Published March 24th, 2009
in Interesting / Other.
Tata Motors announced it will be accepting orders for the world’s cheapest car starting April 6. The car is a four-seater powered by 624cc engine delivering a whooping 56 mpg. The first 100,000 cars will sell for around $2000 (for the base model) and as you can imagine the demand is huge!
The company already has a model for European market in the making and also plans to come to the United States sometimes in 2011 or 2012 but the price of the American version will be more like $4000.
How does Nano compare to its American counterparts? I have rolled up some numbers below for comparison. Keep in mind however that Tata Nano is a really small car. It measures a little over 9 feet long, 5 feet wide, and is smaller than Toyota Yaris. The base model has no air bags, AC, ABS, or even a radio!
Most fuel efficient:
|
Fuel Efficiency |
Base Price |
| Toyota Prius Hybrid |
46 mpg |
$22,720 |
| Honda Civic Hybrid |
42 mpg |
$24,320 |
| Smart Fortwo Coupe |
36 mpg |
$12,635 |
| Nissan Altima Hybrid |
34 mpg |
$27,345 |
| Volkswagen Jetta Diesel |
34 mpg |
$22,270 |
| Toyota Camry Hybrid |
33 mpg |
$26,870 |
| Ford Escape Hybrid |
33 mpg |
$30,370 |
| Toyota Yaris |
32 mpg |
$12,925 |
| Mini Cooper |
31 mpg |
$19,200 |
| Honda Fit |
31 mpg |
$15,420 |
Source: 2009’s 10 most fuel-efficient cars in America at Autoweek
Least Expensive:
|
Base Price |
| Hyundai Accent GS 3-door |
$9,970 |
| Nissan Versa 1.6S |
$9,990 |
| Kia Rio |
$11,495 |
| Smart Fortwo Pure |
$11,990 |
| Chevy Aveo LS |
$11,965 |
| Toyota Yaris 3-door |
$12,205 |
| Hyundai Elantra GLS |
$14,120 |
| Pontiac G3 |
$14,335 |
| Mitsubishi Lancer DE |
$14,340 |
| Kia Spectra LX |
$14,550 |
The first two positions are a marketing trick Nissan and Hyundai have engaged into to get the title of the cheapest American car (more here)
More on Tata Nano:
Published March 23rd, 2009
in Money Saving Tools.
I just discovered an interesting project powered by Google Moderator. Its called TipJar and is an online repository of money saving tips submitted and voted for by community. If you have a Google account then you are automatically in, just sign in and share the wealth. Here are some of my favorite tips from the Shopping category:
- Go to the grocery store with your belly full. You won’t buy too many things because you just ain’t hungry
- Write a list before you go shopping - and stick to it. One should never go into a store without a strong idea of what one will be buying while in there
- Before you purchase anything online, go to Google and search for the name of the store + coupon and see if anything comes up. You will be presently surprised how many coupon codes are available online
- Use money-back credit cards instead of any credit card and pay in full every month - you will be surprised how much money you can claim back!
The TipJar home page claims that 4,769 people have submitted 3,920 tips and cast 53,102 votes. I will be curious to see if it catches on and where it will be in a few months. I love the idea of crowd-sourcing such a wide and yet personal topic, but the user interface seems to be a little bare bones and there are plenty of duplicate tips. Tags to improve navigation and comments for feedback would certainly help.
Published March 15th, 2009
in Deal Site Reviews.
This is February 2009 revision of the Popular Coupon sites list. You can find the previous revision of the list here.
The change in rating shows the difference compared to January results. This list currently has 31 sites - one more than in January (webbyplanet.com is in). On average the coupon sites have lost (3.26%) in February.
The best performer is 8coupons.com (18.41%), who also moves up by 3 positions, and the worst result comes from currentcodes.com (-27.3h%). Enjoy the complete list below!
Published March 13th, 2009
in Shopping Promotion.
Just stumbled upon this promotion from Sony Card. Get instant approval and a $200 credit after your first qualifying Sony Card purchase of $349 or more when you sign up to the credit card.
There is no sign-up fee, no annual fee, and you don’t have to keep the card once you get and spend the $200. You must sign up on or before March 14st, 2009 and your single $349 purchase must be made within 45 days. Offer available to new Sony Card accounts only.
An added benefit to this card is that you earn 5 points with each $1 you spend at the Sony Store which can be redeemed at www.sonystyle.com, I had this card before when it offered cash back instead of the points and canceled it when Chase (the issuer) changed the terms.
Published March 13th, 2009
in Popular Sites Series.
This is February 2009 revision of the Popular Price Comparison web sites list. You can find the last month revision of the list here.
The change in rating shows the difference compared to January results. The list has a total of 35 web sites which is the same number as the last month. There are 17 more sites in my database that don’t meet Alexa Rank < 100,000 requirement.
The best performer this month is retrevo.com with a gain of (8.58%) followed by hawkee.com (7.77%). They take the lead from shopwiki and calibex who were in the first and second spot last month
The worst performer this month is dealighted with a sharp drop of (-34.64%). Delighted is keeping steady at #29 with spikes and drops here and there
(*) Note: traffic stats for these sites is an aggregate of all traffic to the top domain (e.g. Yahoo.com or Google.com) and thus cannot be used to judge how popular this particular price comparison service is.
(**) Note: the web site is a portal with price comparison engine being one of the offered web services. Alexa rank cannot be used to judge how popular this price comparison engine is.
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