World's cheapest car ($2,000) hits Indian streets

[Beet]

MUMBAI (AFP) – The world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, hit the streets on Friday, as the first customer got the keys to a vehicle that its makers hope will transform travel for millions of Indians.

Ashok Raghunath Vichare took delivery of a lunar silver Nano LX model, one of three cars handed over in person by Tata Motors boss Ratan Tata at a city dealership.

The 59-year-old customs official from Mumbai said only that he was "very happy" to have got his hands on the car, as he was mobbed by cameras and press photographers.

...

Some 100,000 people were selected from a ballot to be the first recipients of the Nano, which reviewers have compared to the European Smart car and the classic "People's Car", the Volkswagen Beetle.

They include a roadside cobbler from Mumbai, who had been saving for seven years to buy a two-wheeler, but decided to wait and upgrade to four wheels on hearing that the vehicle would sell for just 100,000 rupees (2,055 dollars).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090717/lf_afp/indiaautocompanytatanano;_ylt=At14FwxzQqG9x7uhWMGTeYMDW7oF

[King]

Maybe we should just install a really big air purifier/humidifier in the sky.

[dead0man]

Last I heard it will be here (in the states) in a few years.  They need to make a few modifications for our market (more power, better bumpers) that will add a grand or so to the price tag, but still.  If you can buy a brand new car in 2012 for 5 or 6 grand, even if it is a little dinky thing, it will still be awesome.  Plus all the new electric and series hybrids coming out in the next 18 months....it's a good time to be a driver.


(except for opebo who thinks the auto was perfected in 1978 and it's been downhill since)

[opebo]

Christ, I've had maybe a dozen cars in the under $2,000 price range, and every one of them was enormously better than this thing.

[King]

Christ, I've had maybe a dozen cars in the under $2,000 price range, and every one of them was enormously better than this thing.

If this car existed in those days, it probably would've only cost about $25.

[opebo]

If this car existed in those days, it probably would've only cost about $25.

You have a point - cars in the 70s were typically around 1/6 the cost of cars nowadays, and much better.