That is ugly reminds me of the old BMW isetta from the 60's or so.

BWM? If that was a BMW I'd buy it right now, no questions asked, you know it would be good.

"""The basic Nano is aimed at people in India and China looking to buy their first car - the kind of people who previously climbed on a battered scooter, along with their entire family, a pig and a few geese............there's not a motor manufacturer on earth that isn't looking closely at making cars for India, China and in some cases Africa.

The Nano's closest competitor in India is the desperately aged and spectacularly basic Maruti/Suzuki 800 model. The CVT automatic Nano's performance is described by a Tata executive as "similar" to the Maruti's, so expect a top speed of about 82mph and 0-60mph acceleration in 25 seconds. The Nano's twin-cylinder, 624cc, 32.5bhp engine is far more advanced than the Maruti's old Suzuki unit, however, and at a claimed 57mpg offers better overall fuel consumption than the Maruti's 42mpg.

The rear-engined configuration is interesting, as it maximises interior space and minimises weight; the 10ft 2in (3,100mm) Nano is eight per cent shorter than the Maruti 800, but is claimed to have 21 per cent more interior room.."""
Read the rest in.......................
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/01/12/mftat112.xml

I want a new one for me every year but i still love my Datsun

This definitely is the way of the future, cheap and basic cars that can be turned over at will. A mate of mine did a stint in India working for Tata in the development area for their automotive arm (he was a business analyst, not a designer). Tata definitely have plans to release these 'beast's' here and throughout the world, not just third world countries.

This leads to our datto's, and other older cars becoming more expensive and desirable at a quicker rate then they do now (the $10mil Phase 3 may not be far off). Great if you own a couple of datto's, bad if you don't and want one. Looks like I might need to buy a few more to stock up.

The tata is the disposable car my parents always told me would be along some day.

In the developing world they'll make good use of em, in configurations with fewer wheels as they age i'm sure.

I'll keep my datsun. an already made economy car is better than making a new economy car, that isn't made to last 30+ years.

If they did a little for the styling, that might make it more appealing.

i've been watching the market for datsun 210's since I was looking for mine, I got mine in pretty bad shape, and it still cost $420, about what I had paid for a much better 71 volkswagon squareback that was in much better shape.

now, 210's are starting to become rare as people look for cheap cars that get decent mileage.

Consider what happend with the 510's, now it's virtually imposible to find one that is drivable for under $4000, yeah it's got an KA24 and all that, but still.

The datsun is FUN to drive, I prefer it to driving my other car, some sort of jeep grand cherokee 4wd thing, that the only things going for it are 4wd, low range , and A/C!

I wonder if the USDM tata's and such will be more car, and less motorized scooter upgrade...