This little oddity is the people's car of the 21st century. The Tata Nano will offer the dream of personalised transport to the millions of people in India who can afford 100,000 Rupees. This equates to just $2,815 Australian. And it's quite a normal car, considering - the entire bodywork is made of sheetmetal, like a normal car, it's safe enough to be a normal car, and is roomy enough to be a normal car. It even has four doors and four seats! At just over 3 metres long, this would have to be one of the most efficient uses of space I've ever seen.But I'm wary of Tata's Nano. Soon, millions upon millions of people will own this car, when ordinarily they would never have had enough money to buy a car. 350,000 Nanos will be built every year. At just 100,000 Rupees, so many more Indians will have a car. Millions and millions more Indians will be able to heavily contribute to global warming, and clog up the streets of India, and contribute to the frightening Indian road death toll.

This is obviously an arrogant and elitist point of view - I don't consider it wrong for any Australian to buy a car, and yet I think of denying Indians the privelige we have. The privelige of owning a car, and creating a global greenhouse problem. We should have known that eventually, the problem of petrol-powered cars will reach an epic scale - but the advent of the Nano makes it all the more real. Machines that destroy the environment are being made and used on a massive scale, and although I do love these machines (I am an automotive enthusiast after all) I can't help but feel morally obligated to voice my concerns.The green cars (electric, hydrogen fuel-cells, whatever) need to save us. We need to be able to buy them, and quickly. Cars like the Tata Nano are absolutely brilliant, but they're fatally flawed - not just by their CO2 emitting potential, but by their mass-production. Usually, I would delight in showing you all the laughable facts about this car, but the truth is, I'm sad about the release of the Tata Nano. I feel the forbidding of mother nature.FACTOIDS

• Drive system: Front Wheel Drive
• Transmission: 4 Speed Manual
  
• Number of doors: 5
• DIMENSIONS
  • Overall length: 3,099 mm
  • Overall width: 1,495 mm
  • Overall height: 1,652 mm
  • Wheelbase: 2,230 mm
  • Tread
    • Front: 1,325 mm
    • Rear: 1,315 mm
• CAPACITIES
  • Seating capacity: 4
  • Luggage capacity
    • Rear seatback raised (VDA method): 135 L
      
  • Fuel tank capacity: 15 L
    
• ENGINE
  
  • Number of cylinders: 2
    
  • Piston displacement: 624 cm3 (0.6 Litres)
    
  • Maximum output: 26kW @ 5,250 rpm
  • Maximum torque: 48 Nm @ 2,500-4,000 rpm
• PERFORMANCE
  • Maximum speed: 105 km/h
  • 0-100 km/h: Probably quite a while
    
  • Fuel consumption (Average): 4.2 l/100 km
  • CO2 emissions (Average): 101 g/km

NEWS: India's Tata Nano Heralded As "World's Cheapest Car"

Yes, on the surface of things, it is just a crummy little Suzuki. I say "crummy", but you know I only mean boring. It's probably a fine car, but most people won't care. A bit like a So You Think You Can Dance winner - they're very good at what they do, but you don't really care. What actually gives the launch of the Suzuki Alto relevance here in Australia, is that when it arrives here soon, it will have no direct competitor.

We no longer have Daihatsu, the Daewoo Matiz no longer exists, and in fact, the only car I can think of that is remotely like the Alto is the Proton Savvy - which is about as savvy as buying a Toyota LandCruiser for inner-city driving (there's no direct correlation there, by the way). The reason why the Alto has no direct competitor is its size, mainly - at 3.5 metres, it is 40 centimetres smaller than an average size "small car" - as we know them at the moment, anyway. At this length, the Alto is even tinier than a Mini Cooper, but will be nowhere near as expensive. Expect a price at about $13,000 - which is crazy these days, and reminds me of when Hyundai Excels were that price way back in the 90's. The million dollar question is: will the Suzuki Alto be good enough, in terms of quality for as start, to catch on in Australia? For more info, read the factoids below.

• Drive system: Front Wheel Drive
• Transmission: 5 Speed Manual/4 Speed Automatic
• Number of doors: 5
• DIMENSIONS
  • Overall length: 3,500 mm
  • Overall width: 1,600 mm
  • Overall height: 1,470 mm
  • Wheelbase: 2,360 mm
  • Tread
    • Front: 1,405 mm
    • Rear: 1,400 mm
• CAPACITIES
  • Seating capacity: 4
  • Luggage capacity
    • Max. Volume: 774 L
      
    • Rear seatback folded (VDA method): 367 L
      
    • Rear seatback raised (VDA method): 129 L
      
  • Fuel tank capacity: 35 L
    
• ENGINE
  
  • Number of cylinders: 3
  • Number of valves: 12
  • Piston displacement: 996 cm3 (1.0 Litres)
    
  • Maximum output: 50kW @ 6,000 rpm
  • Maximum torque: 90 Nm @ 4,800 rpm
  • Fuel distribution: Multipoint injection
• PERFORMANCE
  • Maximum speed: 155 km/h
  • 0-100 km/h: 14 s
  • Fuel consumption (Average): 4,5 l/100 km
  • CO2 emissions (Average): 103 g/km

MELBOURNE 2009: Suzuki Alto Creates Supermini Class in Australia