The world's cheapest car --$2,500 to start -- is having a rough launch. The Tata Nano was supposed was supposed to drive huge safety progress for India by getting families off motorbikes. Drive On's Sharon Silke Carty, who was on assignment there last year, reports it is not unusual to see dad, mom and three kids perched precariously on a two-wheeler.

But that progress went up in smoke for Satish Sawant as he proudly drove his first car home from the showroom: A brand-new silver Tata Nano, draped with a celebratory garland of marigolds.

First there was smoke. And then there was fire.

And his car is not the first to show Nano's growing pains. Here is the report from the Associated Press: