A new car for less than $10,000

Can you get a decent new car for less than $10,000? That’s the question about to face American autobuyers when a super-cheap Indian import hits the market.

The Tata Nano that sells for less than $3,000 in India will be coming to the United States — with an increased price tag. For the U.S. market, it will be designed to be a cheap urban runabout that costs less than $10,000 and should be in production by 2015.

The increased cost includes factoring in the expense of making the required safety and emissions tweaks required by our government. At under $10,000, it will be the cheapest car sold in America. Its main competition will be used cars and motorcycles.

The Tata Nano is expected to appeal to the same customers who would buy the Smart Car and the Fiat 500. Of course, nobody’s yet sure if American car buyers will turn their noses up at the Nano, or if it will create another space in the market for small vehicles.

One hurdle for Tata to overcome is where the car would be sold. The company owns the Jaguar Land Rover brand, so selling them at those dealerships is a possibility.

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