Donate Car to Charity California, Donate Car for Tax Credit, Donate Cars in MA, Donate Your Car Sacramento, How to Donate A Car in California, Donate Your Car for Kids, Donate a Car in Maryland, Donating a Car in Maryland, Donate Cars Illinois, Donate Old Cars to Charity, Met Auto, Car Donate $2,000 car with early promise falls out of favor in Asian mar Several years ago, I was all excited about a $2,000 car called the Nano being introduced in India by Tata Motors, the maker of Jaguar. But the car has proven to be a big bust in the Asian market. I’m reminded of the words of former Continental CEO Gordon Bethune: It’s possible to make a pizza so cheap no one will want to buy it. Bethune knew that if you keep cheapening your product, with worse and worse service, people won’t buy what you’re selling — no matter what you charge. With that wisdom, Bethune turned his company around by giving a good product and making people want to buy Continental tickets. (The airline has since been acquired by United and will likely be phased out as a brand.) It would seem that the Nano is the cheap pizza in this case. While it had some early popularity, the Nano has since fallen out of favor. One of the problems was safety issues with spontaneous combustion in some early models. Unless you have a hankering for smores as you drive down the road, it’s not a good idea to go flambé in your vehicle! But ultimately, the Nano really failed to find its niche in the market. It was designed for a Third World market where entire families are accustomed to riding around on a single scooter with all their shopping bags. I recall being at Costco World Headquarters in Washington State and seeing a picture in the lobby from their store in Taipei showing a Taiwanese family with merchandise on a scooter stacked 10 feet high! So the makers of the Nano thought they could build an affordable car to get people off the 2 wheelers. But that didn’t work because 2 wheelers are cheap and get great fuel economy. A Nano at $2,000, however, is still too pricey for many poor Third World families. At the same time, a poorly built $2,000 car is cheap enough to be stigmatized by the middle class. Gordon Bethune was right again. Nano made a pizza so cheap (yet too costly for others) that nobody wanted to buy it. Gas guzzlers and fuel sippers both a deal right now Looking for a deal in the car market? The marketplace is like a barbell at the moment, with vehicles at either extreme — both those that get terrible fuel economy and those that get great fuel economy — representing a real deal right now. SUVs that are built on truck platforms are not selling right now. In fact, I saw a Manheim Auto Auction report that showed giant SUVs have dropped precipitously in value, especially at trade-in time. So if you want a truck-based SUV, now is the time to get a real deal. At the other extreme, people are not buying fuel sippers even with $3/gallon gas on average right now. Toyota Prius sales are down, and dealers have a lot of 2010 Priuses still sitting on their lots. Ditto for other fuel-efficient brands and models. Meanwhile, USAA.com has a car-buying program that offers members a negotiated price on car purchases. No need to haggle at a dealership any more. You simply get a voucher that you present to a dealer for a pre-negotiated price and they honor it.
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