What will happen now that these marques have now changed hands in the last couple of days, may be even hours. Hopefully their heritage will remain in tact.....

Ta ta.

You may also have heard that Tata have just put on sale a new small car in India the Nano a 5 seater 650 cc with a retail price of £1250 new ( yes that is not a misprint ) even air conditioning is available.

You just cannot help thinking that in short time much of the content of Jaguar and land Rover will also be made in India.

That 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) price is clearly a psychological price point...

I was in India last year (forget racing; the traffic on MG Road in Bangalore is as exciting as anyone can cope with...) and it looks as though the price of cars there is about a half to a third that of comparable vehicles in Europe. (A lot of SUVs that'd be 15-20k are in the 7-8 lakh range). So I wouldn't be surprised to see the Tata at around 4k in Europe, allowing for a bit of profit, if they decide to import it.

Ironically enough I was actually visiting Tata, who staff our company's outsourcing centre there... interesting company, I don't know many others who have an actual shrine to their founder in the office!

Something similar was done in the UK back in the 50s, again with an Indian connection. The Tandon motorcycle company, based in exotic Watford and founded by an Indian gentleman Devdut Tandon, used to make its workers gather together first thing in the morning to sing the company song. To the tune of "Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen", the first line of the song went "Wonderful, wonderful Devdut Tandon".....

In Britain it is more likely to be an effigy than a shrine !

In my previous company, when it was independent, we briefly adopted "(Shut Your F***ing Mouth) Unclef**ker" from the South Park movie as the unofficial company song. It fitted the mood. After we were taken over by the Boche, er, Bosch, we merely adopted the theme from the Great Escape as a phone ringtone and tune to whistle when German management made their rare visits to the lab (it wasn't far; it was only upstairs.... but the HR manager wouldn't come upstairs because there was a 'threatening atmosphere')

Here are some pictures and spec of the new Tata

It is £1277............the extra £27 is probably the amount the pound has lost this morning !!

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=17439

Same power as the 850 Mini had when it launched ! but in 660cc and with 5 doors

Might be helpful in Jaguar/LRover achieving the 130g/KM fleet average needed to avoid penal taxation.

And possibly the tiniest wheels ever.

Castors? I'm sure Alec Issigonis would approve.

Certainly has a wheel in every corner.... although it's RWD.

thinks: wonder if one of those turbo-nutter engines from a Japanese K-car or perhaps the Smart roadster would fit into it...

Brilliant! Similar experiences in a major German Stationery company that I worked for, very good at the old "blame culture" when things did not go well........

I understand these two marques will be marketed under Tata's parent company, Bodacious.

Sorry.