"In terms of overall pollutants, it has a lower pollution level than two-wheelers being manufactured in India today."

In Southeast Asia today there are currently 100 million motorcycles and scooters powered by two-stroke engines. Each one produces as much pollution as 50 cars. The car might be good on emissions, it might not, but this quote certainly isn't very reassuring.

The 54mpg might be good on CO2 emissions, but that isn't going to do you much good if you are one of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands who die prematurely each year from the fine particulates that get lodged in your lungs.

They claim it meets Bharat Stage III (and Euro IV) emissions standards, which is as good as any other car in India. That statement is in response to fears that as people move up from scooters/motorcycles to this car, the emissions problem would get worse.

The only thing that will get worse is the traffic problem. But that's everyone's "fault": no reason why the poor should sacrifice their safety (relative to carrying a family of 4+ on a scooter) to save commute time for others.

By the way, for those who are not aware of Tata, its a group of companies based in India - who has also been in talks to buy Ford's Jaguar and Land Rover units ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acGt... )

Here's another intersting read: The Ultra-Lite Car From Tata (TTM): Why Not For US? - http://www.247wallst.com/2008/01/the-ultra-lite.html

It's also India's largest conglomerate, with revenues equaling 3.2% of India's GDP. Tata Consulting Services is also India's largest IT firm with 100,000 employees.

*engineers at Ford (F) and GM (GM) can make cars that run on H20

He means H20 and electricity, right? They can also make cars that run just on electricity.

Hmm... the previous link seems to be dead. How do I update it?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/World_watches_Tata_Motor...

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/tata-nano-the-wor...

Anyone remember this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugo

I don't think you're looking at it from the point of view of the target market, low income people who so far could only afford a two-wheeler for the whole (large) family.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_02/b40660330...

I wasn't criticizing it. The Yugo's reputation as a POS was at least partially undeserved. As great as it is that poorer families will get cars, I seriously doubt its long term reliability.

Another underrated small car was the geo metro - more than 50 mpg in the cheapest configuration, and very reliable (the early ones were made in Japan, and could easily make it to 200k miles if the driver wasn't very heavy).

That said, in the USA you would almost certainly be better off buying a ~10-15 y/o honda or toyota - slightly worse mileage, but probably much more reliable.

I drove a Suzuki Swift (same car as the Metro) for a decade. Cost me $10k (Canadian back when they were cheap), never spent a cent to maintain it. Gas, I never noticed actually spending money on it ;-) It wasn't the cheapest configuration, though, it had 4 cylinders (as opposed to 3) and 14" inch tires instead of 13".

Or you could get a golf tdi thats a few years old. Mine used to get about 45mpg.. 50 with a good tail wind. :)