Green, Environment and Automobiles.
The first two terms are the victims of the third one. Your powerful 1600 cc car may drive you at ego boosting speeds, but think again. Your power car costs you in excess of 5 lakhs or say around US $12,000, but is it the right choice ?
The middle class mentality is to go for a big car. The upper class already has it and they want to be in the upper league. The power car may give you an average of around 12 km/litre.
Now lets think small(rather big). How about the Nano. The general perception of people is that it is a car for the masses and they would rather go for a bigger car, maybe Alto or swift or an expanded swift. Looking at the bigger side of the small car, see a car consuming less fuel, polluting the environment much less than a muscle SUV. Thomas L. Friedman in his latest book Hot,Flat and Crowded has precisely and crisply mentioned the cost of growth that the environment has to pay and in the long run we'll pay.
I was sad to see that Tata Nano wasn't promoted as a city car. Its price tag was highlighted more than its usefulness to India and its environment. Japan has small cars empowering its people to run a nation, which in a way has taken it much ahead of India. Partly it is the tax policy responsible for such a trend. The bigger the car, higher the tax and high taxes on fuel. Such a policy in India might hurt the political ambitions of the ruling party and the continuing fuel subsidies are hurting India's environment as the people are going for ever bigger ever powerful cars. Fuel subsidies are also worsening the state of Indian oil companies as IOC recently reported losses in excess of 7000 crore.
So you can actually help the environment, your pocket and India too. Never mind what the society says. They are hypocrites, much like the politicians, believing in show-off. The next time you think of buying a car, think about Tata Nano.