[dederer]

I think Britain should thank Ford for bringing Jag back from the dead. You can accuse Ford of bad business decisions for the entire company, but not what they did to Jag. Someone who sold them said "their use to be two Jag.'s on the lot, one you left in the window and one you drove home"

 

[YupYupYup]

Something about luxury brands from a poor nation with millions of people who are destitute and starving, disease rampant, overcrowding and pollution...It just doesn't do it for me. Luxury brands are about image, perception as much as they are about the actual vehicle. Tata might have bought the parts, but it cannot erase the image of India in the minds of most people in the world. Let's hope "all that money" Tata is supposedly making is put to good use helping the poor and abused in their country.

 

[t-rex]

Let's hope "all that money" Tata is supposedly making is put to good use helping the poor and abused in their country.

Sadly, that's not the case...



Indian villagers paying high price for cheap Nano

March 7, 2008

By Alistair Scrutton

The world's cheapest car may be coming to India soon but it's already taken a toll in broken dreams, land dispossession - and lives.

For years, Asha Patra and her husband tilled their land in eastern India for a meagre but stable living. Then the communist state government walled it off for a factory to make the world's cheapest car, Tata's Nano, dubbed India's "People's Car".

With no land left, they switched to a tea shop, but their pots and cups were stolen three times. Unable to make ends meet, Patra sold her gold earrings, one of her few valuable family possessions, for 1300 rupees (about R240).

rest of the article...

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=753&fArticleId=4292121

 

[Bravada]

I think James May summed it up quite nicely.

Love the clip, thanks a lot! TopGear makes wonderful mini-operas devoted to every car they test. I am not that much a fan of the hosts (though I like the two "others" more than Jeremy for some reason) as the production team. The music in the clip is superb, my second favorite to when Hamster drove the Deesse.

It figures that Ford would finally do right by Jaguar by creating this, and then getting rid of the brand.

Don't worry though, Ford fans, they refreshed the Econoline's front end...again...

Case in point

Tata could do very well with Jaguar. Ford dumped a lot of money into jag. to bring it up to date. Unfortunately they did it at the expense of development of the rest of company. Now the ford brands are in such bad shape that they will would have to make Jaguar suffer to develop ford. Tata gets a luxury brand that will need money but they're not starting from ground zero like Ford did. Ford could benefit by having some one to sell parts too and partner in the development for the big changes in the near future that car companies are facing.

Blah blah blah. Ford is doing pretty well all accross the globe, outside of North America - and even there, the Edge is a runaway success, the CD3 cars are decent, somebody actually bought a Taurus (!!!). I don't think there was a lack of development funds or new models for other Ford brands (save for Mercury - Roberta Flack still hopes for the funeral job), there was a lack of thought, to cut a long story short.

Just imagine where would Ford be if the old Taurus and Contour were replaced in 2000/2001 in North America by the Mondeo Mk2 (a HUGE car on both the inside and outside, easily matching USDM Accord and Camry of that time) and an all-new RWD Ford Falcon (with Fairlane taking over from CrownVic and the platform supplating the Panther). Imagine a "premium version" being the DEW98, and a shorter version underpinning the Mustang, which could've perhaps been afforded something less 19th-century than a Panhard rod and be sold internationally.

Why should Ford make it better for Tata if they could (and did) make it better for themselves? I believe the Jaguar partition and sale was purely political. Perhaps some people in Dearborn prefer to have their local, provincial Lincoln with mediocre engineering borrowed from Ford rather than to work with some overseas smart-asses and actually build a world-class car to be sold worldwide... (which was Reitzle's aim with the LS, and the car almost had it all).

 

[Bravada]

Something about luxury brands from a poor nation with millions of people who are destitute and starving, disease rampant, overcrowding and pollution...It just doesn't do it for me.

Press rewind and you're in Britain in the 19th century. Foo foo India. How dare you be poor.

Still, wouldn't you want a handmade Persian rug (I assure you it's made by perpetually healthy and well-fed Saudi sheiks)?

Indian villagers paying high price for cheap Nano

March 7, 2008

By Alistair Scrutton

The world's cheapest car may be coming to India soon but it's already taken a toll in broken dreams, land dispossession - and lives.

For years, Asha Patra and her husband tilled their land in eastern India for a meagre but stable living. Then the communist state government walled it off for a factory to make the world's cheapest car, Tata's Nano, dubbed India's "People's Car".

With no land left, they switched to a tea shop, but their pots and cups were stolen three times. Unable to make ends meet, Patra sold her gold earrings, one of her few valuable family possessions, for 1300 rupees (about R240).

rest of the article...

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?...icleId=4292121

Same old scene but what a change of scene, to paraphrase the divien Karen C. - GM did the same when they erected the Hamtramck plant (only to decide to close it two decades later). They have erased the entire Polish quarter of Detroit to build it (not that those people were starving, but still). Even if they are not doing everybody good at every step, I believe their strength does India a lot of good at the general level.