From Rickshaws to Land Rovers

Jan. 10, 2008— -- Watch "World News with Charles Gibson" TONIGHT, 6:30 p.m. ET for a report on a $2,500 car to hit the India's car market.

Wednesday. Not Thursday, not Tuesday. It had to be Wednesday.

So said Satish Jain, 42, as he spent his fourth hour outside a New Delhi car showroom, long after the dealership had closed, waiting for the arrival of his very first car.

Why did he have to buy his brand new $9,000 Maruti Suzuki Wagon R Wednesday?

He smiled as he answered: "My priest told me I had to buy the car Wednesday. If any other day, maybe I have an accident, maybe it falls apart. Wednesday, I'll have no problems."

For a devout Hindu, asking for divine automotive guidance was completely natural. But as an Indian, Jain had to fight years of instinct to decide to buy a car.

"I am very happy," he said as he handed over five $300 checks as a down payment. "We have always used rickshaws to get around. Now we can go shopping as a family."

Indians are shopping more than at any time in their country's history because they have never been richer. The middle class here is now as large or larger than the entire population of the United States.

As those 300 million-plus Indians increase their income, the automobile has become the symbol of prosperity and evolution in a country where many urban families still commute on motorcycles, the father driving, the mother sidesaddle in the back, and a child or two wedged in between. Analysts predict that car sales in India will double in the next five years, making India among the fastest-growing car markets in the world.

And as that market grows, it has, for the first time, entered the global arena. The struggling Ford Motor Co. announced Thursday that it was in the final stages of negotiations to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to Tata Motors, the second most-popular carmaker in the country.

--