The news has been abuzz recently with the release of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, retailing at about US$2500 in India.
My first reaction to this report was, do they export this car? And I was kinda disappointed when I heard they didn't. I had the feeling that if they sold this car here, NTU would soon be flooded with hundreds of these. Then I remembered that in Singapore they have COE, so even if your car costs $1, you will still have to pay a bomb for COE, so its really irrelevant.
And here is a further note to NTU students: The car might not have enough power to go up the slopes in NTU. I don't think your lecturer would be amused if you told him the reason you were late for CS lecture was because you were pushing a Nano up the slope into the SCI carpark, only to realise it was already filled with Nanos.
Or worse, you don't see your lecturer anywhere because he's also pushing a Nano somewhere around NTU looking for a carpark.
I actually have a theory that the Nano is actually a modified golf buggy, you know the kind they drive on golf courses, but its actually cheaper than a golf buggy, which retails at on average $10k. You know why it's so cheap? Because it is Made in China. Actually I'm kidding.
It is really made by North Koreans who know nuts about economics, and hence they have no idea what to charge for making it. I think they charge somewhere between the price of a sack of rice and 10 rounds of ammunition. So Tata makes a huge profit even though they are selling it for peanuts.
By peanuts, I do not mean the Singaporean variety. Those cost $600k.
What the North Koreans do know though, is buying used golf buggies off golf courses and retrofitting Milo and Ovaltine tins to give the car a chassis. If you scratch the paint off you'll see the "Milo" and "Ovaltine" logos beneath the paint.
Damn. The secret's out.But I'm really kidding of course. That was really a lousy job of photoshopping because I don't have Photoshop so I used MS Paint.
The car is actually really very good for the price it is being offered at, and when I looked at more pictures of the car I was actually impressed. However, with all the nonsense allegations I have made about the car in this post, I bet you can't tell.