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Anticipation for the Tata Nano in India is so high that the country's used car market is taking a dive ahead of the car's arrival later this year. Autocar is reporting that sales for India's current most popular and cheapest car, a used Maruti 800, have already fallen 30 percent, and sales for a brand new Maruti 800 were down 20 percent last month. The Maruti is actually a rebadged version of the older Suzuki Altos. At nearly 200,000 rupees, it's about twice as much to buy new as the $2,500 Tata Nano will be, despite being a smaller car. Indian car buyers apparently are not dumb. Why buy a new or used car today when you can wait until the end of the year and get a new Tata Nano for much less? The used car market in India could rebound a bit, however, after the Nano debuts. All those people waiting to buy one now might not end up liking the world's cheapest car after they get a chance to drive one.

[Source: Autocar via Winding Road]

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