SCOOP! Tata's One Lac Car - REAL PICTURE! And a debate on its suitability and impact.

[pgsagar]

tell your girlfriend that scorpios, innovas, taveras, accents, fiestas, skodas, camrys, accords, BMWs and Mercs are also used as taxis. Go to any five star hotel and you will spot these luxury cars sporting yellow number plate and driver in white uniform. does that mean all these are degraded?

Originally Posted by urvava

Our Auto-Rickshaws will be a thing of he Past!!

The NANO will take over the Auto Rickshaw market. If it is this Cheap! then the Auto will be replaced by NANO. This will be the BEST TAXI ever - "NANO CAB"
2 years back when i was thinking of buying a Hatch Back- My Girl Friend Echoed a Resounding "NO" to Tata Indica as it is a TAXiiiiiiii.. (No Offence here..)
Wonder wa will happen to NANO.. or "NANO CAB"

[zenx]

True. Your need of a car is your need of a car. How else its getting used is not really the point. This is even more so in the case of the Nano-segment (yes, there's a new segment now!) - its more driven by affordability/utility/convenience, not desirability, oomph, glamour and status. Of course, across products within the segment those may be valid differentiators - tho only relatively and not in absolute terms.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

tell your girlfriend that scorpios, innovas, taveras, accents, fiestas, skodas, camrys, accords, BMWs and Mercs are also used as taxis. Go to any five star hotel and you will spot these luxury cars sporting yellow number plate and driver in white uniform. does that mean all these are degraded?

Cool Down Sagar,
You go to Europe, White MERCs are not preferred by owners. You go to Saudi Arabia, White Camry's are not preferred by owners. Reason? Taxis.
It is a fact and we gotta accept it.
Back in 1999, I had a white Camry in Saudi Arabia, Fully loaded, Automatic, but, on Jeddah and Dammam Streets, every other guy would wave to me "Taxeee". It was a company given car and I had no option to change it. Later company realized the problem and they went for other colors and we gained some 'respect'

Same thing applies here. It is not a 'degrading' to the car, its the 'image' of a particular car model preferred by taxi runners... that deters other owners from that model...!!

[Joz]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Was just looking through the few dozen pics I had taken at the Expo, and hell our little scoop of a few months back was pretty much on the spot!!!

I was thinking the same. Love the way it has evolved. Great stuff by Tata Motors.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

Cool Down Sagar,
You go to Europe, White MERCs are not preferred by owners. You go to Saudi Arabia, White Camry's are not preferred by owners. Reason? Taxis.
It is a fact and we gotta accept it.
Back in 1999, I had a white Camry in Saudi Arabia, Fully loaded, Automatic, but, on Jeddah and Dammam Streets, every other guy would wave to me "Taxeee". It was a company given car and I had no option to change it. Later company realized the problem and they went for other colors and we gained some 'respect'

Same thing applies here. It is not a 'degrading' to the car, its the 'image' of a particular car model preferred by taxi runners... that deters other owners from that model...!!

Why are Mercedes cars used as taxis? Because they are so rugged (heavy duty) and reliable and long-lived.
That does not mean normal people like you and I should avoid buying them, does it?

Here is a pic I took last Sunday at München Hauptbahnhof. It is the main central railway station at Munich, Germany.
All Munich taxis are cream in color. Most of them are Mercedes W211 E-klasse cars and station wagons. Also Volvo station wagons.

Ram

[shuvc]

I'm all for the Nano. One thing that had bugged me from the beginning of this concept of targetting the 2 wheeler segment was - a lot of people who have two wheelers may be able to afford the Nano, but where will they park it ???

It's probably a nice time to go buy some garage spaces !

[tanmay_ambre]

A month back I was in Stockholm and was driven from city center to the airport in Crysler 300C. (its a different story that I waited for almost 45 minutes so that all Mercs and Volvos in front of the crysler will go and I will get into the Crysler).

Neways, in my opinion, even the BPO cab drivers may start preferring Nano over Indica (may be)... If that happens, Indica will be lose some market share to Nano.

[Trapezio]

Why worry only about taxis when millions are happy that they can finally afford a car!

[1100D]

The Taxi mental-blockade, I was told by a friend, comes from the fact that anyone can take a ride in it and know how it feels. Exclusivity is lost. This mindset works for people in our country where car ownership still has a certain degree of prestige associated with it. What if this new found status you are brandishing can be experienced by almost everyone at a fractional price. Some of the status is diluted. Although owners of cars that are popular as taxi's should feel pride in owning a car that can live upto the demands of surviving life as one.

[V-16]

Well, how about this impact.... the car on the right is a Nano!!

[shajufx]

I happend to see a flashing news and a couple of photos of Mitsubishi's new car planned for India as a rival to Tata Nano, this morning on TimesNow channel. I am not sure if they repeated the news throughout the day. The car is to be named something like 'Lano' or 'Leno' priced in the 1.3 lak. The photos that were shown on the channel were shockingly attractive and very well designed much better than all our 4-5 lak segment cars in India. I spent lot of time googling on net and checking few other news channels but could not find any trace of such a news. If anyone happend to see it, please share it here.

If automobile brands are going to compete each other in bringing out the cheapest but likeable cars as a trend, its a boon for the regular users. Majority will drive cars on roads. Tata Nano has a global competitor already (Mitsubishi) apart from Bajaj's new car !!

[hollywoodhogan]

Originally Posted by rajneeesh

I sure hope that Tata Motors can ensure that Kinetic produces quality transmission systems. Kinetic is one company that has the lowest quality standards in India. Tata would do well to see that their car does not get branded as a poor quality product as was the case with Indica. Perceptions once formed, are extremely difficult to change.

kinetic supplies to mahindra, force motors, tata motors. besides if their stuff is not up to the mark, don't blame them. blame tata qc for accepting them. quality can be delivered ONLY if the buyer/user wants it.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by ram

Why are Mercedes cars used as taxis? Because they are so rugged (heavy duty) and reliable and long-lived.
That does not mean normal people like you and I should avoid buying them, does it?

Here is a pic I took last Sunday at München Hauptbahnhof. It is the main central railway station at Munich, Germany.
All Munich taxis are cream in color. Most of them are Mercedes W211 E-klasse cars and station wagons. Also Volvo station wagons.

Ram

Well, My question is HOW MANY PRIVATE OWNED MERCEDEZ OR VOLVO STATION WAGON YOU SEE IN MUNICH WITH BEIGE COLOR...????

[GTO]

Originally Posted by tanmay_ambre

city center to the airport in Crysler 300C. (its a different story that I waited for almost 45 minutes so that all Mercs and Volvos in front of the crysler will go and I will get into the Crysler).

LOL! Only a car guy.....it's amazing the silly things we car guys put ourselves through.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

Well, My question is HOW MANY PRIVATE OWNED MERCEDEZ OR VOLVO STATION WAGON YOU SEE IN MUNICH WITH BEIGE COLOR...????

I was talking to a cabbie in Frankfurt, (I was sitting in a new S class no less!), and getting a local flavour from him. He was telling me that they voted and came to a consensus on this particluar colour as it was least popular with private buyers. A regular car cannot be sold in this colour by legislation, much like black and yellow here. A large number of cars aren't even painted, but stickered beige, so you dont need to repaint the car, plus you just peel off the stickers when selling it. Remarkable!