Their entry is not surprising. India is home to the world's cheapest car, the $2,055 Tata Nano, a car which auto analysts say showed the world that India had the engineering skills and low cost facilities needed to make a small, contemporary car.
VOA: standard.2009.09.25
They are not so good at judging the complex trade-offs in carengineering.
Apart from scooping up Daihatsu to get small-car engineering and engines years ago, Toyota has concentrated solely on improving its own offering, with a relentless focus on efficiency, cost-cutting and a flood of new variations of successful models brought to market at an increasingly rapid rate.