Anyone remember the 1932 film If I Had A Million? Didn't think so. Long story short, a dying rich man picks eight people at random from the phone book and gives each of them $1,000,000. The best sequence (of course) belongs to W.C. Fields. Fed-up with "road hogs" and "Sunday drivers," he buys a phalanx of jalopies and begins to run the offending cars off the road. Then, when both the hog and Fields's jalopy have been totaled in a ditch, he climbs into the next junker (he's paying a a bunch of kids to follow behind him in "fresh "cars) and looks for a new target. I mention this classic scene because the Tata Nano's $2,500 price has given me ideas. I mean, for not that much money I could remove a lot of first gen Dodge Caravans from the road [Ed: Jonny's convinced that all traffic everywhere would improve if still existing K-Car Dodge Caravans were outlawed]. However, like most of my fantasies, this one ain't going to happen. Looks like the rising cost of steel is turning into the rising price of Tata Nanos. For their part, Tata ain't saying nuthin' 'bout nuthin'. But Automotive News [sub] is reporting that the Indian automaker is trying to cut deals with its suppliers to keep raw material costs down. Luckily for Tata, they happen to own Tata Steel Ltd., the largest steel producer in India. However, as John Adams said, facts are stubborn things– steel prices are up. As for my twisted plans, I should be able to get all the Hummer H2s I need for less than $2,500 real soon.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
I’ll be on the lookout for the movie, WC Fields is a gas. RE the Caravan, I rode in the rear seat of a 2k Caravan with 6 other people. It is pretty good at what it is designed for.
The price cannot be contained as advertised, none the less is going to be one of the cheapest car avail on the market.
So as the damn gas it was a buck a litre beginnng of ths year, what now, 1.54 and by labour day wknd it will be more. Or could came down agan recause nobody’s driving anymore.
Should we all park our cars for a damn week we could bring the Seven sisters to ther knees too.
But they know we know it cannot be done.
OT I drove by a Bike ATV place that carry these Kawasaki or whatever made 4 wheels ATV for farming or Hunting with small 2 cyl engine a roll cage that retail for 10 grand here. The pr could come down if massly mported.
Isn’t that be nice if we could licence them for road use?
They got to be safer than a motor bike but no dice, the NHTSA must be n bed with the big 2.8 so no small cars can set foot on our autobahn legally.
JL,
And don’t forget bluetooth wearing, popped collar, BMW poseurs!
late 90s Cherokee 4.0s and Blazers are going for roughly $1500
I’ve had this fantasy many a time while sitting on the LIE trying to get into Manhattan.
All you need is a cheap deth truk and a cow catcher and nobody will ever cut you off again without suffering at your hands.
If you are gonna remove all 1st gen Caravans from the road, can you at lease give one to me?
The solution is simple- find something other than steel to build them! =)
Does anyone else remember the SNL commerial parody for a car called “The Adobe”? I can hear the jingle in my head now, “The great little car that’s made out of claaayyyyy…” Dirt’s still pretty cheap. lol
The solution is simple- find something other than steel to build them! =)
That’s it — use the fabric skin from the BMW GINA concept. Tata probably has a subsidiary making polyester stretch pants for K-Mart. Use that, and the cars will just bounce off each other in collisions.
And don’t forget bluetooth wearing, popped collar, BMW poseurs!
Actually, they’re bluetooth wearing, popped collar, Audi poseurs now.
That’s it — use the fabric skin from the BMW GINA concept. Tata probably has a subsidiary making polyester stretch pants for K-Mart. Use that, and the cars will just bounce off each other in collisions.
Assuming this is physically possible, do you really want to be in the unintended path of a car that just bounced off of something?