The World's Cheapest Car

[Oracle of Delphi]

Custom, I'm reading your sig and wondering if you are making a reference to Thomas A. Murphy line that goes, "General Motors is not in the business of making cars. It is in the business of making money" with your line, "Don't forget GM is a business, it's not here for anyone's personal self gratification!"

I would also like to say that Murphy's train of thought, while it was mostly correct in it's assessment, actually quite scares me. Forgetting and neglecting the reason why you are making money breeds failure.

Don't be afraid "I know the magic words". :AH-HA_wink: I haven't forgotten after all, I suffered though, Roger Smith, Bob Stemple and Ron Zarella and his hair brained version of brand management. I have been part of more GM divisions than I care to count (GMAD, LAD, BOC, T&B), just to name a few.

My warning is what it is, a warning that GM should not be sidetracked from it's primary goal of making 1st class transportation for the greatest amount of people, and not to be swayed by the few to make this or that, (EG: SixtyEight and his RWD 1930's version of GM), In other words, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

[thegriffon]

Well, it depends on how you define the 0-60... it makes more sense to define it as how fast the car goes during the time 0-60 minutes.

If you get to 60 you will wear out the wheel bearings too quickly. Stay under 45.

[ZL-1]

What nice, round, perky Tatas they are too!

:rotflmao:

[Drew Dowdell]

Don't be afraid "I know the magic words". :AH-HA_wink: I haven't forgotten after all, I suffered though, Roger Smith, Bob Stemple and Ron Zarella and his hair brained version of brand management. I have been part of more GM divisions than I care to count (GMAD, LAD, BOC, T&B), just to name a few.

My warning is what it is, a warning that GM should not be sidetracked from it's primary goal of making 1st class transportation for the greatest amount of people, and not to be swayed by the few to make this or that, (EG: SixtyEight and his RWD 1930's version of GM), In other words, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Yay! Sonacamcord6 for everyone!

GM should remember and take care of the people who love the company the most. GM needs to think and to innovate. The fact that GM has FlexFuel, a few different flavors of hybrids, direct injection, diesel, etc and then throws up it's hands and says "f@#k it! We'll never get to 35mpg" even though the due date is 12 years away is FAIL of epic proportions.

A Zeta based Impala with the 2.9 liter diesel getting 35mpg highway and marketed right would do extremely well. It's all off the shelf parts. Why can't FlexFuel and 2-mode be combined in one vehicle? When are we getting an engine like the one in the Biopower concept? Why can't the new 4.3 diesel be used in cars? Capacity?? Stop building the damn 3800 and start building the engines we want!

I know you hear a lot of armchair CEOing around here, but none of us are suggesting GM use technology that it doesn't already have. Why do these things seem so obvious to us, but so far fetched to GM?

[NOS2006]

More on a serious note, if this ever were to even make it here, do you honestly think people would buy it? I wouldn't think many people would buy it because, while most people are looking for a deal, many others would probably look at it and think of safety and features. I've met a lot of people who said they'll never buy a Smart car because they wouldn't want to be hit by someone else in it, no matter how good the safety ratings on the thing are.

Would an insurance company even insure something this cheap and crappy? Basically any damage to it, especially since it's built in India, would total it out. Just driving it off the lot, the thing is automatically worth like $1000 I'm sure.

[NOS2006]

Oh, and just remember, they bought Jaguar and Land Rover... :AH-HA_wink:

[thegriffon]

Not yet they haven't.

[Z-06]

Oh, and just remember, they bought Jaguar and Land Rover... :AH-HA_wink:

Not yet. They made an offer for 2.5B. If they did, consider seeing Tatas in US through Jaguar and LR dealerships soon.

Most of the LR and Jags are in the bigger cities, where hippies and self proclaimed high thinking people will have a chance on pouncing some TATAs.

[thegriffon]

… where hippies and self proclaimed high thinking people will have a chance on pouncing some TATAs.

[NOS2006]

By the way, 23 km/l is 54.85 MPG if I did that conversion correctly...

[Z-06]

It is actually 54.09935725363874970174182772608 mpg.

[thegriffon]

Just say 54.1 mpg—you can't express a result to a greater accuracy than the conversion factors you use to calculate it.

[Z-06]

Just say 54.1 mpg—you can't express a result to a greater accuracy than the conversion factors you use to calculate it.

True I used 1 gallon = 3.7854111013237204080218917894812 litres

and 1 mile = 1.6093439798947875279703983705714 kms

[thegriffon]

According to the NIST, 1 mile is exactly 1.609 344 km (by definition), and 1 US gallon is 231 cu in or exactly 3.785 411 784 L. Where did you you find those hinky factors?

The US has two sets of standards for feet, yards and miles. The standard units are the "international", defined on the basis of 1 yard = 0.914 4 m (and thus 1 foot = 0.304 8 m, 1 inch = 2.54 cm and 1 mile = 1.609 344 km). For geodetic surveys however the "survey" standard of 1 yard = 3600/3937 m, and thus an international unit (feet, yards or miles) is 0.999 998 survey units

[Robert Hall]

Whatevah..just round down to 54 mpg.

[Intrepidation]

Can't wait to see this baby riced out with 10's...they'll look massive. I think my snowblower has larger wheels.

Look at the lack of cutlines in the dash, GM should take not

Edited January 12, 2008 by Dodgefan

[frogger]

Will have to save up for a matching pair

[regfootball]

Will have to save up for a matching pair

once you got two tata's you can switch back and forth between em, unless you can fugre out a way to drive em both at the same time.

[Sixty8panther]

Some dope co-worker has managed to already research this POS and he's

all busy telling me yesterday that this will be the SAFEST car in the world

since the whole body is like a reinforced rollcage.

Is there something in the water here in Mass? Geezus Krist. How does this

bull$h! spread? Also told me my Roadmaster was a POS because his

'92 Roadmaster blew a trans. at 160K miles after he got it for free off his

grandparents. Just junked it since it was "worthless" being a gas hog.

[Duncan]

Some dope co-worker has managed to already research this POS and he's

all busy telling me yesterday that this will be the SAFEST car in the world

since the whole body is like a reinforced rollcage.

Is there something in the water here in Mass? Geezus Krist. How does this

bull$h! spread? Also told me my Roadmaster was a POS because his

'92 Roadmaster blew a trans. at 160K miles after he got it for free off his

grandparents. Just junked it since it was "worthless" being a gas hog.

It is the safest car in the world...

...because you'll never get it going fast enough to kill you, should you hit anything.

Regarding the trans issues, did you ask your "buddy" how Honda dealt with their particular brand of trans issues a few years back? Those were failing a LOT sooner than 160k, if I recall correctly. Isolated instance, sure, but Honda's been building front-drive automatics for as long as GM has...

[jlgolden]

As an alternative to a Vespa or entry-level motorcycle, something like this makes sense. More passenger & cargo space than a motorcycle, and no more dangerous.

I mean, really, I'd feel safer in the Tata than on my Kawasaki Ninja.

However, the Kawasaki can quickly get out of the way of danger...accelerate briskly in any gear, and can manuever around obstacles precisely, where as this Tata is probably a dull drive.

How long before they hit the shores in the U.S.?

Edited January 26, 2008 by jlgolden

[Duncan]

As an alternative to a Vespa or entry-level motorcycle, something like this makes sense. More passenger & cargo space than a motorcycle, and no more dangerous.

I mean, really, I'd feel safer in the Tata than on my Kawasaki Ninja.

However, the Kawasaki can quickly get out of the way of danger...accelerate briskly in any gear, and can manuever around obstacles precisely, where as this Tata is probably a dull drive.

How long before they hit the shores in the U.S.?

Those bumpers are way too small - it's gotta pass our crash tests. Although somehow the Smart ForTwo made it through, with basically the same layout...so maybe there's a chance.

[Robert Hall]

Those bumpers are way too small - it's gotta pass our crash tests. Although somehow the Smart ForTwo made it through, with basically the same layout...so maybe there's a chance.

The Smart was engineered from the beginning for modern Western crash tests, though...has the 'safety cage' construction. I doubt if the Nano has such construction.