Who in their right mind would buy this?

I've been reading news about this since Friday anad have been wondering who in the hell would buy this? But let me get the Ford connection in here right away. Tata Motors, who make this overgrown golf cart the Tata Nano, last year bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford Motor Company. And made huge headlines last year when they anounced that they would be producing and selling the above enclosed skateboard for their domestic Indian market.

And now they say it may come to the United States by 2011 or 2012? This my friends is a sign of the Appocolypse, never mind any Mayan prophecy. I know we Americans are just crap junkies, we did after all buy Yugos ( Not me! but I did know a couple of hapless souls who did )in the 80's. For some reason we Americans will buy anything foreign and cheap, just look at Wal-Mart!

But in this era of mandates on safety and emissions, there will be no way that Tata can bring anything remotely like the 2 cylinder golf cart to the United States. The AutoProphet, linked in title, points out some serious flaws with this fantasy.

I for one never thought the Smart would be a good fit on American roads and I'm right.

I can't tell you how many times I've passed one on local 2 lane roads in my little Mazda 3 and felt like I was driving a 76 Cadilac by comparison. I don't care how many airbags you cram in there, it's just a bubble on wheels. And the Smart has Mercedes DNA. But the Tata? I believe it has more in common with a toaster than a car. Maybe you'll see them as security vehicles in gated communities? Those poor Square Badges have it bad enough in the little electric golf cars, I feel their pain as they'll be breaking down after each speed bump in their Nanos.