TATA's Rs 1 lakh Car: Thumbs Up or Down

[grvanand]

Originally Posted by ponniah_ashok

Dude!

TATAs know the art of getting the govt approvals, be it safety or emission. Every day i see the TATA commercial vehicles, Indicas and Indigos which are a little older, spitting smokes like the steel factory bellows.

It is not the type approval of the new vehicle that is of concern, emission norms in true sense is the life of the engine to sustain the conditions and still maintaining the norms.

I have used TATA vehicles starting from the TATA estates. So many years on, Mr.Rattan TATA could never perfect the passenger cars models(including the Indicas, Safaris and Indigos)They all are still machines moving people but not the cars in terms of worldclass technology. TATA has a long way to go before perfecting a car and to make a 1 lac car. It is just a poor car for a poor man who does not understand what is in store for him is a complete raw deal from a man more interested in keeping his promise rather than giving a better deal.

I only wish TATA had perfected the existing models of Indica and Indigo(more than 6 years and no significant product change yet!!!) rather than eyeing quick bucks through the so called sensation.

If you decide to buy and drive the car, I hope you would enjoy going by your loyalty to TATAs.

I totally disagree with you Mr. Ponnaiah, when cars like Tata Estate, Sierra and Safari were launched, India did not have any cars in their respective segments, just that this fact may not have been glorified in the press and media for reasons unknown to me. These cars did open up the market in India for hard and Rugged utility vehicles in the way Maruti 800 did with cars.

I dont understand the meaning of Tata having known the art of getting the govt approvals. As far as I know and what has been published and established facts, Tata is among the most transparent Companies in the world, this forum is a matured and respected automotive one and does not call for such loose accusations.

As far as Indicas are concerned, every Company and product would have a learning curve, Tatas were at the initial stage when Indica first gen were produced, and now they hold their own in terms of intended use and purposes they are called for.

I am neither loyal or a fan of Tatas, but whatever they are doing for the economy and the Country needs to be atleast recognised if not appreciated. I am sorry if I have hurt anybodys sentiments here but I strongly feel Tata Group deserves better understanding from Indians and not for nothing are they the biggest industrial establishment of our country.

[rkg]

As far as i know TATA's are very poor in managing govt if compared to other indian private companies.
they are pioneers in many fileds in india

1.Air india is their comapny nationalized by GOI.not a penny was paid by govt as compensation to them

2. TATA's were denied permission for long by govt to make cars. GOI has mandated only HM and Premiar automobiles can make cars. Imagine if GOI allowed TATA to make cars then what would be the senario now

3. TATA are only firm which spends huge amounts on R&D in India in diverse fields of science Ex: TIFR,Tata Institute of social science, NCBS , Bangalore,IISC bangalore. this they are doing since long even before independance. they are not asking these institutes to give them patents/returns. they just fund them as a social obligation. show me another Indian private sector company doing this.if iam wrong correct me.

4 TATA's are supposed to build Bangalore international airport. but they withdrew from it. if they are capable of managing Govt they should not have withdrawn.

Iam not a TATA employee.but i admire tham for what they have done.

i personally feel most of the critisim against TATA is this forum is due to the fact they forced other auotmobile makers to offer some thing which they are not doing and at the same time forced them to reduce prices. they made cars more accesible to general population.

this is not intended to offend any one but it is my perception

[PAVAN KADAM]

Hi all fellow INIDAN's

I feel this the time of honour for INDIA, we owe a standing ovation for Mr TATA,

Afterall he revolutionised INDIA with his super successfull INDICA, it surely been a boon to all car owners and even has been a super success to all taxi operators accross INDIA.

Talk about his Sumo, still the best any taxi segment can get, Any family of 8 want to go on a trip they only ask for a SUMO..

With the launch of new WINGER at its price what more can INDIA ask for, The winger doubles up as so many things a true MUV.

Talk about the ACE. What great deal its done for the rural market as well as in urban market,

BEAST the SAFARI i dont think i need to talk about its success, any aspiring SUV buyer will have only Safari in mind first.

The INDIGO version has still clicked with all buyers.

TATA Trucks are having their own legacy on our roads

With so many criticism all the above automobiles from TATA has been a SUPER SUCCESS

NANO wil surely revolutionise our Indian auto industry all over,

Afterall this is the only car in this price bracket ever existing on earth,

This car will go down history just the way The BEETLE / Mini Cooper or any other car in this category has gone.

We must give it to Mr Ratan TATA for his promise truly DELIVERED.

This has been the best gift to the world anyone can give,

This car is surely a REVOLUTION i its own.

I am proud to be an INDIAN.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Guys i have been reading this thread closely,

We ourselves are not perfect at what we do.

When did all the giant auto manufacturers start with their luxury cars,

and When did our TATA start,

Dear friends TATA Auto is still a baby, which has set a revolution in the indian car industry the day they launced passenger cars.

Let appreciate him for what ever he's been doing.

I am not their spokesperson but i value for what he has done to our growing economy,

Where is a Merc available to a common man, Where is the great maruti available to a common man,

Just imagine what can the NANO do to such people.

You can hate Mr TATA for every thing but you cant ignore him,

I Salute him for what he's done.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Like I said, it was just a thought, not the solution. But eventually the Govt will have to take some harsh measures to control the volume of traffic on the streets. You look at any of the major cities today - they are not equipped to handle so many cars on their roads. Flyovers and ring roads will help, but only up to a point. If a million Nano's hit the streets, where will that leave the already overflowing thoroughfares?
...

There is another aspect to it. Imagine a situation where say, the nano did not exist, and with the current economic growth we see a sudden doubling of the per-capita income. More people will buy second hand cars or even first hand A-segmenters. Would we not see the same chock-a-block effect.

The real issue is population and the lack of recognition for it in terms of following it up with growth in infrastructure.

On the positive side nano will eliminate the tendency of people to buy badly maintained, smoke belching old cars to claim membership to the car ownership club.

[razor4077]

Originally Posted by 1100D

The real issue is population and the lack of recognition for it in terms of following it up with growth in infrastructure.

This is absolutely true, but I really don't see the population growth slowing down any time soon. Not unless we go the China way, and I don't see that happening...

On the positive side nano will eliminate the tendency of people to buy badly maintained, smoke belching old cars to claim membership to the car ownership club.

True, that's a good side to it.

Just for the record, I have voted "too early to say anything". There are pros and cons, but I think it's too early in the day to predict anything positively. The Nano will no doubt provide an affordable transportation option to families who till date had to commute (dangerously) on 2 wheelers. But there are lot of people who are apprehensive about the impact it will have in the long run in terms of overcrowding, pollution, fuel consumption/prices etc.

[subbarao]

Hi,

I just come across this nice story about small cars in early1908,by ford,

Ford’s small wonder


R Gopalakrishnan


The Indian automotive industry has attracted global interest with gamechanging events recently. 2008 also happens to be the centenary year of a dramatic event in the history of automobiles. In January 1908, word leaked out about a remarkable new vehicle that would be made by Henry Ford. In March, the company sent an introductory brochure to its dealers about the plan to “shortly produce a four-cylinder, 20 horsepower, five-passenger touring car” for a shockingly low price of $850. Cars were sold for $2,500 at that time. On October 1, 1908, the Saturday Evening Post carried the first national advertisement for the new car. The rest is history. Henry Ford’s dream — “I will build a motor car for the great multitude” — took shape.
Those were different times. Around 1900, one million bicycles were sold each year. Horses deposited 2.5 million pounds of manure and 60,000 gallons of urine on the streets of New York every day. Health officials in Rochester estimated that if all the manure that its 15,000 horses produced were gathered in one place, it would rise 175 feet over an acre of ground and breed 16 billion flies. More than 80 per cent of the byways used for motorised transport in the US were neither paved nor graded. In fact, most of what passed off as roads was little more than ruts in the dirt.
There was opposition to the popularity of cars. The August 9, 1902 issue of Minneapolis Journal reported how a Minnesotan driving a car was shot in the back by locals opposed to the auto. The farm magazine, Breeder’s Gazette, in its issue dated August 24, 1904 described the new owners of cars as “a reckless, bloodthirsty, villainous lot of purse-proud crazy trespassers”.
The then president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson, who went on to become US president was reported by the New York Times to have stated, “Nothing has spread socialist feelings in this country more than the use of the automobile... These owners are a picture of the arrogance of wealth, with all its independence and carelessness”.
The North American Review revealed in 1906 that more Americans had died in car accidents in the first half of the year than had perished in the entire Spanish-American War. “Unfortunately, our millionaires, and especially their idle and degenerate children, have been flaunting their money in the faces of the poor”, the paper thundered.
It was in such a context that Henry Ford wrote in The Automobile magazine in January 1906: “The greatest need today is a light, low-priced car with an up-to-date engine of ample horsepower and built of the very best material... one that is in every way an automobile and not a toy”.
Master draftsman Joseph Galamb recalled in his Reminiscences what Henry Ford had said to him: “I’ve got an idea to design a new car Joe. Fix a place for yourself on the third floor, way back, and a special room. Get your board up there and a blackboard and we’ll start working on a new model.”
The Experimental Room grew more and more crowded as sketches turned into blueprints for the parts until, as a resourceful designer and machinist Jimmy Smith recalled, “It became a room about 12 feet by 15 feet, big enough to get a small car in, milling machines, drill presses and lathes”.
Henry Ford insisted that automobiles had until then been built too heavy. Design simplicity and newer materials could reduce the weight of a car. In early 1908, 40 workers assembled the car at Ford’s Piquette Avenue factory.
Archie Terrell was one of the first to test drive the car and he returned exhilarated. “That is a wonderful car” he gushed. Orders flooded into Piquette Avenue and 300 vehicles were produced in 1908. By the time the factory was geared up for full production, there were far more orders than the company could fulfil.
Such was the impact created by Ford’s dream car that humorist Will Rogers once said on radio: “Ford changed the habits of more people than Caesar, Mussolini, Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Xerxes, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Bernard Shaw”.
The writer is executive director, Tata Sons.

[GTO]

Just one line : If the road infrastructure is insufficient to cope with automotive growth, who is to blame? The car manufacturer or the transportation department?

[snaronikar]

I have informed in my previous post that the Government should provide the infrastructure to cope with this vehicle. Of course, all houses will have atleast 1 Nano anf if we count on how many households, then god forbid, we cannot drive on our roads at all.

I personally feel that the Govt. will restrict the sales of Nano sooner than expected.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by GTO

Just one line : If the road infrastructure is insufficient to cope with automotive growth, who is to blame? The car manufacturer or the transportation department?

And just to add, if public transport is in pathetic state, why blame manufacturer? No one would like to drive on congested roads if you have comfortable, reliable, convenient public transport.

[FERRO]

I seriously hate those people who think Nano will create traffic problems. why ? bcoz those people have a kind of sick mentality who thinks that only rich who can afford cars have right to travel on roads maybe its the fault of government who gets in power in name of Aam aadmi always ignores them.

[msprabhakar]

Q: Why did Tata name his car Nano?
A: Because Na No Nahin Nakko is too long!

[katalysm76]

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post in SMS / Slang language. Other users of this community will benefit from your posting in full and proper english.

Thanks

[gods-envy]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Hi all fellow INIDAN's

I feel this the time of honour for INDIA, we owe a standing ovation for Mr TATA,

Afterall he revolutionised INDIA with his super successfull INDICA, it surely been a boon to all car owners and even has been a super success to all taxi operators accross INDIA.

Talk about his Sumo, still the best any taxi segment can get, Any family of 8 want to go on a trip they only ask for a SUMO..

With the launch of new WINGER at its price what more can INDIA ask for, The winger doubles up as so many things a true MUV.

Talk about the ACE. What great deal its done for the rural market as well as in urban market,

BEAST the SAFARI i dont think i need to talk about its success, any aspiring SUV buyer will have only Safari in mind first.

The INDIGO version has still clicked with all buyers.

TATA Trucks are having their own legacy on our roads

With so many criticism all the above automobiles from TATA has been a SUPER SUCCESS

NANO wil surely revolutionise our Indian auto industry all over,

Afterall this is the only car in this price bracket ever existing on earth,

This car will go down history just the way The BEETLE / Mini Cooper or any other car in this category has gone.

We must give it to Mr Ratan TATA for his promise truly DELIVERED.

This has been the best gift to the world anyone can give,

This car is surely a REVOLUTION i its own.

I am proud to be an INDIAN.

I completely agree with you Pavan,
I dont see a reason why Ratan Tata should be blamed for congestion, Traffic problems etc etc.
I think its the duty of the government

Ratan Tata is taking the Indian Automobile industry on to the world map and we should all be happy for that.

Kudos to Ratan Tata.
I am proud to be an Indian.

[rkg]

Originally Posted by katalysm76

Today all can buy cars....... but with every1 buyin a car, it just will cos alot of traffic problems....

n if ppl start gettin the nano out n just one person in it, u tell me will it help the traffic.

this is not abt the rich or poor or middle class families owning a car, but just traffic problems...... were ppl take an hrs to get home, they might just take 2 hrs.... thts it.....

you have said it yourself mate.

"Today all can buy cars....... but with every1 buyin a car, it just will cos alot of traffic problems"

so you want only few can and should be buying cars and be able to go home with in an hour. you did not like it because all can buy and it will take 2 hours to reach home

" n if ppl start gettin the nano out n just one person in it, u tell me will it help the traffic"

you tell me if it helps traffic if one guy sits in an innova/ Honda city/Camry/Mercedes compared to nano?

it is indeed about the rights of rich vs poor only. as long as the rich can go freely in their cars however big there, whatever be the fuel efficiency it is ok.there will be no traffic problems/pollution etc etc. but if average indian family takes nano it is causes pollution, traffic jams etc etc.

governments over the time abdicated their responsibility to general public and catered to the needs of mighty by building broader roads, widening the existing roads, instead of building an efficient public transport, which would have mitigated the current traffic problems.

as of now all the major cities have traffic bottlenecks. you tell me what caused these traffic problems? Is it NANO or the private cars which occupy the precious and scarce resource "ROADS" which are meant for all the indian population not for a few.

because of these cars traffic slowed down affecting the ordinary indian who travels by bus. he/she also have right to faster transport not only the affluent. whom shall he/she has to blame ?

So the need is for efficient and cheaper public transport.

imposing higher taxes on those who use private transport and cause traffic bottlenecks

in almost all the major western countries there is congestion tax if one uses private transport over public transport. why don't we have it here. why not huge parking fees in public places where the cars occupy the roads making it difficult to pedestrians and public alike?