Thought this Tata Car Company sounded familiar...they're the company trying to buy Jag and Rover from Ford.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/...iness/tata.php

 

Yep, that's them.

 

The thing is, that's probably enough car for 90% of the average passenger car buyers out there. The 2-cylinder engine cracks me up. I remember my Dad's old Sprint had a 3-banger. If it was a 2-cycle engine, it'd probably get close to 100 MPG.

 

That's probably enough car for 75% of North American daily commuters as well.

 

I remember very well the comments that were made about Toyota, Datsun and Honda back the mid-60's. We all laughed at what they were trying sell in this country. Ain't laughing anymore. This outfit may not be a player right now, but give them time. Unlike American businesses, these people take a long term view of their business model. My guess is they will probably end up owning Jag and Rover, then watch and see how long it takes them to bring a viable car to market. Hell, they may not have to buy Jag and Rover, they may just buy Ford.

Pat

 

Wasn't some other car company attempting to introduce something similar for City Commuters here in the USA?

 

You're probably talking about the Smart. If I remember correctly they start around $12,000 or so. I haven't checked in a while at final pricing. I'm pretty sure they are supposed to launch this year.

 

I know that MIT came up with something called the City Car that looks about as ugly as this one. Also, I read somewhere that Mercedes or BMW was going to try and come up with a 4 seater car specifically designed for city commuters. I think it used a 2 cylinder engine and had a top speed of 65 mph. None of these cars, however, is in the $2500.00 range. I'm sure that we will see a raft of these little cars being introduced this year to try and offset the rising price of fuel.

From what I read, the fuel mileage is not as good as it could be because of the additional weight these cars have to carry to pass US safety standards. When the cars were initially proposed, they were talking 60-80 MPG. Then reality set in and a more realistic 40-50 was the goal.

Pat

 

From www.smartusa.com:

"We are happy to announce that pricing for the smart fortwo has been determined. The smart fortwo pure will start at $11,590, the smart fortwo passion couple will start at $13,590 and the smart fortwo passion cabriolet will start at $16,590."

 

Not bad. They came in just under their target price. I actually started seriously looking at the smart a while back just to drive back and forth to work in. A tank of gas would probably last me like a month. And it would be kind of fun to put a system in. But I just couldn't do it. To drive a car like that I would have to leave my penis at home.