two-cylinder 0.6 liter gasoline engine with 33 horsepower, giving it a top speed of about 60 mph, according to Tata. It gets 50 miles per gallon."

Is AP wrong too?

Mr. Tata's target top speed was 100 KPH, or roughly 66 MPH. If the car will achieve 100 KPH, then the top speed is 66 MPH.

The LA times probably got their story from AP.

I don't know.

But it wouldn't be the first time.

From Tata's Web site...

Tata's figure given on their website is 70KmH/47 MPG.

I have heard or read (I forget which - I read a few articles and National Public Radio had a good story on it as well) that the bearings are made to go up to 43 mph (or something like that) - to save on costs. Bearings made for higher speeds will last longer, but also cost more. So that might explain the discrepancy.

Jeff

I hope she got on here bicycle made of all renewable resources when she left the "news conference" (secret phrase for liberal programing session). She probably was chaufered off in one of Al's Limos to a private jet.