  Oladub Member Username: Oladub Post Number: 1266 Registered: 08-2006 |
Not to worry. It can't be sold in the US. The Tato Nano will sell for $2,500. Let's just say that it a better buy than a gold cart. I wonder what Tata or GM could sell a minimal car for that met US safety standards. I know of some empty factories. With the economy what it is, not everyone can afford bells and whistles. http://www.yahoo.com/s/1036580 | ||
Angry_dad Member Username: Angry_dad Post Number: 317 Registered: 02-2006 |
Looks like a "Cozy Coupe" that little kids push themselves around in. Problem is, by the time any stripped car gets to market, some government "expert" mandates all sorts of equipment that makes it impossible to sell. Then to justify the cost, other crap gets added in to make it "worthwhile". Then a tax break is given to build factory and a stuffed suit takes credit for the entire project. | ||
Angry_dad Member Username: Angry_dad Post Number: 318 Registered: 02-2006 |
Looks like a "Cozy Coupe" that little kids push themselves around in. Problem is, by the time any stripped car gets to market, some government "expert" mandates all sorts of equipment that makes it impossible to sell. Then to justify the cost, other crap gets added in to make it "worthwhile". Then a tax break is given to build a factory and a stuffed suit takes credit for the entire project. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9502 Registered: 10-2003 |
Look at those tires. There are potholes around here that would bottom that thing out. | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 3737 Registered: 06-2008 |
I don't see why it couldn't be sold in the US. The government could just restrict their use to main roads and not allow them the operate on freeways, same way they do with Mopeds. I can't imagine how these things would be any MORE dangerous than a moped. | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 6723 Registered: 11-2004 |
33 horsepower? OMG- I think some of my neighbors have more powerful lawn mowers than this. | ||
Themax Member Username: Themax Post Number: 844 Registered: 09-2005 |
Aren't seniors driving to market in golf carts in some parts of the country? That thing looks like a step up, so just call it a super golf cart. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 668 Registered: 06-2007 |
Yes! The art of Clown-stuffing a car has returned! A suitable car is again being made | ||
Chub Member Username: Chub Post Number: 265 Registered: 11-2003 |
I would buy one if I lived in India. This IS NOT any more dangerous than a motorcycle. People are so over concerned about safety in the USA, it makes me sick. No, I wouldn't take the Tato on the freeway either, just like I wouldn't on my scooter. | ||
Rid0617 Member Username: Rid0617 Post Number: 402 Registered: 03-2008 |
It would make a great little around the town car to do local errand chasing. But once again, as said the mothers against everything would have a fit. Same reason why my kid has to have a helmet to ride a bike. If I showed up on my bike in what is required/recommended now I'd need the helmet to protect myself from the butt whipping the other kids would give me. But then I chewed the lead paint my crib was painted with so maybe it's affecting my brain LOL | ||
Wazootyman Member Username: Wazootyman Post Number: 421 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: In 2006 (latest stats I can find), 42,642 people died in motor vehicle accidents. That makes me sick. Due to the "over concern" of safety, the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel has declined from 2.1 to 1.4 from 1990 to 2006. What's your point again? (Source: http://www.census.gov/compendi a/statab/tables/09s1065.pdf) | ||
Rfban Member Username: Rfban Post Number: 306 Registered: 02-2004 |
I was unaware that Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata... | ||
Otter Member Username: Otter Post Number: 649 Registered: 12-2007 |
Tata Nano is not a safe car by US standards, but it's a lot safer than this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/o ansari/2423471129/ Which is very typical, on scooters as well as on motos as pictures. It's built for its market. O. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2091 Registered: 10-2003 |
OK, so redesign the thing to give it seatbelts, airbags, and more protection in the doors/structure to allow it to pass safety standards; ramp up the engine to about 80 hp to allow freeway driving (and it would still probably get 50 mpg), and sell it for about $7000. Voila, modern Model T. Basic transportation. Just what America needs right now. Why hasn't GM thought of something like that? | ||
Jtf1972 Member Username: Jtf1972 Post Number: 124 Registered: 08-2008 |
"Why hasn't GM thought of something like that?" It's not a truck? ;) Well, in actual defense of GM, it isn't built in the USA so they do have that part down pat. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9531 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: As someone who has lost two important people to auto accidents, I applaud this post. | ||
_sj_ Member Username: _sj_ Post Number: 1714 Registered: 12-2003 |
Over Concern? Maybe it is just the drivers but if anything there is not enough concern. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9532 Registered: 10-2003 |
To clarify, Wazooty was refuting another poster's comment about "over concern". The quote feature here isn't so great when double quoting. | ||
Otter Member Username: Otter Post Number: 650 Registered: 12-2007 |
Fury, It's not that easy. It is, often, hard enough (that is, expensive enough) to redesign a car designed for the EU market to achieve US compliance that it is usually not worth it, and is done when the car is redesigned in the next product cycle. I don't think the Nano even meets EU standards. I am pretty certain the degree of changes needed would be such that there is really no point financially, and you're better off starting from scratch. But the larger point is that there isn't a market for this kind of car in the US. Sure, there's a little bit of one (there's someone out there who wants practically everything) but not enough to spend all the money needed to bring a car to market here. Canada is a better market for simple, inexpensive transpo than the US is (they got Ladas a while back, for instance), and I don't think the Nano would fly there either. O. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1854 Registered: 12-2006 |
It would be interesting to know how much the various federal regulations add to the cost of a car, and then it would be interesting to know how many more cars we'd sell if they cost that much less, and how many more people would be working if we made that many more cars. You can't make cars safe. Cars are unsafe because they are driven by people, who are unsafe drivers mostly. I lost an uncle in a house fire, which was directly his fault. We could make houses fireproof; it would add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of every house. Should we? I think not. | ||
Kensingtony Member Username: Kensingtony Post Number: 58 Registered: 09-2008 |
There's an article about the Tata Nano in the January issue of the British magazine CAR.The article expLains the reason why Ratan Tata came up with the idea for the car.Seems that the traffic death rate in India is high because families pile on motor scooters and cycles(their only mode of transport) and tend to fall off of them at an alarming rate.So Mr.Tata decided to try to cut the death rate by building an affordable car.It has nothing to do with trying to just build the cheapest car possible. | ||
Otter Member Username: Otter Post Number: 651 Registered: 12-2007 |
Whoops! When I was talking about the nano and EU certification, I didn't exactly get that one right: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/0 3/04/geneva-2009-bodacious-tat as-indian-automaker-debuts-nan o-euro/ O. | ||
Trainman Member Username: Trainman Post Number: 766 Registered: 04-2006 |
It is cheaper to buy every bus rider a new car then to pay for SMART and DDOT. If we pay all the transit workers to stay home and buy all the riders new cars, then many people will have jobs and the taxpayers will have more money. And then private free enterprise will then come back and then even more jobs will come back to Michigan. So, why not vote NO to defeat the SMART property tax next August 2010? | ||
Lowell Moderator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2235 Registered: 09-2003 |
quote:Source | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1857 Registered: 12-2006 |
Oh, come on now, Lowell. The use of automobiles is skyrocketing in India and China, while flat in the US and Canada. If you make cars safer (and do other minor things like cracking down on drunk driving, which was a huge effort in North America and Europe in the 1990s), and driving does not increase, fatalities will decrease. If you make cars safer, but you put hundreds of millions of brand new (therefore inexperienced) drivers on the road, fatalities will go up. If you don't bother to make those cars safe, all the more so. The industrializing nations would consider it unfair if they were forced to adopt the same environmental and safety regulations while trying to grow new industrial economies that we have adopted 150 years after industrialization. And they'd have a point. Deaths due to car accidents might fall in the US and Canada, but deaths overall will increase since there are more of us and we're getting older. So we won't die in a fiery crash; instead we'll live long enough to develop pancreatic cancer and Alzheimer's. Since I'd prefer to die in a fiery crash rather than a slow, lingering cancer death, I can take solace in the fact that cell phone use continues to increase. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2093 Registered: 10-2003 |
"But the larger point is that there isn't a market for this kind of car in the US." Sorry, I think you're dead wrong. It might have to be designed from scratch, as you say... but if it could meet US safety/emissions requirements, seat four people, get 50 mpg, and come in at less than $8000, I believe it would be a big hit. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2095 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm seeing many more Smart cars out there on the road, which surprises even me. A Smart that would seat four would sell well, I think. Small, fuel-efficient cars are the future of the industry; I firmly believe that. |
