The Nano continues to be a nightmare for Tata.  When the car was conceptualized it was believed that the car would take over the roads and make them choke with congestion.  In reality that has not happened.  The car continues to sell very sluggishly and is becoming a reason for concern.  The aggression that Tata showed in marketing the car yielded results once when it breached the 10,000 mark but after that it has slowed down again selling only 3,000+ units last month.  Tata is now banking on word of mouth publicity from the existing 1lakh owners of the car to push sales.  Apart from that it is also setting up 300 new dealerships in semi rural and rural areas to push the sales of the car.  Starting with Mamata Banerjee’s intervention at Singur in West Bengal which forced Tata Motors out and delayed the ramping up of production the car has been finding the hill too steep to climb.  A diesel engined variant with class leading fuel economy could be the panacea to the problems that the Nano is facing now.  It isn’t helping Tata Motors that they have another sales dud on their hands in the form of the Aria.  Therefore Tata is unable to focus on the marketing of any one of the two, perhaps leading to dismal sales of both the cars.