Tata Nano. US friendly (Auto)?
 

A review of the Tata Nano Auto is here.

Tata Nano AMT (Automatic) : Official Review - Team-BHP

It is worth reading the links in the reviews.

Dare I say it, but impressive build quality. No large panel gaps, excellent paint quality, and even the interior seems to be made of a good grade plastic.
Sure the car is underpowered for the U.S., but for India it's great.

In Australia there's always someone importing some cheap developing market car, by the time they land here, they're still cheap, but never cheap enough.

One recent attempt was the Chinese Cherry J1, it sold for 10K new (Mirage is 12K), hardly anyone bought them and you can now pick up a three year old example for as little as $3K.

As long as decent cars like the Mirage exist, there won't be a market for anything below that.

Also that Marelli gearbox control unit is know to fail at less than 60K miles and cost $2000+ to replace.

i like it but wonder if it would be better with a diesel. Nano MT is rated at 23.6 km/l. diesel could get better with proper gearing.

I'd have to get suicidal before I get into one of those....
http://youtu.be/buMXtGoHHIg

no airbag? forget it! would never be US friendly.

Didn't even think a "0" star score was possible in a crash test.:eek:

I'm all for it, funny everybody thinks the Elio is great, but these would be terrible. The only way the Elio skates by and has a chance of US approval is it has 3 wheels and is there for a motorcycle and doesn't need crash standards. So pull a wheel off the cars from India and bring them in. They don't have to be expensive, simple shipping costs and the costs of the cars in India would put them almost 1/2 the price of a Mirage. Any higher prices come from the government getting involved.
So instead people ride motorcycles or drive 20 year old US spec cars which I bet aren't any safer, use more gas, and have higher emissions.

I don't think America is ready for something so crude and so slow.

Especially considering it has one of those godawful AMT transmissions.

Still... A bit sad we don't have these here... I would dearly love to drive one, just for the giggles.

I don't see them as being any less practical than a leccy vehicle, e.g. the MiEV. Tata were supposed to be doing a Diesel and a leccy one but that seems to have gone away unfortunately.

The facelift looks really good though and the quality is rising.