Managing Director of Tata Motors Commits "Suicide"

Police are treating the death of the British managing director of Tata Motors as a suspected suicide.

Investigators in Thailand say there are no signs of foul play after Karl Slym, 51, fell from a hotel room window in Bangkok on Sunday.

Mr Slym was staying on the 22nd floor of the Shangri-La Hotel with his wife after attending a board meeting in the Thai capital.

Managing Director of Tata Motors Commits "Suicide"

Now, call me a skeptic. BUT - a guy who was almost single handedly creating a cheap to run, cheap to make alternative to Detroit's expensive cars and was apparently happy at home, a big success at work, and had no other indications of anything untoward going on just squeezes through a "Really tiny window, way too small to push him through" and commits suicide?

Tata motors were apparently about to become legal for sale in the USA within the next year or two, and would sell their cars for pennies on the dollar compared to the prices that western auto makers currently charge, and this guy was the main force behind this creation and the push for this company to take this direction.

Without him, the company was failing and struggling in an emerging market.

This "suicide" of a major figure in business has barely been covered in the Western media.

"Suicide"? REALLY?

"fell from a hotel room window in Bangkok"

Yes.

After somebody pushed him.

Tata Nano for those that never heard of it.

There seems to have been a lot of suicides involving powerful and influential people coming into contact with the ground from a distance lately. Maybe something big is about to happen as others have been suggesting.

Thailand is a great place for people to accidentally kill themselves. Look at David Carridine…

NO FRICKING WAY!!!!!!!

I walked past Shangri la about 9:30 AM on Sunday and saw emergency services vehicles and a bit of a crowd, I asked what was going on and i was told a Farang (white person) had been shot???

Asia in general but Thailand especially it would not be hard to get the details modified by police and ambulance ie change a shooting to a window fall.
Ive been reading the local English paper here and havent heard anything about it.
I now wish I had of asked for more details at the scene

reply to post by IkNOwSTuff

Ive been reading the local English paper here and haven't heard anything about it.

All the page space is being taken up by the bankers who just did the same thing. Coincidence?

As mentioned previously, seems to be something going around.

Hmmm... I wonder if his suicide note said "Tata, cruel world..."?

Rewey

reply to post by babybunnies


Until we know more all we can do is speculate.

However I have my own suspicions, what extremely large companies don't want fuel efficient cars? maybe it's the same companies that are also responsible for the deaths of the inventors of alternative energies....

babybunnies

Tata motors were apparently about to become legal for sale in the USA within the next year or two, and would sell their cars for pennies on the dollar compared to the prices that western auto makers currently charge, and this guy was the main force behind this creation and the push for this company to take this direction.

Take it from a Western country that already has Tata cars (there double cab ute) being imported, they are total rubbish and have a long way to go before being anywhere near the sort of standard of western designed cars (yes I know that some are made in places like China etc)

Here's some of what the press had to say about them

Neither Tata’s claim that the Xenon is a cut-above ‘cheap ute’ status, nor for the sake of owner peace of mind, is helped by the appalling build quality of the cars at launch.

On our particular silver 4×4 dual cab test vehicle, the bonnet alignment was out, meaning the shut line on the right side was much larger than that on the left; there was flaky paint around the fog light recess; and there were paint runs on the side of the cab, ironically just below a sticker on the rear window that read ‘paint OK’.

Here is the rest of the rather frank review on the Tata xenon www.caradvice.com.au...

Cars like Tata make sense in the markets where they were designed (the developing world) where what to us seems like a low price is simply an affordable one for the average Indian citizen. Don't be fooled though, they are engineered down to a price and a quality that is far below what we would expect here in the developed world.

Tata motors are supposed to bring out (in the near futur) a car that runs on compressed Air, and the sales price will be apparently very low, and they will be distributed worldwide.

reply to post by WeSbO


The Tata airpod is a city car at best. It will be cheap but would anyone actually buy it in the USA?

Pix and more info below

www.autoevolution.com...

Local News says his wife was with him when the "killing" happened and she was too shocked to say anything ...

Look. I'm going to tell you right now. Nobody in America would ever drive a Tata. We love us some tatas, but we don't want to drive around in little eggshell putter carts. How you going to get any tatas in that car?

reply to post by TKDRL

Tata Nano for those that never heard of it.

Thanks for the link. A $3,000 car that doesn't have a heater in it? No, not the next great American success story, lol.

According to your article, the guy was leaving the company in December 2012.

And if he was shoved out the window, why is his wife still around (unless she's the one who did it, of course)?

I would guess auto makers and gasoline companies conspired to murder this guy because they really didn't feel like competing with him and his cheap, fuel-efficient (if poor quality) cars. The article says the company is probably a year or two away from hitting it big. That's not when you jump out a window and so I suspect he didn't.

reply to post by adjensen


Eh, none of my beaters got heat or AC either lmao. 3 grand for a new car, I might bite, if it had a decent warranty. I would still need my monster suburban for plowing and towing #, and my van for work. Wouldn't mind clowning around in the clown car for personal use when I don't need a v8 though lmao

Well, at least when it's not super windy, that thing might blow right off the road. Then again the motorcycle works, so why not a tiny car.

reply to post by adjensen


True, Tatas are a developing world car and nothing like we drive here in the states but they are very interesting on many levels. Tatas were actually brought up in my cost accounting class because they managed to shave down automobile production waste by several tons. Tata was also developing an engine that would use waste to operate. Its primary market is and always will be India where heaters are optional and a lot of people are poor.

To the OP: Slym wasn't the brains behind Tata. Tata was founded in 1945 and Slym was only recently hired on in 2012. Stocks generally take a hit when an executive dies. I'm guessing that Tata will live on despite Slym's death.

Maybe Rep. Michael Grimm from New York was in town?

reply to post by babybunnies

Tata motors were apparently about to become legal for sale in the USA within the next year or two, and would sell their cars for pennies on the dollar compared to the prices that western auto makers currently charge, and this guy was the main force behind this creation and the push for this company to take this direction.

Let’s not be overly dramatic. The Tata Nano wasn’t going to replace the Honda Accord (or even the Prius for that matter), much less the Cadillac or another Detroit staple. LOL

Tata makes a cheap (almost comical) throw away car that the vast majority of American motorists wouldn’t even entertain purchasing IMO.