World's cheapest car goes on sale in India

He said 300,000 people had visited Tata's 400 showrooms across the country since the car went on display April 1.

In the last two weeks, the Nano Web site has gotten 20 million hits, he said.

SHOOT: At a time when the world [the environment and the economy] can least afford it. Here's the reason why oil prices won't stay low in the foreseeable future. Of course if people swapped their Hummers and SUV's overnight for a smaller car, that would be a smallish step in the right direction.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com COIMBATORE, INDIA (AP) -- At 6:46 p.m. Thursday, R. Sampathkumar signed a check for 3,809 rupees ($78) and ordered his first car: a Tata Nano. Bookings for the ultracheap car, which retails for 100,000 rupees ($2,050) plus tax and transport fees, opened Thursday across India. Sampathkumar, who is 30 years old and single, makes about 20,000 rupees a month ($410) as a goldsmith and says he wants a Nano for "status." "Automatically, women will come forward," he said, grinning. Dozens gathered Thursday to gawk at the silver Nano sitting on a red platform with pink satin skirting at the Tata dealership in Coimbatore, a mid-sized manufacturing hub in southern India. Two DJs blasted Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and Madonna songs, while college kids snapped photos of the snub-nosed car on their cell phones. Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst at Mumbai's Angel Broking, estimated that even if Tata Motors manages to sell 250,000 Nanos a year, it will only add 3 percent to the company's total revenues.