Despite the rather heavy booking amount, ranging between Rs. 95,000 and Rs. 1,40,000, the dealers of Tata Motors alone have had more than 51,000 forms sold to the excited customers for the small wonder Nano, during the five days since the forms were made available from April 1.

With the Pune-based Automobile Research Association of India testifying that the Tata Nano consumes less fuel, in comparison to the other available economical small car models, market leader Maruti Suzuki has lost its thus-far-unchallenged position as the manufacturer of the most fuel-efficient car!

New York  - Ford Motor Company said Monday it had trimmed its debts by 38 per cent in a massive effort to keep the car maker from seeking government aid to survive.

Ford, the only US carmaker not to have received government funds, has reduced its debt by 9.9 billion dollars through agreements with creditors. It offered last month to pay creditors discounted amounts using 2.4 billion dollars in cash and 468 million shares of stock.

The debt reduction will save Ford 500 million dollars in interest each year, the company said.

London, Apr. 6 : The TATA-owned struggling motor group Jaguar Land-Rover looks to set to receive a European bailout package of 270 million pounds to safeguard as many as 14,500 jobs in the UK.

JLR has been one of the victims of a 22 per cent drop in UK car sales over the last year.

The loan deal, which has been agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB), a development bank, will see the company get 270 million pound in funding.

Tokyo - Imported vehicle sales in the past fiscal year plunged 24.8 per cent from the year before to 199,115 units, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Monday.

Sales of vehicles made by foreign manufacturers dropped 22.2 per cent in the year that ended March 31 to 176,723 units while those produced abroad by Japanese makers nosedived 40.3 per cent to 22,392 units.

Volkswagen sold 40,661 units for the year, ranking at the top with a market share of 20.42 per cent, but its sales fell
21.2 per cent year-on-year.

TATA Motors has asked for 10 months time from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation to remove equipment from the mother plant situated in Singur.

WBIDC Managing Director, Subrata Gupta, said, "Tata Motors had written to WBIDC in November that it would require 10 months to remove the equipment from Singur."

The ambitious project of Ratan Tata was earlier planned at Singur but later shifted to Sanand in Gujarat due to stiff opposition by Trinamool Congress led opposition parties over land and compensation issue.