Posted on 07/17/2009 2:15:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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.
His family, who accompanied him to the showroom, said their first drive would be to a nearby Hindu temple to have the vehicle blessed.
Mumbai bank worker Ashish Balakrishnan, who took delivery of a sunshine yellow LX model, said he could not wait to "joyride on the Bandra-Worli Sea-Link", a newly opened 5.6-kilometre (3.5-mile) bridge in the city.
"This is my first car. The price was a major factor," the 29-year-old told reporters.
The third car, also a lunar silver LX, was handed over to Kores India Ltd, an office products-to-outsourcing firm.
Analysts said the delivery was a positive step, after a land dispute forced the firm off the site of a factory it was building to produce the cars in eastern India, fuelling concerns about its ability to meet demand on time.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, at a showroom in Mumbai. The vehicle is set to hit the country's streets today, as the first customer gets the keys to a vehicle that its makers hope will transform travel for millions of Indians. (AFP/File/Sajjad Hussain)
0-60 .. eventually.
I’d buy that for 2000 bucks as a commuter.
0-60 if thrown off a 10 story building. I think 45 is the max speed if IIRC from an earlier article.
If I lived somewhere where most of what I needed was within 15 miles, that thing would be awesome. I’d be a little nervous about the freeway though. I see it as a “Truman Show” town type of car. Just above “enclosed golf cart”.
How much does it cost ???
That picture reminds me of the time a field mouse ran out in front of my Ford Explorer. The mouse looked just like that before...
It’s still a big step up from an ox-drawn cart for millions of people.
That’s some small TaTas
A pair of new Tata’s for $4,000? Not bad.
Small diameter wheels and tires are not conducive to surviving unpaved and potholed roads, much less off-piste exercises.
I can see this in Lubbock, as a target drone for teaching the yokel drivers the rudiments of accident avoidance.
It would be great for avoiding our forests of orange cones, which are likely to spring up anywhere in town like a plague of smallpox. Unfortunately it would end up as the hood ornament on a construction truck.
Sounds like you need a brace of tatas.
I wonder if the sale people resist the urge to say Ta-Ta when the buyer leaves.
As the former Third World countries prosper and move forward into the 21st Century, Democrats in the US want to take us back to the 17th Century.
depends on the interior options ya select,, like cushioning and manually inflated air bags. :-)
Nah, someone already removed the Chunk Tuna it was designed to carry.
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