Three new developments in the car world promise cheap rides in the near future.

First up, the Tata Nano that sells for less than $3,000 in India will be coming to the United States -- with an increased price tag. For the U.S. market, it will be designed to be a cheap urban runabout that costs less than $8,000 and should be in production by 2015.

The increased cost includes factoring in the expense of making the required safety and emissions tweaks required by our government.

At $8,000, it will be the cheapest car sold in America. Its main competition will be used cars and motorcycles.

Of course, nobody's yet sure if American car buyers will turn their noses up at the Nano, or if it will create a new car class in the marketplace.

At the other end of the spectrum, Lincoln's new MKZ comes in a hybrid version that's priced at no mark up from the gas engine version. Both versions price out at $36,000 so that means no additional payback period buying the hybrid versus the gas engine.

Ford is causing heartache for Toyota! Their Lincoln gets better fuel economy than Lexus as a hybrid and it's cheaper.

Also on Ford front, the new C-Max Energi has excited a lot of people. It's a hybrid minivan that drives its first 20 miles each day as an electric car and then becomes a traditional gas/electric hybrid until the next charge.

The Energi comes as a hybrid ($25,000) or a plug-in hybrid ($33,000-$4,000 in federal tax credits=$29,000).

The plug-in hybrid just earned an EPA rating of 100 miles per gallon. By contrast, the typical car today gets about 22 mpg. Expressed in today's gas prices, getting 100 miles per gallon would be like paying 70 cents a gallon at the pump.

Meanwhile, the CMAX hybrid gets 47 mpgs, which is the equivalent of $1.75 at today's gas prices.