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$3,000 Tata Nano Car Coming To US
walterbyrd writes "The Nano is currently powered by a 37 hp two-cylinder engine and lacks common safety features such as power steering, traction control and airbags. It was originally designed to compete in the Indian market against scooters and motorcycles. . . Along with added safety equipment, it's likely the car will get a larger, less polluting engine for export markets. Unfortunately, that means the price will increase, as well, possibly tripling by the time it goes on sale in the U.S.."
Poor people could use a new car. Too many who are making $17,000 a year working 2 jobs end up with cars that cost 50% of their paycheck just in maintaince and have to go hungry half the time if something goes wrong.
There are many walmart workers where this would be perfect and are not fortunate like the poor in Europe or other first world countries.
http://saveie6.com/
ABS is pretty much needed now. When every other car around you can stop very quickly in an emergency situation, you are very likely to crash if your stopping distance is longer than everyone else's. Even being lightweight, the tires are going to be thin and not stop as quickly as will be needed. I resisted ABS as long as I could, and had many close calls where a car in front of me was stopping without looking like they were giving a lot of thought or effort, and I was doing all I could to avoid them.
The reason it's cheap is because it's shit. Not just performance wise, this thing is made of incredibly thin sheets of metal that buckle when you apply slight pressure to them with your hand. It is basically a very slightly less unsafe scooter, or possible more unsafe because at least scooter riders realize how vulnerable they are and sometimes wear a helmet.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I heard several years ago that Tata was planning to bring the car to Europe and the US with a bigger engine and safety equipment and the price would be around $8000.
The problem with that is: Nissan has figured out how to do that as well. And they have a dealership network. The Nissan Versa (base price) is about $10,000 -- and I'm sure they could figure out how to make it even cheaper if they were in a race to the bottom. But they aren't. You get a Japanese-quality vehicle for not a lot of money and it'll go on the highway.
Basically, Tata needs to figure out how to get the Nano down to a $6000 pricetag for people to even consider it versus the Versa.
In 2 or 3 years, the Chinese are coming: Their cars are cheap and unsafe, but priced so low that people will buy them anyhow. It will start a race to the bottom, but right now, Nissan has the lead because their car is a good value for the money, and a known name brand.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I dunno. I like the trikes I've seen; if they added a windshell that would keep the rain off, I'd put it high on my list for my next car.
Yes, because three-wheeled cars never sold well in England where they only existed to avoid regulations.
Oh wait, they were popular as hell when they were being sold, so much so that Mr. Bean used to torture them in his shows.
there's a strange fact that people have missed, here: in France, Category L7e cars (350kg, under 20HP) actually have *less* accidents, and so the insurance is lower. the reason why, i believe, is that these cars are so underpowered and, despite passing crash tests with flying colours they "look" unsafe, that both the drivers themselves and also other road users treat them with much more caution.
if, for example, you have a large vehicle that can do 0-60 in 9 seconds, and you are behind a small vehicle that can do 0-60 in 30, the rate of acceleration is so much what you are not used to that you would immediately realise, just from the look of the other car, that the driver in front of you is not "putting it on": his car *really* can't accelerate any quicker. automatically, you've just adjusted, slowed down, and will now be paying attention.
increased attention means increased awareness. increased awareness means less accidents.
so, far from being "unsafer", these Category L7e "micro-cars", apart from having insane fuel economy (100mpg is not uncommon) actually create a "sea of cautious respect" around them. this could be so much horse-shit speculation, but the insurance statistics speak for themselves.
Testing with a mix of typical drivers does show improvement on ice conditions using ABS, one reference. Snow is similar to gravel and there are times locking the tires does help. But with ice, ABS definitely helps lower stopping distance, even if it is going to be a long stopping distance either way.