, Columnist
India's Had Enough of Second-Rate Cars
New Delhi's new safety rulings are where the industry was headed anyway.
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No-one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, but a sure-fire way to lose money in recent years has been to underestimate the tastes of Indian drivers.
The most glaring example of this has been Tata Motors Ltd.'s Nano. The much-touted one lakh rupees (100,000 rupees, or $1,570) selling price was once predicted to be a Model T-style game-changer, but consumers were less enthused about the bus-like seats and austere interiors. Less than a decade after it first went on sale, Indian media have been reporting for months the Nano will soon be phased out of domestic markets.